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« on: October 28, 2013, 11:54:36 pm »
Heh, no worries on the tech side of things. As soon as I saw one of your characters was using a modified GPL for code, I figured you had that covered.
My bigger concern is persistence. The reason I like to see a fair bit of content is the history and dedication it shows on the part of the site owner. In the 12+ years I've been doing this, I've seen a LOT of people give up in the early stages. To that end, how long have you been writing this particular story for? I see 14 chapters, on what's listed as a bi-weekly schedule, but they're each only 300 to 1000 words at most. If what you're looking for is an audience/fans, a serial novel on a standalone website is usually not the best way to find it, and two or three pages a week generally isn't enough content to keep people coming back.
Now, I'm not saying "no" mind you, and I'm not trying to discourage. I just want you to realize it can be very difficult to get and keep an audience. It sounds like your familiar with that after the novel you mentioned, but I look at what you have currently, and I think it will probably take a lot more work than I see on your site so far. Writing is hard, especially online and when compared to visual, short-form stuff like comics, videos, or even artwork. People will read a crappy comic if it gets even the slightest laugh, they'll look at mediocre artwork if it has any redeeming value at all... it takes only seconds of their time. To get and keep an audience with just the written word though, you need to not only be good, but diligent as well... and of course luck never hurts.
For comparison, I'm currently publishing a fan-fiction novel elsewhere, and I got lucky, getting it publicized by some bigger names in the fandom to start with, and attracting a large readership up front. Now, with an established audience, and hundreds of subscribed and excited readers, I publish a new chapter weekly, averaging between 6000-9000 words each, and I still feel like I'm stretching people's patience between updates. My story-telling ability has been judged to be "quite good" now by lots of fans. Despite that, I know with absolute certainty that if I'd simply published it here on my own site, I would've been lucky to get even a dozen readers after months of publication. Skill is essential, but has little to do with success in the small-time and online.
Now, all that negativity aside, what're your goals here? What milestones have you set for yourself? I see "weekly updates" as one, but how long will they be? How are you going to attract an audience? What's going to keep you motivated when the readers are slow to appear?