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RE: The Celestial - a fantasy short story
Hello, I loved this one :) Such pretty imagery and world creation. I found it particularly interesting because yesterday I wrote a story about outer space (link) and a universe beyond the universe. Did you read that one?
I've read a lot of Chinese fiction and although this one is similar in a few things, it seems very different in others, maybe a bit westernized, but it also contains that awe for giant stuff which the Chinese love.
I'm glad to see that you're still here.
By the way, I noticed that you've been sending money to the @null account for some reason. Why is that? I didn't take you for a money-burner, although you do spend more freely than anyone I know.
The null account is what happens when you use the "promote" function. The sbds are simply destroyed instead of going to some other account (at least I think that's what's going on).
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.
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.
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:
There are other ways but they're not as feasible.
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.
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.
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.
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 :)
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