Here's a little something to brighten up this conversation:
Onodera, chadmc90 and myself are pioneering a project which should, in theory, help augment the review:view ratio by a considerable factor.
DETAILS HERE: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=27617In short, we're putting together a catalogue (in cooperation with one of the mods (hopefully all of them soon)) which will facilitate story-searching.
We're creating a TUGs story catalogue, in which authors will be able to advertise their works or the works of other members.
Instead of going section by section hoping to find a story that meets your needs, you'll simply be able to browse the catalogue and look at the story summaries and their keywords/tags to find something you're interested in.
Say for example you're really into bondage involving women and ballgags, you'll simply be able to browse the catalogue for F/F stories featuring the keywords "ballgags". The "SEARCH THIS TOPIC" tool at the top of each thread will make it even easier to locate story ads featuring specific keywords.
If you're into M/M stories involving socks, you'll just need to go on the catalogue and type "socks" in the SEARCH THIS TOPIC" engine and voilĂ ! You'll get a list of all the story ads with the word "socks" in the summary or in the story tags. All you'll need to do after that is filter through the ads to find the M/M stories.
In time, this'll become a valuable tool and a efficient story-search engine.
Great for readers AND writers!
Readers will be able to find stuff they wanna read, quickly and efficiently, while writers will be able to advertise their works, therefore drawing the attention of their target audiences.
I sometimes find myself stumbling upon stories several months after they've been published and quickly write a comment, only to find out that the author stopped writing because of low feedback.
The forum contains SO MANY stories and threads, that it's impossible to catch all of them before they slip off the active topics list.
Many writers here are also discouraged because they get lots of views but low feedback.
Guests DO account for a large portion of the reads we get here, but we also need to take in consideration how many of us open up a story, only to click "Back" after reading a paragraph or two. I know I'm not the only one...
Often times, the work isn't bad, it's just that it's NOT what we're looking for. The story just doesn't feature the stuff we're interested in.
We keep opening and closing threads, hoping to find stuff of interest...meanwhile the authors who wrote those tales are discouraged because of the low review:view ratio their stories are garnering. Lots of clicks but few comments...
This is where the catalogue comes in.
When you post your story ad on the catalogue, you're gonna be sending a CLEAR message to your target audience (those interested in the stuff that's featured in your story). You'll be able to include a story summary in the ad, as well as write a listing of keywords/tags that can be associated with the content of your story, ex: panties, sockgags, bandanas, cowboys, nurse, leather, kidnap, etc.
The catalogue has the potential of yielding good results.
Think about it!
Users who open your story by using the catalogue, are more likely to have a genuine interest in the material contained within it than those who are going from post-to-post, looking for stories.
The more interested readers you have, the more reviews your story will obtain.
The catalogue will be launched very shortly and I'd like to take this time to encourage all the authors on here to use this new tool to advertise their works. AlexUSA has agreed to help us promote the catalogue by giving it some visibility. If the catalogue becomes a Global Announcement, it will quickly garner lots of ads and reads...and hopefully influence the review:view ratio our stories are getting.