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Witty Phantom

I've been thinking about this for some time. Of course it depends on the fandom you write for too.

I've been trying to notice any patterns about when stories get the most reviews/views but I haven't noticed any.

Have you?

I don't want to post Thursday-Saturday because that's when everyoonnne is posting e.e I don't want my story to get knocked off the front page too quickly

What times and days of the week have you found work the best for you?

Versatile Receiver

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Ha! I LITERALLY just posted a thread almost exactly like this in one of my fan fiction guild today.

Anyway, during the school term, the best time to post your fics is on a Friday or a Saturday -any time of day. That's when people are off or just getting off from school and have time to goof off and read fan fics. If you want to update on a weekday instead, try to post some time after 5pm. That's when most people end up getting off from work and so your fic should be on the first page right when they get home.

As for the summer months or other times when people are off from school I'm still trying to figure that out. Updating after 5pm is still a good time. I just can't decide what the best day is.

Phantom

What Renkon Root said, but also, I think the best ingredient is CONSISTENCY. I've noticed that stories that update on a scheduled consistent basis tend to get the best overall results in view/reviews/faves/etc. So, if you're updating on Monday nights, and you ALWAYS update on Monday nights, and you tell your readers that your next update will be the following Monday night (and you follow through and update on Monday night), then there will be more of a following for your story.

Heh, I'm guilty of not following this, and taking a whole year to update a story, but all of my stories going forward now are on a more scheduled basis. In fact, I'm not posting anything until it is complete, so I can space out the chapters and keep the updating schedule consistent (because consistency is really that important).

So whatever day you choose that you think is best for getting noticed in your fandom, be consistent in your posting schedule moving forwards.

Feral Loiterer

I'm not sure about fanfiction but I know that there has been a recent study published about tumblr traffic, and assuming that fanfiction.net follows the same rules, I can tell you that:

-On weekends internet traffic actually slows down/halts. The reasoning for this is that people are around and about enjoying their days off and don't actually bother too much with computers. So, if you post on a weekend you are liable to fall off the front page by the time someone gets to it.

-Supposedly the best traffic days are on Monday and Wednesday before 5pm. (I assume this means people get on to distract from school and work...during school and work.

-The highest traffic day is Wednesday between 12 and 3PM

-Whenever a topic hits big, for example if a movie just came out for it or there has been a big promotion, there is a general spike in 'clicks' to blogs or posts related to that subject. So for example if you were writing a How to Train Your Dragon fanfic while the new movie is still in theaters, it increases your chances of getting clicked.

-There has also been a study that negative sounding titles get clicked more often than not. For example: 'Worst Day Ever' vs. 'Best Day Ever'.

But again, these are stats for internet traffic so I'm not sure how they'll compare to the particular site you are interested in. Maybe email the admin for the site and see if they have their traffic stats?

Anyway, hope that helps!

Witty Phantom

PrettyKoala
What Renkon Root said, but also, I think the best ingredient is CONSISTENCY. I've noticed that stories that update on a scheduled consistent basis tend to get the best overall results in view/reviews/faves/etc. So, if you're updating on Monday nights, and you ALWAYS update on Monday nights, and you tell your readers that your next update will be the following Monday night (and you follow through and update on Monday night), then there will be more of a following for your story.

Heh, I'm guilty of not following this, and taking a whole year to update a story, but all of my stories going forward now are on a more scheduled basis. In fact, I'm not posting anything until it is complete, so I can space out the chapters and keep the updating schedule consistent (because consistency is really that important).

So whatever day you choose that you think is best for getting noticed in your fandom, be consistent in your posting schedule moving forwards.

I've just started attempting to finish the entire story before posting! It takes so long and I get antsy xD

I'm looking forward to when I'm finally finished so I can start writing the next story while I'm posting. It'll probably be less stressful!

Witty Phantom

defineunique
I'm not sure about fanfiction but I know that there has been a recent study published about tumblr traffic, and assuming that fanfiction.net follows the same rules, I can tell you that:

-On weekends internet traffic actually slows down/halts. The reasoning for this is that people are around and about enjoying their days off and don't actually bother too much with computers. So, if you post on a weekend you are liable to fall off the front page by the time someone gets to it.

-Supposedly the best traffic days are on Monday and Wednesday before 5pm. (I assume this means people get on to distract from school and work...during school and work.

-The highest traffic day is Wednesday between 12 and 3PM

-Whenever a topic hits big, for example if a movie just came out for it or there has been a big promotion, there is a general spike in 'clicks' to blogs or posts related to that subject. So for example if you were writing a How to Train Your Dragon fanfic while the new movie is still in theaters, it increases your chances of getting clicked.

-There has also been a study that negative sounding titles get clicked more often than not. For example: 'Worst Day Ever' vs. 'Best Day Ever'.

But again, these are stats for internet traffic so I'm not sure how they'll compare to the particular site you are interested in. Maybe email the admin for the site and see if they have their traffic stats?

Anyway, hope that helps!

Oh that's really cool. Thanks for sharing! Maybe I'll post Tuesdays whee
I never really think about posting times... I just post when I'm done, or when I have a spare second...
Haha.

Aged Prophet

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I never really give much thought to when I post. I notice on FF.Net you are limited by the time you post or else the fic is swallowed up by other posters doing the exact same thing. In an archive where you can actually tag your content I find it is much easier for my readers to find me and so it doesn't matter when I post. In popular fandoms the fics can pile up rather quickly (coughSHERLOCKcough). For my own sanity I switched to AO3. Then it really doesn't matter when someone posts an update, I can see it in my "history" and read the update. If I want to find something new I follow the tags. I also like that the older fics aren't so "out of sight, out of mind." My older fics still get new readers thanks to the tagging system.

What I didn't like about FF.Net was that there was no way to sort through the fics that were uploading. It was difficult to find a pairing or a trope that you like and you're bogged down with reading summaries. That coupled with posting while everyone else and there mother were posting led to fewer readers. It's very difficult to filter through and find something you want. So it was nice to post during "off" hours, but you ran the risk of no one reading and it being buried during "on" hours. I had to promote fics in order for them to be read. I don't have that problem with AO3 except with the obscure fandoms... Such as the "unknown" Benedict Cumberbatch movies/shows very few in the US have seen, "Third Star," "Hawking," "Fortysomething," and "Wreckers."

Posting peak hours is a double edged sword, especially on FF.Net. Yeah, you could reach more readers but you also run the risk of being buried by all the fics they are posting.

Timid Consumer

In my experience it is good to get in good with a group of people before hand, and then let them know that you've posted a story. Now it took me a long time to realize this after years of virtually 0 reviews. Meeting people here on this site is a step in the right direction.

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