Thanks for the heads up, Linda. I made a comment on Lincoln's post about how I think Medium is blackballing some writers and publications that are critical of the platform and of some of its popular writers. I do pretty well on this one publication. Almost everything I write for it is curated and most of the stories get read. One that was published on 10/30 has already netted me $850. There are another two publications for which I write where the editors publish stuff very critical of Medium and of some of its top writers. Nothing I write for them gets curated and their editors, who are both excellent writers, don't get curated even though they've both been on Medium about 2 years and have a lot of followers.
Denise, that's excellent!! I'm so glad to hear that you have a recent post doing so well. It gives me inspiration. Really interesting thoughts about the publications and how they play into it. I've noticed similar experiences, where different publications seem to have different curation results. I didn't think too much about it, but perhaps I should. Might be time for a new strategy. Thanks for this -- you've given me stuff to think about. I sure appreciate you.
I'm sorry to hear you've been hit, too. I've noticed some interesting things. For example.... almost everything I write about writing or business gets curated. If I write about politics or current events, it does not get curated. It almost feels suppressed in some weird way.
I was on a streak writing about current events for a while. End result of the doomscrolling, I suppose. lol. But while I was writing about those, my old posts about writing and marketing were the ones rising in views and income. Weird, right?
I'm not leaving Medium, though. But I'll probably spend a little time digging into my stats to see what I can make of them and cobble together a new strategy to see what happens.
Is it me or are they leaning toward political conservatism? That's certainly a sea change for Medium. Is anyone still posting here anymore? I have an important piece I may end up posting here just to get it out, but I'm trying to market it first. I find under recommendations stuff that's months and years old. Is anyone even writing here anymore?
It might be your feed -- I don't tend to see much political conservatism. The opposite is what I see more of. With your piece, I think the best route would be to find a mid sized publication that has a decent number of readers, but not the content volume the bigger ones have. The bigger publications seem to have so much content that new posts scroll into oblivion really quickly. There are still plenty writing -- just that the algorithm seems to make it hard to find them. I have to go to my people feed to find new content.
Interesting, yeah because I saw many conserv article in a row, for days and I was shocked. If you're willing to look at it, I'll send you a friend link to the article. It's political, historical, etc.
Yeah, I want to know more, too. On the one hand, I wish he'd just publish it. But on the other hand, I kind of understand. If he's going to publicize personal communication with Medium, he probably wants to know he has a good number of people behind him, so to speak.
I'm fascinated that their designer researcher did a Zoom call. It's heartening in a way, but the radio silence since is odd. I hope she brings some of that back to them and they actually consider the writers, who are also readers and likely more loyal than those who read and don't write. Writers have more invested in Medium than drive by readers.
Problem with short form content is that it doesn't pay, so I hope they fix that. I'm not a fan of the endless feed, either.
Thanks for the heads up, Linda. I made a comment on Lincoln's post about how I think Medium is blackballing some writers and publications that are critical of the platform and of some of its popular writers. I do pretty well on this one publication. Almost everything I write for it is curated and most of the stories get read. One that was published on 10/30 has already netted me $850. There are another two publications for which I write where the editors publish stuff very critical of Medium and of some of its top writers. Nothing I write for them gets curated and their editors, who are both excellent writers, don't get curated even though they've both been on Medium about 2 years and have a lot of followers.
Denise, that's excellent!! I'm so glad to hear that you have a recent post doing so well. It gives me inspiration. Really interesting thoughts about the publications and how they play into it. I've noticed similar experiences, where different publications seem to have different curation results. I didn't think too much about it, but perhaps I should. Might be time for a new strategy. Thanks for this -- you've given me stuff to think about. I sure appreciate you.
I don’t know what to say. I was averaging about 1000 reads with 90% curation. Once every two months, I’d have a piece spike and do very well.
Now I’m at 350 or so reads and curation is maybe 45%. And not a single story has done very well. Not one.
I knew something had happened. What? I didn’t know but I’ve been feeling deliberately passed over.
This is utterly shocking. I’m floored and angry. Wow...
Thanks for passing this along, Linda. I work too damn hard on my articles to have distribution artificially depressed like this. Too damn hard.
So, are you done with Medium? You leaving for good?
I'm sorry to hear you've been hit, too. I've noticed some interesting things. For example.... almost everything I write about writing or business gets curated. If I write about politics or current events, it does not get curated. It almost feels suppressed in some weird way.
I was on a streak writing about current events for a while. End result of the doomscrolling, I suppose. lol. But while I was writing about those, my old posts about writing and marketing were the ones rising in views and income. Weird, right?
I'm not leaving Medium, though. But I'll probably spend a little time digging into my stats to see what I can make of them and cobble together a new strategy to see what happens.
Is it me or are they leaning toward political conservatism? That's certainly a sea change for Medium. Is anyone still posting here anymore? I have an important piece I may end up posting here just to get it out, but I'm trying to market it first. I find under recommendations stuff that's months and years old. Is anyone even writing here anymore?
It might be your feed -- I don't tend to see much political conservatism. The opposite is what I see more of. With your piece, I think the best route would be to find a mid sized publication that has a decent number of readers, but not the content volume the bigger ones have. The bigger publications seem to have so much content that new posts scroll into oblivion really quickly. There are still plenty writing -- just that the algorithm seems to make it hard to find them. I have to go to my people feed to find new content.
Interesting, yeah because I saw many conserv article in a row, for days and I was shocked. If you're willing to look at it, I'll send you a friend link to the article. It's political, historical, etc.
Backacha.
Yeah, I want to know more, too. On the one hand, I wish he'd just publish it. But on the other hand, I kind of understand. If he's going to publicize personal communication with Medium, he probably wants to know he has a good number of people behind him, so to speak.
I'm fascinated that their designer researcher did a Zoom call. It's heartening in a way, but the radio silence since is odd. I hope she brings some of that back to them and they actually consider the writers, who are also readers and likely more loyal than those who read and don't write. Writers have more invested in Medium than drive by readers.
Problem with short form content is that it doesn't pay, so I hope they fix that. I'm not a fan of the endless feed, either.