Do You Have a Mystery Spike in Your Medium Stats?
It may be because your stats show views and reads from your comments as well as the stories you write
Have you ever noticed a spike in your daily views and reads but can’t pinpoint the article it’s coming from? This recently happened to me, and as it turns out, the increase in views came from a comment I had left on someone else’s story that had gone viral. Not from any article that I wrote.
Medium stats show views for comments and articles
Medium displays the counts for your views/reads for the stories you write AND the views/reads from your responses to other people’s stories in the same place.
If you comment frequently, you may be seeing numbers that make it appear your stories are getting more views than they are. But you don’t get paid for comments, which is why some people may question why they seem to have more engagement than ever, but the money doesn’t add up.
You can view your responses separately on your stats page. But it still shows in the main Views/Reads.
You can try this free chrome extension
I’m not suggesting that you stop commenting so that you can see your accurate Medium stats! Medium would be a sad place without the comments.
But there is a workaround to let you see exactly where your article views and reads are coming from.
I use the chrome extension, Next Generation Stats, which gives a bit more insight than the Medium stats alone. According to Next Generation Stats, I have about 1,000 fewer views for the past 30 days than Medium stats show.
You see, Next Generation Stats is only counting the views I get from articles, not responses. It goes even further to show you which pieces are viewed and how many times each day.
It’s a useful extension, but I do find somedays I have to refresh it several times before it works.
Note: I’ve got no affiliation with Next Generation Stats. It’s just a tool I’ve been using for some time now to get a better handle on my Medium numbers.
What do you think about Medium counting your comment views with your articles? Have you ever searched your stats page for an unknown bump in views that turned out to be from a comment?
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