To paraphrase the great Canadian bard Gordon Lightfoot: "Oh. Linda, they've done us wrong..."
I honestly don't care about how the sausage is made there anymore. I took the enhancement off my stats and don't ever check them. I'm content with where I am at this moment with them.
Some writers I like are leaving the platform like it was the "Titanic" after the iceberg hit, and I know I will miss their presence. But my autistic mindset compels me to remain loyal to those who are staying put, and when I can publish something new, people actually read it. That's all I want.
I know it won't make a lot of money. When I announced I was taking my Substack paid, I said that earning money was as unstable as She-Hulk's mood swings, and I stand by that. For Medium, you're writing for anyone who will listen, whereas with Substack people sign up to your account to listen to you alone.
Honestly, I don't know what's going on Medium HQ, and I don't want to know. But as long as people are still stirring the pot on it, I want to be there....
A little known fact is that, although NewsBreak prefers local stories, you don't have to only write about where you live. For instance, I live in Pennsylvania but I can still write local stories about other states. When you go to publish, you just put in the appropriate location.
I nearly quit writing because of how beat up I felt on Medium. I'm convinced readers must scroll to the bottom for the read to count. On NewsBreak, all they have to do is click on the story for it to count. Writing there is building back the self-esteem I lost on Medium.
My Medium readers are mostly strangers but Substack are people I’ve known or interacted with. I just made the switch to Stack and feel more pressure for it to be good. Medium is a place is can write something quick and submit to different publications for even greater readership. And then making time to submit to periodicals... keeping busy! I’d love a follow on here and Medium. Thanks for the interaction.
I’ve been away from Medium for a while, but lately I’ve been cross-posting with no real action. It seems dead over there, but I suppose it doesn’t hurt to put our pieces there, too.
I had to laugh when I saw what I made at Medium last month. 34cents!
RE: “I used towrite for print magazines back when I had the patience for the process and wait times.”
Ah, so like Poe, in your previous life, you were a ‘magazineist.’ Eddie (the nickname used by his wife Virginia and mother-in-law Maria Clem Poe) coined that phrase to describe his primary source of income, as writing poetry was a dead-end.
I liked David P's comment a lot! Echoes how I feel about Medium these days. I've been one of those writers you reference - saying/believing I don't have the time for Substack. Never thought about simply copying and pasting! More grist for the mill. (Is that the right expresson? Not enough caffeine in my system yet) Thank you as always, Linda
I’ve probably shifted to 90% Substack vs. Medium. I don’t even look at the Stats page anymore- I just find it annoying.
For expected paid rates, Substack has revised that down a bit toward the 3-5% range. That’s in line with my own newsletter and most people I talk to.
One last point you made that I want to double click on: “writing once, publishing many” is something more people should know about. It’s your work! You want to write in on Substack and crosspost to Medium (or vv)? Go ahead. There’s nothing wrong with that.
Medium is SERIOUSLY broken now. My last published story has 3 whole readers and 105 claps. I haven't seen 105 claps since my FIRST day on the platform, four years ago.
The fact that I have 4700 followers and my headline scored in the high 80s, this is the most pathetic I've seen Medium, ever.
I'm a reader 99% of the time, and a poor writer the other 1%. I've kept my Medium subscription only because a few of my favorite writers publish some content in Medium that doesn't get to Substack until later, or not at all. My Medium Daily Digest gets a very quick skim, and very few reads, because it rarely aligns with my interests. Even though I am retired, I have a lot of things to devote time to. I also feel strongly that writers should be supported (read paid), and I have committed more to subscriptions than I used to pay for the daily newspaper. (If you don't know "newspaper", ask your grandmother.) So every day I get close to an hour's worth of reading just from my subscriptions. That limits how many more I can follow. It's really difficult to fill a teacup from a firehose, which is what the Internet is becoming. This is not just affecting writers. Consider cable TV, which now has less than 50% of the households in the country. The rest are using streaming services. Yet almost every one of the streaming services is losing money. Free, ad-supported content is taking a big bite. Those who offer live TV are really getting hit, because it costs more to provide live TV, but only a little more than 8 million households use a live TV service. As noted by Gunnar De Winter (https://medium.com/predict/has-going-viral-killed-1-000-true-fans-f3432737a719), the Kevin Kelly model of having 1,000 true fans to achieve a viable income seems to no longer be working. At this point I'm long on observations and opinions, but short on answers.
I pretty much only write for Substack at this point. That’s where my readers are. I just republish from Substack to Medium (don’t even know why I still do it!). I guess I am hesitant to stop Medium because I had so much published there and want to be sure to download all my content before canceling...
Followers are good, but I track my ratio, views to reads. Maybe it has to do with my short articles, about three to four minutes each. maybe it's because I get responses to my comments. But my ratio is over seventy percent so far. Something is working for me here.
The one consistent thing Medium has done in the years I've been a member/reader/writer is to change things regularly. Each change results in writers who are used to making money having figured out the previous "system" taking to the airwaves with WTF posts. Then someone figures out the new system and starts with the "I made X on Medium" followed shortly by offering courses to teach you how they learned the system until Medium changes things again.
To paraphrase the great Canadian bard Gordon Lightfoot: "Oh. Linda, they've done us wrong..."
I honestly don't care about how the sausage is made there anymore. I took the enhancement off my stats and don't ever check them. I'm content with where I am at this moment with them.
Some writers I like are leaving the platform like it was the "Titanic" after the iceberg hit, and I know I will miss their presence. But my autistic mindset compels me to remain loyal to those who are staying put, and when I can publish something new, people actually read it. That's all I want.
I know it won't make a lot of money. When I announced I was taking my Substack paid, I said that earning money was as unstable as She-Hulk's mood swings, and I stand by that. For Medium, you're writing for anyone who will listen, whereas with Substack people sign up to your account to listen to you alone.
Honestly, I don't know what's going on Medium HQ, and I don't want to know. But as long as people are still stirring the pot on it, I want to be there....
A little known fact is that, although NewsBreak prefers local stories, you don't have to only write about where you live. For instance, I live in Pennsylvania but I can still write local stories about other states. When you go to publish, you just put in the appropriate location.
I nearly quit writing because of how beat up I felt on Medium. I'm convinced readers must scroll to the bottom for the read to count. On NewsBreak, all they have to do is click on the story for it to count. Writing there is building back the self-esteem I lost on Medium.
My Medium readers are mostly strangers but Substack are people I’ve known or interacted with. I just made the switch to Stack and feel more pressure for it to be good. Medium is a place is can write something quick and submit to different publications for even greater readership. And then making time to submit to periodicals... keeping busy! I’d love a follow on here and Medium. Thanks for the interaction.
Right now, I have one paid and just over a hundred free. Most of those people know me from Medium.
I focus most of my energy on Substack - the read radio is incredible! I will repost in Medium when I have the chance 😊
I’ve been away from Medium for a while, but lately I’ve been cross-posting with no real action. It seems dead over there, but I suppose it doesn’t hurt to put our pieces there, too.
I had to laugh when I saw what I made at Medium last month. 34cents!
RE: “I used towrite for print magazines back when I had the patience for the process and wait times.”
Ah, so like Poe, in your previous life, you were a ‘magazineist.’ Eddie (the nickname used by his wife Virginia and mother-in-law Maria Clem Poe) coined that phrase to describe his primary source of income, as writing poetry was a dead-end.
I liked David P's comment a lot! Echoes how I feel about Medium these days. I've been one of those writers you reference - saying/believing I don't have the time for Substack. Never thought about simply copying and pasting! More grist for the mill. (Is that the right expresson? Not enough caffeine in my system yet) Thank you as always, Linda
Their tech is truly terrible. Small extra example: according to them no one ever reads my friend links, even when I know for certain people have
I’ve probably shifted to 90% Substack vs. Medium. I don’t even look at the Stats page anymore- I just find it annoying.
For expected paid rates, Substack has revised that down a bit toward the 3-5% range. That’s in line with my own newsletter and most people I talk to.
One last point you made that I want to double click on: “writing once, publishing many” is something more people should know about. It’s your work! You want to write in on Substack and crosspost to Medium (or vv)? Go ahead. There’s nothing wrong with that.
Medium is SERIOUSLY broken now. My last published story has 3 whole readers and 105 claps. I haven't seen 105 claps since my FIRST day on the platform, four years ago.
The fact that I have 4700 followers and my headline scored in the high 80s, this is the most pathetic I've seen Medium, ever.
I'm a reader 99% of the time, and a poor writer the other 1%. I've kept my Medium subscription only because a few of my favorite writers publish some content in Medium that doesn't get to Substack until later, or not at all. My Medium Daily Digest gets a very quick skim, and very few reads, because it rarely aligns with my interests. Even though I am retired, I have a lot of things to devote time to. I also feel strongly that writers should be supported (read paid), and I have committed more to subscriptions than I used to pay for the daily newspaper. (If you don't know "newspaper", ask your grandmother.) So every day I get close to an hour's worth of reading just from my subscriptions. That limits how many more I can follow. It's really difficult to fill a teacup from a firehose, which is what the Internet is becoming. This is not just affecting writers. Consider cable TV, which now has less than 50% of the households in the country. The rest are using streaming services. Yet almost every one of the streaming services is losing money. Free, ad-supported content is taking a big bite. Those who offer live TV are really getting hit, because it costs more to provide live TV, but only a little more than 8 million households use a live TV service. As noted by Gunnar De Winter (https://medium.com/predict/has-going-viral-killed-1-000-true-fans-f3432737a719), the Kevin Kelly model of having 1,000 true fans to achieve a viable income seems to no longer be working. At this point I'm long on observations and opinions, but short on answers.
I pretty much only write for Substack at this point. That’s where my readers are. I just republish from Substack to Medium (don’t even know why I still do it!). I guess I am hesitant to stop Medium because I had so much published there and want to be sure to download all my content before canceling...
Followers are good, but I track my ratio, views to reads. Maybe it has to do with my short articles, about three to four minutes each. maybe it's because I get responses to my comments. But my ratio is over seventy percent so far. Something is working for me here.
The one consistent thing Medium has done in the years I've been a member/reader/writer is to change things regularly. Each change results in writers who are used to making money having figured out the previous "system" taking to the airwaves with WTF posts. Then someone figures out the new system and starts with the "I made X on Medium" followed shortly by offering courses to teach you how they learned the system until Medium changes things again.