For JaneAusten.com, interactive content has always been more than a feature. It is a way to deepen the connection between the site and its community of readers, scholars, and enthusiasts – people who do not just enjoy Austen’s work but want to engage with it seriously.
The challenge is one many niche publishers face: how do you turn casual visitors into engaged regulars – and engaged regulars into paying members? Passive content alone rarely does it. Readers arrive, consume, and leave without any particular reason to come back.
Riddle gave them a practical answer.
Building a library of interactive content
Using Riddle’s quiz maker, JaneAusten.com has created more than 350 quizzes covering Austen’s novels, characters, historical context, and film adaptations. That is a significant body of work – enough to support regular new content across the site while giving long-term visitors something fresh to return to.
That library gives the site a steady supply of content that keeps audiences coming back, rewards deep knowledge, and creates a natural pathway into the membership programme. For a topic with as much depth as Austen’s life and work, there is no shortage of material – and Riddle makes it straightforward to turn that material into structured, interactive experiences.
The numbers behind those quizzes tell the story.
Strong completion rates and time on site
Across their public quizzes, JaneAusten.com is consistently delivering strong completion numbers – well above the typical range for online quizzes. That matters because completion rate is one of the clearest signals of whether an audience is genuinely engaged or just browsing.
| Average completion rate | Average time per finish |
|---|---|
| 79% | 4 minutes |
Readers are finishing, and they are spending real time doing it. The platform average for quizzes and personality tests is 2 minutes 48 seconds – JaneAusten.com’s average of 4 minutes per finish is 43% above that benchmark.
And the members-only content goes further still, with an average of 5.30 minutes per finish – 33% above the public quiz average, and 89% above the platform benchmark. For a site that depends on depth of engagement rather than volume of traffic, those figures carry real weight.
“Our audience has a real depth of knowledge about Jane Austen – and they want to test it. Riddle gives them a way to do that, and the leaderboards have turned what could have been a one-time visit into something people come back to regularly.”
Daniel Dobinson, E-commerce Manager, Jane Austen Centre
Leaderboards, accounts, and the membership funnel
JaneAusten.com uses Riddle’s combined leaderboards to show participants their average score, time taken, and rank across multiple quizzes. That ongoing competitive element gives readers a reason to return between visits – not just to take a new quiz, but to see how they stack up against the rest of the community over time.
To appear on a leaderboard, users need to create an account. That one step delivers three things:
- Converts anonymous visitors into identified community members
- Moves them one step closer to a paid membership
- Builds a registered audience without pop-ups or interruptive prompts
Premium membership unlocks access to exclusive quizzes. Rather than a feature listed on a pricing page, it becomes something people have a direct reason to want – because they have already seen what the quizzes are like and want more of them.
“What surprised us most was how naturally the quizzes fit into our membership offer. Exclusive content is a much easier sell when people have already experienced what the quizzes are like.”
Daniel Dobinson, E-commerce Manager, Jane Austen Centre
The members-only quizzes backs that up. Completion rate holds at 77% – consistent with the public quiz average – and average time per finish rises to 5 minutes 30 seconds, a 33% increase on the public quiz average. Paying members complete at the same rate as the wider audience and spend significantly more time doing it. That extra time reflects a more invested reader who has actively chosen to pay for access.
Results
JaneAusten.com has more than 350 quizzes driving real engagement from an audience that knows its subject. A 79% average completion rate, four minutes average time on site per finish, a leaderboard that brings readers back on a regular basis, and a membership funnel with a content hook that gives people a concrete reason to subscribe.
The quiz library is not a side project – it sits at the centre of how the site builds community, grows its registered audience, and converts readers into members. For niche publishers with a committed audience and rich subject matter to draw on, it is a useful model to follow.
