Views Down

Reading time up

I received a blanket email recently from a Medium superstar on the subject of his and other popular writers’ descending view count. He sounded concerned. I, likewise, have noticed the same trend — what with my own view count decreasing 20% in the last month. And I’m new and presumably on the ascension curve. Oh well!

But the news isn’t all bad. What I’ve noticed of a gratifying nature is this: While my views are down, my member reading time is up! And predictably, my percentage of reads vs. views is on the rise as well. So even though fewer people are checking out my stories, I’m making more money — if that’s a metric I care about.

In my never-ending desire to understand the platform stats so I can maximize the effort, my analysis of this current trend tells me that my increased member reading time is an indication that the reduced number of readers who do come to my stories aren’t doing so haphazardly. They know who they’re reading.

This in turn tells me I have a few real followers. And that's a good thing. A very good thing — as that’s been my goal: to generate traffic organically. Ya know…that relational versus transactional thing.

After 200 stories, I still don’t think I’ve been curated once. And I’ve not been published in any of the majors yet — and may never be. But slowly, little by little, it all seems to be working out.

I simply write every day — and then publish what I wrote immediately. I rarely write and then submit. That just hasn’t been a rewarding experience. Generating a following organically has. So that’s the route I take — for better or worse.

It might not work for some. But it is for me. Just something to consider. Maybe it could work for you, too.

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