How would you advertise your Story Hour?

[Paka]

I freely admit that when I post these stories up there, as much as I love the act of writing and it is its own reward, I love sharing the stories of my games and the actions of my players with as many people as I can.

I love hearing that people look forward to a post and want to know more and are reading what I write.

That said, the only real thing to do is to just keep plugging away every week, keep writing and writing well and hope that it is someone's cup of tea.

It is also gratifying to have a log of your game, a way to keep track of it all, look back on good gaming days and smile.

P.S. Read my Story Hour...PLEASE.

 

[Celtavian]

Re

Pogre,

You forgot to mention Doc Midnight's Story Hour. His is very popular as well.

Tumakhunter,

1. I think updating and interacting with the reader's is real important. If you update consistently, you will eventually get readers if your story is at all interesting. If you fail to update, then your story never grows and readers will stay away from your story hour in the future because they know you don't update. UPDATE consistently and keep plugging away, and eventually people will start reading.

2. I read Doc Midnight's Story hour religiously when he updates just because its a good fun story hour. Doc interacts with his readers as do some of the players, which helps the popularity of his story hour as well. Make sure to look in on your story hour fairly often and answer any reader questions that will help them understand what is going on in your story.

3. Patience. I don't think you will gain alot of readers until you have alot of posts in a well-developing interesting story. Once people see you are investing a large amount of time in your campaign and story hour, they will become attracted to it. I think alot of the story hour readers like to follow long-term ongoing campaigns with relatively frequent updates unless your story is as good as Sepulchrave's. He updates infrequently, but still his readers return like crack fiends awaiting another hit from the pipe. hehe.

 

[arwink]

Get the other people in your group to read them. I write my storyhour with the knowledge that the majority of the vocal readers are players in my games, and that's more or less it's own reward. If nothing else, they help boost the view-count

 

[Angcuru]

Just go with it

I can't really offer any advice, since I'm new to story hour writing myself. But consider that perhaps you have a lot of readers that just don't feel compelled to post. A lot of good story hours start out that way, and eventually you get a lot of regulars checking in for "When's the next update?!!" or "Man, that was awesome!" etc.

With my story hour only being up for a few weeks, now being updated almost weekly, I don't expect to get a lot of replies, if any. Once I get in-depth into the plot, characters, personalities, relationships, etc, THEN I expect a reply now and then. But then my story hour thread is a bit unorthodox since it's more of a STORY story than a campaign-based story. And even then it is at heart a story of love, pain, sacrifice, etc. but that's in the future updates. Right now I'm finishing up the Prologue, which is sort of an aftermath wherein the central characters remenisce about their past 'adventures'. I.E. Aftermath=near complete, the meat of the story=on it's way.

 

[Tumakhunter]

Thanx

Thank you all for the advice! I've already changed the title, and will continue to update whenever I can. I really appreciate all of your help, and look forward to reading your respective stories. (Right now, I'm hooked on the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen one.)

 

[Nifft]

For serious advice, pimp it in your .sig. I tend to read the story hours of people who seem to write well and have interesting ideas / questions / personalities on the other forums. Discussions with Argent in the House Rules forum lead to my addiction to WizarDru's story hour, for example.

-- Nifft

 

[(contact)]

I would consider buying banner impressions from Morrus, then I would secure financing, and move to an integrated advertising/public relations campaign targeting the industry trades.

OR,

I would follow Pogre's advice and write my logs for my own purposes and amusement, and treat the thread as a place to share what I would have done anyway with a small community of the like-minded.

I've made a couple of pen-pals from my Story Hours, and that's pretty much as good as it gets, IMHO.

Remember, Piratecat uses a macro to bump his page views, and Sagrio is the screen name for a very well-known Professional Athelete (whose name I am sworn not to reveal), so we shouldn't compare our view count with theirs.

After all, if one loyal person views your thread thirty times it is better than thirty viewing it once, so I think you should disregard the "views" column altogether as an innacurate and ego-driven measurement of nothing.

(contact)

p.s.: My story hours have d-ck jokes and lesbians.

 

[ForceUser]

Remember, Piratecat uses a macro to bump his page views, and Sagrio is the screen name for a very well-known Professional Athelete (whose name I am sworn not to reveal), so we shouldn't compare our view count with theirs.

ROFL!

p.s.: My story hours have d-ck jokes and lesbians.

Sigh, how could I have missed this? I'm going to have to start reading them again.

 

[megamania]

Don't confuce my PbP of Planar Retrieval Agency with that one! D-jokes! Women!
I only have cannibilistic bear druid looking to nibble on a cursed regenerating Kenny whom is in a backback of a Cosmos P-Boy model. Too weird.

 

[Capellan]

If nothing else, they help boost the view-count

Yay us!