My one month on Medium: a weird retrospect

I don’t have anything to say, this is just my total experience on medium. Before I start here is my statistics for my first month

298 total views. 173 read. 31 fans. 9 stories. None curated. All within 1 month

Starting out

Medium was recommended to me on the 4th, of July 2020, by one of my friends, she schools in Canada and I was talking to her on Facebook, about my blog which wasn’t working out well. She then told me about Medium, and send me a link for like two articles. One from Oluseun Onigbinde ( how soon will Nigeria be great), another from Adura Ojo ( this is how you know) and I also stumbled on one on twitter from Chinedu Nwankwo (Feminism: move or be moved). I read those articles and I liked them, I would encourage you to check them out also, they are the ones speaking beyond my shenanigans.

Automatically, I downloaded the app, signed up and in a few minutes, my profile was complete. I already had a catalogue of articles, that I keep for times like these. I decided on the spot that my articles are going to reflect my podcast, which is a show for discussions leading to youth empowerment and learning and unlearning stuff among youths (people) in Africa. In a few, my first article was ready, I knew it wasn’t the best but I was sending it as a scapegoat, I was trying to create a space mostly for youths and nothing speaks youth than a tip on how to handle a youth relationship. In a few hours, I posted my first article and shared the article on all my social media handles. The title was “ 4 things I wish I knew before going in to a relationship in Nigeria”, yeah! The whole thing.

After say 4 hours, just 2 people read it. I was pained and immediately went to Google to find answers to why I wasn’t getting an audience. Then I started researching extensively. Looking back now, I felt that was what I should have done first, but it is what it is, I read it on some blog page to repost it again, so at around 1 am on 5th of July of 202, I reposted this time well-edited, with pictures and the current title and that was how my adventure started on Medium.

Joining a publication

After posting 4 articles, 2 life improvement articles, 1 short friction, 1 movie review. And extensively reading on many blogs, I realized I needed a publication and so I typed” how to join a medium publication” on Google and luckily, I got connected to ILLUMINATION.

I have not regretted ever since. My audience has increased and the review before posting it makes me feel like I have done something,and the email as a receipt of my intellectual property is perhaps one of those things that has kept me moving within this past month because medium isn’t paying African writer any money,so money can’t be a source of encouragement for me,it has been Illumination that still keeps me here, because I know, my views actually do matter to at least if not everyone, maybe a bunch of people at the other side of my computer, can find my article worthy of been included in a publication, I remember after putting out my first article and it was accepted just after some few minutes and I was dancing and jumping around in my room at around 11:30pm in the night, my mom came and asked me what happened and I told her my article was accepted to a publication, and after my mum saw the mail, and saw ILLUMINATION, she asked “ hope you are not writing for the Illuminati” ( don’t worry, Nigerians are very religious people, religion comes with some few backsides, especially if you have access to Whatsapp and fake news during these pandemic period where everyone is into some conspiracy theory or the other like my parent). so there goes my story as to joining a publication

Biggest article

My biggest article, funny enough was my first article published in a publication. “endurance and perseverance culture is killing women before their time” it was a piece I have been writing for almost a month, I got the inspiration from a twitter post and I quoted the person and wrote short friction on it. When I posted it on Twitter and tagged the person, I wasn’t expecting much, it wasn’t the first time I would be posting my article on twitter and no one will care about it, so it was pretty much just a tradition and I was surprised to get back to twitter, later in the day, and found out that my article was blowing up on twitter, seriously! I was happy. A lot of people were able to connect to the story, and I got a lot of reviews on twitter. I am still surprised that my article wasn’t curated though.

Lowest engagement article

my lowest article based on number of views, it was my first movie review “ merry men 2”, I can easily blame it on Nigerians, not much on Medium,

.My lowest article based on the number of reads was my second article on medium “ what they don’t want you to know about time”. I had just 4 reads, it was on that article I gave up on my motivational articles, they are not for me, but it’s still interesting to read, just in case

My lowest article based on the ratio is still my second article, maybe its a sign that you should check it out also.

My lowest article based on numbers of fans was my first article, and seriously between us, that “fanship” was self-induced, I had to get my mum to clap for me. Their goes my fan. In case you want to be a fan check it out

My advocacy writings

I am primarily concerned about few things generally if I can’t change the world presently, at least I can get a hold on a few of them around me,

1. Youth empowerment: I hate to see youths treated below their rights and I try to get youths educated on things involved their rights and just helping them to learn and unlearn some culture and habits.

2. Feminism: I think it goes together with youth empowerment, it is just gender-tuned now, I try to firstly learn more about feminism, not because I want to be considered woke but because it is the right thing to do as a human. If I can not be a problem to the girl child or the female gender, I feel I am one less trouble to be concerned about. Also, I try to educate people ( mostly men) on the timelines of misogynistic behaviour and culture within our society and how we can do better

3. Removing Africa’s stereotype: I know its a big task and I don’t see it going out anytime soon because even the stereotype has been registered within the minds of Africans themselves, but I try to create a thought process within my circle, I try to challenge people within my sphere not to be defined by the disgusting images projected on Africans.

So far on here, I have written 2 of such articles, 1 on feminism “ endurance and perseverance culture is killing women before their time” and another on the African stereotype “ the struggle for Africa”, while the first article was well accepted, I feel embarrassed at how my article was not given any projection on medium, maybe because they realize what they are doing is wrong but I will continue to talk, we should not allow things like this to happen to us. But okay! It is what it is

Appreciations

Yeah! I have a lot of people to greet but I intend to keep this short.