Monday, January 2, 2023

Can you do me a birthday favor?

Song: Zoe Keating, "Tetrishead."   


After Andrew Tobias plugged Losing My Religions, there was an uptick in traffic to LosingMyReligions.net. However, not a lot of visitors downloaded the file (or clicked to Amazon). 

Reviewing traffic, this seems to be the pattern (although someone in Homosassa, Florida has been to the site 16 different times and downloaded the pdf over and over). 

So here is my request:

Can you please look at LosingMyReligions.net with a critical eye and hypothesize either:

  • What is the biggest turn-off at the site?
  • What would make the site more inviting?

You can comment on this post or contact me directly. Thanks so much!

PS: from George Saunders: "the reader should imagine the writer over there on the other side of the book." From a review of Losing: "I feel like I’m sitting across from him in person." That is very explicitly what I was going for.

It has been fun to see visits from all around the world. In the last few days: Quebec (didn't download), Manitoba (did), Switzerland (did), Sweden (didn't), Italy (didn't), Ireland (did), Germany (did (yay!)), UK (did), Ontario (didn't), France (same person twice; didn't), Quebec again (didn't), Saint Martin (didn't), Germany again (didn't 😢), Ireland (didn't), Quebec again (didn't), Malta (didn't), Quebec again (didn't). 

Update: Germany (didn't), UK (didn't), Singapore (didn't), Portugal (didn't), Germany (did).

Do my pits smell? Is that it?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday Matt! 🎂 hope you have a happy and painfree (as much as possible) day.

My only suggestion as to the website would be to make the free download and purchase options simpler and more visible. A "Download for Free" button and a "Purchase Now" button would work well. Then later on give the other technical versions available, although stick with PDF as a default that must be changed to access different versions. There's just a bit too much information and it's not clear that there is a free downloadable book there until you digest all the information. I managed to download but I remember pausing, confused, looking for a download.