The Top 1% of Writers Do This: You Need to Follow Their Example.
Medium showed us who and what they prioritize.
I have a saying: it has served me well.
“If someone shows you who they are, believe them.”
It’s rare to see people for who they are. We all put on fronts. We want to be seen in the best light and will project who we want to be seen as, not who we are.
That is why when someone shows you who they are and their priorities, you shouldn’t ignore it.
This week, Medium showed us who they are and their priorities.
We rode high for two months since the Friends of Medium program's inception.
A community of friends.
We were brought together through a mutual love for the written word, creating, reading, and connecting with each other. We made one fatal mistake, though.
Some of us dared to stand out from the crowd. Some of our most successful writers with small loyal followings were instantly deleted.
Labeled Spam
Wham, Spam Thank you, Ma’am
For what? Daring to write stories that other people enjoy.
Reading other writer’s work and commenting on it?
Illusion of Safety
Nassim Taleb writes about the Thanksgiving turkey. Statistically speaking, the day before the slaughter is the “safest.” It has the largest sample size of safe days, yet it is the one on which the turkey gets its neck wrung.
Last week, Medium decided to show us who they are. They are a corporation that wants people to pay $15 a month to read their curated stories.
Sure, they will let a few of us ascend to their perceived writing god status, but for most of us, they want us to shut up and read.
The irony is that they practically blow the big writers, begging them to create more content.
Meanwhile, the big writers are offloading their audiences built on Medium onto other platforms.
Incentivised behavior
The top 1% of writers are actively working themselves off Medium.
You need to, too.
Medium treats us like week-old leftovers while they boost and pin the big writers' stories. When you get to the bottom of them, it's a CTA to GTFO Medium.
Why do you think that is Tony?
It’s because nobody trusts you.
You baited me for $150, and I paid upfront for the year. Will you delete my account because I read stories and comment on them?
It doesn’t matter to you because you already have my $150. Your incentive is to get me to lose interest as soon as possible so I do not earn any more money. Now, I am a liability.
Your solution,
“Spam Filter.”
Your audience, not Mediums
We are writers, and most are no-names. We are trying to change that.
Medium is a great place for that, or is it?
Is this recent culling a sign that Medium wants to go in a different direction?
Are they trying to tamper down the amount of content from the likes of us lower-class writers?
Maybe we will get some clarification on the issue in time.
I cannot wait around for anyone to tell me if I am valued. I create value through tenacity and hard work, not benevolent grace.
Do this
Medium showed us what they value. They want us to act like the big writers. That means we should work hard to offload our readers onto other platforms. After all, that is exactly what the big writers do.
I started a Substack and will continue building it over the next few weeks. I also plan to revisit Patreon.
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