As you note, people come to Medium for the social flywheel. The audience is already there. That's a huge value add compared to, say, just having a blog somewhere in the ether. That's also why so many writers are willing to pay $5/month to be there. It's an easy investment with a (potentially) huge upside--and part of that investment is the understanding that Medium will supply the traffic.
Now we have the CEO on record as saying that we will need to bring our audience to the show.
That's a lot of dissonance for writers to wrestle with.
To be clear, I appreciate Tony's "real talk." It's a refreshing change from what we had previously. But more and more, it feels like we're returning the era of gatekeeping pubs and away from the indie writer.
Agree with that last paragraph, Kevin. Ii appreciate that he talks publicly a lot. But I'm wondering how this will shake out in the long run. A lot of my readers tell me they aren't seeing my new posts in their feed. It's frustrating. Like you said -- lots of dissonance.
I don't know what this says about me, Linda, but I'm happy to get any sorts of readers any old way. Some of us might be in this game exclusively or primarily for the money, but I'm not. If I can develop a reputation for being a good writer and someone who supports other writers in their time of need, that's all I want.
To paraphrase Jesse Jackson: I may not be making a living writing, but I am somebody.
I hear a lot of people say that, David. And that's fine. Really, it is. But there should be room for a good writer to make a decent income at it, too. I had one of the top writers on Medium message me privately and say if they had my writing skill and their list, they'd clean up. That hit me in a weird place. Food for thought.
I think I understand what you're saying but Medium seems to make it incredibly difficult now to generate any readers at all except for the ones I manage to snag through social media posts, tagging, and dropping my link into comments on other stories around the Web. Too much work. I turned to Medium for help generating reads. If it's not providing that service, there seems to be little sense in staying on the platform.
This seems like an underhanded way to increase Medium's profits by pressuring writers to convince people to join. If you spam your email list, coerce your family and friends to join Medium, you will be rewarded with a boost. Seems like it all is coming down to marketing, not writing. A change in the core purpose of the platform?
Jan 6, 2023·edited Jan 6, 2023Liked by Linda Caroll
They are thinking like business owners who don't understand who their customers are. Medium might have formidable business costs that are eating up their profit. That's not my fault.
If I violate someone's trust by misusing their email, they will NEVER trust me again. They show it by opting-out and not reading another thing by me. People must have have the freedom to say "No."
Right? I so agree Margie. That's just something I'd never do. Might be time to build an actual list, but if I did, would I use it to drive external views on Medium? Not sure I would. You know?
You are one of only two writers on Medium that keep me from cancelling my account, and you're the only reason I created a Substack account. I rarely ever write on Medium anymore because I find it an enormous waste of time. As someone without my own mailing list and who doesn't have 18 hours a day to try to build one, I originally turned to Medium to try to get more eyeballs on my writing -- a way of getting back in the game as someone who a long time ago used to make my fulltime living as a freelancer. The only time my stories generate any respectable number of views is when I really hustle to share the link to other sites/groups that may have interest in the piece in question -- or I tag the hell out of pieces on multiple social media posts. Medium doesn't pay us for those, of course. My lowest number of views/reads actually comes when my pieces land in big Medium publications. That seems to be the kiss of the death -- a big publication picks it up, and I get even fewer reads than self publishing. My dream is to rebuild my writing career -- writing again for a variety of national and local publications. I thought Medium could help me get some eyes on pieces written from the heart that really mean something to me, but that doesn't really happen. I know in my head that I would be way better off taking every second I waste on Medium and using it to pitch stories to real media outlets, and continue writing works in progress. I've even thought of Substack, which seems to make more sense, but it seems like I would have to invest the same enormous amount of time I don't have trying to build a list there -- or wait until I start publishing more frequently again in national publications and then using that to help build a list. I honestly have no idea.
The first sentence is a might nice compliment, so thank you. One thing I can say is that Substack is much easier than building a traditional newsletter or blog because they have a program called "grow" that helps find your readers. I have another publication on Medium called History of Women and it's growing quite quickly. On average, half a dozen people per day from the Substack network, and I've done nothing to promote it. I will write more about it in the upcoming weeks. I think writers might like to know about it. :)
Woah when a big pub picks it up, you get even fewer views and reads than self-publishing? Could you elaborate on that? I have a relatively small following, of 950 ish, and I've been gradually pitching to larger pubs to gain more exposure. So I'm curious what's happening in the big pubs that I may not be aware of here. :O
I find the same Sieran. The reason is that big publications tend to have more submissions, so each writer scrolls into oblivion faster. I'd had much more success with smaller publications.
Oooh I see. I assumed that when they limit the number of stories they publish a day (like The Writing Cooperative does), that would make up for it. But I forgot about the total number of submissions in the pub. Yeah our stories will get swallowed up by the mass of other articles much faster...
I clicked the heart, but not because I enjoyed this. More like it breaks my heart. I've begun focusing more on my Substack, because I see more potential here. Thanks for clarifying why my Medium traffic is slowing to a halt.
I'm with you, Jessica. Maybe time to focus more on Substack. Or some other list. My views on Medium are tanking, too. It sucks because I did a lot of work to build an audience there.
My views have tanked, too. I started 9 months ago. In your case, you were there for a long time so that sucks big time. I'm wondering why I bother to post on Medium anymore. It used to be different. Now it's just following Substack. If I have to find my own audience, why the hell would I want to publish on Medium?
Same. I used to have a lot of my writing distributed when I first started writing on Medium. Then they stopped doing that. Then they changed the pay structure again, and again... In the old days I was excited to publish on medium in hopes of building an audience by getting my writing curated, but once that went away, I lost my excitement. Now, I pretty much “republish” what I write for substack on Medium and don’t focus any particular energy on Medium. I don’t waste time posting in all the medium Facebook groups because it takes a large amount of time to do it properly (post and read others to generate more reads)... I’m not focused on making money - it would just be nice to be able to generate some income from it. I average about twenty cents a month from Medium 😂 I probably need to stop paying to write there.
Cripes, sorry to hear Medium is such a bust for you. I suspect a lot of people are experiencing the same. I am making about 25% of what I did a year ago. It's old.
I hit the exit on most FB groups pretty quick- for a lot of the same reasons you've mentioned. I also noticed that the only thing a lot of writers were putting out were FB comments. I didn't want to fall into that same trap.
I think we will start seeing more & more familiar names from Medium pop up over here as people finally see what is happening. FWIW, I would be very happy to stand corrected if these changes turn out to benefit the "middle class" tier of Medium writers.
Excellent questions raised and I have the same reluctance as you do about what I do with my (small) readership. I won't just plant them anywhere. I am getting reading to ask my Medium subscribes whether they would be willing to follow me on substack but I will never be one to do a grand transplanting.
I am very glad that writing is my hobby because if I needed my Medium payout as my source of income, it would be a very dark world for me.
My head is spinning. I was steadily building a following which hit 1.2k and was making
hundreds a month and one viral hit which went over $3k. Then Tony arrives and it came to a screeching halt. Linda, I so appreciate your insight, and thoughts--Tony translations, really--but I'm still lost how I can regain any income on Medium. I'm so f'in frustrated that my best writing is now free content for a CEO who I believe doesn't care. Would Tony care that I took a part-time job to make up for it is which sucking away my writing time and creative energy? I'm sure he'd shrug and say, not my problem.
I hear you Marianne. A lot of us are just as frustrated as you. There was another video shortly after he started where he said writers should focus on "how else" they can make money from their writing. Earn more than once from the same writing, or something to that effect. Which is fine for people who are there promoting ebooks and courses. But some of us just want to write, and it feels like we're kind of being shoved in the background.
He seems to have no sense of how the majority of Medium writers--who are paying his bills--at $5 a month--are faring (badly) under his new biz model. Will he rethink this when enough of us jump ship and kneecap his free content stream?? I know he's a much smarter business person than I--easy to be-- but is he "Elon Musking" a great platform??
It does feel a bit like that, doesn't it? I don't think the platform will die. But I do think the number of people using it to grift and promote offers will increase.
He's already gone on record as saying that Medium is for readers, not writers. The part he seems to be losing sight of is that you can't have one without the other.
I think they want the Zulies and the umairs, and the Wildfires and the rest of us can suck eggs. Why should they promote our work? Because we're subscribers who provide content for practically nothing, that's why. Last month was my all time worst earning one in almost 3 years. I made more with zero followers than I do with over 2,000. What is even the point? I haven't found much benefit to sharing on Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. I think this is a sign that I need a new direction.
Yeah, I hear you. December was my worst month in over 2 years. Might be longer, but I didn't go back farther. Jessica said she is experiencing the same and has been focusing more on Substack, too. I don't know who is doing well. Self growth maybe? No idea. Not me, that's for sure. lol
I've been watching all these changes on Medium really closely. It's definitely going to change what I write there. Now I need to think about what articles people off-Medium might like to read. And I will have to start writing more like I write for publications off-Medium (eg., major online magazines). The problem with this is that Medium really was a place for readers to get to know the writer personally. I could write about subjects that wouldn't get an off-Medium audience, but I knew that my Medium readers would enjoy reading about. I also think about all the Medium readers who've told me I've helped them through my writing. This counts for nothing? I hate the idea of having to depend on Medium publications as gatekeepers. That was one of the beautiful things about Medium--self-publishing and actually gaining an audience. But I also understand that what Tony may be doing is trying to eradicate all the shit that gets published on Medium. Much of the articles are low quality. He's basically asking people to up their game--write articles that a vast, picky, internet audience will want to consume. The way I'm dealing with this is to up my social media game. I'm focused on readers outside of Medium now. I've been headed in this direction for a while--but this is basically a wakeup call to get this new focus going. The days of depending on Medium to build my audience for me are over. But yeah--if the focus is external views, then pay us for them....
Yes, exactly. From my perspective, I have almost 18K readers but a lot of readers have told me they don't see my posts in their feed. It feels a lot like facebook, where not all followers get to see what people post. So what was the point of building followers if I have to go out and promote content to external readers?
I clicked the heart because I'm glad to know this is happening. But I don't like it.
It reminds me of book publishing. "To publish" means "to publicize". We have to proof, edit, design the art, market, EVERYTHING except hiring the printer. WE are the ones publishing and they are getting 10-20 dollars, of which we get $1, maybe. Yeah, I was just beginning to make some money on M. Great. Not a fan.
Interestingly, that's one of the thing he said. Went back to the transcript I saved and he said the changes at Medium will bring it "more in line with the rest of publishing." Not a fan, either.
Exactly. Writers with big list will end up here. The difference is that at Medium, readers aren't "my" audience, they're Medium's audience. On Substack, my audience is my audience. If I write something, everyone who follows me sees it. That doesn't happen on Medium. Good point!
Since Medium will have access to those lists owned by individual writers, will the Medium board decide to start marketing their platform to persons on that list?
Another question: will hackers be able to scrape those lists from Medium’s servers?
Those are valid questions, Linda. On the first, I would hope the answer would be no. On the second -- good question. They seem to be able to scrape content, but can they scrape lists. I don't know, but I don't aim to help them find out. lol
This is really sad and surprising but I guess I should have seen it coming. I’ve always thought of Medium somewhat like a magazine. They provide readers and writers submit stories for readers to enjoy and hopefully there is at least some payout to the writers. In theory, good writers and stories should rise to the top.
Now, we hear all that really matters is that writers bring a large audience to Medium. Sounds like they want others to do their marketing- thus using writers for their benefit even more than they already have. Writing is a tough gig but Medium once felt like a little light of hope. I naively thought those in charge cared both about readers and writers. Seems like neither is true.
I really think Tony looks at how "he" grew and thinks that's how it works for everyone. The difference is that he was always writing to build a business, and a lot of people who found Medium just want to write, not write to build a side hustle.
Lmao, Lisa. That made me laugh. I do not see a lot of boosting in my near future, either. If I'm going to go use other sites to promote, it will be to promote something that's entirely mine, not a link to a site where the people I send don't even see me in their feed.
As you note, people come to Medium for the social flywheel. The audience is already there. That's a huge value add compared to, say, just having a blog somewhere in the ether. That's also why so many writers are willing to pay $5/month to be there. It's an easy investment with a (potentially) huge upside--and part of that investment is the understanding that Medium will supply the traffic.
Now we have the CEO on record as saying that we will need to bring our audience to the show.
That's a lot of dissonance for writers to wrestle with.
To be clear, I appreciate Tony's "real talk." It's a refreshing change from what we had previously. But more and more, it feels like we're returning the era of gatekeeping pubs and away from the indie writer.
Agree with that last paragraph, Kevin. Ii appreciate that he talks publicly a lot. But I'm wondering how this will shake out in the long run. A lot of my readers tell me they aren't seeing my new posts in their feed. It's frustrating. Like you said -- lots of dissonance.
I don't know what this says about me, Linda, but I'm happy to get any sorts of readers any old way. Some of us might be in this game exclusively or primarily for the money, but I'm not. If I can develop a reputation for being a good writer and someone who supports other writers in their time of need, that's all I want.
To paraphrase Jesse Jackson: I may not be making a living writing, but I am somebody.
I hear a lot of people say that, David. And that's fine. Really, it is. But there should be room for a good writer to make a decent income at it, too. I had one of the top writers on Medium message me privately and say if they had my writing skill and their list, they'd clean up. That hit me in a weird place. Food for thought.
I think I understand what you're saying but Medium seems to make it incredibly difficult now to generate any readers at all except for the ones I manage to snag through social media posts, tagging, and dropping my link into comments on other stories around the Web. Too much work. I turned to Medium for help generating reads. If it's not providing that service, there seems to be little sense in staying on the platform.
I agree David but the thing is, one does need to make a living.
I am with you, David. xox
This seems like an underhanded way to increase Medium's profits by pressuring writers to convince people to join. If you spam your email list, coerce your family and friends to join Medium, you will be rewarded with a boost. Seems like it all is coming down to marketing, not writing. A change in the core purpose of the platform?
Last sentence is a valid question, Martin.
Totally agree. They're not making money so they're asking us to help them make money.
They are thinking like business owners who don't understand who their customers are. Medium might have formidable business costs that are eating up their profit. That's not my fault.
If I violate someone's trust by misusing their email, they will NEVER trust me again. They show it by opting-out and not reading another thing by me. People must have have the freedom to say "No."
Right? I so agree Margie. That's just something I'd never do. Might be time to build an actual list, but if I did, would I use it to drive external views on Medium? Not sure I would. You know?
I agree 100% Margie.
You are one of only two writers on Medium that keep me from cancelling my account, and you're the only reason I created a Substack account. I rarely ever write on Medium anymore because I find it an enormous waste of time. As someone without my own mailing list and who doesn't have 18 hours a day to try to build one, I originally turned to Medium to try to get more eyeballs on my writing -- a way of getting back in the game as someone who a long time ago used to make my fulltime living as a freelancer. The only time my stories generate any respectable number of views is when I really hustle to share the link to other sites/groups that may have interest in the piece in question -- or I tag the hell out of pieces on multiple social media posts. Medium doesn't pay us for those, of course. My lowest number of views/reads actually comes when my pieces land in big Medium publications. That seems to be the kiss of the death -- a big publication picks it up, and I get even fewer reads than self publishing. My dream is to rebuild my writing career -- writing again for a variety of national and local publications. I thought Medium could help me get some eyes on pieces written from the heart that really mean something to me, but that doesn't really happen. I know in my head that I would be way better off taking every second I waste on Medium and using it to pitch stories to real media outlets, and continue writing works in progress. I've even thought of Substack, which seems to make more sense, but it seems like I would have to invest the same enormous amount of time I don't have trying to build a list there -- or wait until I start publishing more frequently again in national publications and then using that to help build a list. I honestly have no idea.
The first sentence is a might nice compliment, so thank you. One thing I can say is that Substack is much easier than building a traditional newsletter or blog because they have a program called "grow" that helps find your readers. I have another publication on Medium called History of Women and it's growing quite quickly. On average, half a dozen people per day from the Substack network, and I've done nothing to promote it. I will write more about it in the upcoming weeks. I think writers might like to know about it. :)
Woah when a big pub picks it up, you get even fewer views and reads than self-publishing? Could you elaborate on that? I have a relatively small following, of 950 ish, and I've been gradually pitching to larger pubs to gain more exposure. So I'm curious what's happening in the big pubs that I may not be aware of here. :O
I find the same Sieran. The reason is that big publications tend to have more submissions, so each writer scrolls into oblivion faster. I'd had much more success with smaller publications.
Oooh I see. I assumed that when they limit the number of stories they publish a day (like The Writing Cooperative does), that would make up for it. But I forgot about the total number of submissions in the pub. Yeah our stories will get swallowed up by the mass of other articles much faster...
Yes, big pubs don't mean big reads. I have a feeling, though, that publishing on Tony's pubs is the way to go. Wink wink
Hahaha I hadn't thought of that, but good point. 😂
I clicked the heart, but not because I enjoyed this. More like it breaks my heart. I've begun focusing more on my Substack, because I see more potential here. Thanks for clarifying why my Medium traffic is slowing to a halt.
I'm with you, Jessica. Maybe time to focus more on Substack. Or some other list. My views on Medium are tanking, too. It sucks because I did a lot of work to build an audience there.
My views have tanked, too. I started 9 months ago. In your case, you were there for a long time so that sucks big time. I'm wondering why I bother to post on Medium anymore. It used to be different. Now it's just following Substack. If I have to find my own audience, why the hell would I want to publish on Medium?
That's a very valid question, June.
Same. I used to have a lot of my writing distributed when I first started writing on Medium. Then they stopped doing that. Then they changed the pay structure again, and again... In the old days I was excited to publish on medium in hopes of building an audience by getting my writing curated, but once that went away, I lost my excitement. Now, I pretty much “republish” what I write for substack on Medium and don’t focus any particular energy on Medium. I don’t waste time posting in all the medium Facebook groups because it takes a large amount of time to do it properly (post and read others to generate more reads)... I’m not focused on making money - it would just be nice to be able to generate some income from it. I average about twenty cents a month from Medium 😂 I probably need to stop paying to write there.
Cripes, sorry to hear Medium is such a bust for you. I suspect a lot of people are experiencing the same. I am making about 25% of what I did a year ago. It's old.
I hit the exit on most FB groups pretty quick- for a lot of the same reasons you've mentioned. I also noticed that the only thing a lot of writers were putting out were FB comments. I didn't want to fall into that same trap.
I think we will start seeing more & more familiar names from Medium pop up over here as people finally see what is happening. FWIW, I would be very happy to stand corrected if these changes turn out to benefit the "middle class" tier of Medium writers.
I would also be happy to say I stand corrected. Just don't think that's very likely. lol
Excellent questions raised and I have the same reluctance as you do about what I do with my (small) readership. I won't just plant them anywhere. I am getting reading to ask my Medium subscribes whether they would be willing to follow me on substack but I will never be one to do a grand transplanting.
I am very glad that writing is my hobby because if I needed my Medium payout as my source of income, it would be a very dark world for me.
lol Jill, you're not kidding on the last paragraph.
My head is spinning. I was steadily building a following which hit 1.2k and was making
hundreds a month and one viral hit which went over $3k. Then Tony arrives and it came to a screeching halt. Linda, I so appreciate your insight, and thoughts--Tony translations, really--but I'm still lost how I can regain any income on Medium. I'm so f'in frustrated that my best writing is now free content for a CEO who I believe doesn't care. Would Tony care that I took a part-time job to make up for it is which sucking away my writing time and creative energy? I'm sure he'd shrug and say, not my problem.
I hear you Marianne. A lot of us are just as frustrated as you. There was another video shortly after he started where he said writers should focus on "how else" they can make money from their writing. Earn more than once from the same writing, or something to that effect. Which is fine for people who are there promoting ebooks and courses. But some of us just want to write, and it feels like we're kind of being shoved in the background.
He seems to have no sense of how the majority of Medium writers--who are paying his bills--at $5 a month--are faring (badly) under his new biz model. Will he rethink this when enough of us jump ship and kneecap his free content stream?? I know he's a much smarter business person than I--easy to be-- but is he "Elon Musking" a great platform??
It does feel a bit like that, doesn't it? I don't think the platform will die. But I do think the number of people using it to grift and promote offers will increase.
"I'm sure he'd shrug and say, not my problem."
That's likely exactly what he'd say.
He's already gone on record as saying that Medium is for readers, not writers. The part he seems to be losing sight of is that you can't have one without the other.
Ah, yes, Kevin, I do recall that statement. And, your response is dead on. Appreciate the reply.
I think they want the Zulies and the umairs, and the Wildfires and the rest of us can suck eggs. Why should they promote our work? Because we're subscribers who provide content for practically nothing, that's why. Last month was my all time worst earning one in almost 3 years. I made more with zero followers than I do with over 2,000. What is even the point? I haven't found much benefit to sharing on Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. I think this is a sign that I need a new direction.
Yeah, I hear you. December was my worst month in over 2 years. Might be longer, but I didn't go back farther. Jessica said she is experiencing the same and has been focusing more on Substack, too. I don't know who is doing well. Self growth maybe? No idea. Not me, that's for sure. lol
Same here. They're doing the opposite if helping writers. They're just promoting ones who already have a name and a following.
I've been watching all these changes on Medium really closely. It's definitely going to change what I write there. Now I need to think about what articles people off-Medium might like to read. And I will have to start writing more like I write for publications off-Medium (eg., major online magazines). The problem with this is that Medium really was a place for readers to get to know the writer personally. I could write about subjects that wouldn't get an off-Medium audience, but I knew that my Medium readers would enjoy reading about. I also think about all the Medium readers who've told me I've helped them through my writing. This counts for nothing? I hate the idea of having to depend on Medium publications as gatekeepers. That was one of the beautiful things about Medium--self-publishing and actually gaining an audience. But I also understand that what Tony may be doing is trying to eradicate all the shit that gets published on Medium. Much of the articles are low quality. He's basically asking people to up their game--write articles that a vast, picky, internet audience will want to consume. The way I'm dealing with this is to up my social media game. I'm focused on readers outside of Medium now. I've been headed in this direction for a while--but this is basically a wakeup call to get this new focus going. The days of depending on Medium to build my audience for me are over. But yeah--if the focus is external views, then pay us for them....
Last sentence speaks volumes, Emme. If they want us to drive external traffic, pay us for them!
Thank you for breaking this down for me. Self promotion is sooooooooooooo hard- especially because it takes up time I could be creating.
Yes, exactly. From my perspective, I have almost 18K readers but a lot of readers have told me they don't see my posts in their feed. It feels a lot like facebook, where not all followers get to see what people post. So what was the point of building followers if I have to go out and promote content to external readers?
I clicked the heart because I'm glad to know this is happening. But I don't like it.
It reminds me of book publishing. "To publish" means "to publicize". We have to proof, edit, design the art, market, EVERYTHING except hiring the printer. WE are the ones publishing and they are getting 10-20 dollars, of which we get $1, maybe. Yeah, I was just beginning to make some money on M. Great. Not a fan.
Interestingly, that's one of the thing he said. Went back to the transcript I saved and he said the changes at Medium will bring it "more in line with the rest of publishing." Not a fan, either.
How tempting and simple it would be to collect past "stories" and sell anthologies. Hmm.
Yikes. Medium is getting worse. Writers with big lists don't go to Medium, they're on Substack.
Exactly. Writers with big list will end up here. The difference is that at Medium, readers aren't "my" audience, they're Medium's audience. On Substack, my audience is my audience. If I write something, everyone who follows me sees it. That doesn't happen on Medium. Good point!
Since Medium will have access to those lists owned by individual writers, will the Medium board decide to start marketing their platform to persons on that list?
Another question: will hackers be able to scrape those lists from Medium’s servers?
Those are valid questions, Linda. On the first, I would hope the answer would be no. On the second -- good question. They seem to be able to scrape content, but can they scrape lists. I don't know, but I don't aim to help them find out. lol
Perhaps the answer to my first question is in the proverbial “fine print” of the user’s agreement.
These issues don’t affect me. But if they did, I would be wondering about Medium’s *integrity.*
Corporate greed has been running rampant in all sectors of the economy.
And not just corporate greed, but the automatic assumption that they know what their customers want. That's another common one.
This is really sad and surprising but I guess I should have seen it coming. I’ve always thought of Medium somewhat like a magazine. They provide readers and writers submit stories for readers to enjoy and hopefully there is at least some payout to the writers. In theory, good writers and stories should rise to the top.
Now, we hear all that really matters is that writers bring a large audience to Medium. Sounds like they want others to do their marketing- thus using writers for their benefit even more than they already have. Writing is a tough gig but Medium once felt like a little light of hope. I naively thought those in charge cared both about readers and writers. Seems like neither is true.
I really think Tony looks at how "he" grew and thinks that's how it works for everyone. The difference is that he was always writing to build a business, and a lot of people who found Medium just want to write, not write to build a side hustle.
Appreciate the info Linda. I do not see a lot of boosting in my near future. 😂
Lmao, Lisa. That made me laugh. I do not see a lot of boosting in my near future, either. If I'm going to go use other sites to promote, it will be to promote something that's entirely mine, not a link to a site where the people I send don't even see me in their feed.