Saturday, March 17, 2012
"While working as a beta for SarahARivera (further known as Sarah), ajr818 (further known as Andrea) came up with the brilliant idea of starting a recommendation site that featured both Twilight and Vampire Diaries fanfiction. With Andrea being completely obsessed with Twilight fanfiction, and Sarah being completely obsessed with Vampire Diaries fanfiction, it seemed like the perfect team. This website is the product of that idea."
I always read the "about us" on websites. I like to know who is behind the sites or what led them to the creation. After all, running and maintaining a site is not easy. It takes a lot of work and commitment.
Twi VD Fic Recs brings us that commitment. Not only do we get continuous recs for the Twilight fandom, they also offer recs for the Vampire Diary fandom.
So let us see who exactly Twi VD Fic Rec's is and how they wound up in the fandom...
Tell us about your site
We are a Twilight and Vampire Diaries fanfiction recommendation site. A couple of our main features are our Submit A Fic feature and our Fic Update tweets on Twitter. We also love to pimp out our Affiliates, both on our site and on Twitter.
Why did you decide to create the site?
We decided to create this site because both the Twilight and Vampire Diaries fandoms are huge and somewhat similar, having fans that crossover into the other. We both followed other fanfiction recommendation sites, but we were aware that there weren't very many sites that recommended fics from multiple fandoms. Wanting to keep somewhat the same theme (vampires), we decided that Twilight and Vampire Diaries would be two good fandoms to start with. We are looking to expand in the future though. Possibly into True Blood and maybe into something other than vampires, like Harry Potter.
What do you want your blog to accomplish?
With this blog, we are looking to accomplish pimping out stories that might not necessarily be known throughout the fandoms, which is where our Submit A Fic feature comes in.
How do you decide which fics or authors to rec?
Any fic that comes through our Submit A Fic feature will be rec'd, regardless of how many reviews or readers it has. It will be screened for content, but if it is free of content that we don't wish to support, we will rec it on our site. As for our regular recommendations on the site, those are just personal preference fics that we have read or found that we enjoyed and wanted to share with other readers.
Do you have any plans for the future of your site that you would like to share?
As of right now, we are looking to expand into other fandoms and maybe adding an interview feature with authors. That being said, we will be needed more staff to come on board in the future. There should be a form on the site soon for anyone wishing to become part of our staff, so definitely keep an eye out for that!
Favorite thing about the twific fandom?
My favorite thing about the TwiFic fandom is the people that I've met here. There are so many great people, and although there is a lot of controversy and negative comments in the fandom, these people stick through it and are completely supportive of fellow writers and followers.
How did you and the fandom find each other?
I was looking at the discussion board on Rob's IMDB page about four years ago, and I saw someone talking about the fic 'The Office' by tby789. Intrigued, I followed the link and read the story. From then on, I was hooked and couldn't get enough. Sarah (my co-admin) got hooked after I recommended fanfiction to her, and she started getting into the Harry Potter, Vampire Diaries, and Avatar: The Last Airbender fandoms.
What do you think is the most important component to a rec site in the twific fandom?
I think the most important component to a rec site in the fandom is to help stories that aren't necessarily well-known in the fandom. There are a ton of great stories out there that people just don't know about and don't get the recognition that they deserve.
How did you decide on the site design?
Currently, we are working on updating the site design, but when we originally did the site design we have right now, we were looking for a design that had a top link bar and enough room for a sidebar. As of right now, I'm not very happy with our site design, but we are working on it.
What is the key to a successful blog?
I believe the key to a successful blog is giving out information that people are going to want to read. If you don't have content that people are going to be interested in, you won't have any readers.
How do you grow your readership?
Definitely word-of-mouth. Twitter is really good at getting the word out about our site and getting us more readership.
Who are you founding members and current staff?
Our founding members are our only current staff right now, although like I said before, we are looking to add more staff in the very near future. Our founding members are myself (ajr818) and my co-admin (SarahARivera). I run the Twilight portion of the site, and SarahARivera runs the Vampire Diaries portion of the site.
Thanks for being affiliates with us!
http://twivdficrecs.wordpress.com/
