Welcome Willy G! (and What the Hell Makes Vanity Metrics Feel So Damn Good?)

Willy G; you are my 900th Follower

Followers and views are vanity metrics because they don’t do much more than make us feel good. But feeling good is sometimes all we need, isn’t it? I’d never thought that I would get more than a few hundred followers, mostly because my niche is pretty obscure, but here I am, celebrating my 900th!

When I say obscure, I was pretty sure that adultery was more popular than people are letting on, but who wants to put their hand up and admit they’re interested in a little strange? What surprised me was that anyone would, so I’m grateful for those who do follow me.

So, when Mr. Willy G followed me, I thought I’d have to do something special for him, and this is it!

Follower counts are called vanity metrics because while they make you feel good, that feeling doesn’t translate into either reads or money. If you look at my top five articles, you’ll see that only one has over 900 reads. I’m sure some of those reads are my followers, but the majority came from the publication the story was published in, Sex and Satire.