MOST READ POSTS THAT WERE WRITTEN IN 2014

AMBER LOVE 26-DEC-2014 I specify in the title up there that I analyzed the posts that were written in 2014, as opposed to the most popular of the year, because my most popular post is still something I wrote a few years ago about cosplaying at conventions in mature-rated attire at all ages shows. I can’t escape that post. I still feel the same exact way as back then, but it’s annoying when the keywords that bring people to AmberUnmasked are the same every single day, year after year. You’ll see what I mean in the stats below. I crossed out the posts and galleries that weren’t from this year or weren’t significantly updated. I have maybe ten people that regularly comment here at the official site. I think all are men. There are some women that interact about the posts on Facebook threads but not that comment here normally. Now that I’m over 1.1 million hits, I figured I’d take a deep look and see what people are after. There are no surprises and that’s fucking sad.

FACTS OF 2014

• All of the comics I wrote this year have been for children and I was a paid professional.
• I’ve only made two costumes for myself and neither were anything less than modest (Hughes Wonder Woman, Madame Web)
• I self published my first non-fiction book through Kindle Direct.
• I wrote my second novel but may actually get this one published now that I know how to do it myself.
• I still enjoy posing for adult work but I don’t think I’ll be doing more than cheesecake ever again since it’s not worth the shitty comments and the knowledge that it’s all people are looking for (for free no less).

A BIG YEAR FOR SEXUAL HARASSMENT/ASSAULT

It’s not discussions of intersectional feminism and LGBTQ issues that people are reading here even though I’ve discussed those more. The most popular post of the year was when many of us were breaking the story about the girl in San Diego who got severely injured at Comic Con International. Because of the need for information and that the initial reports by the victim’s mother said the girl was assaulted (presumably sexually), the entire pop culture and cosplay world exploded with interest. That interest built up curiosity, anger, fear, and blame. The only reason I continue to get so many hits from that post is because of the MRA threads on Reddit that linked to it with their derisive petty blame games and slut shaming telling me how “wrong” I am about the little slutty cosplayer who was drunk (paraphrasing).

No matter how much the blogging community tried to steer the message back to points that conventions need to be safe, we were ignored. We were trolled and attacked by MRA who decided that the message of Cosplay =/= Consent had no bearing after it was determined the girl caused her own injuries accidentally when falling while drunk.

I was among those trying to say that the conversation was not negated because this one case was disproved. I even had a guest on Vodka O’Clock speak openly about the sexual assaults she has experienced and how she declines invitations to conventions now because they keep including her rapist on the guest list. That girl in San Diego opened a lot of dialog about convention safety. If nothing else good could come from that investigation, at least there was that. Some conventions went out of their way to write new harassment policies and post signs about those policies.

SEARCH TERMS OF 2014

What makes me sad is that none of the posts that I think are my best writing are there, nor are any of my podcast show notes. Every single post you see up there is because people are searching for things like X-rated cosplay. That is literally, as evidenced by these stats every single year, the reason most people come here. Some come for the cosplay tutorials! Eleven of the top 21 search terms have to do with NSFW content like “nude,” “naked,” “topless,” “porn.” Hey, at least five of the cosplay searches are for actual mainstream/wide audience cosplay.

The search engines aren’t all that interesting. I get more results from Facebook than Twitter which is strange since I use Twitter more and because Facebook doesn’t show every person the Pages they’ve liked. Facebook’s insights show the same exact stats I get from YouTube: 83% of my fans are males, age 25-55 in the United States (followed by UK and Canada).

Since 10 of the 12 blog posts from the popular list of what was created this year have to do with NSFW and half the search terms are NSFW related, it’s clear most people I’m trying to reach don’t think I have a talent besides being naked. I am good at it and modeling is one of my favorite things to do, but for fuck’s sake, I don’t do that nearly as much as write and interview people. I could have copied and pasted from the 2012 year end analysis post (which I urge you to read) because it was exactly the same. I guess I didn’t even bother in 2013 because, why would I? I’m sure it’s also the same.

VODKA O’CLOCK PODCAST

I’ve produced 127 episodes of Vodka O’Clock since I began my own audio podcast (I used to do shorter videos and guest host on other podcasts) and not one of the episodes’ show notes are valued enough by search terms because the searches are people looking for NSFW images not my writing or interviews with incredibly talented people. They’re popular when I post them and promote them specifically but unless I’ve mentioned the post, no one goes to those articles based on searches.

For those show notes, you only need to click PODCAST in the tag cloud.

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Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.