What are good viewing numbers?

[jezzaz]

I've got numbers that vary from 16k to 50k.

What are good numbers? Just idly curious.

 

[sethp]

I've got numbers that vary from 16k to 50k.

What are good numbers? Just idly curious.

A good story for me is 50k plus...a great story Is 100k plus...legendary is over 200k. Of course, I'm a worthless hack. But if a story is less than 20k ...I feel like I've failed...less than 10k and. Blah...some of the favorite stories that I've written are less than 10k. Sometimes it's just the genre your in.

 

[lovecraft68]

I've got numbers that vary from 16k to 50k.

What are good numbers? Just idly curious.

All depends on the category. My last fetish story only received around 5k my recent incest story received 50k its first day.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I pay more attention to readers who favorite me, cuz my numbers bounce all over hell for no apparent reason.

 

[BenLong]

I've got 32 stories posted, the earliest is 7 years old, the newest 7 weeks old. They range from a few thousand to almost a quarter million. Some of my best stories (IMHO) have had very few reads - just because of the category. My lowest rated story is "It's not what it seems" yet it had 45,000 reads. For "good" numbers: a) enter a contest so it's read for more than the first 3 days, b) enter it in incest category.

10 mins 14,298 Ero coup 5/9/12
Foreign Affair 30911 letters 1/25/07
Singapore 1 35769 interracial 6/27/07
Singapore 2 20255 interracial 7/4/07
singapore 3 20093 ex and voy 7/21/07
singapore 4 19135 group 7/22/07
singapore 5 19093 group 8/7/07
Office Affair 22410 ero coup 3/25/08
Awake 15614 ero coup 7/2/13
Dark Canyon 93,109 group 6/21/07
déjà vu 107,969 ero coup 3/12/07
Don't wait 18,838 romance 1/21/13
ex plat 1 36,396 ero coup 1/10/10
ex plat 2 28,189 ero coup 1/12/10
ex plat 3 25,877 ero coup 1/14/10
ex plat 4 23,739 ero coup 1/15/10
ex plat 5 24,696 ero coup 2/8/10
ex plat 6 25,667 ex and voy 3/20/10
ex plat 7 25,961 group 5/29/10
ex plat 8 17,236 ero coup 6/19/10
ex plat 9 10,634 ero coup 11/19/10
ex plat 10 12,776 ero coup 2/2/12
ex plat 11 7,748 ero coup 6/4/12
Fantasy Isalnd 36,696 loving 7/11/12
Finally 6,252 ero coup 4/23/12
finally 2 6,432 ex and voy 4/29/12
not what it seems 45,322 nonconsent 2/18/08
new Generations 36,561 ex and voy 7/13/11
nighttime 29,094 ero coup 8/23/07
Rocky Mtn Xmas 240,382 incest 11/12/12
S of the border 28,800 ero coup 8/21/12
Reception 59,487 ero coup 3/27/07
Student 48,575 romance 8/19/12

 

[Darkniciad]

It's heavily category dependent. A story that's a blockbuster in Sci-Fi & Fantasy would have view numbers that would be a horrific showing in Incest.

You can only really compare within the same category, and even then, there are factors that can come into play and throw the numbers off.

Did the story post early? Late? How well positioned in the New Stories list was it? Did it remain on the new stories section of the category page, or was it bumped off before day-1 ended? Did it stay on the category new list for an extra day because no/few stories posted to the category the next day? Did it earn an H while still on the new list?

On and on...

And that's just the uncontrollable factors, not counting for a real grabber of a title and description line making your story stand out to attract views.

Here's my latest quarterly track. This shows category, all stats, whether it was in a contest or not - across all three pen names.

http://www.darkniciad.com/hotlink_pics/All_3_Names_05_05_13.htm

 

[ScouriesWorld]

one million is a good number to aim for...

...but of course the more important question is, "what is a view anyway?"

it's never been defined ​

 

[sethp]

one million is a good number to aim for...

...but of course the more important question is, "what is a view anyway?"

it's never been defined ​

I like it better not defined! Better for my fragile ego.

 

[sethp]

It's heavily category dependent. A story that's a blockbuster in Sci-Fi & Fantasy would have view numbers that would be a horrific showing in Incest.

You can only really compare within the same category, and even then, there are factors that can come into play and throw the numbers off.

Did the story post early? Late? How well positioned in the New Stories list was it? Did it remain on the new stories section of the category page, or was it bumped off before day-1 ended? Did it stay on the category new list for an extra day because no/few stories posted to the category the next day? Did it earn an H while still on the new list?

On and on...

And that's just the uncontrollable factors, not counting for a real grabber of a title and description line making your story stand out to attract views.

Here's my latest quarterly track. This shows category, all stats, whether it was in a contest or not - across all three pen names.

http://www.darkniciad.com/hotlink_pics/All_3_Names_05_05_13.htm

How do you do that? What magic is this?

 

[TE999]

Story View stats are misleading and quite deceptive. The numbers don't differentiate from a click in, glance, click out and the whole story being read. I would guess maybe one reader in 1,000 actually bothers to vote and way less than that bother to comment.

 

[sr71plt]

Story View stats are misleading and quite deceptive. The numbers don't differentiate from a click in, glance, click out and the whole story being read. I would guess maybe one reader in 1,000 actually bothers to vote and way less than that bother to comment.

I don't think we've ever been told what a view number represents. But whatever it represents, it is, I'm sure, a completely separate decision mechanism from whether to vote or comment. I don't think there is any relationship to be made between views and votes/comments other than that the number of views should be higher than the number of either votes or comments.

 

[Darkniciad]

How do you do that? What magic is this?

The track? I just record the stats off my author pages and plug them into a spreadsheet once per quarter. Almost time to do it again - some time in August.

 

[slyc_willie]

You have to understand, sethp, that Dark is a tad bit OCD when it comes to his numbers.

 

[Darkniciad]

You have to understand, sethp, that Dark is a tad bit OCD when it comes to his numbers.

Not really. I barely look at them after a story has been through its first week or so - other than to record them every three months.

That I do for situations like this as much as anything. I have a decently broad range of categories, chapters, one-shots, contest, non-contest, short, long, obscenely long...

If anyone wants to dig back, the links to go backwards in time are there as well, to see how things have changed, correlate that with my posting activity, etc.

I can provide a lot of information to mull over in a single link, and examples are hella lot easier than explaining the vast differences in the numbers depending upon all those factors.

 

[slyc_willie]

Not really. I barely look at them after a story has been through its first week or so - other than to record them every three months.

That I do for situations like this as much as anything. I have a decently broad range of categories, chapters, one-shots, contest, non-contest, short, long, obscenely long...

If anyone wants to dig back, the links to go backwards in time are there as well, to see how things have changed, correlate that with my posting activity, etc.

I can provide a lot of information to mull over in a single link, and examples are hella lot easier than explaining the vast differences in the numbers depending upon all those factors.

Well, you certainly seem a little OCD. But maybe that just comes down to perception.

You're right, though, in that examples are easier to convey the desired information as opposed to simply saying (or typing) it.

I wonder what sort of interesting things I'd see if I mapped out my numbers across a certain amount of time?

 

[sheablue]

I'm pretty new here, and I got super excited when my Nude Day story got over 10,000 views, and my other stories just under 5,000. That's amazing to me. So I guess it's all relative?

 

[slyc_willie]

I'm pretty new here, and I got super excited when my Nude Day story got over 10,000 views, and my other stories just under 5,000. That's amazing to me. So I guess it's all relative?

It is. I remember the first time I posted to the Mature category (also during the Summer Lovin' contest). The views and votes were astronomical, way above any non-contest story I had ever previously posted.

 

[Darkniciad]

Well, you certainly seem a little OCD. But maybe that just comes down to perception.

You're right, though, in that examples are easier to convey the desired information as opposed to simply saying (or typing) it.

I wonder what sort of interesting things I'd see if I mapped out my numbers across a certain amount of time?

The favorites are the annoying part, because they aren't listed on the page with everything else. You have to open every single story/chapter to check those.

I could automate that with a script, but the story pages just don't have the right sort of keys down there to quickly extract just the data you want. I could puzzle it out if I looked at it long enough, but never have the motivation.

Except once every three months when I'm tediously grabbing all this stuff the caveman way

It is. I remember the first time I posted to the Mature category (also during the Summer Lovin' contest). The views and votes were astronomical, way above any non-contest story I had ever previously posted.

There's a large and hungry readership in Mature. I think most authors are rather biased to thinking that the category is for shuffleboard romances. The readers have something entirely different in mind, and it shows in the numbers when you give it to them.

My eyes about popped out of my head the first time, too. Laurel changed the category on a Milf story from EC to Mature. I thought "death knell" when I saw it for all of about ten minutes. Then the votes started coming in as fast as I could refresh the page.

 

[slyc_willie]

The favorites are the annoying part, because they aren't listed on the page with everything else. You have to open every single story/chapter to check those.

I could automate that with a script, but the story pages just don't have the right sort of keys down there to quickly extract just the data you want. I could puzzle it out if I looked at it long enough, but never have the motivation.

Except once every three months when I'm tediously grabbing all this stuff the caveman way

You could "just" make a tally of the favorites once a month by clicking the Recent Activity link. It goes back thirty days.

 

[StrangeLife]

Anything above 2...

 

[Tx Tall Tales]

For Loving Wives, your numbers are very respectable.

Multi-chapter stories like yours, with the chapters coming out close together build good views. Typically most of your views come in the first couple of days, when your story is visible on the 'new' pages. Every new chapter extends the visibility window, and you do better.

After the glow of 'newness' wears off, your numbers will creep upward very slowly unless you have another way to attract viewers to your story. There are a few ways to do this:

• More stories posted (each one exposes you to new viewers)
• Top Lists (can bring in a lot of viewers)
• Similar Stories (show up on the right margin at the end of a story)
• Feedback Portal (comments on your stories attract other readers)
• Contests (extended exposure to one story, with possible click-throughs to more)

Around 100K is the sign of a very popular story in the Loving Wives category. Anything over 30-40K is above average.

DG Hears Blue Eyes Crying (Top 5 LW list) has a quarter million
Longhorn_07's Fool Me Once (Currently #1 LW toplist) had over 800K
StangStar, with his huge following usually pulls 80-150K
DanielQSteele and Rehnquist's epic tales are again in the 100-150k range

My top scoring stories in the category have 130K, 145K, 220K, and 1.3M reads, but I'm fortunate to have more followers than most, and have had stories on the first page of the LW top list for a few years.

As TE999 said, Votes are another great indicator of story success. Less than 1 in 1000 voting is also pretty accurate, although it varies widely. 500 votes is good, 1000 is excellent, 5-6000 is astronomical. Check out the top lists, where most have somewhere around 1K to 1.5K rgjohn's epic 'The Journey' has been a top 25 LW story for over 10 years and has around 5K votes. Food for thought.

Congratulations on a very successful, though-provoking, and well written series. I imagine you'll continue to do well. Your chapter 1 will probably have the most reads, while the following chapter dwindle, unless one of your subsequent chapters gets an exceptionally high score and shows up someplace very visible.

Your first series reflects this with reads of 50K, 30K, 15K, 16K. These are pretty good numbers, for the category. Other categories differ drastically.

I wish you continued success. Keep writing.

 

[lovecraft68]

Contests can help. My top viewed story has 330k views, but is over 2 years old.

The second one is 289k and that is only a year old from last years Summer loving contest.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Contests can help. My top viewed story has 330k views, but is over 2 years old.

The second one is 289k and that is only a year old from last years Summer loving contest.

And how does that translate to coins in your pocket?

 

[robertreams]

most of my stories are in the m2m category, so numbers would be lower, but i focus on my devoted readers who message me for more ,more , more. Many readers (or viewers) do not even know the mechanism for voting. Then there are those aggravating "anonymous readers

 

[sr71plt]

The favorites are the annoying part, because they aren't listed on the page with everything else. You have to open every single story/chapter to check those.

In view of the rating games going on here, I think listing the favorites beside the listings would be more helpful to readers looking for good reads than listing the ratings (at least until the gamesters catch on and spend as much time favoriting with alts as they do rating with them).