3.5 READERS: BQB, you are a giant nerd for live tweeting Pee Wee’s Big Holiday!
BQB: I know you are but what am I? Ha ha! Argh!
(If you’re on the twitter-mo-bob, follow @bookshelfbattle then get on Netflix and join in.)
Bookshelf Battle
The only site where new bestsellers are forced to do battle for space on a nerd's bookshelf.
Tag Archives: twitter
Two Year Anniversary Stats
Gratuitous Bookshelf Q. Battledog Photo
In two years of bloggery, I have made 1,240 posts and received:
37,577 views
20,698 visitors
Is this good? I don’t know. If there’s some expert out there, please tell me.
The highest number of views I received in a day came on February 9, 2015. I think that was largely because someone was nice enough to put something I wrote on Reddit. I had just announced the one post a day for a year challenge too so I think that made people somewhat curious.
In general, if I get between 30-50 hits a day it is a pretty average day. It is nice when there are more views than hits. I feel like that means people like what they see and want to keep looking around.
This has definitely been a labor of love. I truly wish this technology had existed when I was 20 and had the ability to stay up two days straight writing term papers cranked up on Red Bull (shit, come to think of it, that could explain a lot of my problems now.)
But it is here now and I like it because every day brings at least one new follower and I hope all of these little drops in the bucket lead to a nice full bucket some day.
(A nice full bucket of people who will buy the book I can’t seem to finish. What? Did I say that? No. I do it for the art. Money schmoney.)
If you haven’t done so yet, please follow me on:
Thank you, 3.5 readers. Please keep it up and help a nerd’s dream come true.
Where to Find Bookshelf Q. Battler
FACEBOOK
Bookshelf Battle – @bookshelfbattle
A new Pop Culture Mysteries Twitter handle that I’m not sure what to do with yet but feel free to follow it. – @popculturemyst
Google Plus
Wattpad
Those are “my big four” i.e. the social media sites I’ve found to be most responsive. Facebook unfortunately seems to be “pay to play” whereas Twitter seems to be the most helpful.
Wattpad I’ve found to be helpful for my writing process. I’ll write my first draft in a Word document, then rewrite it and post it on Wattpad and get reader feedback.
By the way, 3.5, any help you could give me would be appreciated. Please consider sharing your favorite Bookshelf Q. Battler post on your favorite time wasting social media outlet.
Believe me, your friends will find it more interesting than that picture of your lunch.
365 Days. 1 Nerd. Results of the One Post a Day Challenge – 2015 Complete
SECURE INTERGALACTIC TRANSMISSION
TO: The Mighty Potentate
FROM: Alien Jones, the Esteemed Brainy One
RE: Results of Bookshelf Q. Battler’s One Post a Day for a Year Challenge – 2015
DATE: Jan. 1, 2016
ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY POTENTATE!
Alien Jones tallies BQB’s 2015 stats.
Your lowly servant, Alien Jones here to report on the results of Bookshelf Q. Battler’s One Post a Day Challenge. As you recall, Your Potentosity, you have identified BQB as “The Chosen One,” the only Earth writer capable of putting out a book that will convince the humans to abandon the reality television programming that you despise with such magnanimous enthusiasm.
HOW IT BEGAN
BQB only intended to write very brief posts for the purpose of drawing some attention to his blog. However, he quickly became hooked on seeing his stats improve and spent the year focusing on his blog instead of his languishing career as a novelist.
Further, BQB made daily postings on social media. He had Twitter at the beginning of the year. He got onto Google Plus early in the year. He had been on Facebook but finally began pushing harder on it in the Fall.
WHAT DID BQB DO?
- Posted 1 or more (and often, more) posts on his blog daily. Did not miss a day.
- Posted daily on Twitter from the beginning of the year.
- Posted daily on Google Plus when he started it (his pitiful human brain doesn’t remember when that started but believes it was early in the year.)
- Became more active on Facebook, by the end of the year he started posting there daily. Also, he spent a bit of his human money to buy some Facebook ads.
- Joined and became active on Wattpad, posting stories and offering comments on other writers’ works.
BQB’S BEGINNING STATS
BQB, ever unsure of himself, blogged every day in January, 2015 just to see if he could do it. He then announced Feb 1. that he’d see this through to the end of the year.
WHAT BQB SAID ABOUT HIS STATS FEB 1:
“At the time of this writing, I’m averaging 35-40 site visitors per day. I believe this is due to daily postings.
I’m also seeing an increase in blog followers. I had 400 at the start of the year, and about 450 now.
I had 2000 twitter followers at the start of the year, I’m at around 2500 now.”
STAT COMPARISON A YEAR LATER
WORDPRESS
FOLLOWERS
JAN 1, 2015 – Approx. 400
JAN 1, 2016 – 1,520
INCREASE of 1,120 approx.
2014 vs. 2015
BQB began this blog in 2014, but did not blog daily. In fact, he often let a lot of time pass between posts.
2014 Stats
VIEWS – 4,658
VISITORS – 3,623
LIKES – 895
COMMENTS – 227
2015 Stats
VIEWS – 28,103 (Up approx 24,000)
VISITORS – 14,880 (Up approx 11,000)
LIKES – 7,836 (Up approx 6,000)
COMMENTS – 2000 (Up approx 1800)
JAN 1, 2015 – 2,000 followers (approx)
JAN 1, 2016 – 7,168
GOOGLE PLUS
2014 – BQB didn’t have it. He started in 2015.
Jan 1, 2016 – 858 followers
Likes were barely existent starting 2015. BQB experimented with buying some Facebook ads in the Fall. Currently, the Bookshelf Battle Facebook Page has 169 likes and the Pop Culture Mysteries Facebook Page has 107 likes.
SOCIAL MEDIA OBSERVATIONS – IS SOCIAL MEDIA WORTH IT?
Human writers often debate whether social media is worth their time. Some praise it as a free marketing tool. Others complain it takes time away from their actual writing.
For all of the social media activity BQB engaged in…
TWITTER – brought 527 views total to BQB’s blog this year.
FACEBOOK – brought 368 views total.
GOOGLE PLUS – 270
Thus, it is clear that having more followers on social media does not mean they will all visit your website. However, BQB feels his social media efforts did help to raise awareness of his blog and to make contacts with other writers, such as the fine authors who helped him out of the East Randomtown Zombie Apocalypse in October.
OTHER OBSERVATIONS
SEARCH ENGINES – gave BQB 6,898 views. It pays to write a lot. The more content you have on your site, the more likely people will visit your site through a search engine.
WORDPRESS READER – 1,156 – The more wordpress followers you have, the more people will seeing your blog in their wordpress reader.
DAILY VIEWS – BQB found that for the most part, his efforts attracted somewhere between 30-50 visitors (more or less). Occasionally, it would push 100, a few times over 100, but never over 200.
To BQB’s credit, his view rate is high, meaning that there are a number of visitors coming to the site, liking what they see, and giving it a few more views.
OVERALL – WAS THE ONE POST A DAY CHALLENGE WORTH IT?
Yes. The Chosen One has gone from dabbling in a blog to building a platform.
BQB has a tendency to doubt himself, but will keep up with something if he sees progress and there was definite progress this year.
THE FUTURE
As a pitiful human, BQB can’t do everything, so in 2016 he will have to divert his attention to his novel writing career. However, the time he spent building this site’s readership will likely payoff one day…some day.
Somehow no matter what happens, BQB only reports having 3.5 readers though. That is likely to continue.
MY RECOMMENDATION
Spare the Earthlings, Mighty Potentate. BQB is doing his best to write a novel and build a writing career. He will do his best to convince the pitiful humans to stop watching reality television and read books instead.
ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY POTENATE!
Alien Jones, out.
Carrie Fisher Flips Off Jabba
This is a great picture that Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) tweeted, isn’t it, 3.5 readers?
Jeeze Carrie, tell us how you really feel about Jabba.
https://twitter.com/carrieffisher/status/674739723093454848/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Greetings Earth Losers
Hello humans.
Alien Jones, the Esteemed Brainy one here, finally back after a long hiatus spent saving Bookshelf Q. Battler’s hide from the East Randomtown Zombie Apocalypse.
Yes, BQB likes to make himself out as the big hero but surely we all know that nerd would be a processed and expelled zombie turd by now had it not been for yours truly.
Now that I’m back I can get back to the business of answering your questions.
Yes, you, BQB’s 3.5 readers, a reminder that you can consult my genius brain on any and all matters and I’ll answer your questions right here on the Bookshelf Battle Blog, along with a plug for your books, blogs, or whatever it is you’re promoting.
So ante up with the gray matter, poindexters, because where else can you ask an alien a question?
Leave your questions in the comments, sent them to BQB on Twitter @bookshelfbattle or while you’re at it, like BQB’s Facebook page and use it to ask me a question, will you?
Also, if you could all try to stop watching reality TV, it would really go a long way to getting the Mighty Potentate to step off my ganderflazer.
Until next time, humans,
#31ZombieAuthors – Day 21 Interview – Al K. Line – Zombie Botnets, Literally!
FIND THIS ZOMBIE AUTHOR ON:
My guest today is Al K. Line.
3.5 readers, you might want to log off Twitter for a moment.
Al’s the author of the Zombie Botnet series. The mayhem begins when a devastating computer virus delivers subliminal data packets via social media, turning computer users the world over into murderous creatures.
A resident of rural England, when Al isn’t busy writing, he spends his time with his wife, sons, and dogs, the latter of which he notes he has too many.
Al, welcome.
NOTE: BOLD=BQB; ITALICS=AL
Q. You’re the twenty-first zombie author I’ve interviewed this month and I have to admit, I honestly thought I’d of heard it all by now, but people becoming zombies via a computer virus? For the less tech savvy among us, can you explain how this works in your books?
A. Sure. Ven, the woman behind the “bit of bother,” lets loose a computer virus designed to infect millions of devices and allow her to get up to no good. Unfortunately, it all gets a little out of hand. The virus she unleashes has been compromised and the data packets go viral. An embedded subliminal message in the form of a video basically rewires the brain of anyone that views it and then it’s game over — welcome to zombieville.
Q. How did you come up with this idea?
A. The term zombie botnet is well known within the hacker community, it’s a way of describing a huge array of devices that have been infected and can be manipulated for all manner of nefarious naughtiness. What if the zombie botnet really could do as the name implies? It came from there.
Q. Everywhere I go, people are glued to technology. Phones. Laptops. Tablets. Everyone’s checking Facebook, Twitter, or some other site and usually the latest update is something as trivial as “I just blew my nose.” Do you think we might be zombies already?
A. I love technology, use it daily, and my career relies on it, but yeah, it can get out of hand. It’s the change it has caused to society that I find most interesting, making people slaves to the latest trend or social media platform — let’s face it, if we lose our internet connection for a few minutes we begin to panic, right? This is what the series plays on: our inability to look away. The first thing we do when we hear of a disaster is to check Twitter or Facebook, well, what if those platforms are the very ones causing the problem? People would still look, they can’t help it. It’s too ingrained into the fabric of our techno-reality now to ever go back.
Q. I notice this series is actually considered half-horror/half-comedy. I have to say, the idea of society being hoisted on its own technological petard seems rife with the ability to provide social commentary, not to mention a joke or two. Personally, I’m so addicted to social media that if all I have to do not to become a zombie is not check Twitter, I’m not sure I could do it. How are you able to combine humor with horror, when the two normally don’t mix well?
A. You gotta see the funny side, right? It’s the whole premise. Yes, there is social commentary, but it isn’t judgmental. We all have our obsessions, our hangups and our needs, and the absurdity of how the infection is caused screams for a bit of a laugh at our own expense. Plus, to be honest I can’t help myself. Characters suddenly appear on the page (I mean computer screen really) and they often happen to be rather comical — there’s no stopping it once the words somehow jump from my brain to the developing book.
Q. Al, your book features people being turned into zombies via subliminal messages. Just now, a real live zombie actually just jumped out of my computer screen. Have you ever heard of such a thing happening in zombie lore and any ideas on how to defeat such a menace?
A. Oh, loads, it happens all the time. The best thing to do is to scream really loud and run really fast — only pausing to update Facebook and check if anyone has posted anything on Twitter that could help in 140 characters or less.
Q. Thanks for the interview, Al. Before I go, do you have any last minute advice that might help my friends and I survive the East Randomtown Zombie Apocalypse?
A. Nope. You’re going be dead any moment. Actually, should I even be answering this? Hello? I knew it, dead already, brains all over the floor. There’s probably some zombie granny chewing on your intestines at this very moment. Oh, don’t forget to follow me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/authoralkline
Yeah, I get the irony.
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