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."
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!
Wondering if you came across this in your research. I know followers are not a direct indicator of readers, as you discussed. But lately my followers have been steadily climbing while my views and reads have been dropping. Even new posts are coughing out of the starting block while more people sign up to follow me. On the surface these seem like contrary facts. If in fact people are signing up to follow either they are doing it blindly or they're reading something first - which you would think would reflect in the views/reads. Anyway, yet another Medium stat to grab and dive down the rabbit hole with. 😆 Thanks - Joe
I have noticed the same, Joe. I have 17K followers and have gained 7K of those in the last year. Last September I had 10K. But my reads have been tanking. What I suspect is that they changed how they determine a read. If they changed what constitutes a read, it means they pay less. That checks out too. This July I had 3x more views that last July -- 22K last July and 66K this July. Yet my pay was almost identical. Like, pocket change apart. That makes me pretty mad, actually.
Wow, that's pretty damning, I have to admit. But not surprising.
I like to think of myself as being pretty pragmatic, but when it comes to Medium I do get a bit twitchy. My numbers haven't made sense to me for at least 2 years and I don't just mean quantity either. It's the juxtaposition of increasing followers + great comments + posts that seem to resonate with readers + an uptick in views overall and then suddenly everything bottoms outs. Nothing gets a read. It "FEELS" like members are literally not seeing what I am writing, not getting my stuff in their feeds, Nada! But how is that possible?
Alternative theory: your SEO is going smooth, great pains taken to follow Google's rules, nothing flakey at all and suddenly, your website is coming up on page 68 of search results. What happened? They changed the algorithm to even things out. Translation - free organic SEO actions were pushing paying customers too far down the results and they were complaining.
Excellent analysis, Linda. Views per follower tells quite a different story, doesn't it? But there is another factor, yet, isn't there? How many of those views actually convert to reads. My read rate is only about 40% of my views, and my "fans" (which is probably what I'm paid on) is only 15%. I think fans are the ones who who read and stick around to highlight, clap, and comment. I agree that writing good stuff that is unique and on the fringe has more appeal, at least to me. . . Keep up the good work of edifying us, Linda.
Thanks, Bob. Just FYI, it's not fans that you get paid for. If you go into the stats for each individual story, it shows you the total read minutes. ie, how many minutes members have spent reading the story. That's what you get paid on. Of course, the trouble is that the pay rate per read jumps around like fleas on a dog.
I said fans because I understand they spend more time reading and interacting with a piece. How does Medium measure read time? If we knew that we could tailor or work to maximize read time.
Yup. Me too. Smaller specialized niche pieces do better than my generic stuff. I really like the way you have presented these stats. I don't pay attention to who actually works for Medium, but I am wondering if it is a lot of tech bros. who want to show off their algorithmic talents, but haven't bothered to notice their stats are meaningless to actual users. Oh, and I wonder if those people have ever written anything but code?
I've been a fringe writer throughout almost my entire career. Right now I'm seeing every mainstream writer producing literal crap--they cannot even spell--yet they are reaping the rewards, getting all the attention and bringing home the bucks in the markets where I write.
That must suck to watch, alan. There's a historian that writes on Medium. Like, she writes history books and teaches history. And know what floats up above her posts. Stupid marketing and self growth pieces tagged "history" because they use some historical figure in an analogy. So stupid, truly.
Thanks for your fresh perspective, as always. I sorted by Reads and my most read story is How Blue Zone Habits Help You Live Longer. Then there are two about space/ufos, one about self intimacy and thankfully a short fiction that I love. Interesting.
Hey David. They are from SimilarWeb.com. You can get the stats on any publication that has a custom domain. Unfortunately, they can't grab stats on any publication that only uses a Medium url and just give Medium's stats. So I grabbed a handful that use custom domains and plopped them in. Then I graphed it. The chart isn't from similar web. I used a graph maker to create it from the numbers at Similar Web. :)
've just read your article several times, and looked at the graph, and i still can't figire out what a follower is when you talk about The Economist. It costs money, about two fifty a year to subscribe to it, and you probably do read it once you've paid that money.
But what is a follower of a paid magazine? How do they compare? Do they compare at all? I want to understand this better,
I figured out it was something like that. I read that magazine, and it has real, hard-working journalists. Look carefully at a feature article,. and you'll se how the author has traveled extensively to get it right. Some articles are two years in the making.
That's very true, Philp. Point is, though, that they are doing great at amassing followers, but they aren't getting reads. Not sure why that is, but just really shows that having a big following is no guarantee of getting the read. You know?
The number isn't a secret because they show it in stats. There's a bunch of metrics to determine whether a page is read. It's a bunch of stuff like there has to be scrolling not just sitting on the page. And you have to reach the bottom of the posts, not just part way. They are trying to figure out who actually read as opposed to just opened and scrolled. Because believe it or not, people try to game the system to show "reads" for their friends without actually reading. lol. The whole thing is kind of bizarre
It's so true, right? People think a big following is what matters. It's not at all. lol. Not one bit. Doesn't matter how many followers if they don't read.
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
lol coffee in the gas tank. Yes, that exactly. Glad you hear your heart posts floated to the top. Same for me. :)
GREAT reply, Joe!
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!
lol Jessica. That's awesome that you got your best results at Better Humans. It's like when a comedian can make a tough crowd laugh.
Hey Linda
Wondering if you came across this in your research. I know followers are not a direct indicator of readers, as you discussed. But lately my followers have been steadily climbing while my views and reads have been dropping. Even new posts are coughing out of the starting block while more people sign up to follow me. On the surface these seem like contrary facts. If in fact people are signing up to follow either they are doing it blindly or they're reading something first - which you would think would reflect in the views/reads. Anyway, yet another Medium stat to grab and dive down the rabbit hole with. 😆 Thanks - Joe
I have noticed the same, Joe. I have 17K followers and have gained 7K of those in the last year. Last September I had 10K. But my reads have been tanking. What I suspect is that they changed how they determine a read. If they changed what constitutes a read, it means they pay less. That checks out too. This July I had 3x more views that last July -- 22K last July and 66K this July. Yet my pay was almost identical. Like, pocket change apart. That makes me pretty mad, actually.
Wow, that's pretty damning, I have to admit. But not surprising.
I like to think of myself as being pretty pragmatic, but when it comes to Medium I do get a bit twitchy. My numbers haven't made sense to me for at least 2 years and I don't just mean quantity either. It's the juxtaposition of increasing followers + great comments + posts that seem to resonate with readers + an uptick in views overall and then suddenly everything bottoms outs. Nothing gets a read. It "FEELS" like members are literally not seeing what I am writing, not getting my stuff in their feeds, Nada! But how is that possible?
Alternative theory: your SEO is going smooth, great pains taken to follow Google's rules, nothing flakey at all and suddenly, your website is coming up on page 68 of search results. What happened? They changed the algorithm to even things out. Translation - free organic SEO actions were pushing paying customers too far down the results and they were complaining.
What to do, what to do? 🤔
Excellent analysis, Linda. Views per follower tells quite a different story, doesn't it? But there is another factor, yet, isn't there? How many of those views actually convert to reads. My read rate is only about 40% of my views, and my "fans" (which is probably what I'm paid on) is only 15%. I think fans are the ones who who read and stick around to highlight, clap, and comment. I agree that writing good stuff that is unique and on the fringe has more appeal, at least to me. . . Keep up the good work of edifying us, Linda.
Thanks, Bob. Just FYI, it's not fans that you get paid for. If you go into the stats for each individual story, it shows you the total read minutes. ie, how many minutes members have spent reading the story. That's what you get paid on. Of course, the trouble is that the pay rate per read jumps around like fleas on a dog.
I said fans because I understand they spend more time reading and interacting with a piece. How does Medium measure read time? If we knew that we could tailor or work to maximize read time.
A "fan" just means they clapped. So if I go to your post and skim at best, scroll to the bottom and then clap once, I am counted as a fan. :)
Yup. Me too. Smaller specialized niche pieces do better than my generic stuff. I really like the way you have presented these stats. I don't pay attention to who actually works for Medium, but I am wondering if it is a lot of tech bros. who want to show off their algorithmic talents, but haven't bothered to notice their stats are meaningless to actual users. Oh, and I wonder if those people have ever written anything but code?
I know, right? The stats there are so useless it's not even funny. Like, has anyone there ever used any real stats programs before? lol
I've been a fringe writer throughout almost my entire career. Right now I'm seeing every mainstream writer producing literal crap--they cannot even spell--yet they are reaping the rewards, getting all the attention and bringing home the bucks in the markets where I write.
That must suck to watch, alan. There's a historian that writes on Medium. Like, she writes history books and teaches history. And know what floats up above her posts. Stupid marketing and self growth pieces tagged "history" because they use some historical figure in an analogy. So stupid, truly.
Thanks for your fresh perspective, as always. I sorted by Reads and my most read story is How Blue Zone Habits Help You Live Longer. Then there are two about space/ufos, one about self intimacy and thankfully a short fiction that I love. Interesting.
Isn't that interesting, Tree? It kind of justified writing about my strange interests. Other people like them, too. Glad you see the same. :)
Hey Linda, I'm curious. What is the source of that chart? Are the number of views a particular publication gets publicly available somewhere?
Hey David. They are from SimilarWeb.com. You can get the stats on any publication that has a custom domain. Unfortunately, they can't grab stats on any publication that only uses a Medium url and just give Medium's stats. So I grabbed a handful that use custom domains and plopped them in. Then I graphed it. The chart isn't from similar web. I used a graph maker to create it from the numbers at Similar Web. :)
've just read your article several times, and looked at the graph, and i still can't figire out what a follower is when you talk about The Economist. It costs money, about two fifty a year to subscribe to it, and you probably do read it once you've paid that money.
But what is a follower of a paid magazine? How do they compare? Do they compare at all? I want to understand this better,
Hey Philip. The chart refers to the Economist's publication on Medium, not the magazine. :)
I figured out it was something like that. I read that magazine, and it has real, hard-working journalists. Look carefully at a feature article,. and you'll se how the author has traveled extensively to get it right. Some articles are two years in the making.
That's very true, Philp. Point is, though, that they are doing great at amassing followers, but they aren't getting reads. Not sure why that is, but just really shows that having a big following is no guarantee of getting the read. You know?
We would have to know what they consider “a read”. Maybe they want that number to be a secret?
The number isn't a secret because they show it in stats. There's a bunch of metrics to determine whether a page is read. It's a bunch of stuff like there has to be scrolling not just sitting on the page. And you have to reach the bottom of the posts, not just part way. They are trying to figure out who actually read as opposed to just opened and scrolled. Because believe it or not, people try to game the system to show "reads" for their friends without actually reading. lol. The whole thing is kind of bizarre
It's so true, right? People think a big following is what matters. It's not at all. lol. Not one bit. Doesn't matter how many followers if they don't read.