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Denise Shelton's avatar

Do you think it's because Medium only counts the read if the reader scrolls all the way to the bottom?

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Linda Caroll's avatar

For reads they only count if they get to the bottom, but those are "views" not reads. So they should, in theory, be the same.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Ugh...I really want to be optimistic about the "new" Medium, but they're sure not making it easy.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

Right? That's pretty much how I feel, too. It's pretty frustrating.

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Kristina God's avatar

Hi Linda, Nice experiment ^^ I also figured that Medium's stats in regard to traffic sources are inaccurate.

Here's what I know: you get a notification by Medium telling you that they "boost" you. You get this via email (as in the old days of 2021 haha).

I can write a story about it and share a screenshot so that you can see how it looks like.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

Hey Kristina -- I didn't know they send email if they boost. Sure, I'd love to see what it looks like. and thanks.

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Kristina God's avatar

Okay, will publish it within the next 5 to 7 days. Have a lovely weekend. All the best, Kristina

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Linda Caroll's avatar

Thanks, and have a great weekend too

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Camille Prairie's avatar

I , too, find it harder to be optimistic about medium- it’s just easier for me to put energy into my substack. I know my readers care and I get consistently high % of views and comments. The engagement is so different than on medium.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

It is very different, for sure. I suspect the hard part at Substack will be going paid and getting enough supporters to compensate for what Medium used to pay. Not that they do anymore. lol.

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Camille Prairie's avatar

Yep! The hard part for me is that they don’t compensate like they used to. That’s pretty demotivating . I republish content from here when I can for anyone who follows me

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Linda Caroll's avatar

You're right -- it really is demotivating.

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Linda Ann Robinson's avatar

RE:Doesn’t make any sense to me at all. 15 clicked at Substack, 2 arrived on Medium? Weird.

Maybe not weird. Maybe just BS from yet another company cheating ppl...sorry (not) for the skepticism. My training in the scientific method AND life has sharpened my BS radar (hey, I had my 71st birthday in October, so I’ve seen a lot of BS from the corporate world).

OR, to be kind, maybe there’s a lag in reporting numbers on Medium’s platform? That is, not in real time until they update info from their servers to user accounts every few days??? Just a guess, in my attempt to give them the benefit of the doubt. My BS detectors aren’t 100 percent accurate. 🤪

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Linda Caroll's avatar

Thing is, that was a week ago. lol. I checked again. Medium still only shows 2 a week later. So I dunno. I don't tend to automatically go to cheating as the option because I work in tech and half the time it's just systems that don't work the way they're supposed to work. But broken tracking feels pretty crappy if people rely on it to get paid.

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Linda Ann Robinson's avatar

Maybe you need to bring these discrepancies to Medium’s attention, as it does impact your payment!!

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Linda Caroll's avatar

Honestly, there's little point. They'll just say they are recorded some other way and that's entirely possible. If there was a few extra zeros behind those numbers, maybe I'd think about it. Given that they're small numbers, it's just an interesting thing to keep in mind that might factor into linking, though.

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Denise Shelton's avatar

I posted a Vocal link to ManyStories. ManyStories says 10 people read it. Vocal says only one. They say they pay for views from anywhere but they're lying.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

Wow, that really sucks. I don't know why tracking links and views should be so hard. Wish writing sites would let us use google analytics, but I suppose that would just be a third place with yet different numbers.

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Steffany Ritchie's avatar

I have had several clicks from Twitter on Vocal and it rarely records them, they are even worse than Medium lol.

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Jim the Geek's avatar

An alternate explanation: I suspect that many, maybe most, of your Substack subscribers were already getting email from you on Medium. I'm one of those, and I did click the link, but didn't read the post on Medium as I'd already received in by email. So maybe Medium only counts an incoming link if the post is actually read.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

That would make sense, but the part that doesn't add up is the friend link. You know? Because people who clicked the friend link to bypass the paywall wouldn't be getting email from me on Medium because they aren't members. Obviously there's some discrepancy in how tracking works, but I don't know what that discrepancy is.

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Linda Ann Robinson's avatar

I will ALSO read on Medium, Linda’s posts that came in through this platform because it helps w/her payments (silly me, thought). I’m retired, so I like to help out folks when/where I can.

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Amy Sterling Casil's avatar

See what Linda said. The friend links are especially unreliable at Medium. I have direct dialog with readers whom I know have read, and are commenting in detail, and the article will show zero friend link interaction. I see the same names promoted there too - over and over - and also see "claps" on their articles that if true for mine, would mean only 15 people had supposedly "seen" the article. But these are blasted all over front page continuously. Not thrilled with any of it right now.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

Well at least I know it's not just me.

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Joel | Write Awareness's avatar

There may be technical explanation for this. Let’s say some of your readers are using iPhones. iPhones don’t let websites track users any more. So they may have clicked the link on Substack, but Medium couldn’t track where they came from. I’d assume the Substack link clicks are more accurate than the Medium data.

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Joel | Write Awareness's avatar

I’m not sure how iPhones track website usage, but if they have cookies turned off on the device they’re using, that could explain it.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

That's a really good point, Joel. I doubt that 13/15 were all on iPhone, but it sure could explain some of them, for sure.

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Kerry Kerr McAvoy's avatar

Oaf! That IS like finding a mouse when searching for a potato. Not good. Not good at all.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

lol. I promise the mouse was more upsetting. lol

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Lee HammMX's avatar

This is an interesting test.

I [have] read in both places but let my Medium sub expire. I'd rather pay that more directly to a Substack writer because Medium is a now ghost town, to me, and will only let you read one or two articles per month. Writers here are typically much more specialized and that's what I want. The downside is I am more selective in whom I can pay for.

Anyone, who has tried advertising on Fakebook, knows you can't always tell what a real click is. As a data guy, I am not surprised the stats don't match, infuriating though it is. There are many variables [like definition of a click, reporting interval, timing etc] that we don't know, which may differ between platforms.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

Yup, I work in data, too. Analytics specifically. I see it all the time comparing shopping cart analytics with google analytics. Throw in a program to track seo clicks/traffic and it's a nightmare. The friend link is the one that's odd. You'd think that would be the most reliable, but apparently not.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

This is a great point. I'd love to take my annual Medium fee and divvy it between the 8-10 writers I read religiously.

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Lee HammMX's avatar

Sadly that's only $5-6 each per year!

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Oh, I know. But at least it'd be going to them directly!

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Amy Sterling Casil's avatar

Same for me, Linda - and I really appreciate how Substack shows that people click links we include within our pieces, which is not available via Medium. I also received a "warning" about something unspecific, that said if I get another "warning" I could be removed from Medium's program. I wrote what I could find as a support email asking what this was about. I haven't heard back. They have been, and continue to be, farming us. And doing a bad job. The numbers are meaningless and I can tell they aren't really updated or accurate, in general - that's a significant difference between the Substack clicks and what Medium says. I think they "reduced our views" and "reduced $$" for a simple reason - they don't have the money.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

Wow, Amy. You'd think if they give you a warning, they'd tell you what you did wrong? That's kind of frightening. I'm not sure they don't have the money, though. I suspect all that's changed is how it's divided up.

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Amy Sterling Casil's avatar

I should have been more clear: $$ for actual writers, not their sponsored pals who have lost jobs in recent years and months. I have received two such "warnings" but it doesn't tie to anything I can see except the first time, I told one of those generic picture/anonymous name harassing trolls off - maybe 18-24 months ago. This one? No clue, and maybe it was that same thing. No clue, no indication, no response. I have the same opinion of them, now: maybe lower. Low, low people, taking a lot of advantage, telling themselves they are so awesome and "changing the world." Check cashers.

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Amy Sterling Casil's avatar

Oh! If all of this relies on cookies and cross-platform tracking and APIs? None of these numbers except direct visits or I suppose email visits, will be able to be used ... sooner rather than later. Sorry, this is crossover to my business work, there's an unbelievable amount of change in the works. Positive and negative and also "unknown" as to benefits or detriments.

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Johnnie Burger's avatar

I have only 340 followers on Medium and I got a definite boost from a friend link I published on LinkedIn where I have 1500-2000 followers. I did not compare clicks, but Medium’s algorithms are very clunky in my opinion

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WomenWarriors's avatar

Always appreciated forensic insights!

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Sara K.'s avatar

I myself noticed before that Medium is almost certainly undercounting friend link clicks (through a similar method, I drove traffic to a friend link through a service where I could see how many clicked the friend link, and the numbers didn't add up).

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JJ Pryor's avatar

Just as an idea, could try publishing a post on Medium as unlisted and then retry the experiment. Keep up the neat deep dives Linda, cheers!

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Linda Caroll's avatar

That's a really interesting thought. I don't even know if they show stats on an unlisted post. I'll have to think on that one. Interesting idea.

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