WRITING REALITY
Disappearing on Medium — a How-To Story
2.5 years in, I’m a failure
I’ve failed.
Specifically, I’ve failed to build a sustained or sustainable presence on Medium.
How do I know?
My last story before this one posted 6/20/22.
On 6/21/22 I got 51 reads. 6/22/22, 45 reads. Today, as of this writing, 13 reads.
My average number of reads in the last 30 days, not counting the three most recent dramatically falling ones, 162.
In the three days I’ve not posted a story, I’ve essentially disappeared.
In case you’re wondering, during that same three-day period my views have cratered correspondingly.
I have failed to build any sort of sustained or sustainable presence on the platform.
The backstory
December 2019, I joined Medium and began writing steadily.
By the “numbers”:
- roughly 6.6K followers
- approx. 9.2K following
- nearing 700 stories posted
- consistently a top writer in humor and satire
- intermittently a top writer in other tags
- consistent engagement with the work of others by reading, commenting, clapping, sending private messages and occasionally tweeting
- founder and editor for the pub Doctor Funny with 550 followers
- in the two months before this one, 12K+ views and 7K+ reads each month
- during the three months in which Medium paid bonuses for popularity I was in the relatively small number of writers who earned all three bonuses
Still, it would appear, that in spite of a steady presence here and efforts to build an audience over a long time frame, I’ve accomplished nothing of lasting tangible value.
Were I to stop writing and posting now it seems my reads would dwindle to nothing in short order.
There’s absolutely no evidence of a so-called evergreen character to anything I’ve done.
I’m not disheartened, but I am realistic.
Obviously I can’t know what the people who manage Medium know so I’m left to attempt my own conclusions.
All may be unique to my particular circumstances, but I can’t know that either. Additionally, my degree of certainty about any of my conclusions is well less than 100%, again due to lack of knowledge about Medium’s structure, operations, and ways of conducting business.
- It would appear, that to remain even slightly popular, daily — or at the least, frequent — posting is essential.
- Older stories rarely — and in my case, never — attract meaningful attention in the form of reads or views.
- Similarly, engagement and follower number provide limited value in the form of reads or views. As one example of this, Doctor Funny’s 550 followers, all of whom get notified about every story published there, view only a small fraction of those stories. A far lesser percentage still read those stories.
- A long history and a sustained effort seems to provide limited-to-no benefit.
- Algorithms — the workings of which are opaque to writers — drive views, which in turn drives reads.
- The topics I choose to write about, and perhaps the way in which I express myself, are not interesting to most who have access to my material.
- As an incidental observation, I’ve noticed that my read ratio — which hovered around 60% for the longest time — has fallen to 39%. I can only imagine that what Medium now considers to be a “read” has changed.
I’m not complaining by posting the information. However there’s little in it that’s positive.
I am sharing this information because it has become apparent to me in the last short while. My conclusions seem inescapable, limited in scope though they may be.
Onward?
Yes. I write for a variety of reasons, the main one being enjoyment. That continues, so so will I.
Tony Stubblebine — I thought to add you into this story with the hope that you’d read it and meaningfully respond. As mentioned, I will carry on in spite of the negatives outlined above. However, I get the sense from my Medium community, that many are feeling disheartened by their consistent inability to build an audience. If you have hope and/or positives to share, I, and many others, would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you, Michael
