Wanna Play? ‘Clapping for the Underdogs’ Medium Game 5 (January)

A game to bring a few extra reads to our least read stories

CLAPPING FOR THE UNDERDOGS

This is our fifth time playing the ‘Clapping for the Underdogs’ game, where we can submit one of our least read stories, and then all of us that participate in that month’s ‘game’ go read the other stories too. A win-win for all of us playing, getting a few extra reads on these stories that are feeling unloved.

Why do we play?

Extra views. Extra reads. Hopefully a few extra highlights and comments.

Results may vary. According to how many people play along. How many participate with reading the stories. And depending on Medium’s variable and unfathomable method of paying out that particular day.

Here’s my results from the stories that I used in November and December.

NOVEMBER STORY

I shared Old School Jest. It was one of the first stories I’d published in August 2022. When I published it, I wasn’t in the Partner Program yet. So it wasn’t payable. And then once I’d gotten my 100 followers, I didn’t realize that I needed to go back and change the status of the story to put it behind the paywall.

So when I shared the story in November, although it had some reads — it had earned me a big fat ZERO.

22 views 12 reads Earnings: Zero

After sharing it in Clapping for the Underdogs, it went up to:

46 views 29 reads Earnings $3.26

DECEMBER STORY

In December I shared Grandpa Jumped Into My Story. It was also one I’d published my first month in Medium, August 2022.

4 views 2 reads Earnings: 17 cents

After sharing it in Clapping for the Underdogs, it went up to:

29 views 23 reads Earnings: $14.18

WHY THE DIFFERENCE?

Old School Jest had 17 extra reads and is a 5-minute story.

Grandpa Jumped Into My Story had 21 extra reads and is a 6-minute story.

The extra reads from each were fairly similar, and the read time on each was fairly similar. But the November story earned me $3.26 and the December story earned me $14.01.

Is that because of the new Friends of Medium that came about in December? Or is it for some other unknown reason? Or is it that highlights and comments (engagement) truly does pay out more now?

I’m not sure.

And we’re sure not going to retire with these figures, even if we play the game and gain a few extra reads on an old story. I’m not making enough extra here to book my flight for Bali or Tahiti. But, if we can make enough to buy us a Starbucks one morning, or maybe a lunch, it’s all good in my book.

HERE’S HOW WE PLAY:

1. Whoever wants to play along, look up a story that has few reads.

2. Send me a link to that story, either in the comments here, or in a Private Note on this post. Get your link to me by Wednesday, January 10th.

3. I’ll gather the links and put them together, in the order that I get the links.

4. On Friday, January 12th, I’ll publish a CLAPPING FOR THE UNDERDOGS story. Then we can all go read everyone else’s least read story that is participating in the game.

And our poor, neglected, least read story will feel loved and appreciated again as it moves up from the bottom of our list.

Wanna Play?

Tagging all the wonderful authors that participated in past Clapping for the Underdogs, along with a few other writers that were interested in being notified when we put out the next Call for Stories. (If you’d like your name removed from the tags, please comment and let me know and I’ll remove your name.)

Vera-Marie Landi, Eiman Fatima, Tesie Mills, Deb Palmer, Julia A. Keirns, Dr. Preeti Singh, HAPPINESS + WEALTH ⭐, B.R. Shenoy, Dawn Ulmer, Lu Skerdoo, Diana Pippin, Jennifer Garden, Liberty Forrest, Author, Helen Gilmore, Amir Bibi, Jocelyn Joy Thomas, Jason Edmunds, Frances A. Chiu, OCTAVIA EVER AFTER, Cheri Elkin, Jade Zulfiqar, Henery X, pockett dessert, Pamela Oglesby, Nour Boustani, Carolina Smith, Johnny Poitras, Luna Rivers, A Bloggers Lifestyle, Moulay Abdellah Aber, June Christina Thomas, Julie KingGood, John Blackwell, barry robinson, Katherine Myrestad, Maria Rattray, Jenny Alexander, Nancy Oglesby, Sasha Moods, Indirah Ambrose, Kerry Purvis, Victoria Kjos, Mark Krauss, Charisse Tyson, Frances A. Chiu, Toni The Talker, Ken Van Camp, Sílvia PM, PhD 🍂, Sherry Atkinson, Dr. E.R. Báez, Diana Gold

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