DocAndersen
Today’s mover’s project is comment drivers. Now, this is a really hard category to measure. It requires looking at multiple posts with the same people commenting on them and seeing if there is a trend. The trend can be one of three distinct results:
1. Comments are made, but the post doesn’t have a big increase in views or other comments
2. Comments are made, and the post gets many more comments, but views are not increased
3. Comments are made, views and additional comments are high
(please note, this was captured over multiple posts. Many authors drive one or two posts in a week, the group of four drive nearly every post they are commenting on)!
First, this cannot be measured in one post. It has to be measured on multiple posts. We have to watch multiple people, control and subject to use the experimentation model. The other thing is we are limited by time. I only watch posts for over 72 hours. Here is what I do. First I pick ten authors a day. I then mark every single post (and save the URL) I think a return to that post it pushes me to 30 posts a day reading, so, for now, I am only looking at these on the weekends. I have completed two full weekends evaluation and want to share the results I have so far. I finally realized why many people follow them if you don’t comment on my posts I won’t comment on you posts rule going through this for the past two weekends. It does matter when people comment on your posts. A lot in fact, much more than I would have guessed.
That said, the six folks listed here will get you many more comments and views on your posts!
High (moves views and comments with every post they comment on)
CarolDM
Ghostwriter
Alex Levante
Docandersen
Medium (more comments but no great increase in views)
Jenna
Alex Socorro
Kim_Johnson
Light (small increase)
Many authors!
This is the single hardest category because honestly, everyone in the light category does move into the medium and high category for one or two posts in a week. The folks in the high category move 10-12 posts per week other than their own. Interesting if you get comments from 2-3 of the High Comment mover on your post, watch the views on that post, it will be more than 100 views within 48 hours.
My next experiment is around what happens when you change the time of day you post. I am not sure how to test that effectively yet. As the reality of the time of day is hard to tell since no authors can guarantee their post will end up with XX views and XX comments before they post it!
Thanks to all and thanks to the comment movers (the last category has 14 members my apologies for not listing all of you!)
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Question of
Have you ever had a post with more than 300 views?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Have you ever had more than 50 comments on a post?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Do you always post at the same time of day?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Do you ever wonder who is moving your post?
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Yes
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No
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I guess I am Jenna lol You forgot the La in front of it lol. You are a great mover of our posts. I can’t keep up with all my followers, but I do try, and I thank you Doc for all your support.
crap I did a spell check last and it bit me again!
I don’t “know” anything! I would estimate that I get about 5 comments on most of my posts. I do get a few more views from outside and from those who are simply trying to make a little bit of money as well as participating. I do share links to my posts, but I have no idea if it really works.
I guess what I do is write for me and hope some else finds something useful or entertaining. I don’t think I “move” anyone!
you do, normally i see between 20 and 25 more views when you comment on my posts. Plus, when you comment I also tend to see more comments.
Ya be a mover!
and thank you for all the Virils 🙂
I could not answer the first two. I have no idea, but I doubt it. That is a lot of views. I probably come closer to the fifty comments. Good info once again, youve done your work for sure. It is very interesting to see these stats.
if you go back in your old posts you have a few over 300!
Q: Have you ever had a post with more than 300 views?
Yes (4 votes) – 33%
No (8 votes) – 67%
Q: Have you ever had more than 50 comments on a post?
Yes (3 votes) – 23%
No (10 votes) – 77%
Q: Do you always post at the same time of day?
Yes (7 votes) – 54%
No (6 votes) – 46%
Q: Do you ever wonder who is moving your post?
Yes (9 votes) – 69%
No (4 votes) – 31%
Can I also add that I am often puzzled by sudden increases in Virils caused by somebody rushing through your “back catalogue” and clicking on just about everything you have ever written. This has happened to me several times – not that I’m complaining – but I find it hard to understand why somebody would do this, especially as the time intervals suggest that they haven’t read a word of the pieces in question.
That is one I’ve seen several times as well. I wrote a post about it, and honestly I have no idea.
Oh wait, I have an example of this. I did that with one person because there was a post I read and loved but could not find. It took forever.
i’ve done that for the movers project as well.
One thing that has long puzzled me about Virily is the role of “Followers”. It does not appear to be the case that you can only see the posts of people you follow, and therefore that other people cannot see your posts if they do not follow you – which is how sites like Twitter work.
So what difference does having more or fewer followers make to one’s popularity in terms of views or comments?
it matters if you use the followers view, other than that i don’t have an answer.
I just do the best that I have time for…and I am grateful to have this opportunity to write and post images on Virily..
there is no concern there Pam, each of us does what we can do.
no clue if I’ve ever had a post with more than 300 views, since virily doesn’t allow you to sort your posts by popularity, so…
i’ve seen more than 300 views on a couple of your older posts. But that is an interesting point of view about sorting posts by views.
just voted yes. and noticed the sorting question in your latest post
It is a brilliant question and one that deserves some thinking!
if the db takes queries, then you could just submit one in the URI and see if it returns the sort…
It is not complex, I just don’t think it is on their radar honestly.
but you might be able to write the query yourself, if you know how…
I suspect at this point of my career, I wouldn’t be able to write that. However, i also suspect I could get someone to do it for me.
interesting idea.
just tickle it and see if you can find out what flavor of db it is
I suspect that would be grounds for having my account suspended.
good point. better to leave it be
I forgot to write that I spend about 4-5 hours a day at Virily. I think that’s more than enough … too much
i am working my way down to no more than 2 hours period!
Some members receive far more responses to their posts than others. I’m among those who don’t have a great response. I didn’t check but I think I have very few posts that have reached 100 views. I don’t have many comments either. I doubt some members raise the number of views, at least not for me. I can’t find the right reason, so I try to put myself at ease with this. The timing of my post, however, is not up to me but the administrators.
i guarantee your views are raised by people that comment and read your posts. I can show you the impact on your posts.
You do raise an interesting question about the posting times of the admins. I wish I had a way to study the impact of time of day on posts.
Maybe you’re right. I wouldn’t want to burden you with extra work ?
i promise you the numbers show an increase.
happy to share them if you would like.
The extra work part, I can’t actually do as I don’t have access.
Because of me you can share them, I’m not hiding anything ?
I make short posts only not because I cannot write longer. Some people just don’t have the endurance to read long posts.
Now that is very interesting – i wish we could test that theory.
What counts as a view? Presumably it does not matter whether the post is long or short, or whether the viewer has read all of it or only a few lines – it is still a view.
Whether or not they make a comment will presumably depend on whether the topic interested them – it it did, then the length will again be immaterial, because they will read the whole thing.
Mind you, I have seen plenty of posts that interested me at first but then went on at such length that I lost the will to live half way through!
There are two kinds of views.
1. the person (non Virily member) opens the post.
2. the person (Virily member) opens the post
past that, you get a view for both. You only get the Virils for the 2nd one.
In the beginning, there was a lot of activity when opening the site. I am still grateful to the people here for supporting me. These months I am not active as before, but the old members have not forgotten me for which I thank them heartily.I always try when I have time to comment.
I do understand your situation, and you are always welcome here!
I suspect the problem we all have at this point is the amount of time we have!
It is a comment to mine so that I can comment on yours. That is the rule among many authors here.
If you receive less than two comments on your posts, just be sure some authors aren’t happy with your not commenting yours. It’s a slap my back, I slap yours.
i don’t don’t do that but I understand.
Also, I don’t do that but I understand why they may not comment on those who don’t comment on theirs.
I don’t honestly know, it has been going on for awhile.
Unfortunately, I do not follow these statistics, my friend … but I always send letters for confirmation in the evening
I wish I had a way to track what time of day was best for posting. Thanks pal!!!
Uh, that’s a really tough question, dear friend …. I don’t know if you’ll make it
honestly, I have no way to track that. It is a wish, not a possibility.
And why there is no way … you can post whenever you like … for me, it’s different for the chambers to wait for approval
I lived where you are for a long time, I do truly understand.
My head is tottaly mashed. Drivers? Moving? This is another language than any I understand.
The concept is basically one that you already know. For example, you have other blog sites that you post to that have a number of readers.
Here, there is a community, but some people have posts that explode and someone done. There are those authors that when they read and comment on posts those posts tend to gain more readers.
Very cool scientific breakdown. I do enjoy conversating with a few on the list who keep me busy on the site outside of griding and trying to share my own writings ; )
Thanks pal! it is always fun to have our stuff read!
You have spent a lot of time analyzing Doc. I agree that comments are good. And that is what drives our posts. Many will read, upvote, and move on. And I understand some only have time for that. We all have schedules and a limited amount of time to spend here. I probably spend too much time but many cannot.
This is very true, the next stuff I can’t get to, which would be really interesting to see if we could do a direct relationship.
BUt I am happy with what I have found.
Okay. I get that.Doc.
I was just a little lost with the terminology.
Thanks for clarifying.
not a problem Paul, questions are always welcome!
I’m not quite sure what you mean by “moving a post”. I am, however, aware that some members seem to get very many more responses to their posts than others – and I’m certainly not one of the former!
Presumably there are certain tricks to getting people to look at your posts and comment on them – I have been a member for several years, and have posted more than 600 times, but have never worked out what those tricks are!
I have wondered in the past if posting something controversial would work, but that doesn’t seem to be the answer either – my “controversial” posts also seem to “fall stillborn from the press”, to quote David Hume!
you are exactly where I was about two years ago. I wondered what make s a post-move. I now know that some move because of people. Some move because of content.