Towards what you're all interested in: I would like to continue my blog, I think. I'm kind of mulling over things. Here're my thoughts: I don't have time to be as active as I was, and doing a lot of little dares isn't as possible now. Also, I'm worried that nobody reads this any more, readers seemed to be dwindling before the holidays, and its not as fun without multiple readers (can't do things like the contests and polls). Also, it seemed people had a hard time writing dares without more detailed knowledge of what was going on in my life, but on the other hand I can't keep everyone fully informed. The other problem was picking the dares. Some were impractical, some were more complicated, some got put off until a better opportunity and then forgotten, I didn't get to do half the dares I wanted to do, and half the dares I got I just couldn't do.
A few ideas I've had are doing occasional big dares rather than many small ones, posting opportunities for dares (although this didn't always work before), taking random dares, etc.
Anyway, if anyone is still reading, do you have ideas? I'd like to keep up with this, and Becky and I were talking about how, but we're not sure how to go forward, and any of you out there, we'd love suggestions. thanks.
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Glad you didn't give up on this site yet.
ReplyDeleteReadership is low in my guess for several reasons. 1) the month between your posts didn't help. You need to be at least somewhat active on your site. Keep in mind even if few are reading now, once they find your site, they will read what you posted in the past so your time wasn't wasted.
2) You and/or Becky need to post on other websites as well. Put your link somewhere it can be found (getdare.com for instance doesn't allow links in the post itself, but you found a way. Keep posting on that site too now and then and any others you found).
3) You must give it time. There are millions of websites out there. You cannot expect new people to just find your site. It's going to take word of mouth, which is going to happen only by giving it time. However, if you aren't active on your site, then readers can't be either.
4) When you get crazy busy with life, just post a quick comment "Hey, I've got a lot of stuff coming up this next week, I'll post again Sunday. Sorry."
5) Pick one night a week and always do a post that night. A writeup of a dare you did (even if it was only a quick dare) and what you need from us for the next week or two. If you are only going to have time to do dares the next week while at work, let us know. Or even if it's only when walking home from work. I'm sure somebody out there can think of something that won't take you much time out of your schedule.
6) Get your friends to post as well. The more active the site looks, the more likey people will keep coming back.
Here's a quick easy dare for you that won't take any extra time.
If your classes are done for the day, pick out what you will be wearing tommorrow. Do it now before you continue reading. You finished picking? Good. Now wear that outfit to your first class minus the bra and panties.
If you still have a class to go to, remove your bra and panties right now. Stay this way until after your next class.
Easy enough to come up with a dare that you most likely won't get caught and should only take a few minutes for you post an update on.
Glad to have checked the site, if you are active, you'll pick people up fast. Here is another easy one: next time you're in the common room watching television, no shirt, just wear the sports bra you did last time. Each commercial break, count the number of people in the room, when the show returns, find a way to rub yourself for 10 seconds times the number of people in the room.
ReplyDeleteSwitch the dares to the blog and you'll find it less stressful.
Welcome back! Glad to see you're still giving it a shot!
ReplyDeleteI'd like to echo what Cur said, but especially #2. If I wasn't reading getdare religiously the one time you posted there, I wouldn't be here now, and I'd be quite bummed about that! If you'd posted there a week later or a week earlier, I'd have missed it. And that would've been a shame.
And I bet more people are reading than you realize. Some people never comment on blogs (especially sexy blogs like this one). But some of the people who never comment will answer a poll. If you post a sexy poll, I bet you'll get more responses than you expect.
thanks for the comments, and although I'm not looking for dares right now, thanks for those too.
ReplyDeleteReadership isn't so much the worry as activity. If a million people are reading, but nobody is participating and sending in dares, it misses the point.
The biggest issue we cant figure out is how to take dares. Thats where things went wrong before.
There is a time delay in dares for events, like dates or going home, and sometimes I need clarification or responses, so by the time you email me the dare, I ask a question, you reply, the opportunity has passed.
There were a number of replies to the date contest where this would've been a problem. Even more so when you ask me a question for your dare like "before I give you a dare, I need to know if..." so then I reply, you reply back with the dare, and we're still going crazy.
Also, most of the dares we received were "do this right now" and I really can't. My schedule just doesn't work like that.
Like, just for example, not to pick on Cur, but his dare that he posted above (one time its helpful to me not to get it in email, lol). Thats a "do this now, for tomorrow". Now his is a relatively easy one to do that with, as it doesn't require preparation and all, so I might've let him get away with it, but thats the type of dare we got a lot of, and just doesn't work well.
Sometimes we got series dares, like "good, you did my last dare, now for the follow-up" and we couldn't do the follow up, and we felt bad quitting halfway through, and if they had come as "here're three dares to do one per day" we could've found three days somewhere to do them, but getting them that way... just didn't work.
So if you have any suggestions for how we take dares, please please share... we felt bad as we had so many problems with our first try and it just didn't work and most dares, even ones we really liked, just didn't get done.
First, don't feel guilty for not getting to all the dares. You never will get to all of them.
ReplyDelete2nd) Don't let anybody bring you down. If somebody gets mad at you for not doing their dare, or not doing it exactly as written, tough. Ban them if you need to. This is your party. We aren't paying customers, nor do we own you. We are here to enjoy your writing of what dares we SUGGEST, not demand.
As for how to take dares, I would suggest coming up with different categories in gmail folders. You can create as many as you want, but possible suggestions: dates, movies, short time, medium time, long time, evening, outdoor, etc. Use whatever you feel works the best. Get different colored note cards, one for each category (or keep them seperated in envelopes). Each time you find a dare that is something you are interested in, and is 100% percent doable, move the email to that folder and create a note card for it (date, subject should be good enough to look back in the email). Then when an opportunity comes for that category, just randomly pick a card. If that dare isn't able to done for whatever reason, keep picking till you find one that is.
A nice advantage is that if you didn't get to a dare Reader A wrote last week, you may get to it a year from now. You know your schedule enough to come up with usable categories and can add/modify as you go along.
As for time senstive dare opportunities: with a low current readership, you need to post as much notice as possible. You will also need take the best possible dare given and modify it as needed. If you have the time, ask the writer. If not don't use it or you and/or Becky come up with a workable solution to it. Might be better than the writer came up with too. If there are more than one good dare pick the one you want to do, have Becky pick from the list, choose randomly, or do both.
I cannot think of anything that hasn't already been said, but wanted to chime in and let you know that there is at least one more person out here checking back now and again.
ReplyDeleteThe index card idea is very similar to one I was going to suggest and think it will work well for you.
Personally, I really don't much care if you do one of my dares or one sent by someone else; I look forward to reading about what you and Becky have been up to.
HI
ReplyDeleteGood to see you back!!!!!!
How about you put up a series of polls - "our next dare will be a, b, c, d, e. Let people decide (make them small or big as you see fit). Then you dont have to do the dare until it gets so many votes! THey can be as good as forgetting to wear underwear, getting undressed outside your door then going inside etc. These can be done in normal every day life without too many interupptions.
Like other readers I LOVE to hear what you guys ahve gotten up to with the dares!
Sean