What are "views," anyway? How many readers per "view"?

[Roxanne Appleby]

Last year there was a discussion of what the "views" figures on stories really represent. Among the factors considered was the possibility that some were search engines doing whatever search engines do, an assertion that "views" does not mean "page views" (in other words a reader advancing to the next page in a story does not register as another "view"), the fact that readers may take several sessions to finish a story (thus racking up more views), the overall number of members and user sessions on Lit, and more. (Unfortunately I can't find the discussion. I thought it was in a contest support thread.)

Based on an that discussion, I concluded that each "view" on a story represents between .2 and .5 individual readers (so 10,000 views means between 2,000 and 5,000 actual separate readers.)

What do you think about that? It still seems almost unbelievably high.

 

[tanyachrs]

That would make the votes/view ratio a little more reasonable. I never thought of it like that. I don't think I've got a story that spills onto a second page but has anyone noticed if they get more views more quickly with multi-page stories?

 

[Darkniciad]

That would make the votes/view ratio a little more reasonable. I never thought of it like that. I don't think I've got a story that spills onto a second page but has anyone noticed if they get more views more quickly with multi-page stories?

I've noticed little to no difference between seven Lit pages and two on mine, but then again, seven probably scares off enough people that the first page is as far as they get.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

That would make the votes/view ratio a little more reasonable. I never thought of it like that. I don't think I've got a story that spills onto a second page but has anyone noticed if they get more views more quickly with multi-page stories?

As Og explained in a related thread, longer stories tend to get fewer votes for the reason you describe, (other things being equal, and with some exceptions) but that only would have indirect or no effect on "views" - they can't know how many pages it has until they open it, and once they open it that registers as a "view." I tried to explain in the opening post that views are reportedly not "pageviews" - if you open a seven page story and work through all seven in one sitting it counts as just one view. If you close it halfway through and come back later, that would be a second view. Etc.

 

[cantdog]

As Og explained in a related thread, longer stories tend to get fewer votes for the reason you describe, (other things being equal, and with some exceptions) but that only would have indirect or no effect on "views" - they can't know how many pages it has until they open it, and once they open it that registers as a "view." I tried to explain in the opening post that views are reportedly not "pageviews" - if you open a seven page story and work through all seven in one sitting it counts as just one view. If you close it halfway through and come back later, that would be a second view. Etc.

Seven pages scares people off.

I did a long story in three postings, about two lit pages, about three, and then ALL the rest, which was seven or eight. BIG difference in the long "chapter."

I did it that way because I figured the readers who were well and truly hooked would want to quit searching for new chapters and would simply desire to finish up. But the long third chapter kicked nearly all of them off the beam.

I won't do that again. Short chapters, many of them, or else one long go.

 

[Darkniciad]

Seven pages scares people off.

I did a long story in three postings, about two lit pages, about three, and then ALL the rest, which was seven or eight. BIG difference in the long "chapter."

I did it that way because I figured the readers who were well and truly hooked would want to quit searching for new chapters and would simply desire to finish up. But the long third chapter kicked nearly all of them off the beam.

I won't do that again. Short chapters, many of them, or else one long go.

I'm shifting that way too, even though "short" for me is 3 Lit pages, minimum. Anything less than that requires a Herculean effort. I just managed to jam my first chapter of a new story into two pages today

I actually got several comments that people were happy to see the longer chapters on Danica, though. Some of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy readers may be more inclined to accept longer chapters, much as in Novels/Novellas.

If the multi-page stories don't count as a view on each page ( except during returns ) that makes me feel a lot better. Dividing my views by 7 and accounting for cut-and-runs was really depressing *laugh*

 

[Pure]

//Based on an that discussion, I concluded that each "view" on a story represents between .2 and .5 individual readers //

I think a view means that the person opened the first lit page. So you have to ask yourself 1) did they read even that page? 2) how far after did they get. i think that may be very dependent on genre.

I can picture that for some stories, a fourth of those who 'open,' finish. (a figure of .20). That would be a 'tight' story, a well crafted romance or wank piece with buildup of tension, escalation of sex etc. Also some of the 'mature' pieces seems to attract readers that persist. (I also willing to consider a figure of .05 or even .025)

It is an almost impossible problem since you have *skimmers* and you have *good parts* readers. How would they be counted. some of these may go through three pages of lit, but other might skip page two. (I think a page of lit is 8-10 ordinary pages of double spaced text.)

It's very hard to figure a way to measure readers: you'd have to have to monitor a) that each page was brought up, and that a reasonable time was spent, say 5-15 mins. per page.

On the 'plus side' within a genre, it's a comparative figure for your competition, since all the drop out problems presumably plague HIS readers also. So, with genre, i'm willing to accept that twice as many 'reads' might represent twice as many read throughs (with the proportional adjustments mentioned above) Person A has 200,000 'reads' and Person B, 100,000. Perhaps only a quarter of the readers of each get through the stories, but it doesn't hurt the comparison (which is actually 50,000 versus 25, 000)

I don't need to point out to Roxanne, I'm sure, that a bookstore owner doesn't watch 'pickers up' of the book, or those who stand and skim (as i do at times). Willingness to lay out cash is a good test (of the books significant appeal). In that case, only sites who charge can actually measure serious readers.

 

[Weird Harold]

I think a view means that the person opened the first lit page. So you have to ask yourself 1) did they read even that page? 2) how far after did they get. i think that may be very dependent on genre.

...

On the 'plus side' within a genre, it's a comparative figure for your competition, since all the drop out problems presumably plague HIS readers also. So, with genre, i'm willing to accept that twice as many 'reads' might represent twice as many read throughs (with the proportional adjustments mentioned above) Person A has 200,000 'reads' and Person B, 100,000. Perhaps only a quarter of the readers of each get through the stories, but it doesn't hurt the comparison (which is actually 50,000 versus 25, 000)

As far as I know, a "view" is a count of how many times the server received a request to send a page -- in Lit's case, probably just requests for the first page of a story is counted. From a progrmming standpoint, it's possible to count only "unique views" by ignoring repeated requests from the same ISP, but Lit's view counter doesn' seem to be that sophisticated.

About the only useful information the Views counter provides is a relative comparison of how effective your title and blurb are in attracting interest as compared to other stories in the same category -- or other "new" stories for the first seven days.

The difference in story length makes comparisons of the Votes/Views ratio unreliable, but that is the only other use for the Views count -- If your story gets more votes per views than your competition, it's probably a bit "better" than the competition in the sense that it motivated more people to vote.

Still, however you play with the decimal point, neither the Views count or the votes/view ratio have any quantitative relationship to how many people are actually reading your story; all they can tell you is how your story compares to other stories of similar length and category.

 

[neonlyte]

If I open a story, I read it - I figure it is the least I can do Doesn't mean it will get a vote though. Not actually reading many stories at the moment. Started reading Halloween entries but I don't have time to read the 150+ listed, that pushes me toward 'known' writers, which is OK, but possibly means I'm missing some good stories from writers I don't know.

As for 'RA's question' - I would plump for less than 0.3 reads per hit/view. Here's why.
Literotica has a 'reach' of about 1000/million internet users. Taking the English speaking world (300million users) it equates to 300,000 users per day. On Lit's forum page is a breakdown of where subscribers are and the total number of users (members and guests) on the site. At this moment, there are 300 people on the site 174 members and 126 guests. Of the 300, 187 are on one forum or another, so less than 40% are reading posted stories. This figure remains more or less constant - Yes, I have too much time on my hands!

Apply that percentage to 300,000 daily visitors and it equates to 120,000 readers per day (5,000 readers per hour) spread across 156,298 stories and poems. You need to ask - how many of those 5,000 readers are reading for an hour? I can't read more than 3 or 4 stories at a sitting and usually significantly less than an hour, so I'm guessing, the majority of readers are skimming, searching for some key words that will link them into a story which they then might read through.

What is needed now is someone who posted a story a week ago, been on the 'New' list for a week, to tell how many hits/views they received - we all know story views decline to virtually zero once they disappear off the 'New' list - from that information, assuming the majority of returning readers hit the 'New' list, it ought be possible to determine a skimming percentage - though in fairness, one would need to look at stories posted across a broad spectrum of catagories.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Based on the above, and assuming "views" isn't polluted by search engines and "bots" (I don't think it is), here's an analogy:

A view is at minimum the equivalent of a person browsing in a book store who picks up a volume and reads the inside of the dust cover.

Given that he's in the comfort of his own home it's easy for this person to advance from there. He may very casually skim, more thoroughly skim, or read the whole thing. Or, he may just go to the "good parts" (which is why in the "dust cover notes" I start all my stories with I state where those begin if they are more than a Lit page away.)

One aspect of this bucks me up a bit: Someone picking up a book and reading the dust cover notes is noticing the author. That's good.

 

[JamesSD]

If I open a story, I read it - I figure it is the least I can do

See, I click on anything that sounds interesting, and often quit if it doesn't catch my attention.

I almost always vote when I finish a story.

 

[tanyachrs]

What is needed now is someone who posted a story a week ago, been on the 'New' list for a week, to tell how many hits/views they received - we all know story views decline to virtually zero once they disappear off the 'New' list.

It's worse than that. They drop off dramatically once you leave the first page of the New list. You basically get one day. 10,838 views for a story that was posted 3 days ago. It's on page 4 now.

 

[oggbashan]

It's worse than that. They drop off dramatically once you leave the first page of the New list. You basically get one day. 10,838 views for a story that was posted 3 days ago. It's on page 4 now.

The worst time for views is to post a non-competition story during a competition, particularly Valentine's Day. The views will be minimal on Day 1 and virtually nil from day 2 onwards.

I think that a good indication of how many views are reads is to compare the views on Ch 01 of a multipart story with views on subsequent chapters. If people open Ch 02 presumably they have read Ch 01 and liked it enough to continue. My ratio is roughly 5 views on Ch 01 to 1 view on Ch 02.

Og