Two of my Articles Have a 100 Percent Read Ratio
And they are not one-minute reads
I’ve been watching my stats more or less regularly over the past year. Usually about once a day. I see them as a motivation booster as I am always trying to do better than the previous day. That isn’t always possible. But I do what I can.
And so here it comes I also inspect the read ratios leading me to conclusions which titles did well and which made readers click on but leave again after reading the first few sentences.
I’m happy if an article has a ratio of above 50 percent. Often it is below. I had once or twice a 100 percent ratio. But that was on one-minute reads. Where you almost instantly get that ratio.
But then I found these two articles I published this month that did draw quite a bit of traffic AND got a read ratio of full 100 percent. And they are not one-minute reads. They are both 5-minute long reads.
“I Contacted Medium to Delete Fake Followers From My Profile” was published on 2nd August and “She has Taken her Last Breath” was published on 9th August.
Instantly I had to think of it being a bug. There is no way every single person clicking on those two articles also read them until the end. I checked again, an hour later, a day later, a week later. Still the same. The views went up a bit, so did the reads. And the ratio stayed at full 100 percent.
Both of those articles have over 100 reads which I don’t get on many pieces. They also have almost exclusively internal views making them my two best earners this month.
The interesting thing about looking at these two about how and why they did so well is their topic. They are covering two totally different themes. The one piece is about writing. Writing on Medium. It’s about fake followers and loyal readers.
And the other piece is about the passing of my grandma.
I told you, they couldn’t be more different. So what do I learn from this? As different as these two topics are, they seem both very compelling. The way I wrote them, I inspired readers and kept their attention until the last line.
This brings me back to “write what you’re passionate about”. Whatever it is, if you’re in love with the topic the readers will feel that passion. And that is what readers are looking for. Too often on this platform, I do find pieces of cold writing. No personal connection to the writer. The personal touch in the story is missing. I’m missing a relationship with the writer when I read those pieces. And that is exactly what readers felt when going through the paragraphs of those two. They felt my feelings.
A friend sent me a private message about the article about my grandma describing how touched he was by my words.
“You wrote about tears running down your cheeks while writing that piece. Well, I had tears running down my cheek while reading this.”
If it’s happiness, excitement, curiosity, or sadness. Whatever it is that is surrounding me. I’m putting it down on paper. I form words and create sentences. Sentences filled with those feelings to share with new followers, those stopping by for a quick visit, and the loyal readers of mine.
I am very happy and proud of those two 100 percent read-ratio pieces. I appreciate you taking the time to thoroughly read my work and leave kind responses behind.
You are my motivation and the reason why I continue to strive for another great article.
Thank you.
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