What the heck?

Yesterday I posted a short story tip I thought people might enjoy. I kind of expected the usual suspects would give me about 60 views, maybe a reblog from someone who likes writing tips.

When I woke up this morning, that kind of looked like the case. A good post by my usual standards, some nice comments. Then I checked my stats. This post had over 450 views.

I thought one of the heavy hitters might have reblogged my post, but that wasn't the case. There are no reblogs.

I dug deeper, and my new visitors all came from Flipboard. This is the outfit that absorbed Zite magazine who I really loved. I have it set up to gather topics of interest for me. One of the things I can do is set up my own magazine, so I did that a few months ago and called it Entertaining Stories. Unless I'm just whining, I throw a link to my posts in there and don't pay a ton of attention to it. I've also thrown out posts by friends when they have a new release, or something particularly interesting.

I've shared all of the Lisa Burton Radio posts there in an attempt to drive my guests some traffic. Same thing for blog tour guests.

To be real honest with you, I thought it might be Facebook, or even StumbleUpon. I never expected this kind of traffic from Flipboard.

When I went to check it out, I was the top article in two different writing categories. I snapped a photo to share it with you.

Geez, if I'd have thought everyone was coming over I'd have gone with a book cover or something instead of my bronze bust.

The rest of the stats are kind of baffling. Take a look at these:

I'm over 2000 views at the time of this writing, and it's still climbing. Most of those people probably aren't in the WordPress system, because I only have 27 likes. This is my most popular post of all time, but without the likes it won't get into my top 10 in the sidebar.

Don't take this as a complaint. I'm happy to get action anyplace I can. That also means a few people read one of my micro-fiction pieces. There are even a few sales of Notebook to sweeten the deal.

Now if I could only figure out something intelligent to say about my other books, I'd be golden. I have no idea how to duplicate this process, but maybe something will come to me.

You can bet one thing, I'm going to be sharing more posts on Flipboard. This is another reason to have your characters appear on Lisa Burton Radio too, because I'm sharing the posts there.

I'm off to Atlanta in the morning. I'll probably manage a short update from the road, but I expect to be pretty busy.

50 Comments

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50 responses to “What the heck?

  1. Wow, I didn’t know you could create a magazine on Flipboard. I’m going to have to look into that because I use the app (still liked Zite better). I think the fact you used the bronze bust is going to help drive traffic It’s unusual and that would make me take a look when twined with the topic. Congrats, and have a good trip!

    Liked by 3 people

  2. I agree. Your bust gives you the look of someone distinguished with authority, and it’s unique, rather than the typical photographic head shot. I’d keep it. Congrats on the stats. I’ll check into Flipboard. Never used it…another learning curve.

    Liked by 3 people

  3. Ali Isaac

    Congratulations Craig! You are going viral! I’ve had a similar thing happen to me a couple of times. For me, the traffic was all generated from fb. I never worked out how to replicate what it was that clicked with people, either… it’s so random! Just enjoy it while it lasts, and I hope it’s the first of many more for you. 😁

    Liked by 2 people

  4. Woohoo! If anyone deserves to go viral, it’s you. 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

  5. That’s awesome. Congrats and enjoy your trip.

    Liked by 2 people

  6. Interesting! I’ll have to check that out.

    Liked by 2 people

  7. That is spectacular!

    Liked by 2 people

  8. This is fantastic Craig! Well done and it was a great post with some really constructive advice in it 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

  9. Ahhh yes – flipboard is awesome – it gave me my best views ever too! Bravo, congrats *champers* all round 😀 😀 😀 off I go to read this post!

    Liked by 2 people

  10. I read this on Anita Dawes &Jaye Marie and popped over to connect. How do you do. I have flip board and read every day but didn’t realise you could do this! I will be looking much closer from now on. Thank you. 😇

    Liked by 2 people

  11. Congratulations, its funny how a post can sometimes generate so much traffic out of the blue. Its happened to me a few times, but I find its never really an exact science or that predictable. Sometimes it something I’ve written ages ago that suddenly seems to get a lot of views ect. Very nice though. Oh & Enjoy your trip as well 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

  12. Isn’t it awesome when you write something and get a lot of replies? Writers need love, too!

    Liked by 2 people

  13. Wow! I’m really happy for you. Must feel great waking up like that!

    Liked by 2 people

  14. Gosh, who knew?! Great view stats there, I’ve never even heard of flipboard, I’ll have to check it out. Well done you 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

  15. Well done, Craig! Well deserved hits they are as well. Apologies for my long absence. I’m still here, barely have a blog pulse, but I’ll get myself back up and running soon. In the meantime, Flipboard away, buddy! What an accomplishment! Roll on sales… MH

    Liked by 2 people

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