If You Don’t Have Loyal Readers, This Might Be Why

Loyalty is a two way street. Even for writers.

Medium made some changes as of Oct. 28, and the part everyone got buzzed about is that writers are now getting paid by read time, not claps.

There was — is — a lot of worry about how will it affect poets and artists and people who write short pieces.

But there’s a part almost no one focused on — and I think it might be the real difference maker. The sink or swim part of the change. It’s this…

The first part — unique topics — I think that’s highly subjective. Yes, we can find our lane, so to speak, but unique voice brings much to the table. But the second part — loyal readers. I think that’s the big one…

Medium is telling us what a poet already said…

In the 1800’s, Ella Wheeler Wilcox wrote a poem called “Which Are You?”

There are two kinds of people on earth today, Just two kinds of people, no more, I say. Not the good and the bad, for ’tis well understood That the good are half-bad and the bad are half-good. No, the two kinds of people on earth I mean, are the people who lift and the people who lean.

I know. What the…? Hang with me, cause if you do, you’re going to be ahead of all the people who are going to keep struggling with the changes.

Let’s pretend. Imagine a mall in your town or city, okay?

Two men open stores in that little mall. One man doesn’t do anything to promote his store. He just expects “walk by” traffic to provide his income. If the mall is a community of business owners, isn’t he “leaning” just a little?

Now, the other guy works his butt off to bring people to his store. He knows, after they visit his store, sure, they might poke around the mall. Go to other stores. So? And isn’t that guy “lifting” the mall community, a little?

If you think of it that way, haven’t we been leaning, a little, instead of lifting?

We show up at Medium like the man sitting around waiting for “walk by” traffic at the mall. We arrive and expect people to just magically be here to read our writing and drop coins in our piggy banks.

There are 200,000 writers at Medium.

Medium gets 90 million unique visitors every month. 200,000 of those visitors are writers. Which means there are more readers than writers — by far.

I have worked in digital marketing for 23 years and here is what I can promise you. Every website has one job. To take care of their audience.

So, it’s Medium’s job to keep their visitors happy. Sometimes, that’s you or me, if we hit one out of the park.

But keeping MY readers happy? That’s my job. Not Medium’s. You see? That’s where the “loyal readers” part comes in…

Loyalty is a two way street…

In the real world, we know this. We know that to have a loyal friend, we need to be a loyal friend. It’s all give and take. But on the internet, we get it all mixed up. Marketing baggage and our beliefs get in the way.

One writer said having a list is at the top of her “nope” list.

That made me sad. Know why? Because I bet emailing her friends isn’t at the top of her nope list. Do you hear what I’m saying, here?

Another writer said building a list is a necessary evil… You gotta suck it up and do it, she said. I feel sad when I see stuff like that.

It feels like too many years of “internet marketers” have infected the collective mind and everyone thinks email has to be smarmy and sleazy. So if we don’t want to be all pitchy and sleazy, well — no email for you! lol.

And email can be sleazy. Too often it is. But there’s no rule that says it has to be. You know? I mean, is that how you email your friends?

Do you email your friend and say “the doors are closing, Susan, are you in” — lol

Writers need to throw their readers a bone…

It doesn’t matter how much I love your writing — if you don’t give me a way to stay in touch, how am I supposed to know when you’ve written?

I follow over 300 writers… They could be writing their hearts out. I’d never know. My home feed is full of Medium’s publications, topics, popular picks, editor’s pics, reading history.

So what am I supposed to do?

Keep a spreadsheet of everyone I follow so I can make sure I’m not missing their posts? That’s silly. No one does that.

I would love to be loyal, but my favorite writers need to throw me a bone.

I’m not going to sign up for 300 newsletters, of course. But you know, it’s pretty self-sorting. A whole lot of people will start and stop. Or start and never follow through. Some will email every darn day, so I’ll unsubscribe.

And some small handful will become the people I’m loyal readers of. Ding, ding, ding.

You see? Loyalty is a two way street. Throw me a bone. If you’re not going to build a list, then at least make your own publication so I can follow it.

Because if we have no list and no publication, then we’re just that guy at the mall. Hoping “walk by” traffic will feed us. Leaning, instead of lifting.

The path of least resistance always runs downhill…

Mama used to say water always takes the path of least resistance, and the path of least resistance always goes down hill. Isn’t that what we’ve been doing? Just going with the flow?

There is nowhere else like Medium. In a world that expects writers to create content free, for “exposure” Medium offers an opportunity no one else does.

And what do we do with it? Show up to lean, like the man at the mall.

Before you go…

Hi, I’m Linda. I just don’t think you can stand head and shoulders above the crowd by doing what everyone else does. If you like my writing, you might like my weekly emails — they’re (free) at: xo, Linda