View Numbers

[Hypnobitch01]

Hey ya’ll, I’m kinda newish here (<20 stories) and I’m really not sure what is considered a “good” amount of views, comments, ratings, and favourites. I’m getting into the 10k+ range in views on some of my stories but I’m really curious what is considered “good” engagement.

Sorry if there’s already a thread about this!

 

[Voboy]

It VERY MUCH depends on several variables:

The category. Some are known for much greater engagement and views, some for less.
Whether it's a contest entry. Generally speaking, with all else being equal, you'll experience more rapid engagement if you've entered a contest.
Your following. If you have one? You'll experience more views. If not? You're less likely to.
Timing. Some stories post in the middle of holiday weekends in the United States. Those can experience slower engagement.
Luck of the draw. If a number of stories happen to get posted around the same time yours goes live, you'll be dropped off the New Stories page sooner. Conventional wisdom says that'll give you fewer views.
Chaptering. If you post chaptered pieces, later installments will almost always get fewer views than earlier ones.

There are other factors, too. Even for those of us who have posted many stories over several years, view numbers can be all over the place; category tends to matter most, in my opinion.

 

[Hypnobitch01]

It VERY MUCH depends on several variables:

The category. Some are known for much greater engagement and views, some for less.
Whether it's a contest entry. Generally speaking, with all else being equal, you'll experience more rapid engagement if you've entered a contest.
Your following. If you have one? You'll experience more views. If not? You're less likely to.
Timing. Some stories post in the middle of holiday weekends in the United States. Those can experience slower engagement.
Luck of the draw. If a number of stories happen to get posted around the same time yours goes live, you'll be dropped off the New Stories page sooner. Conventional wisdom says that'll give you fewer views.
Chaptering. If you post chaptered pieces, later installments will almost always get fewer views than earlier ones.

There are other factors, too. Even for those of us who have posted many stories over several years, view numbers can be all over the place; category tends to matter most, in my opinion.

Thank you so much!

 

[ElectricBlue]

Hey ya’ll, I’m kinda newish here (<20 stories) and I’m really not sure what is considered a “good” amount of views, comments, ratings, and favourites. I’m getting into the 10k+ range in views on some of my stories but I’m really curious what is considered “good” engagement.

Sorry if there’s already a thread about this!

It's totally category dependent, there is no consistent measure of a "good" return.

If you want high view numbers, write incest or Loving Wives stories. If you want high comments, write Loving Wives, but be prepared for toxic comments.

My rules of thumb (I don't write in either of those categories) is one Vote per hundred Views, one Comment per thousand. If you get a higher comment count, I reckon you're writing very good or very bad stories.

Remember, a View just means someone has clicked into your story, it doesn't mean they've read it. My guesstimate on that, based on a number of chaptered stories, is that one in five who read the first chapter will read the last chapter.

 

[SimonDoom]

What everybody else said. Category is key. Some categories of stories get far more views than others. Nearly half of my 61 stories over the last 7 1/2 years have been incest stories. They average a little more than four times as many views as the average of all my non-incest stories.

In an absolute sense, views for relatively "lightly-viewed" categories are still high compared to the numbers one would get at other erotic story sites.

To a considerable degree, votes, favorites, and comments are a function of views. So, the more views, the more of everything else.

Publishing stories in highly-viewed categories will boost views in other categories. I've noticed this to be true in my case. Publishing incest stories has significantly boosted the attention my other stories get.

 

[ronde]

It's totally category dependent, there is no consistent measure of a "good" return.

If you want high view numbers, write incest or Loving Wives stories. If you want high comments, write Loving Wives, but be prepared for toxic comments.

My rules of thumb (I don't write in either of those categories) is one Vote per hundred Views, one Comment per thousand. If you get a higher comment count, I reckon you're writing very good or very bad stories.

Remember, a View just means someone has clicked into your story, it doesn't mean they've read it. My guesstimate on that, based on a number of chaptered stories, is that one in five who read the first chapter will read the last chapter.

My numbers are about the same. I also see a difference in both views and comments depending upon the length of the story. I don't do as well on stories that are only a couple pages long.

 

[Hypnobitch01]

It's totally category dependent, there is no consistent measure of a "good" return.

If you want high view numbers, write incest or Loving Wives stories. If you want high comments, write Loving Wives, but be prepared for toxic comments.

My rules of thumb (I don't write in either of those categories) is one Vote per hundred Views, one Comment per thousand. If you get a higher comment count, I reckon you're writing very good or very bad stories.

Remember, a View just means someone has clicked into your story, it doesn't mean they've read it. My guesstimate on that, based on a number of chaptered stories, is that one in five who read the first chapter will read the last chapter.

That’s awesome, thank you!

 

[Devinter]

It VERY MUCH depends on several variables:

The category. Some are known for much greater engagement and views, some for less.
Whether it's a contest entry. Generally speaking, with all else being equal, you'll experience more rapid engagement if you've entered a contest.
Your following. If you have one? You'll experience more views. If not? You're less likely to.
Timing. Some stories post in the middle of holiday weekends in the United States. Those can experience slower engagement.
Luck of the draw. If a number of stories happen to get posted around the same time yours goes live, you'll be dropped off the New Stories page sooner. Conventional wisdom says that'll give you fewer views.
Chaptering. If you post chaptered pieces, later installments will almost always get fewer views than earlier ones.

There are other factors, too. Even for those of us who have posted many stories over several years, view numbers can be all over the place; category tends to matter most, in my opinion.

Excellent summary. I agree. One thing I would add is that the TITLE of the story matters more than I first suspected. Story names that are blunt and direct seems to perform better than abstract or subtle titles in nearly all categories, with the exception of maybe Romance (and Non-Erotic).

 

[MyBareTorso]

Agree with everyone else, so all I'll add is that I am very happy when my stories get over 10k views. Someone is definitely reading your stories, and likely enjoying them too, so take that and run with it!

 

[TheLobster]

One thing that hasn’t been mentioned yet: the ending. Not for views, of course, but your ratings will suffer if the story has unexpected or somehow unsatisfying ending. Depends a bit on the category what it means but readers generally like definitive resolutions or any kind of “happy ever after”.

Oftentimes, a “wrong” ending will translate into comments telling you as much (especially in LW, or so I heard), so it’s a bit of a pick-your-poison kinda thing.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Views tell you how many readers have clicked on your story. That is comparable to gauging how many people picked a book off of a shelf in a bookstore based solely on the section it was in and how enticing the title/cover was to them. It tells you little about the readers' reception to the story or if they even read it.

This story has a lot of things working against it:

1. An extremely vague title
2. A description that only points to another story
3. A less popular category
4. Over 70K words in a single submission
5. No sex

With all that, the votes to view ratio is off the charts and it has maintained a respectable rating from the start with largely positive comments.

 

[Yarglenurp]

I honestly enjoy comments the most… view count is irrelevant to me in comparison. All those views and $3.00 gets me a Starbucks Frappuccino on those half-off days.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

One thing that hasn’t been mentioned yet: the ending. Not for views, of course, but your ratings will suffer if the story has unexpected or somehow unsatisfying ending. Depends a bit on the category what it means but readers generally like definitive resolutions or any kind of “happy ever after”.

Oftentimes, a “wrong” ending will translate into comments telling you as much (especially in LW, or so I heard), so it’s a bit of a pick-your-poison kinda thing.

Oh, it's not just LW. If it doesn't end the way that it's expected to end you will suffer. Which always makes me wonder why someone wants to read it if they already know how it should end. If it needs to end a certain way, the reader should be writing his own story. That's how I see it.

One of my stories has a twist ending. It's nothing evil or horrible, it's just a twist. The reason that I ended it sp was because the plot of the story was too simple and rather pointless so I put an ending on it to make it worthwhile. I got a comment that said something like 'loved it right up until that ending, why can;t we just have a nice story?' The reader actually didn't want plot or conflict at all. They just wanted a nice perfect fuck fantasy with no plot getting in the way. I find that attitude extremely common among readers here.