avatarIlana Lydia

Summary

A writer on Medium is seeking strategies to expand their audience, having observed a plateau in engagement despite consistent writing and a significant follower count.

Abstract

The author has been actively writing on Medium since July, amassing around 160 articles and 2.9K followers, with an average of 100 to 400 claps per post. Despite these stats, they have noticed a lack of growth in audience engagement over time, particularly after an algorithm change. The writer has considered various factors that might contribute to this plateau, including the quality of content, topic relevance, publication choices, and changes in their reading and writing habits. They have also observed that their earnings were a third more in the first two months compared to subsequent months. The author, who feels fortunate to be part of the Medium community, is looking for ways to break through the current stagnation and is open to insights from other writers' experiences.

Opinions

  • The writer believes that the quality of their work is not the issue, as they have a consistent engagement rate.
  • They suspect that the topics they cover or the choice of publications might be affecting their readership.
  • The author values the Medium community and finds other writers' posts fascinating, indicating a positive view of the platform's content.
  • They express uncertainty and concern about the impact of the algorithm change on their visibility and earnings.
  • The writer is considering the possibility that increased reading time may have detracted from their writing productivity.
  • Despite the challenges, the author is grateful for the opportunity to write and share on Medium.
  • They acknowledge the success of other writers like Tom Kuegler and Tim Denning, who have pivoted to teaching classes on LinkedIn, and are contemplating a shift in strategy as a result.
  • The writer is looking for growth and is open to learning from others, as indicated by their invitation for readers to share their observations in the comments.

I Can’t Get it Right: How Do I Reach a Wider Audience?

Writer limbo is hell

Photo by Maxim Potkin on Unsplash

So I’m not a fan of posts which discuss earnings. It seems crass, ungrateful, and off-topic. However, I am interested in other metrics. Will you see if we can crack the gaining-an-audience-in-Medium code together?

So you have a rough picture of my stats: I’ve been writing since last July. I have published about 160 articles, and my engagements are at 780. That part’s excellent! I believe that people are interested enough in my work that they would clap, highlight, or comment.

I also am lucky to have 2.9K followers.

However, on any given post, my claps are between 100 to 400, generally, with a few outliers on either side. This has been holding steady since my first month. Why isn’t the number going up, in more than just a couple of cases?

I noticed this, too: my first two months on Medium earned a third more than my other months on Medium.

A few possibilities:

  • The quality of my work has gone down.
  • The topics I’ve been choosing to cover are less of a draw over the past few months.
  • My choice of publications has impacted my readership.
  • I’ve been publishing less frequently (although I haven’t noticed this to be true).
  • The time I’ve spent reading rather than writing has worked against me. (I did increase reading others’ articles about my third month in.)
  • When the algorithm changed in September/October, it did a number on my views.

When Tom Kuegler and Tim Denning did their informal examinations of how the change affected writers, they both concluded that the ramifications were minimal for most of us. Of course, now, they’re both busy teaching classes in how to master LinkedIn. (Side note: I’ve taken classes from both of these guys, and they are some sharp cookies. I’m having to seriously reexamine my strategy since both of them have migrated off this platform.)

But I still wonder why the drop for me, why my level has remained steady, and why I haven’t had more growth.

Is anyone else capping out? I’d be interested to hear other people’s experiences.

I am tremendously lucky to be able to write and share here on Medium. The community has treated me well, and I find many other people’s posts fascinating. Still, going backwards by a third and not being able to make any traction holds me in a bit of a limbo.

I realize this has been a self-serving post. If you’ve stuck with me to the end, thank you. Let me leave you with this:

If you can do it, or dream you can, begin. Action has within it genius, power, and magic.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Feel free to share your observations in the comments.

If you want to see more by me, please check out:

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