Why Views without Reads on Medium is good
If you search Medium for phrases such as “views on Medium” or “how to succeed on Medium” you will come across articles or stories about how such and such got 10,000 views in a month.
Look up “how to make money on Medium” and you will find writers who have made thousands of dollars a month. Well, let me tell you some truths, which don’t even need to be looked up.
- Medium is a platform with an established readership or audience.
- There are millions of blogs and publications and online articles or stories on the internet.
- Many readers are often browsers or foragers online.
- Medium subscribers visit Medium to read written pieces by specific publications or people, and/or to browse and find interesting stories on topics that they are both interested in and have the time to read.
This last point is really important. I was born in the 1960s and I have come to the conclusion that with the internet and with the advent of computers, that great responsibility should be the twin of using online services.
Happy with the golf-ball typewriter and happy with making do with what I had all around when I was at University studying a Science Degree, I left it to my fellow students to run programmes on cassette tapes and to operate the dial-up modem to connect to the internet.
Leap-frog from the days of internet relay chat, MySpace, Blogger and forums to the tidal wave of social media applications at our instant beck and call, and you may realize how your blog posts or Medium postings can be but a pea in a pod.
It takes time and maybe a wide circle of people whom you promote or market your Stories to, and sometimes a dash of good luck (like Medium featuring one of your Stories) to get a good or ongoing solid readership on Medium, who actually read some of your stories, let alone clap them or respond to them.
Why do we try then? The answer is “choice.” Writers who can string words together like to put fingers to a computer (or pen to paper, though there probably are not many of these left) and voila — it really is MAGIC.
Words spring from a veritable gold-mine of experiences or from the well of consciousness, and manifest thoughts / hopes / beliefs / opinions / wants / mindsets / needs / loves / desires / fears / angers and the list goes on.
If your Medium stats show Views, no matter how much the number of reads matches the number of Views, you are on the right track with using Medium.
People are not cows, but because there is is just so much online, many are quite likely to glance at or just scan the titles and the synopses of new Stories on Medium and then click on a few promising ones.
The length of your Story may have a bearing on who reads it, as there are those who only want to read short stories up to 5 minutes.
I hope that there are others who like to read 7 or 8-minute Stories because many of my Stories do run to around 7 minutes.
You know people. A short article is good because people only have so much of their precious time to spend on reading a Medium article.
Wrong!
In my considered opinion, some people set themselves up to read short pieces. They may have ten minutes before going to work or after washing the dishes and before watching a movie, to spend on reading a short Medium article.
They may be bored while waiting for dinner or to wash their hair, waiting for their partner to get out of the shower, or not want to start a long project, so they think they will spend a few minutes on reading a Medium article.
They may have a good bit of time on their hands, but prefer to read shorter stories.
I will wager a bet that the major motivation behind only reading shorter Stories is not that a person has limited time or feels that they will possibly be wasting their time reading something that takes longer than 3 or 5 minutes to read, but will be because they are NOT INTERESTED ENOUGH IN THE TOPIC OR IN THE WRITER to make time to read it.
Which brings me to the point of this article.
I am happy if passers-by stop by to have a peek (equating to Views) at my Stories. If the content is not for them, then or ever, I am not fazed. Over a recent 30 day period, the Read rate of my stories on Medium has been 67 percent of the number of Views. In other words, 33 percent of those who stopped by, were not interested enough in my Stories to read them.
I count myself lucky that I can use Medium because it has an established readership. I love writing and reading and make time to read and to learn, and to grow. I appreciate writers putting their unique viewpoints and experiences and efforts into public writing.
A person could schedule 30 minutes a day or a week or every other day, to “forage” on Medium, and that 30 minutes could actually include 3 stories which each take 8 minutes to read.
If time is a premium, why not make time to read memorable stories on Medium, even those which take more than 5 minutes to read?
If I imagine that 33 percent of the foragers were not interested enough to read my Stories, I can rest easy in the knowledge that they were at some time interested in the titles of some of my stories and in the promise of something interesting or helpful or entertaining or educational to them personally, and even in the lure of something wonderful.
And being positive minded, I also think that some of those 33 viewers (to put it as 33 out of 100 people for the sake of ease or convenience) may see another Story title of mine another day, and will step in and stay, i.e. will read and enjoy the whole Story.
Another thing, Viewers may remember your name and if they see it again, may dip in once more. Also be aware that a “Read” is based on a measure of the time it takes to scroll through your story, and may really reflect someone just scanning through your Story for a while, and not reading word for word.
A View is when someone clicked on your story, after seeing the title on Medium or on a linked page. Claps show appreciation from readers who care, and a response is a sign that someone read your entire Story and it provoked or inspired them to let out their feelings in a Comment.
Followers, Views, and Reads do not always directly tell you how much a reader enjoyed one of your Stories or what they got from your Story.
Life doesn’t “owe” you anything, except the food and water that you consume, and your shelter and health, and happy relationships, and what you choose to do and create for yourself, which benefits or grows the environment and others.