TiM 15 promotion through groups · 5:34am Aug 28th, 2019
Recently released storyTiM: Gone, not Forgotten underperformed significantly at launch. Today, over one week after release, the story has less than 10 ratings, 10 comments and less than 200 views. With this experiment, I aim to bring new readers to enjoy it, as well as reminding fans of the series of this instalment's existence.
What will I do
Shortly after next chapter's release, expected on August 30th, I will add TiM 15 to as many FimFiction groups as I can.
Before this post, I've gone through and selected some groups for this project, viewable in this sheet. In my selection I looked at every group's home page and pinned forum posts for rules on story submission. Many of the groups I checked had well defined rules which allowed me to clearly determine whether or not TiM 15 was a good story for them. These are marked in the sheet as yes or no. Done groups are not currentlynaccepting submissions, they are reported as locked. As the story in object is SFW and not obviously controversial, I choose to consider eligible for submission any group that did not explicitly deny it. In the spreadsheet, these groups are marked with not denied. I also reported which groups allowed for promotional blog posts.
I've obtained Twidashforever's permission to move forward with this project. I do, however, take responsibility for its execution and any mistakes I may make in it. If I did something wrong to you or you just want to tell me something, please send me a PM.
Why would this help?
The main issue I saw with the story's release is that nobody noticed it. The story wasn't disliked or criticized, it wasn't seen at all.
I attribute that to a severe lack of promotion. No teasers were made shortly before release, the one blog post published on release day does not include a link to the story nor explicitly mention it. I'm not aware of any off-site promotions, and the referral page backs me me up on assuming there was none.
Goals
This is my first rodeo and I don't really know what I'm doing. I'm presenting these goals without a firm grasp on their achievability, mostly by trusting my own gut feeling. I believe these are reachable, measurable targets that can tell me if this project worked as I envision it.
Within 48h of next chapter's release, I want to
- See more than 10 ratings (possibly 20)
- See at least 5 new comments
Not goals
This experiment will be limited in both scope and objectives. I'm not fooling myself into thinking that every possible goal is achievable through simply groups. These are milestones of any story that I'm not expecting to hit with this campaign
- Feature box
- Over 50 upvotes
- Over 10 new comments
Obstacles
Most of the groups I selected haven't had forum activity in over a year. Many of them have so many stories, one more is just a drop in the ocean.
It's already been weeks since launch, prime time for promotion has long passed. This is a late attempt at scavenging eyeballs, severely hindered by the lack of interest in the publish period.
Did I mess up?
In this project, I tried to be respectful of everyone's policies and interests. I do not intend to bring offence or discomfort to anyone. If I inadvertently did so, I apologize.
I take full responsibility for the operative execution of this project. If I did something you didn't like, such as accidentally violating policies of your group, take any actions you deem necessary with me. Please contact me via PM, so that I can assist you in fixing any mistakes on my part.
If you have any form of feedback at all, PMs for any reason are welcome too.
Future possibilities of expansion
If this project will manage to achieve its goals, it will be easy to replicate it with future stories. It will also be possible to add stories to groups at launch, when the visibility benefits the most.
Other future promotional initiatives, for this and other stories, may include targeted blog posts, a dedicated TiM group, off-site promotion.
