Why Are My Older Stories Getting VIEWS in Clusters?
I wonder how my older stories keep popping up in my stats!
I’m thrilled when I see some of my older stories getting views and suddenly popping up in my stats. But I’m curious as to why sometimes, when this happens, it seems to happen in small clusters.
I know sometimes, the occasional reader will stumble onto one of your older stories, and you’ll notice that someone clapped, or commented. But that tends to happen in drips, as in one or two views per story.
But what about when you notice an older story suddenly has so many new views, that it shows up in your stats? It’s like out of the blue, lots of people just decided to check that particular story out.
On multiple occasions, I’ve even gotten notifications that an older story has suddenly obtained more than 10 fans.
That tells me that I’ve done something right, and something very specific, regarding that story. But it sucks to not know exactly what it was that I did.
Has this ever happened to you? If it has, did it make you want to start analyzing your every move?
That’s what I did, when this happened to me. I started looking closer, and scrutinizing my previous activities.
Here are the ways I typically try to make my older stories more visible
I’ve been contemplating why older stories might suddenly gain traction. That led me to consider the different activities I normally perform when I’m trying to draw attention to previously published stories.
For instance:
- I use short form stories to promote and get eyes on my older stories.
- I sometimes write updates to older stories, and include the previous points, plus one or two new ideas and thoughts on the subject.
- I even go outside of Medium for help and different opportunities to promote both my older titles, and all my latest stories as well.
All three of these methods can be a good way to get eyes on older stories. The perplexing thing is, when something seems to work effectively, but you can’t seem to pinpoint what it was.
Even if you manage to figure things out eventually, that doesn’t mean you can create the exact same results again, at least not entirely.
So, the bad news is:
When you don’t know exactly what you’re doing right, there’s no way for you to purposely duplicate your efforts.
The good news is:
Even though you might not be able to purposely duplicate your efforts, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to do. And if you’re lucky, you might begin to have some insight about effective methods that work better than others.
So just keep writing, and doing your best to reach your audience and give them one or all of the following:
- What they need
- What they can use
- What makes them feel something
With that in mind, I intend to try and revive lots more of my stories in the coming weeks and months. The titles I’ll specifically give attention to are the ones that provide the above elements.
Final Thoughts
Have you been making a conscious effort to perform helpful activities that might revive your older stories? Remember, more eyes on what you write, will ultimately mean more reads.
If you haven’t started taking a proactive approach to doing this, why not begin with the simple suggestions mentioned above? Put these useful activities on your list of things to do for 2022?
There’s no need for you to be clueless when it comes to how to get more eyes on your older stories. Be on the lookout for every opportunity, such as submitting stories to the “ Story Second Chances” publication. The editor is Mary DeVries and she created the publication specifically for this purpose.
In addition to the information in this story, and the links contained in the content above, you can also read the following stories.
Follow these links and discover some smart strategies, to motivate you to take action and help bring your older stories back to life.
Ironically, these stories weren’t published recently, so by reading the suggestions they provide, you’re also helping the writers revive their old stories as well.
Isn’t it cool how that works out?
But don’t forget:
- Focus on stories that cater to what your readers need
- Remind them of your particular titles that offer something of use or value
- Update the stories that offer readers an enjoyable read and leave them feeling some kind of way
These are the types of older published stories that you want to try and breathe life back into. Before you know it, lots of older titles will be showing back up in your stats. This happened to me, and I’m glad it did, because now I have a great blueprint to follow in 2022.
DEAR READER: The advice and opinions I share are not always taken from a book or based on professional statements. I merely share accounts I’ve experienced -personally and I tell you how I handled a situation when this happened to me, OR my suggestions, if it were to ever happen.
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