A Review of Metrics for Writers in My Publications
We can’t manage what we can’t measure
I am the founder and chief editor of the ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications, covering the listed pubs. I monitor the stats for writers and guide them to make necessary tweaks.
ILLUMINATION ILLUMINATION-Curated ILLUMINATION’ S MIRROR ILLUMINATION Book Chapters Technology Hits SYNERGY Readers Hope Illumination on YouTube Illumination Gaming ILLUMINATION’s Blog
We don’t have to be data scientists to understand our progress. All we need to do is read and understand simple numbers provided by online systems regularly. Metrics are used in every profession and by every business organization. Entrepreneurs depend on metrics to be able to make investment decisions.
In my recent articles, I keep emphasizing that writers must think and act like entrepreneurs both to survive and thrive. If we don’t accept, understand, and act on this idea, I believe our success as writers can be limited.
Why do I keep emphasizing the entrepreneurial traits and aspects of writers and writing? Because I simply want our contributors to become successful and have a satisfying writing career.
If some people disagree with this idea and try to convince you the other way, you need to question the motives of those people. Most likely, they are envious of your talent and expertise; hence they don’t want you to shine. Or they may be too naïve, ignorant, or living in the last century.
In this article, I want to cover a simple yet important point for writers. Metrics.
Most of us use metrics both in personal and professional life. For example, we use metrics for our health, fitness, and diet. In the past, we used to keep records for many mundane tasks, but nowadays, metrics are so easy to create and find electronically. I assume you use a smartwatch to check how many steps you walk, how many hours you sleep, how many calories you burn, and what your average heart rate is. Then you check them from your smartphone app and see the patterns visually.
How does this relate to writing practice?
Every publishing business and content platform nowadays has a measurement system in metrics format. They collect transaction data, analyze them, and present the outcomes in a human-readable and visual format. The readable and visual information is provided in a dashboard.
Being able to read, understand, and use a dashboard for your content is an important task. For example, many published writers can easily access their sales data from dashboards. Amazon Kindle and Apple Books are prime examples. They allow the writers to see how many of their books were sold at what times and in what locations. There are many more granular stats that can be insightful to depict the performance of books or other content materials.
We have this data available on Medium as well. Probably many writers on Medium have already used this feature. However, just in case if you haven’t used it yet, click on your profile photo, and in the menu, you can see the “stats”. My aim is not to teach you the basic features of Medium but to emphasize the importance of measurement and metrics and to understand your progress and performance. Why does it matter?
In order to improve our writing practice, we need to understand the progress and performance of our writing. This simple yet effective technique can help us adjust our style and approach iteratively. Being aware of our metrics, we can change our tactics and even strategy.
For example, we can check which topics are getting most reading times, more readers, more fans, and more claps. By observing these patterns for our content performance, we can adjust our approach to produce better results qualitatively and quantitatively.
Let me explain why I gave you this background.
As a data-driven person, I know the importance of metrics for writing practice and measure the progress of my activities in our publication. I apply this principle to the progress of our community and make necessary adjustments daily. Now, I want to take it to the next level and triangulate my findings with your findings.
I check daily how many readers are reading articles from out pubs, how much time they are spending, how many new readers are joining the publication. Seeing the progress patterns is a motivating factor. As writers, we need motivation. We need to see how our articles are progressing.
My next goal is to understand the progress of each writer and whether the metrics of the publication correlate with individual writer process. Based on your input, I plan to create new datasets to measure our progress more effectively.
My aim is not only the success of the publication but also the success of each writer. When each writer becomes successful, we can be a stronger community. I see each article as a healthy cell and each writer as a healthy organ in a healthy body.
I don’t suggest we should be obsessed with the stats but recommend our contributors to check their progress at least once a week and understand the performance of their articles weekly.
Action
To this end, I recommend our writers perform a monthly analysis of their progress using stats and share the findings in a brief article.
Benefits
If we record our progress monthly, in a year's time, we can go back and see how we are performing, what our thoughts were at the time, how our motivation changed.
We can see monthly progress using the Medium dashboard. However, if we analyze and interpret the data in each article, it can not only be about the quantity but also about the quality. What I mean by quality is seeing how our thoughts, feelings, and performance are reflected in different periods.
Taking this action can be useful for all of our writers. My recommendation is to analyze and present them once a month. Some writers may do it fortnightly and some quarterly. It is up to you how often you want to do it. However, it is useful to do it regularly so that we can measure our progress and performance for growth.
Thank you for reading my perspectives.
Sample Health Improvement Articles for New Readers
Defeat Metabolic Syndrome and Slim Down Waistline with Three Tips
Why 442 Million People Live Diabetic and What We Can Do About it
Six Tips to Prevent Brain Atrophy and Lower the Risks of Mental Disorders
What Can We Do About NCDs Killing 41 Million People Yearly?.
Reduce the Risks of Neonatal Disorders to Prevent Infant Mortality.
Reduce the Risks of Major Diseases with Healthy Lifestyle Habits
I also write about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:
Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, and other nutrients that might help to improve metabolism and mental health.
About the Author
I am a technologist, postdoctoral researcher, author of several books, editor, and digital marketing strategist with four decades of industry experience.
I write articles on Medium, NewsBreak, and Vocal Media. On Medium, I established ILLUMINATION, ILLUMINATION-Curated, ILLUMINATION’ S MIRROR, ILLUMINATION Book Chapters, Technology Hits, SYNERGY, and Readers Hope publications supporting 15,500+ writers on Medium. You can join my publications requesting access here. You may subscribe to my account to be notified when I post on Medium. I share my health and well-being stories on my publication, Euphoria.
If you are new to Medium, you may join by following this link.
I publish my lifestyle, health, and well-being stories on EUPHORIA. I wrote several articles on major diseases and valuable nutrients for health. My focus is on metabolic, cellular, mitochondrial, and mental health. Here is my collection of Insightful Life Lessons from Personal Stories.
You might join my seven publications on Medium as a writer by sending a request via this link.
You might find more information about my professional background.