I know some of you will be sarcastic and say "write good stories." That's just it though. I have been told I make pretty good stories. And yet everyone who follows me for one story, never shows up to the next. My blog posts are also barren and have 1 comment that isn't me. All-in-all, I just wanna know how to keep interest.

I think a bit of community engagement is also required. I try to read a couple pages every day and leave people some useful comments, but I'm still new here so I guess I'll let you know how that works out for me.

4296030

Forge a unique identity that people will be able to recognise.

I am, for example, the changeling-and-Tropico-obsessed Australian who occasionally stirs up trouble in the forums. A;so, I had this shtick where I'd insult people with poetry in fights, but thankfully that's mostly over...

It's like marketing, really. I mean, most of the people who I interact with on this site don't even know that I even write things. It's all because of constant forum activity.

4296030
Be more active in forums. If you get involved in discussion threads, people get to know you, and they want to follow you. Your profile says you've been on the site for an entire year, and yet I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever seen your user name.

I've only got five stories to my name, and two of them are incomplete... and yet somehow I've got over two hundred followers. I think pretty highly of my writing, but it's not on the strength of those stories. It's because I've put myself out there and interacted with other users.

4296036 Ah.. I'd rather be known for having some good stories though. I'm not too fond of forums and being caught up in it. I love providing, not being dependent on others to provide for me.

4296038
Good stories ain't going to cut it alone. For example, there are plenty or writers writing good fics that go unnoticed due to the fact that they have few followers. You need to market yourself and engage with the community to really get popular.

4296037 I guess that makes sense. As I stated above I try to provide, not be provided for. Hopefully we can get to know each other and see each other more. I'll try being more active when the time is right.

4296030
Make friends. Chat with people. Good enough friends will go and follow you, will comment your blogs, read your stories and so on.

Be friendly and just write a variety of stories, though to be brutally honest, it'll probably triple if you write stories with sex or romance in them.

4296030
4296035

This guy's pretty much got the idea. I've found people are more wiling to read one's stories and stick around if they actually know or like the person responsible for them. I mean, I had half the followers I do now only by commenting on people's stories and gaining people's attention that way, we'd talk and then the follow came. Then I wrote things and got more followers and still gain a few every now and then out of nowhere.

4296041
If you don't see forum activity as a "providing" role, you're doing it wrong.

I provide commentary. I provide snark. I provide sensible statements when others are going off on jaunts of wild-ass overanalysis and implausible speculation. I provide humorous pony captions. I provide corrections to the poor language skills of other writers. What on Earth makes you think that being in the forums has to be a passive activity?

Hmm...
I think you can do something utilizing black candles, a bit of chicken-blood and a clear new-moon night with the stars align. You know - chanting some unspeakable things in dead languages and so.

On the other hoof - I may be not the best source of advise, as my stories have about the same recognition as the sites legal notice.

4296038
Seems we share the same problems

4296044

Like now!

4296047
A bit of chicken blood?
Darn, I was using pigeon blood.

4296052 Holy hell.

4296056
Its all about the little details.

But - something serious
4296030

I think writing such a post is one way to go. As you just point out your problem. And, after all you are for sure not the only one, living unnoticed on this site. So the answers and tips may come in handy for everyone sharing this problems.

Write your content at your best, the rest will complete itself. It's not uncommon to read a year or older stories on this site.

4296030
Step 1 - Be a Lemon
Step 2 - ???
Step 3 - Profit

Worked wonders for me.

4296030

Just kinda go:

An'

And

You'll eventually get followers...

--Sweetie Belle

4296127
'Tis true. I would follow you right now.
Y'know, if I wasn't already following you for doing that in the past.

4296030
Write GOOD stories? Nah. Not a requirement.

Write POPULAR stories. That's where the gold is at

Really though... you have a small one-shot and a story on hiatus after the prologue. What on earth are you talking about? From everything I see, the problem here is simply that you're not writing at all. Why do you want followers again? To read your blogs? There's not much interesting in there either; I checked.

4296030 Like everyone else said. Engage. Maybe try a new avatar. That sounds miscellaneous but if you have a flashy avatar it catches peoples's eyes.
Maybe spruce up your page too.

4296132
I can see SweetAI's images while I move my mouse over your reply hyper link, but I can't see them in their own post.

4296183
Weeeird.

#BlameKnighty ?

4296183
4296185

Given that all of those are copied straight from the spot on derpibooru for embedding images that says "Thumbnailed BBCode", which is pretty reliable for posting, like this:

Yeah, maybe blame knighty. Or maybe derpibooru glitched for a minute...

--Sweetie Belle

4296125
That's unfair Lemon.

You are already like this lemon slice upon the schnitzel of popularity here.

Giving such advises is like a billionaire saying something like
"Why? Money? Just go to my vault and grab some bushels. Where's the problem?"

4296030

Find a means of personal validation that doesn't involving counting followers. Be yourself, have fun. A fool is worried that others don't know him, a wise man is worried he doesn't know himself.

I hate this game of comparing follower count. It's like those insipid digital game trophies. They don't really matter. Focus on finding friends of quality. Tis a terrible thing to be in a room full of people and then feel lonely.

4296030

I'm basically gonna repeat what everyone here's already said, just talk to people around here and you'll rack up a few followers. Hell, I've only got four not exactly popular stories to my name, but I've got over 100 followers. Just let people get to know you, build an identity, and most importantly stay sexy

4296030
Be an asshole and make a bunch of blogs
You'll get popular with people who like that kind of person.

4296030

Dude. Basically, so long as you WANT those followers, you`ll never going to have them.

4296030 Be awesome. Make friends. Do collabs. Chat through PM. Be a talking fish. (Not sure anybody's ever been a talking fish but if you are, you can be sure you'll get loads of followers)

Okay, seriously. Just participate in the forums, get yourself noticed.

4296030 If you do want a friend then feel free to pm. I can also read stories if I have time.

In one word you answer should be...

CARE. Care for everyone so that you are treated how you want to me treated.

4296030
Though i am not all that popular on this site, I have a moderate following (a couple of dozen) over at FanFiction.net
- Keep a regular blog
- Write interesting story's
- Comment/ Review story's that are slimier and give serious positive, and constructive feed back
- Have one major piece that you regularly work on, while producing some short one shots either in that universe or that are completely unique.
- Get involved in forum discussions and offer to help people with stuff like proofreading/ editing (if you can edit... i don't have that skill, but i am happy to proofread).
- Try and do collaborative work, get people to do art of your work and get people to help write your 'main' story, or perhaps a side story so that you can get both of your followings together and both of you can grow.

Those are just some ideas, i have yet to implement all of these my self, but i am doing a few, and plan on doing all of them eventually.

4296030

I know some of you will be sarcastic and say "write good stories."

While that certainly helps you to gain followers, it's just one piece (albeit a very important one) of the puzzle. I'm just repeating advice others have given you already, but that advice works:

Comment on some of the stories you read, comment on blog posts of people you follow or even site blog posts, comment in group forums/post group forums, have an avatar that people might like. If you don't already, say "thank you for the follow" (or some variation thereof) by commenting on new follower's profile pages.

I can vouch for that advice simply because I have some followers but not a single story to my name yet. I ask people why they chose to follow me and I've received answers from "I liked your avatar" to "It was something you said in a blog."

Also, add your stories to whatever groups you can, and feel free to promote yourself & your stories in the Shameless Self-Promotion Bureau.

"Wait a minute," you may or may not be asking. "That advice is decent, but it sounds like it's for gaining followers in the first place. I wanted to know how to keep their interest..."

The answer to that still works with the above advice, plus continue with your stories and blog posts.

Sorry if this started to sound like rambling, but I hope this helps!

4296671
Eh. You got a fair bit of stuff published, your blog looks interesting, and you art, too.

4296127
That's so adorable!
4296030
Anyway, I'd say being active in the FiMFiction community can help, as others have suggested. Being active in group threads and commenting on stories from time to time can help. I wish you well in your future endeavors.

4296127 I'll try. not sure if I'll do it well though

4297762

Well, just try your best. The more you do things, the better you get them, anyway.

And I've gotten four new followers since posting that, so something must be working.

4297570
4297668
Thanks!

--Sweetie Belle

4299074 Yeah it does seem to work haha.