Have a story with only 4.2 rating that is still getting 700 reads a day after almost a week. What is going on?

I personally like two-sided swinger stories, that is... husband and wife both get laid. Especially 2 couple - even swaps.
All of my stories are those two-sided swingers having fun type. Even the Hard Lesson story has the husband getting laid, and the wife's misunderstanding and rage causing her more harm than him.
 
All of my stories are those two-sided swingers having fun type. Even the Hard Lesson story has the husband getting laid, and the wife's misunderstanding and rage causing her more harm than him.
Oh cool! Will add more. Understand I hate hotwife and one sided stories, especially ones with humiliation. (Still dont vote them down. I just skip.) Wish there was a special keyword like 'hotwife' that meant two sided swaps where hubby gets his too.
 
Where do you find this list?
From the Literotica main page with the list of categories, click on the category you like (ie. Loving Wives). Halfway down that next page on the righthand side, you'll see "Popular Tags" with a list of the top ten search tags. Below that list is a link for another page for ALL tags, and the words sized based on their popularity.
 
But is that popular to use by writers or popular to search?
From the Literotica main page with the list of categories, click on the category you like (ie. Loving Wives). Halfway down that next page on the righthand side, you'll see "Popular Tags" with a list of the top ten search tags. Below that list is a link for another page for ALL tags, and the words sized based on their popularity.
Inquiring minds want to know.
 
But is that popular to use by writers or popular to search?

Inquiring minds want to know.
That's a good question. But I'm still trying to use those tags because anyone clicking on one of those "popular tags" in the list will more likely find my story.
 
From the Literotica main page with the list of categories, click on the category you like (ie. Loving Wives). Halfway down that next page on the righthand side, you'll see "Popular Tags" with a list of the top ten search tags. Below that list is a link for another page for ALL tags, and the words sized based on their popularity.
Yeah, that's what I thought you meant.

I'm pretty sure "popularity" in that case isn't about search, but about authors using the tags. The numbers next to the top tags, and the size of the tag in the tags list, are about how many stories are tagged with that tag.
 
It's a week out on it and it is still getting that many reads. Normally my stories' readership fades hard. I think it's fairly good, but I have others that rate better.

I'm confuzzled and no it isn't an incest story with a mom and son. (Tenth Anniversary in LW FWIW.)
That’s fine.

My story CARRY ON CRUISING - Part 1 knocked it out of the park in terms of favourites and got a ton of votes.

Sadly the one-bomber conspiracy nuts who think me and EmilyMiller are the same person (go figure) one-bombed the crap out of it.

It happens. I never get red H’s any more but I’ve learnt to push it aside. Views, comments and favourites can also indicate a good story.
 
Okie dokie, that's another firm vote for "I don't know."
Yeah, that's what I thought you meant.

I'm pretty sure "popularity" in that case isn't about search, but about authors using the tags. The numbers next to the top tags, and the size of the tag in the tags list, are about how many stories are tagged with that tag.
When you get to that tags list, click on the link for "More Tags for..." and it takes you to another page showing that same list with more below it. Those are probably, as you say, tags used by authors for stories in that category.

But there's a far larger list of words on that page with tags sized differently. For Loving Wives (fro example, the popular tags list shows:
But the larger word list highlights "affair, humiliation, group, romance, slut wife, mmf, swingers" in larger print than the others. "Wife" in that list is in much smaller font.

Now if I go to the Romance category, the top list (as might be expected by authors there) shows:
But that page words highlight "Blow job, wife, kissing, threesome" in the largest font.

Soooo.... those font highlighted words are different than the top list for each category. It's my GUESS that the font highlighted list is drawing from a different source of stats related more to the viewer searches (or the site admins are just fucking with my mind). But I'm now choosing from among those to also add to my stories.
 
Soooo.... those font highlighted words are different than the top list for each category. It's my GUESS that the font highlighted list is drawing from a different source of stats related more to the viewer searches (or the site admins are just fucking with my mind). But I'm now choosing from among those to also add to my stories.
On closer look, it appears that the tags in the "most used tags" list (with the numbers) are removed from the "category tags" list *(with the variable font sizes). So if they were in the "category tags" list they would be the biggest-font-sized words in it.

I have a feeling they decided to do it this way so that the font sizes didn't get out of control.

It also appears that the numbers next to the "most used tags" list are numbers for the stories in the whole site and not just for the category's own stories. These numbers are different from the numbers in the "popular tags" list which is on the front page for the category. The ten tags listed under "popular tags" are also listed in the "most used tags" list on the category-tags page, but the numbers are way larger on the "most used tags" list on the category tags page than on the "popular tags" list on the category front page.

So, yeah, they're counting differently and sourcing differently, but it's still about how many stories are tagged with the tags, and not about the popularity of tags in reader searches.
 
Well, slap my butt and call me hushpuppy—still, no way to get to the most searched tags as far as I can see.
On closer look, it appears that the tags in the "most used tags" list (with the numbers) are removed from the "category tags" list *(with the variable font sizes). So if they were in the "category tags" list they would be the biggest-font-sized words in it.

I have a feeling they decided to do it this way so that the font sizes didn't get out of control.

It also appears that the numbers next to the "most used tags" list are numbers for the stories in the whole site and not just for the category's own stories. These numbers are different from the numbers in the "popular tags" list which is on the front page for the category. The ten tags listed under "popular tags" are also listed in the "most used tags" list on the category-tags page, but the numbers are way larger on the "most used tags" list on the category tags page than on the "popular tags" list on the category front page.

So, yeah, they're counting differently and sourcing differently, but it's still about how many stories are tagged with the tags, and not about the popularity of tags in reader searches.
 
Odd. It just passed 50K reads (Yay first 50K story) and that story is getting almost 200 reads a day still whereas my other stuff seems to be 10 to 30. I am not complaining. Must be keywords or tags along with the title and byline. Just wondering specifically what I did right but those were suggested.
 
Final theory for anyone seeing this thread in the future. I can't conclusively prove it but here goes.

The pattern went.
Huge numbers while on front page.
Day 3+ 700 reads a day then trends down slowly
8th day drops to 200 and trends down slowly
On 31 day dropped from about 140 to 70 and is still trending down from 70.

Unified theory.
20+ stories in Lit and I'm certainly not the most popular writer but well enough known that I don't write stories that read like an 8 year old wrote them to the effect of 'I was walking down the street with my wife and she fell on a sixteen-inch black cock and I got so hard I came right there!'
Good rating ~4.2 in a popular category. I had a good byline.
The story lists for a week and 30 days fed the story combined with the above as there were big drops as they fell of the 7 day and 30 day lists.
 
Remember...

"Views" do not equal "reads".
True dat. To count as a "view," all the reader has to do is open the story and read a paragraph or two. It simply shows that it was the story description that intrigued them. If I published a story that was described as "dude with ten-inch dick is tortured by 16 nymphos," it might get opened by people who are turned on by the idea of nymphos and 10-inch dicks, or are wondering where that oddly-juxtapositioned setup might lead to. Once they see that the story is trash, they'll go no farther, but it still counts as a "view."
 
Final theory for anyone seeing this thread in the future. I can't conclusively prove it but here goes.

The pattern went.
Huge numbers while on front page.
Day 3+ 700 reads a day then trends down slowly
8th day drops to 200 and trends down slowly
On 31 day dropped from about 140 to 70 and is still trending down from 70.

Unified theory.
20+ stories in Lit and I'm certainly not the most popular writer but well enough known that I don't write stories that read like an 8 year old wrote them to the effect of 'I was walking down the street with my wife and she fell on a sixteen-inch black cock and I got so hard I came right there!'
Good rating ~4.2 in a popular category. I had a good byline.
The story lists for a week and 30 days fed the story combined with the above as there were big drops as they fell of the 7 day and 30 day lists.
Sounds like a pretty normal experience then.
 
Sounds like a pretty normal experience then.
This one had much longer legs. Normal numbers for most of my stories would be the huge start then once off the first page maybe 70 a day tapering to 15 a day after 30 days.
 
https://www.literotica.com/s/tenth-anniversary

Simon with advice for the win. Trying to figure out what I did right because I assure you that it is completely accidental.
You wrote a solid story of a woman who was tempted but did not fall. Her husband was aware, watched her and when she did right by him, he did right by her. The other cheaters did not fare well. Justice was served. THAT is the general theme that people like. Yeah, twists and turns, a little 'angst' are all fun in a story, but you did good with this one.
Another thing is you did not beat the dead horse or try to add hot sexy scenes that detract from the story.

Repeating it 10 times will not get you the same results, of course. You need to change things up in future stories, but I think you had a good start.
 
Also standalone stories will tend to get more views than chapter stories, so that could account for some difference in your stories as well.
I think that is especially true in LW. That is mainly because chapter stories tend to go overly long and drag. There are exceptions to that. Bumblingfool writes long stories but does not like to break them up. I wrote an alternate version to one of his stories that was even longer. (He is a friend and we beta read each other stories on occasion.)
I had no idea mine was so long until I posted
 
The husband also gets to dictate to the wife what she can and can't do, and she is basically a sex object for the husband, with seemingly few characteristics besides being a devoted wife, mother, and teacher. That he allows her the once a month time with her friends is his way of being magnanimous.

He also has no respect for her privacy by having a policy of being able to look at her phone any time he wishes.

The bit about restricting where she can go is troubling, even when he applies it to himself (and which he has no interest in, so it's not a sacrifice for him).

I was confused about the PI, as that implies a level of distrust in his wife that he needs validation that she is being honest with him.
I read this in an completely different direction. He lets his wife go out without him but expects her to maintain herself. Unreasonable? As far as the PI was concerned, one of the other husbands (including his brother in law) suspected his wife of cheating. Unsaid, but it appeared from his knowledge he was notified his wife might be party to the same behavior. So a PI was hired.
He was a little hard about his attitude, but made it clear he considered fidelity important.
 
But is that popular to use by writers or popular to search?

Inquiring minds want to know.
I think popular tags used by writers. I think readers mainly search tags when they exhaust the day's offerings.

Most readership is the day of posting or a few days after with the exception of stories that receive a lot of comment and turmoil.
 
It happens. I never get red H’s any more but I’ve learnt to push it aside. Views, comments and favourites can also indicate a good story.
I enjoy Comments. I do not delete any no matter how scathing. I always wonder about people adding mine to their favorites. Are they looking at re-reading them in the future? I do not favorite any story nor follow any author but I do look at the stories of those who favorite a particular story of mine. I want to see who they read and other stories they like.
 
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