As a RPG gamer, I always think that the first few levels are intentionally easy, but having past the first ten level ups, things get more difficult.
- Level 1: set up the blog
- Level 2: Publishing the first review
- Level 3: Getting the first views from readers through search engines
- Level 4: Publish 5 reviews
- Level 5: Publish 20 reviews
- Level 6: every day a hit – constant traffic
- Level 7: first follower
- Level 8: Publish 50 reviews
- Level 9: 5 views daily
- Level 10: Publish a guest review
- Level 11: Schedule a review
- Level 12: Attract a pingback
- Level 13: 50 ARC Reviews
- Level 14: 500 Likes
- Level 15: 600 Posts
- Level 16: 1000 Likes
- Level 17: One is fine, two is better
- Level 18: Be elite
- Level 19: Reblogged
- Level 20: 100 Followers
- Level 21: 750 posts
- Level 22: Reblog a post
- Level 23: 100 ARCs
- Level 24: 100 daily views
- Level 25: 900 posts
- Level 26: ARC-free
- Level 27: Level up! 1000 read books
- Level 28: 150 followers
- Level 29: 100k views
WordPress surprised me with a nice notice: This blog collected 100,000 views in summary.
That’s a huge number for me, because it means that people read my reviews and continue to do so long after the first wave of reads. It’s motivating to see that my time and energy isn’t sucked up but well-invested.
I tend to believe that people are not only “viewing” the page but actually read it.
Do you always read what you’re viewing at? How many views have you got on your blog?
Reißwolf 
I rarely bail on a blog post once I’ve clicked on it, at least not unless it is very long. I suspect a lot of self-interested clicking, liking, but not reading happens in the book blogging world, but I don’t have the time for that.
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Thanks for sharing! Yes, I have similar suspicions, but one never knows 😎
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I always read the post. Sometimes I just read enough of it in the email that I don’t click through, though (usually not here, but on other blogs).
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Thanks for sharing! Didn’t know that emails great be away more than the title. I only read via WPReader!
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Nice, congratulations! Well, me… I can’t read all the posts I’d want to, just as I’ll never read all the books… but I try to at least browse each one…
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Lovely! And thanks 😊
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Congrats on another milestone! I usually read what I click through to. Though sometimes with new-to-me blogs, I skim a bunch of posts just to see if they’re suited to my interest.
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Thanks Jenna and thanks for sharing!
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That’s hugely impressive, Andreas! Well done! I have around a quarter of your views and this is my sixth year of blogging. 😅 How many posts have you written in total? It must be a pretty high number by now, right? (I’ve just checked my site and I’ve written 248 posts on my main blog. Not that many for 6 years😂.) I’m always impressed by your rate of writing reviews, as well as reading!
Regarding reading the whole post, it depends on who wrote it and how long it is. Also, if the book sounds interesting to me or something I would read. I often skip the synopsis and go straight to the review or thoughts of the blogger. I do read all the comments, something I’ve always enjoyed doing.
Another thing is the frequency of the post. Depending on time, I’m more likely to read the whole review of blogging friends who post less frequently than those who post every day. But again, it can depend on whose post it is. There are bloggers who post every day that I always make the time to read. OK, that’s enough of my “brutal” honesty. Great questions, Andreas!
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Thank you Wakizashi, and thanks for your openness!
This blog exists since 2013, but has seen years of negligence. The high frequency in posts started last year. I‘m working towards another levelup of 1000 posts, hopefully this year.
That large number of posts generates traffic from search engines. Not evenly distributed, of course. Some reviews, e.g for Ken Liu short stories, are viewed a thousand times while others are nearly only for the week of publication day. The high frequency had a sad background, because I had time off work caused by a longer sickness. I don’t expect to keep it up.
As for reading longer posts, I often find myself starting skipping paragraphs. Should I read pages of a blog post or rather half a short story? That’s the tradeoff!
Thanks again for your elaborate answer, Wakizashi 👍
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Ken Liu has been very popular over the last couple of years, hasn’t he! Certain authors seem to bring a lot of traffic, don’t they. I’m planning to write a post about my most-viewed reviews from the last six years.
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That’s a good idea! I‘m curious to see that!
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That’s interesting. I might do the same
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Nice, more congrats are in order! Speaking for myself, I do most of my post reading in my feedly reader, but then I will also almost always hop on to the blog itself in order to give the blogger a logged view as well as a “like” 🙂
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Thank you Mogsy! Doesn’t feedly produce a view hit?
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No, it basically loads your post in the reader and I believe you don’t get a “view” or a visit unless a visitor actually lands on your site? I could be wrong though. Either way I always do a click through just in case!
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That’s very mindful of you!
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Congratulations! And to answer your question yes, I always read the posts I view because if I click on them there must be something that attracts my attention 🙂
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Thank you 😍
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Very strange, my comments didn´t come through it seems.
Anyhow, on reading posts, I´m with Wakizashi here: I generally read tgem, but it depends. I don´t usually read short stories reviews however, as I don´t read many short fiction. I do like the post out of sympathy for bloggers I like.
As for views: I´ve just hit 100,000 views a few weeks ago as well, but I have only a fourth of your posts, I guess there´s strength in numbers 😉
Are there other trends to discern in which of your posts are popular? Do you crosspost on other platforms or otherwise try to enhance your visibility for search engines?
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What about novellas, are they short stories for you?
I found that the blog gets more hits when I post regularly. Not only for the newer posts but also for older ones. Whenever I discontinued blogging for weeks, the hits drop heavily.
I don’t tune for search engines. And the only crossposting I do is by dropping links sometimes in comments. Ah, and I currently participate in SciFiMonth which adds a few Twitter hits. That’s about it.
Congratulations to your 100k, your posts deserve that number well!
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I like novellas as a format, I should read more of them. It’s not that I oppose short stories, but I tend to read them in collections, and not as separate entities.
I’ve never stopped blogging for weeks, but my rate is 2 or maximum 3 posts a month anyhow, and older posts keep getting as many hits as before, even in week where I do a new posts.
But I’ve noticed my Dune movie review has gathered lots of traction, and I saw an uptick in the stats again around the US release date, and as a result my other Dune reviews got some more views as well – they are stalwarts of the blog anyway.
Surprisingly, the post that did best this year so far has been on Piranesi however, almost 2000 views, no idea where that traffic comes from. For reference, my post on A Scanner Darkly got 140 views so far.
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Well, who knows PKD that old geezer anymore? 🤣 People don’t realize that he’s the most often adapted SF author ever.
That hype about Piranesi in comparison, though, is interesting. But she is a living author with a large marketing machine behind. That explains it mostly IMHO.
As for reading stories, I most often read them in collections/anthologies. Exception is for the current award season, and sometimes to check off some fancy reading project.
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Another recent title, Memory Called Empire also has good stats, about 900 in total since published I think. So reviewing more recent high profile titles is the way to go I´d say.
But story reviews are a good niche too I guess, you probably attract a specific audience.
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In the end, I don’t want to optimize to get more views. I’m happy as a cake to see posts are consumed and that I‘m not doing it for myself alone. But I wouldn’t read/review things just to have one more popular post.
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Me neither, fully agree.
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I only read author collections, no anthologies with different authors.
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Just checked Piranesi statistics: 50 hits 😁 Maybe I should concentrate on stories alone 🤣
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Wow nice!! You’re light years ahead of me views-wise. I tend to look at my monthly numbers the closest, just to make sure they’re about average, but I had to actually do some math to figure out my total. Keep up the great work!!
To tell the truth I don’t always read the posts I view. I try to, but sometimes I’ll skim them or just read the summary if my mind is wandering (it does that) or I’m in a hurry, or for some third reason that I don’t have an excuse prepared for yet 😅
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Thanks Will! That’s honest truth and totally fine. No, really, no excuses are asked for.
Some math means: you clicked on the annual statistics and added those ten or something numbers?
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Yeah, pretty much. But now that I know about that shortcut I’ll just do it that way. Thanks! Out of curiosity, what’s your total word count? Mine’s 81k, but what with your post a day ratio, I’ll bet it’s nearer to 150k!
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You will be surprised, it’s 94k. Only since last year, average review is 350-400 words. The years before, they were much shorter, 200-250 words in average. The synopsis tend to ger far longer because I found out that I don’t really can remember contents of those older stories with the help of reviews. That’s far better now.
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Yeah… I tend to ramble more than you too 😂
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Just as a hint: the statistics tab „insights“ offers the „All-time posts, comments, views, and visitors“. No need to calculate it yourself!
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Congratulations.
I do tend to read the posts probably because I click on the ones that I’m really interested in.
Lynn 😀
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Thanks Lynn! I need to lure people in better 🤣 Do you decide on the title or on pictures or on first lines?
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It’s the title really. Or if it’s a review it’s if it’s a book I’m interested in or like the look of.
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Congrats on so many views! That number is mind-boggling to me — I’ve been actively blogging for a year and a half. I’m glad I discovered your blog, and I’ll be checking out more of your posts, especially after your review of Ellison’s “‘Repent Harlequin'” story 🙂
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Thanks for joining! I’m looking forward to discussions with you 😎
My first year blogging resulted in negligible number of views. I didn’t do any marketing and consequently it wasn’t noticed. Only when I joined the blogosphere networking, numbers went up.
I really didn’t mind that first time, because I thought it to be for my own sake mostly.
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