Who Cares About Read Ratios?
Stop with the “scrolling to the bottom” nonsense.
“What gets measured gets managed — even when it’s pointless to measure and manage it, and even if it harms the purpose of the organization to do so.” — Peter Drucker.
There are two types of writers: the ones who want to write and don’t care if anybody reads them and you and me.
The formers don’t exist online because there’s no sense in publicly publishing your stories online if you don’t care about people reading them.
I want people to read my articles. I care. That’s why I created a Medium account. (It’s also to teach my grandson a few lessons, but that’s for another story.)
If you’re on this platform, you care too. It’s a spectrum, some people care more than others, but for sure, you care.
Medium has too many statistics available.
It confuses writers and pushes them towards irrational and pointless behaviors like caring about their read ratios.
If you care about people reading your articles, and you do because you’re on Medium, then there’s one statistic that matters. It’s the amount of $ you get at the end of the month. There’s all the information you need there. If people don’t read your stories, you don’t get money. If people clap and run, you don’t get money. If they click on your title and don’t go past the first sentence, you don’t get money.
BUT.
If people read (part of) your story, you get money. It’s of no relevance if they clapped 1 time, 17 times, or 50 times. It’s also not relevant if they read half of it or scrolled all the way down. Don’t waste your energy wondering why.
What you want to focus on is writing more good articles.
Good articles are the ones that people want to read and pay a Medium membership for. Great articles are the ones that people want to read and tip on ko-fi for. The exceptional articles make people subscribe to your stories, give you money on ko-fi, and even pay $5 monthly on substack to read ONLY your stories.
Claps, Read Ratios, Fans, Views, and whatever other numbers are available to obsess about on Medium are decoys.
The information they give isn’t worth the time spent analyzing it. Trust me; I’m a pink belt in social media marketing. If you want to have real feedback, do these two things:
- look at how much money the story made,
- hire someone to analyze your articles and be brutally honest about them.
Good luck!
Here’s a link to more on this existential topic by Patrick Eades. Notice he published his essay in an upcomingly wonderful publication called All About M(edium). I can only recommend you read the submission guidelines and become a writer.
And if you’re wondering if honesty is really the best policy, I recommend reading this piece by Patrick:
Grandma Smillew loves her afternoon cup of cocoa, scrabble, and her grandson, Smillew Rahcuef. She’s also a pink belt in social media and marketing strategies. If you want to make her happy, follow her on Medium and write for one of her publications: All About Medium and Grandma Power.