And the nail is struck firmly on the head. The internet has evolved to focus on easily-digestible multimedia content so emerging as a writer in this environment is profoundly difficult. When people do read stuff online, clickbait listicle bullshit is the order of the day, and sadly, it’s an order that Medium happily propagates. If you want to write online, you pretty much need to make a name for yourself through some other channel. Most people I read started out on Twitter or YouTube or some other large-audience platform.

Here’s what most prospective bloggers can look forward to: zero audience engagement and a very low view/read count regardless of how you advertise yourself or how often you release new stuff. It’s not an encouraging environment, especially when you watch the most asinine nonsense soar high above anything you or anyone you know will be capable of achieving in the readership stakes.

As with anything else, talent is not enough. You also need to be very lucky. And the number of people we see exceeding even a few hundred reads per week just isn’t high enough to warrant the time investment for newcomers.