Support Your Fellow Writers

Why Medium is a great place for writers and readers

First published on 3 September 2023. An update for 2024 follows at the end:

I’m new around here. This is only my tenth story. I’ve had modest views, claps, and comments, as you might expect given the low volume of work I have published to date. However, on article number eight I used a photograph from Unsplash, and as a mark of gratitude the photographer added my story to several lists. The writer has nearly 3000 followers, so this suddenly made my story visible to thousands of people, as well as my 54 followers. Shout out to Francisco Iglesias!

My point here is that with a little bit of help from another creator on Medium, my story suddenly caught the attention of way more people than ever before. So, what can we do to help each other out? It’s simple: read, respond, and promote.

Support your fellow writers and everyone reaps the rewards, whether they are intrinsic or extrinsic. This excerpt is taken from Medium’s Partner Program announcement on 1 August 2023:

There are four factors that go into earnings in the new system:

1. Engagement points: This is calculated based on read/listening time, the number of people who clapped, highlighted, and replied to your story, as well as the number of people who followed you for the first time after reading your story.

2. Follower bonus: A multiplier on top of the engagement points when the member reading your story currently follows you or the publication this story is published in.

3. Boost bonus: A multiplier of engagement points when the story is Boosted.

4. Read ratio adjustment: The % of people who read your story for 30 seconds or more on the given day will adjust the value of all the points earned either up or down.

Financial incentives aside, simply enjoy being here. Read what you want to read, and if it resonates with you leave a meaningful comment. Acting from a place of financial reward strips us of authenticity. We should remember that we love to both read and write, just as other Medium creators do. Keeping that at the forefront of our minds will mean we are reading, writing, and engaging from a place of joy. Never lose your sense of wonder. Love to read, love to write, love to engage, and help others in the process.

Here is the story that took off for me

Here’s a link to one of Francisco’s stories

Thanks for reading!

If you like my words, please give a clap or a few dozen.

Follow Diane here.

Follow Diane’s new publication Peace, Love & Crappiness here.

So what’s new for 2024?

I have now published 37 stories and have 13 in draft, so I’ll be writing on Medium for the foreseeable future. I have created a publication called Peace, Love & Crappiness. Please follow it here.

I have also contributed to Francisco’s publication Inside The Mind of a Writer. Francisco’s success on Medium continues and he has more than doubled his following from 3,000 readers (when the article was originally published) to 6,700 today.

Well done Francisco, and thank you for your support!