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RE: The Celestial - a fantasy short story

in #fiction • 7 years ago (edited)

Oh. BTW, not to make you feel bad about your choices, but as far as I know, nobody does actually look at the promoted section (and I've heard people say that the promoted section is not very well designed). It's like a selective ads section that people consciously avoid (who would choose to see ads?), but I could be wrong.

Anyway, in my experience, it's better to just use the better bid bots and throw your posts at curation lists and comment as much as you can on other people's posts, brings good results.

7 years ago in #fiction by
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     7 years ago (edited)

    I've heard that too but I'm willing to spend the money to test different ways of getting visibility. If you think I spend a lot here you should see what I spent testing Amazon ads and Google Analytics. The numbers I come up with are often much different from what I find out through research, because of course what I am offering isn't exactly the same as what everyone else is, so the results are bound to be different from what others get. I figure just spend the money and come up with my own numbers. To tell you the truth I kind of find it fun to do. I was even thinking about doing a post about Amazon ad strategies, because I noticed that most authors that use those ads do not go about it right and they waste a ton of money.

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       7 years ago (edited)

      To tell you the truth I kind of find it fun to do. I was even thinking about doing a post about Amazon ad strategies, because I noticed that most authors that use those ads do not go about it right and they waste a ton of money.

      Well, if I had the funds I'd surely like to test some ads too. :P I'm more like "what you see is what I have". I'm all in in Steemit and you already surpassed me in money hahaha, so sad. You're good and lucky, a nice combination. I'm not as good and all I have is hard work, no luck, maybe.

      I was writing a bit of a post when you answered, so I'm just gonna put it here:

      Some possible strategies to get readers:

      1. Run contests (like the Muse of March, that was good); people love money.
      2. When you get higher voting power, upvote your commenters. Same principle, there are upvote hunters who are willing to read and give constructive comments for people who will vote for them with a bulky weight. Say $0.1 - $0.3 per vote, that's around 1000 to 3000 SP, and it can be rented if you're up for that, but it's not cheap, now that I think about it. I think that 1k SP comes for 10 Steem a week.

      There are other ways but they're not as feasible.

      1. One is using Kryptonia to give people the task (like freelancers but for cheap) to read and leave constructive comments (they do this for a couple cents, so it's inexpensive and it ensures results, but they are usually more interested in cryptocurrencies than literature, and they can be spammy).
      2. There's some Discord servers where you can get some promotion (like @thesteemengine, which even has the chance to get you in a list that people read and some extra upvotes), but you made it clear that you're a bit too busy for social networks.
      3. You could probably hire a couple Venezuelans for 1 SBD a week to throw your posts everywhere they go. It's a bit spammy, but it would certainly get some eyes on your work hahaha. Ah, ethics, so hard.

      I think that the most viable ones are the first two, contests and higher voting power. VP gets you readers, but not necessarily high-value voters (which, I assume, is your target). Contests get you higher-value views but not loyal readers, more like people interested in your efforts to giving back to the community.

      There are also community efforts that can get you a lot of results. I was mentoring a Venezuelan guy who ended up running a curation list. Every three days, they select around 10 posts and everyone votes for them. This takes time, but it can be delegated, and you get people to view you as a community leader.

      I'm sure there's more stuff I'm missing but this is a nice starting point.

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         7 years ago 

        Yeah I've seen people talking about those kinds of systems but like you said a lot of them are spammy and don't generate much legitimate interest. I think the promote feature is worth more than some people give it credit for. Like we talked about before, I don't have all that much time to spend searching for fiction. I do what I can, but I do use the trending and promotion tabs to find good poetry and fiction and I have found some really valuable writing that way. I'm not sure it's worth what I spend on it, but what I think that it does do better than other methods is attract readers who are simply interested in what you are writing. In my opinion those are the best readers to target, because to maintain their interest all you have to do is continue writing what you already enjoy writing. There is no "social media" component to maintain. I love writing. It's all I really want to do. I would rather try to identify the methods for increasing readership directly in response to my actual posts, rather than things that rely on social media networking and other side activities.

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           7 years ago 

          Awesome! That's a nice motivation and it explains your reasoning very well, so I understand where you're coming from. I agree with you in the value-gain disproportion, but I don't think that there is any shortcut that can bring you what you described without high investments.

          Maybe this money that you're spending won't bring you to your ultimate goal, but it may bring some nice eyes to your work without having to do much more networking than pay-and-write.

          I hope that you don't lose too much compared to what you earn. :P

          Maybe keep participating in contests? That way you'll have some eyes, you'll be able to just write and you'll have a stable income from them. And a little bit of bid bots meanwhile to keep you on trending and you'll get a nice touch of both sides.

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             7 years ago (edited)

            That first contest I ran was interesting but it was a whole lot of work. I might run another in May. I don't really think they serve much purpose as far as finding readers, but I love writing in general and giving people an inspiration to create through writing has its own appeal for me. I hope if I run another one you will enter it. I love your writing. Maybe the next contest will be about space...or dreams :)

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               7 years ago (edited)

              I meant it like participating in contests like you did in the beginning, where you got a bunch of prizes (and also where I found you).

              I did want to participate in the Muse of March but I remembered about it in April 3. So sad.

              I'm flattered that you love my writing <333

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                 7 years ago 

                I have you sbd more send to you at the return of it. Your benefit if not

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                   7 years ago 

                  Alright, giving you 0.007 back :3

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