Why I Put A “Clap & Run” Disclaimer At The Beginning Of My Articles…
And Why My Earnings Get Impacted Negatively…
I’ve received multiple private notes, offered plenty of opinions, and have seen people complain about it in their stories.
“Next!”
“Won’t read!”
“Turn off!”
“Tacky!”
The list goes on.
What are they referring to? The disclaimer I put below.
Sure, at first glance it may be a glaring billboard of forced interaction, but if you read it throughout, you will see as to why I put it there. But let me explain further…
**CALL TO ACTION**
**PLEASE DO NOT JUST ‘CLAP & RUN’**. If you find out that the subject isn’t for you, that is understandable. But each view/clap without a read drastically impacts our earnings. Here’s what you can do to support me:
- Read the article for at least 30 seconds (**VERY IMPORTANT**)
- Comment (tell me your story or just say hi!)
- Highlight things that you like
- Follow me and subscribe to read my latest stories
This way I can find the bad apples and I can turn around and support you!
Thank you for understanding :)
I just started out with Medium…at least on the Partner Program/Friends of Medium side of things. I’m big on analytics as it is such an important factor as to your monetization and how best to increase it. Although Medium’s analytics are basic and sometimes faulty, they can easily paint you a picture as to where things are going wrong (or right).
I started to notice something going.
I was getting singular claps (1x) from multiple individuals yet my reads weren’t going up. At the time, I was still trying to figure out the analytics and the driving factors as to what makes you $0.01 versus what makes you $1.00.
After reading several other articles on the most important factors for higher monetization, I came across “Read Ratio”. In particular “Member Read Ratio”.
It’s pretty simple. The higher the “Member Read Ratio”, the more likely the chance of higher earnings by hitting Medium’s algorithm. Of course, there are MANY different factors that go into and it’s not always perfectly black and white.
Overall, the more member reads the better, but “Read Ratio” is right there in importance.
After seeing my particularly low “Member Read Ratio” on a certain story, I cross checked that to my “Member Views”. Vast difference. Sure, they most likely won’t always be 1 to 1 (1 view to 1 read), but they shouldn’t be 1 to 20 or 1 to 30. That’s terrible!
Then I went to see my clappers and compared them to my “Member Reads”. Huge difference.
Finally, I went to another article with much more success and low and behold, it was the opposite. Higher “Member Read Ratio” and little to no 1x clappers.
I think you can see where I’m going with this…
Again, I’m new to Medium in the earnings part of things. I want to make decent money and help those with Mental Health. But it’s not always easy starting out especially with people who selfishly clap & run, dropping your read ratio, and ultimately, keeping you from getting a decent run on the algorithm.
I’m sure there are some articles that you wish would have reached WAY more people because of how impactful it could be.
Looking back at it, did you have clap & runners? Did it just not get enough traction because of it?
So yes, I put a disclaimer/warning at the beginning of my stories. Will I always keep it? Probably not. But until I gain enough following/reads, and clap & runners don’t matter any more, you will see it.
And don’t get it misunderstood — if you don’t like my story or if it doesn’t interest you, by all means, don’t read or clap! I’m totally fine with that!
But if you selfishly “say hi” with a 1x clap, then you’re getting blocked.
We’re supposed to help each other. If I see that you clap, comment, and highlight, I will try my best to return the favor. That’s how it works!
Anyways, I would love to know your thoughts on all of this in the comments. Do you put a disclaimer? Do you not? Do you think it’s tacky?
Thank you for reading and until next time…
Much love
-ajk