What is the reason for some stories being read in the millions when many HOF stories are only ~500K reads.

[Tomh1966]

It seems to me some stories are simple outliers in readership.

Even the extremely well known February Sucks is only like 170K after 3 years yet I saw one story yesterday at 10+ million.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

Perhaps the second story has better tags or a more prominent/popular author. Or maybe it's in a more popular category. Also the more an author writes new stories, the more likely it is that people will read their old stories. An intriguing tag line will also grab new viewers.

If a story is very well written, it might be read more than once.

There are countless reasons that a particular story might gather more views than any other.

 

[Altissimus]

... yet I saw one story yesterday at 10+ million.

Well, one of mine has 2,200 views. So... yeah.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I think it's about category, more than anything else.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Well, one of mine has 2,200 views. So... yeah.

I have something like 18 stories on the top lists. The highest number of views on any of them is 27k.

 

[alohadave]

Even the extremely well known February Sucks is only like 170K after 3 years yet I saw one story yesterday at 10+ million.

How old was that story. Some stories have been on the site for 20+ years.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I've just asked how a story with a locked out score x.xx comes #1 in the Mature All Time Top List. That's not right.

Usually, I'd pay no attention, but since my latest story is currently #4 in that list (a nice surprise, but won't last long, not now), I'm curious.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I've just asked how a story with a locked out score x.xx comes #1 in the Mature All Time Top List. That's not right.

Usually, I'd pay no attention, but since my latest story is currently #4 in that list (a nice surprise, but won't last long, not now), I'm curious.

Yeah, I thought that wasn't allowed. I had a story hit #1 in Novels and Novellas for one day recently, with a 4.98 rating and the minimum 100 votes. Should I have been able to lock that score in forever?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Yeah, I thought that wasn't allowed. I had a story hit #1 in Novels and Novellas for one day recently, with a 4.98 rating and the minimum 100 votes. Should I have been able to lock that score in forever?

It'll be interesting to see what happens. Mind you, the #2 story, same list, is a Literotica anniversary promo from 2018, but I guess that's not quite so bad, being the site. Same thing though, x.xx

 

[ronde]

It seems to me some stories are simple outliers in readership.

Even the extremely well known February Sucks is only like 170K after 3 years yet I saw one story yesterday at 10+ million.

It's probably for a variety of reasons. The number of "views" for my stories seems to be related to time on the site more than anything else. My most read story has 1,098,986 views and it's not my highest rated story. It's just been on Literotica for 21 years. I also know from my comments that several readers have read it multiple times.

Some genre will draw more readers so that's a reason too.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I think it's about category, more than anything else.

Likely true, going by the Most Read Stories list.

https://www.literotica.com/top/most-read-erotic-stories/

In the top twelve. eleven are in the Incest category, usually in the son-mother genre. Three of them seem to have the same basic plot of mom sitting on his lap in a car. Somebody titled a story, "Oh, Mommy," I Groaned. "He deflowers sister, impregnates mom." I don't get the psychology behind impregnating one's own mother. Something about recreating a younger version of oneself?

But 14-million views is impressive. I think the highest I ever got was 48,000 in the Loving Wives category. Less than 10,000 is much more common.

 

[gunhilltrain]

How old was that story. Some stories have been on the site for 20+ years.

Story metrics don't change much after the first month at most. The number of views will slowly drift up, but votes rarely go up at all. Sometimes a comment will come in months later. A few people will favorite an old story, but they rarely bother to vote for some reason.

 

[SimonDoom]

Sometimes a story will just take off, for whatever reason. It often has something to do with the category and the use of tags and titles, but not always.

Popularity begets popularity. There's a snowball effect.

It happened to me, once, six and a half years ago. I wrote an incest story that received 70,000 views in its first 24 hours. It had a catchy title and salacious, popular subject matter (mom-son incest on a seat).

Since it gathered a lot of views quickly, it quickly reached the top 30 day most viewed list--and as a result it kept getting more and more views. It was number 1 by the end of 30 days, with over 150,000 views.

Then it climbed the one-year list, and it reached the top of that list by 10 months, so it spent 2 months as number 1. Being number 1 on a list is a BIG deal for getting more exposure and more views. By the end of one year it had 450,000 views.

The story was about a mom and son on a loveseat, and I picked tags so tag-wise it would be similar to other stories about moms and sons on seats (I knew from research that these do very well).

Because of its similarity in subject matter to some other stories that rank very high on all-time most popular story lists, it has the benefit of appearing on the Related Stories lists at the end of many of those stories, and this also ensures that it keeps getting more exposure and more views.

It picked up a lot of favorites, to the point that it's now around number 60 all-time, so it benefits to this day from ranking high on that list.

The story gets about 850 views per day now, and that number is slowly climbing as the story works its way up various lists and continues to get more and more exposure.

Its score is 4.61--nice, but nothing special, so that's not a factor.

The story currently has over 1.68 million views, making it number 203 all-time, and slowly rising up that list.

So it's on:

1. The all time most viewed story list.
2. The all time most favorited story list.
3. The related stories lists of some of the most popular stories at Literotica.
4. Plus it will typically rank high in searches for stories about mom-son incest that involve being on a seat.

These are all things that over time will give a story more exposure, and therefore more views, more votes, and more favorites.

None of my other stories come even remotely close to that story in terms of views, votes, and favorites. It was like capturing lightning in a bottle.

 

[gunhilltrain]

It seems to me some stories are simple outliers in readership.

Even the extremely well known February Sucks is only like 170K after 3 years yet I saw one story yesterday at 10+ million.

What is a HOF story?

 

[alohadave]

Story metrics don't change much after the first month at most. The number of views will slowly drift up, but votes rarely go up at all. Sometimes a comment will come in months later. A few people will favorite an old story, but they rarely bother to vote for some reason.

I was replying to a story having 10 million views. Views certainly do go up over time, even if other stats don't change much.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Sometimes a story will just take off, for whatever reason. It often has something to do with the category and the use of tags and titles, but not always.

Popularity begets popularity. There's a snowball effect.

It happened to me, once, six and a half years ago. I wrote an incest story that received 70,000 views in its first 24 hours. It had a catchy title and salacious, popular subject matter (mom-son incest on a seat).

Since it gathered a lot of views quickly, it quickly reached the top 30 day most viewed list--and as a result it kept getting more and more views. It was number 1 by the end of 30 days, with over 150,000 views.

Then it climbed the one-year list, and it reached the top of that list by 10 months, so it spent 2 months as number 1. Being number 1 on a list is a BIG deal for getting more exposure and more views. By the end of one year it had 450,000 views.

The story was about a mom and son on a loveseat, and I picked tags so tag-wise it would be similar to other stories about moms and sons on seats (I knew from research that these do very well).

Because of its similarity in subject matter to some other stories that rank very high on all-time most popular story lists, it has the benefit of appearing on the Related Stories lists at the end of many of those stories, and this also ensures that it keeps getting more exposure and more views.

It picked up a lot of favorites, to the point that it's now around number 60 all-time, so it benefits to this day from ranking high on that list.

The story gets about 850 views per day now, and that number is slowly climbing as the story works its way up various lists and continues to get more and more exposure.

Its score is 4.61--nice, but nothing special, so that's not a factor.

The story currently has over 1.68 million views, making it number 203 all-time, and slowly rising up that list.

So it's on:

1. The all time most viewed story list.
2. The all time most favorited story list.
3. The related stories lists of some of the most popular stories at Literotica.
4. Plus it will typically rank high in searches for stories about mom-son incest that involve being on a seat.

These are all things that over time will give a story more exposure, and therefore more views, more votes, and more favorites.

None of my other stories come even remotely close to that story in terms of views, votes, and favorites. It was like capturing lightning in a bottle.

We're often discussed the popularity of incest stories. Many of them seem to have an "inadvertent" plot line - the sex is not planned ahead of time. Mom and son will be sitting around together, like on a sofa or in a car seat. and then passion blooms. I think the plot of her catching him masturbating is another trope. I could read some of those stories on the all-time list, just to see how they are done. Not a high priority, I guess.

 

[WyreBendr0417]

What is a HOF story?

Glad I'm not the only one.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I was replying to a story having 10 million views. Views certainly do go up over time, even if other stats don't change much.

I think I got that. Nobody has ever done an analysis of how rapidly or slowly views go up over time, but it doesn't seem that fast. The stories on the all-time list with over 10 million views (four of them) are about incest. Then number five to ten, with about seven to nine million views, are also incest stories. The first "cuck" story (I going by the title) is at number 15. True, they all have been posted for years, but the categories seem to make the difference.

For my own stories, the oldest of which is over five years, the number of views changes quite slowly.

 

[Bramblethorn]

What is a HOF story?

...wait, no, that's a Hoff.

HOF = Hall Of Fame.

 

[Escierto]

Well, one of mine has 2,200 views. So... yeah.

Hey, you are doing good. Most of my stories have a couple of hundred views even the hot ones! Personally I think the 10 million is bogus.

 

[Voboy]

My most-viewed is 151.4k, though I never track these things obsessively. That one was a contest winner, it's well-rated, and I happen to love it myself. So I'm pleased about it.

By contrast, my second-most-viewed really took off... although I don't like it nearly as much. I now find it a bit sappy. It's my highest-rated story that's not in a series. Clearly, it has found an audience that loves it. I'm pleased about that too, even if I'm a little confused.

One's in E/V, one's in Mature.

What that has taught me? That I don't have the foggiest clue how to predictably write a story that gets a massive number of views, lol, and that I certainly can't answer the OP's question. I wonder whether anyone can.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

View attachment 2271398

...wait, no, that's a Hoff.

HOF = Hall Of Fame.

Don't Hassle the Hoff.

 

[gunhilltrain]

View attachment 2271398

...wait, no, that's a Hoff.

HOF = Hall Of Fame.

Is that a commonly used abbreviation or just something that one person and a few of their friends use? I mean, any phrase can be abbreviated if one wishes. Or, APCBAIOW.

I always think of the original Hall of Fame, a physical entity. It's got people like Ben Franklin in it, not guys who write stories about banging there moms and sisters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall_...s_at_Bronx_Community_College_IMG_5252_HLG.jpg

 

[gunhilltrain]

Hey, you are doing good. Most of my stories have a couple of hundred views even the hot ones! Personally I think the 10 million is bogus.

Well, I assume there is no point in Lit making up the entries in their Most Read list. Number four, "Accidents Happen!," with just over ten million views, has this prose:

"I can understand why my sister had so many boyfriends - she had the body of a Playboy bunny. At the age of 16, she was already a 36D with a small waist. Her waist only made her breasts look bigger than they were and her long blonde hair did not help . . . I am only human and have to admit that looking at my sister's hot body turned me on like any red blooded American boy, but I never forgot that she was my sister."

That's about as far as I could get with it. Also, he went around the Lit age limit rule, just barely.

 

[Voboy]

Is that a commonly used abbreviation or just something that one person and a few of their friends use?

I've heard it for years to describe Cooperstown or Canton. Or the Rock'n'Roll one.

I think I first saw it in print in the '90s sometime.