Newbie question about views

[ElectricBlue]

I think you need to read the story before leaping to that conclusion.

I already have, you're on my Favorites list.

My comment was made in a general sense, to use all tags to promote a story, rather than specific to this particular story; and with a short story, the plot becomes apparent very quickly. I can't see how tags would give anything away.

 

[lc69hunter]

I don't know if this has anything to do with it, as I think Manu is playing with the site a bit, but in the Story Feedback hub, the most commented stories list, and the top commenters list, have not been updated for at least a week

 

[FrancesScott]

I already have, you're on my Favorites list.

My comment was made in a general sense, to use all tags to promote a story, rather than specific to this particular story; and with a short story, the plot becomes apparent very quickly. I can't see how tags would give anything away.

Thank you!

Can you offer any advice as to neutral tags?

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Most of us have pretty wide swings in view counts even within the same category. Just the nature of the business.

 

[Britva415]

Can you offer any advice as to neutral tags?

By "neutral tags" do you mean tags which won't act as spoilers?

The only time I ever redacted a tag was - it wasn't even the tag which got redacted. Compare the "real" tags with the tags list I put at the beginning of Genie's Wish Ch. 04. The in-story list is where I redacted one of the tags from the list.

The "real" tags have the spoiler tag, because people who search for that tag should have a shot at finding the story. On the other hand, people who click into the story without that particular subject in mind already get to enjoy the story with something unexpected near the end, because that list doesn't reveal what the spoiler tag is.

I'm a person who will check tags before reading a story, but I believe that there are a hell of a lot of readers who won't. I think they mostly only choose to click into a story based on title and description and category and maybe scores or 🅷's. And once they click in, many of them don't even know that you can look at tags before you start reading.

This is the reason why I include tags at the beginning of my story body - so that people aren't surprised by the content. But in this one particular case, I (tongue-in-cheek) risked letting it be a surprise and I await flames from readers who might be squicked by the little plot-twist.

(It's really not very squicky at all But if Lit has taught me anything, it's that you just never know with people)

Basically I guess the point I try to make is that it's a little hard for me to imagine tags spoiling plots, but if it's the case that one will, then, just pick alternative ones which won't. If I hadn't wanted to include the "impregnation" tag at all, I could easily have picked from dozens of other options related to the subject matter of the story.

Sailing, bikini, hot tub, beach, group sex, anonymous, cowgirl, younger woman, older woman, oral sex, cunnilingus, clit licking, small tits, manipulation, voyeurism, video, etc etc etc

Some of those are actual kinks expressed in the story. A lot of them are just scene, environment, and personal physical characteristic details which people might still look for when using tags to search. Should be easy to come up with ten unspoilery tags for any story, even a hella-short one.

 

[FrancesScott]

Sailing, bikini, hot tub, beach, group sex, anonymous, cowgirl, younger woman, older woman, oral sex, cunnilingus, clit licking, small tits, manipulation, voyeurism, video, etc etc etc

It’s not really a sex story. Which is the problem.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Thank you!

Can you offer any advice as to neutral tags?

I guess the issue with tags is, how do you want to use them? Most writers use them to promote their stories, which means choosing tags that positively reflect the story elements. Each category has a page of the most used tags for that category - that's what I tend to use.

You have to think, how might a reader search? What words would they use to find stories.

For your story, there's nothing wrong using softer tags like intimacy, memories, reminiscence, nostalgia, friends, words like that.

Unlike Britva, I never look at the tags on a story. There's a bunch of readers who use them to identify stories they don't want to read, using tags as content warnings. If someone is that nervous about stories on an adult web site, I often wonder what they're doing here at all, to be honest.

 

[Britva415]

Unlike Britva, I never look at the tags on a story. There's a bunch of readers who use them to identify stories they don't want to read, using tags as content warnings

For me, it's more of an opt-in than an opt-out. Title and description are a start but aren't often enough for me to decide whether I want to read the story or not. Tags help.

 

[FrancesScott]

I guess the issue with tags is, how do you want to use them? Most writers use them to promote their stories, which means choosing tags that positively reflect the story elements. Each category has a page of the most used tags for that category - that's what I tend to use.

You have to think, how might a reader search? What words would they use to find stories.

For your story, there's nothing wrong using softer tags like intimacy, memories, reminiscence, nostalgia, friends, words like that.

Unlike Britva, I never look at the tags on a story. There's a bunch of readers who use them to identify stories they don't want to read, using tags as content warnings. If someone is that nervous about stories on an adult web site, I often wonder what they're doing here at all, to be honest.

Thank you. I will think about that if a similar situation arises in the future. Then I doubt any of the tags that might be appropriate for this story would pull in many readers on a sex site.

 

[SimonDoom]

So, I read the story. It's very good. "Juvenescence" -- first time I've seen that word in a Literotica story. The writing is very good.

My thoughts on your tags: it's definitely under-tagged. Here are some suggestions for additional tags that would help this story. I don't think they mislead, or reveal too much.

forbidden love
1950s
camp sex
voyeurism
swimming
lesbian love
lake
romance

The key is to choose tags that you can plausibly imagine someone searching for, the search for which will lead them to your story and prompt them out of curiosity to click on your story. Don't overthink the fit of the tag with your story. Focus on the marketing value of the tag. This, I think, is the crucial mistake people make with their tags.

Your story is a good story and deserves to get more readers, but there's no "zing" in its marketing. It's not surprising that you might be underwhelmed by the view totals. But don't be too chagrined by that. You wouldn't want to change the story itself to get more views; it's good the way it is. Just keep writing. You'll find that view numbers bump up and down, often unpredictably. But there are tactics you can follow to improve your chances, IF that's important to you.

 

[FrancesScott]

So, I read the story. It's very good. "Juvenescence" -- first time I've seen that word in a Literotica story. The writing is very good.

My thoughts on your tags: it's definitely under-tagged. Here are some suggestions for additional tags that would help this story. I don't think they mislead, or reveal too much.

forbidden love
1950s
camp sex
voyeurism
swimming
lesbian love
lake
romance

The key is to choose tags that you can plausibly imagine someone searching for, the search for which will lead them to your story and prompt them out of curiosity to click on your story. Don't overthink the fit of the tag with your story. Focus on the marketing value of the tag. This, I think, is the crucial mistake people make with their tags.

Your story is a good story and deserves to get more readers, but there's no "zing" in its marketing. It's not surprising that you might be underwhelmed by the view totals. But don't be too chagrined by that. You wouldn't want to change the story itself to get more views; it's good the way it is. Just keep writing. You'll find that view numbers bump up and down, often unpredictably. But there are tactics you can follow to improve your chances, IF that's important to you.

Thank you for reading and for the detailed advice. Given my last edit took six weeks to go through, I wonder whether it’s worth changing, or just that I should do things differently in the future.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Thank you for reading and for the detailed advice. Given my last edit took six weeks to go through, I wonder whether it’s worth changing, or just that I should do things differently in the future.

What is six weeks against the lifetime of your story living on Lit? Tag edits are fire-and-forget.

 

[SimonDoom]

Thank you for reading and for the detailed advice. Given my last edit took six weeks to go through, I wonder whether it’s worth changing, or just that I should do things differently in the future.

I'd say, listen to yourself on that. If the editing process is going to give you heart burn, then skip it and move on to the next story. That's pretty much what I do. I don't fret about stories I've published. I move on to the next one.

 

[FrancesScott]

@SimonDoom & @AwkwardMD - thanks. I’ll have a think.

 

[MillieDynamite]

If they change the pen name (penname hum both seem to be right and word doesn't like penname, but I see it both ways, wait, what was I saying).

Back, on track, if they change the title and penname (or just the penname) it'll be hard to know its been stolen.

 

[FrancesScott]

If they change the pen name (penname hum both seem to be right and word doesn't like penname, but I see it both ways, wait, what was I saying).

Back, on track, if they change the title and penname (or just the penname) it'll be hard to know its been stolen.

Was this from another thread?

 

[FrancesScott]

I posted an edit with a slightly adapted version of @SimonDoom’s suggested tags and a modified subtitle. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Britva415]

. o O ( Who stole what, now? )

 

[RejectReality]

. o O ( Who stole what, now? )

Pretty sure that post accidentally ended up here because this thread and the stolen story thread keep trading places as the top two threads right now. I'm forever clicking what I think is one thread and ending up in the one just above or below it because I'm not paying enough attention. Fortunately, I've caught it before posting anything so far.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Yeah, that's what happens when you have two different threads open at the same time.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I should delete it, but I'll leave it as a testament to my failability.

Was this from another thread?

 

[SimonDoom]

I posted an edit with a slightly adapted version of @SimonDoom’s suggested tags and a modified subtitle. Thanks for the advice.

I'm glad that was helpful.

As I'm sure you can tell, I like to give opinions. I'm glad that a few can be useful once in a while.

I hope the edits work. It's a good story. It's adventurous and different from the Lit norm. It's also a good example of how a good short story can be "short" and still good.

 

[FrancesScott]

I'm glad that was helpful.

As I'm sure you can tell, I like to give opinions. I'm glad that a few can be useful once in a while.

I hope the edits work. It's a good story. It's adventurous and different from the Lit norm. It's also a good example of how a good short story can be "short" and still good.

Thank you (and thank you to others) for your help. Things to think about.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Thank you for reading and for the detailed advice. Given my last edit took six weeks to go through, I wonder whether it’s worth changing, or just that I should do things differently in the future.

My advice is always, stop futzing with the story you've just written, it is what it is. Put the angst and energy into the next story, that way you'll have another story, not just the one fine-tuned. Readers don't care about story perfection, that's a writers' worry; but they will read another story.

Haha, just read the rest of the thread to see you posted an edit. It make take ages to go through, but it's a quick fix to change tags, and future proofs the story. Good move.

Regarding edits and why you don't do them unless absolutely necessary: I'm waiting for a fix. I cocked up a "find and replace" name change in a story and left one sentence with the wrong name. I submitted an edit, but the site accidentally put the new chapter two text into the first chapter. So I've now got two chapter twos. Another edit to replace the original chapter one, and the name in the second chapter will most likely end up not fixed. Pain in the ass, but there we are. Not worth sweating blood about though - fuck ups happen, and it was my fault in the first place, so it's a shrug.

 

[SimonDoom]

My advice is always, stop futzing with the story you've just written, it is what it is. Put the angst and energy into the next story, that way you'll have another story, not just the one fine-tuned. Readers don't care about story perfection, that's a writers' worry; but they will read another story.

It's the shark strategy, and I agree with it: Just keep swimming forward.