Yo please tell me how dr 69 got so popular. I made a fangan inspired by yours and barely anybody read it and Iām pretty sure the hits I did get were from bot accounts
I think there are a few factors as to why DR69 got as big as it did. These are just my thoughts, I'm not an all-knowing algorithm hacking god (I can only wish...)
Firstly, I posted DR69 back during 2020, and we all know what went down during that time. The covid-era pushed people all across different internet spaces, which I suppose made AO3 a more popular place to visit.
At the time, not many crossover fangans existed. I am not the first to create one, and there were a few before mine (in fact I was inspired by someone else's work). But I think I might've been the first to use images and videos, specifically ones that were self-drawn, so that concept might have gotten a few eyes.
Another factor I know of is that some people started posting edits onto youtube which got a lot outside traffic towards the fic (one even has half a million views. phew).
Of course the last one is simply that a lot of people liked it. I left this one until last because this feels very ego-strokey coming from me lol. But that's probably a point you'd hear anyone else say if asked.
Now I understand how you feel, not being able to get a lot of recognition for the work you put into your own story. Hell I'd bet you'd be hard pressed to believe DR69 only had 5 hits at some point, but I remember it very vividly. We all start somewhere. That's just how it works. AO3 doesn't have an algorithm like social medias do. You can't "blow-up" overnight. It's not like tikok. You have to find the works that you want to read. You might have a bigger chance having tagged more fandoms, which is a start.
My advice? Don't give up. Keep writing for you. And if you get an audience? Hey that's a great perk! But it shouldn't be your sole motivation. You're writing a fanfiction, not an article. It's not your job to reel people in. That should happen naturally. And that's honestly how you curate the best communities, too.
If you really want to get some eyes, however, feel free to join the DR69/96 discord server and talk to others about your fic. So many people on there love to share their own works with each other, and I'm sure they'd be willing to check yours out too! You can find the link at the final chapter of DR69, or the currently posted chapter of DR96.
