Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

A mixed success in the last three months.

At the beginning of March, I posted an update examining some of the website data from my first three months versus my goals and explored whether I felt the website had been a success. With another quarter over, I’m taking another look.

The goals for my second quarter were:

• Write and post what I want to write    
• Generate traffic
• Experiment

Again, I am aware that these are not SMART goals which I’d expect in a business environment, but while I’m refocusing my career into writing, I’m not planning to set myself hard targets around it while I am establishing myself to be kind to myself. That said, there is a thing about too much vagueness which I’ll come onto talk about (particularly in respect of that third goal). 

My Second Quarter Data Highlights

Q2 Views: 50026, Average views per day: 544 (Q1 comparison: Views, 42448, Average, 581)

Q2 Visitors: 10218, Average visitors per day: 111 (Q1 comparison: Visitors 7168, Average, 93)

Q2 Subscribers: 555, Overall: 997 (Q1 comparison: Subscribers, 442)

Q2 New Posts: 15, New Post Views: 3007) (Q1 comparison: New Posts, 26, New Post Views: 7683)

Articles	5		328
Fanfiction	5		2225
Fiction	0		0
Poetry	3		321
Reviews	2		63

Most popular new post: A Convenient Arrangement, 1206 views

Most popular fandom: Harry Potter

Most popular tag: Harry/Hermione

Q2 Top 5 Website Stories Overall:

1. Harry Potter – A Jump to the Left – Chapter 1
2. Harry Potter – A Convenient Arrangement
3. Harry Potter – A Step to the Right
4. Harry Potter – A Marauder’s Plan
5. Harry Potter – The Time Traveller
6. Harry Potter – Excalibur’s Champion

What does the data tell us about our performance?

Write What I want to Write and Experimenting versus Traffic

Traffic peaked in March and steadily declined through April and into May.  No doubt the continued traffic in March was partially due to the continuing interest from the Evil Author/International Fandom posts, but also I posted up two Q1 Big Moxie projects (A Convenient Arrangement & Married to Justice) – with the first ending up being the most popular new post of the quarter.

While I did a lot of writing in April, the first was an experiment and was posted as part of the challenge with that site cleared recently to make way for the next challenge, and really what I posted was a very, very rough and unfinished draft which needs a lot of work.  I did complete a couple of stories for the Big Moxie Q2 which will be posted up by the end of June and these involve a new fandom – Downton Abbey – which is a big experiment for me.

Unfortunately, the challenge really killed my writing for the website in April.  In May my personal life was consumed with family events (a lovely holiday, a funeral, and then another unexpected bereavement right at the end of May), plus plans for my own business, and my fictional writing petered out as a response.  Everything I had planned around original fiction and completing A Jump to the Left did not get done, although I did manage to start my reviews of the latest Doctor Who series. I ended up in the waning days of May determining to declutter a few stories which enabled me to get something posted (Soul-bound, Excalibur’s Champion and Dreams of You).

Hence with the lack of posting, I’m not really surprised that the traffic declined.  The data emphasises that it is important to continue to produce content consistently.

Is this a good performance?

From a traffic perspective, I’m thrilled the site maintained as much traffic as it did given my lack of posting and consistency.  So, for that goal, I’m going to count it as a success and a good performance.

On the experiment side, I have to admit that this is where the vagueness of the goal comes back to bite me as I cannot for the life of me remember exactly what I meant by it!  However, I did experiment in April with my challenge fic, and with the two Big Moxie completed fics that I did so I’m also counting that as a success overall.

On the last point though…I think both spontaneously entering the challenge in April and then with everything that happened in real life in May, I just did not get the amount of writing that I wanted or indeed planned done.  My plans and schedule were all very much sent into disarray.  I cannot say hand on heart that I was successful in writing what I wanted to write through the quarter, particularly in May.

Additionally, although it wasn’t a goal, I almost got to 1000 subscribers (now at 1026!) which I think is very decent given the website has only been around since December.

Overall, not a bad performance, but there are improvements to be made.

Replanning

I’ve had to do some major replanning of the writing. 

Given events at the end of May, I have another funeral to attend in June, additional personal commitments, and I need to get more disciplined in balancing contingency work to pay expenses with my writing – particularly my fanfic writing which is for fun and not for any money!

I know many people will be disappointed, but I’m unlikely to get A Jump to the Left finished and published this month (June) as planned.  It is likely to be July or August now.  I may post the second chapter to subscribers to continue to thank them for their support.

I have debated whether to post up a posting schedule page, but I don’t want to make too many public commitments to posting given my health can affect things in short order and, as demonstrated with A Jump to the Left, real life can stop things in their tracks. I know people get reasonably disappointed even if they understand it was down to unexpected delays due to these real life events interfering with writing.

That said, I am recommitting to be more consistent with my writing and posting as I was in the first quarter. 

My goals for this next quarter are:

• Write what I want to write
• Be consistent in my writing commitment
• Experiment: Write an original story

Wish me luck!