Just before 9pm Tuesday night, we premiered the very first episode of our new web series 'Kelsey' titled "Palette Cleanser"!
As I said in my last post, our promo trailer was released on August 20th and got a ton of views from our already existing fans anticipating the show as well as new ones that came from being featured on OneMoreLesbian & AfterEllen. We got over 3,000 full plays and the hits slowed down after the first 2 weeks. But then, on September 7th, we were featured in the BuzzFeed article 8 Lesbian Web Series You Should Have on Your Radar! The article & trailer were exposed to over 60,000 people and in less than a week we got over 5,000 full plays! We've now made it past 9,000! And we're still getting a lot of hits daily! Being on BuzzFeed is not only a huge deal because of the exposure but also because there are at least 5 other lesbian-oriented web series that have been out much longer & have a decent following that could've been on that list, but we made the cut! That's so awesome!
That momentum carried over to our premiere on September 10th and we instantly started getting hits. The amount of positive feedback we got was overwhelming. Comments on facebook, private messages (from some who discovered the series only through BuzzFeed), to even comments on sites that featured the episode, like AfterEllen, the PNT Tv Network & Autostraddle! People have been quoting the episode & reaching out to tell us how much they loved it. The response has been amazing and is only getting better! Kelsey & I, and the rest of our team, are so excited to see the series resonating & connecting with so many different people and it's only been 1 episode! We actually got our first bit of negative feedback on AfterEllen last night, and that's cool too because we know that the show wont be everyone's taste. We also know that the amount of people who like it and get it and want more will outweigh the ones who don't. And, most importantly, we know that a little criticism isn't a bad thing because it gets people talking & debating, which generates more traffic to the page! So if you really wanna help us out in reaching more people, comment! Share what you liked, what you want more of, what surprised you, and maybe even what disappointed you. We wanna hear it all because we're just so excited to be able to share this series with you!
Now the numbers you want to hear & the ones we're REALLY excited about. In the 38 hours that the 1st episode has been live, we've gotten a total of 1,313 full plays!
And the hits keep going up with every hour! Kelsey & I have turned into crazy people who just hit refresh constantly. I kinda feel like I'm back in spring of 2012 when I was running my Kickstarter for 'Summit'. But really, the support is amazing. So thank you to everyone who's watching & sharing the show! To our first fans who were anticipating the show while we were shooting all summer, to the new ones who found out through word of mouth or our recent press coverage, we're so grateful and cannot wait to give you more of Kelsey & her friends!
Episode 2 will air in 2 weeks at 7:30pm on September 24th. We've decided to air the first 5 episodes bi-weekly and then the last 5 (of Season 1) weekly after that, in order to make sure we can have all the episodes as polished as we'd like. It'll always be Tuesday at 7:30pm. We're gonna try to keep the updates & inside info fresh & fun between episodes so that you don't forget how much you definitely want to come back for more! Speaking of which, here's an interview I did with 3 cast members, Daniel, Brennan & Lauren, with the weekly interview-based web series Cinema Couch. It was a kind of spur of the moment thing at an industry party. Also, we plan to go live with KelseyTheSeries.com before the 2nd episode; we'll be posting about that over the coming days on social media. But in the meantime, it will continue to redirect to our blip channel.
So be sure to tune in on the 24th & keep sharing the 1st episode! We've been reaching out to press recently and are crossing our fingers that we'll have more good news to share soon! Just please keep supporting us, the show wouldn't be anything without an audience to share it with!
Thanks again,
Christina