Medium Is Making A Big Mistake And I Don't Think They See It (See Graph)
I made a graph and wow, it's so bad it's hilarious.
Happy Friday,
Which would you rather have, 100,000 followers who never read your work, or 1000 followers who read every word you write? For me, give me the readers.
That’s not universal. Lots would rather have the big following because it puffs up their ego. Makes other people think they’re more popular than they are.
Turns out, there’s a way to get avid readers.
It’s not what anyone is telling writers. It’s the opposite.
But first, let’s backtrack a little bit.
Last week I told you the founder of History of Yesterday is building his own site and getting ready to move off Medium. Frankly, he’s tired of being crapped on.
Curiosity gets me every time, so I started digging.
You know what? Let me just show you this chart. Have a look. Then I’ll explain. Because everything you think you knew? Yeah. Wrong.
The colored bars show views per month. At the bottom is followers.
Example 1: UX Collective gets 2.5 million views per month. 447K followers.
Example 2: History of Yesterday gets 2.1 million views/month. 26K followers.
So tell me — which of those has the avid readers?
Look at The Economist. Great big giant arse publication with 376 thousand followers and they can barely clear 100K reads per month.
Now here’s some real freaking irony.
In one of his interviews, Tony Stubblebine said the success of his publications are part of why he was offered the position of CEO when Ev stepped down. And if you look at follower count, they are successful. Better Humans has 389,000 followers.
Damn shame all those followers don’t read so much.
Like, half the reads History of Yesterday is getting with 26,000 followers.
You’d have to combine all the reads of Better Humans and Better Marketing to pass what History of Yesterday is doing with their measly 26K (avid) readers.
So I dunno, which publication do you think the curation fairy should kiss?
Common sense would say the one with avid readers. If people are not just reading but devouring content, maybe we should shine some light on those? Bring them more readers? But nope. That’s not how it works there.
There’s a lesson in this for writers.
If you want lots of followers who don’t read, you should definitely write about mainstream topics like personal growth and business.
But if you want avid readers? You need to join the lunatic fringe.
Write about fringe topics. That’s where the actual readers are.
When I go into my stats and sort by reads, I see it so clearly. There’s nothing mainstream at the top. All my strange interests float right to the top.
Go figure. Not sure I ever really looked at it that clearly.
Strangely, Ev said that back around the time of the bonuses.
He said if you want to succeed on Medium, you need to write about esoteric interests that will draw an audience who want to read what you’re writing. He was right. Damn shame the curation crew didn’t listen. Damn shame they don’t know how to interpret visitor stats. Because they’re downplaying the content with the most avid readers.
Which makes me think I need to bring my esoteric interests to Substack. Because Medium doesn’t get it. Maybe they’ll figure it out but I’m not holding my breath.
I’m curious. If you go into your Medium stats and sort by reads, what topics float to the top? I’d love to know if you’re seeing the same.
What I wrote this week…
Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this, click the heart to let me know. Hearts are how you tell me what to write more about. :)
xo,
Linda
I love stats. Didn't know I could play around with them like this.
I know Medium is populated by some smart people - has to be. But sometimes, I just get this notion that when they go to a gas station, they end up putting coffee in the tank and gas in their coffee cups.
There's something about how things are run that are always slightly off. But this stuff is very interesting. I agree on the fringe part. I flipped my stats around and can see that my most popular articles are off the beaten path or "straight from the heart."
Thanks Linda
Wow, your chart is compelling. Looking at my own stats, yes, my esoteric niche stories are all at the top. Funnily enough, though, my story that stands head and shoulders above the rest was published on Better Humans! What can I say, I'm an outlier in real life, too. :)
Thanks for continuing to look into this, Linda. I appreciate your observations!