Cracking the Wattpad Code: Insider Secrets the Pros don't want you to know!

Why I HEART the new algorithm

Important Note: As of March 2016, many of the things described below are currently NOT relevant, as there has been a major overhaul of the ranking algorithm, So read at your own risk!!!

Why I HEART the new Algorithm

Hey true believers! I realize I've been delinquent in updating this book. I've been very busy with work and just a bunch of other things, and well, my real stories unfortunately have to take priority over this one, LOL!

First off, I wanted to thank Wattpad for recognizing Cracking the Wattpad Code and adding it to their "Wattpad 101" Reading List despite the errm...weird nature of this book, LOL! :D I was going to dedicate this chapter to Wattpad, but thought better of it as it could be viewed as self promotion, and well, I didn't want to do that!

In any case, I believe there are enough readers from Wattpad HQ that read this, and so I think at least one of them will see the thank you! Thanks guys! You seriously rock!

Okay, that said, I did want to take the time and put a few notes together of what I've noticed on the new algorithm, because in case you haven't noticed, there's a brand spankin' new iteration of YuenRank, and boy did Wattpad nail it this time!

What's awesome about the new YuenRank

1) New books rank and Old books rank

Remember when I said it was next to impossible for an old book to rank on the algorithm? That's no longer true. Old books have managed to find themselves on the Hot List, a few of them even making their way onto the first page in a BIG way! Yay! Way to go Wattpad for recognizing the value of older and completed books.

How can you capitalize on this?

If you have an older book, make sure it is marked as COMPLETED. Books that are not marked completed are subject to an "update penalty" which encourages updating, so that the book does not get stale. If you want to get around this, you'll need to let YR know this by marking the book as completed. Doing this will ensure YR treats your book differently when it runs it's rankings.

Make sure you're marketing yourself the right way and on the right channels. DO NOT FORGET to respond to comments on your book.

2) Established authors rank and unknown authors rank

This one is the bomb-diggity. If you're an established author with a fan following, you'll rocket through the ranks much faster. This was always the case, but there was a brief moment when WP removed it, and it was terrible. But it's back and man oh man, is it terrific.

Now, some of you might be saying, well, jeez, those guys with existing audiences are going to monopolize everything. How am I going to ever get noticed?

Well, here's the amazing part - Wattpad is able to accomodate new and unknown authors too! YR now appears to have the ability to detect a heavy amount of activity for unknown books, and it appears to be extremely keen and sensitive to social signals. A book with 30 reads that is unknown, that happens to accumulate 30 reads in a day, WILL rank on YuenRank.

Conversely, a book with a million reads like mine, will need A LOT more than that. For megabooks, it will take 6K or more reads PER day and a ton of vote storms and comments for those books to move up in rank. It's not impossible, but a lot harder than a new book. Which makes it, totally fair.

That's pretty awesome.

Frequent updaters are still rewarded

Are you a frequent updater? You'll find that YR encourages this behavior by rewarding that with a corresponding bump up in rank. Just don't do it too often because YR might perceive it as spam or gaming the system. What's a good schedule? 4 - 5 days is best. Don't update in less than four days. Doing so is a waste of WP priority, and could actually hurt your rankings.