Digging My Views Gives Me Hope
Moving outside Medium may not be the foolish plan it seems.
I’m not insanely interested in views. I’m much more interested in connections and regulars. So, claps and comments are more interesting metrics for me.
My only concern about views is that they usually tell me loud how little I can count on Medium to have my work visible.
The suspicion
After 16 months of an active presence on Medium, as of late I usually get less than 100 views per story. Old days with hundreds of views are gone.
But a few days ago, I checked the top stories by views. I usually check them by fans because that’s the metric I care most. But I checked by views, and I saw stats in a new perspective.
Not too bad, but also not a success, since I’m here since long.
What’s interesting is the low number of fans of the top three stories. I already noticed it in the past but in this particular moment of my “writing career” this is good news, for me.
Checking better
I’m not mad. Or, better, I’m mad, but not that mad.
The relatively low number of fans of those top 3 stories tell me that it has nothing to do with the “quality” of the stories, rather with the source of the views.
The top 3 stories are mostly referred — by far — from Google. The 4th and 5th stories were mostly referred by the usual Medium channels.
A few months ago, all of my top ten got reads from Medium. Now the top of my ranking gets views only from Google.
And that’s a fundamental shift for me, because I’m completely disillusioned about Medium and — since Medium is advertising escapism — I’m trying to escape Medium.
Is It the End of My Blogging on Medium?
Medium is the main road, but it's not going my way.
medium.com
I know what you are thinking. External blogs are dead. It’s suicide.
My reply is: writing is suicide. Let me decide how I want my stories to die.
Let me explain better.
The most popular of my “Google” stories on Medium (12 total fans) has stats like that:
While the first of my “Medium” stories (that with 232 fans) shows like that:
I’m sure you noticed a slight difference.
Six occasional fans in a month are still sixsatisfied readers — and this may be good, depending on your writing goals — , but 23 views tell that your story is going nowhere and that your growth opportunities are equal to… zero. If growth has a role in your goals, your only hope is a letter to Santa.
1640 dense views are not a success, okay, but your name and your story sail the sea. For the long run you need your stories to receive exposure.
Six fans without visibility won’t bring your writing career anywhere anyway.
Did Medium help?
You could tell that Medium helped to be visible to Google.
No, it’s the contrary for three reasons.
First, all of my stories that can address a search (you can tell just from the title) have Google as the main referrer, and constant views. While all the other stories are not “boosted” by Medium, nor have constant views. They’re just stone dead after a couple of days, both on Medium and on Google. That means that those “Google” stories just helped themselves to find their way out of Medium.
Second, while Medium may have a good ranking, the website is not specific at all, and the vast majority of its pages have very low popularity. In Google eyes, there’s no reason to prefer your story because it’s published on Medium. It could even be pejorative. The ranking of Medium helps Medium, not your stories.
Third, I’ve seen that before. My first experiences with external websites showed me statistics which could be poor, but didn’t die the day after. An external website can drive views, over time, especially if it’s specific (as it should be) and has a good SEO.
Writing for the Web is different
Writing for Google or for Medium are two different things. And my “Google” articles were “Google” articles from the beginning. Not that I did any SEO or analysis, but the topic and the title could clearly address a search. Also, the content is more or less evergreen and can compete with other articles in the field.
When you write on Medium, you can write about anything, and meet someone in the community who can relate. But they access your stories because they belong to the same community.
The moment that Medium doesn’t drive views to your stories, you’re virtually dead, mourned by your was-loyal audience.
If you want your story to be seen on the Web, you have to do your homework — regarding strategy, value, SEO, and promotion — . And an external website — with a custom domain and a proper showcase — is a better tool. Medium is not a good place to highlight the best of your work, and is also perceived as a barrier by most of the readers. Driving views to Medium won’t drive readers to you.
Medium is a social network and a magazine. A social network that already has its own celebrities and where editors decide who can survive.
Writing for the Web means that a good part of your writing answer questions, or give a lot of value. Your content has to be so interesting that people decide to share. Building an audience will be harder but you will be exposed to the opportunities of the entire online — and also non-online — world, not just Medium.
Maybe this is not what you want.
But most of the readers are outside Medium, especially those who can make a difference in your writing career. You cannot ignore that anyway. You have to promote your work outside Medium.
Depending on your writing and your goals, also having some articles which can address Google are not a bad idea.
Building outside
I’m not blind. Independent websites are a big risk and a lot of extra work. And, maybe, they are not the future.
I love my community on Medium. I’m not leaving it.
But, while you can have friends, on Medium, you can’t have a writing career. Unless you have terrific alchemy of productivity and interesting factors, your growth is inexorably capped.
The little money from the MPP is just a distraction, and a dangerous trail.
I’m starting to prefer a small and reliable home — which requires important compromises — , rather than a large building floating on the sand, where I’m a guest and not much welcomed.
Now I see that some of my stories can survive outside Medium. Medium and Google are two different stars, emitting different kind of lights. The light from Google is colder. Still, it’s more reliable in taking care of your evergreen content.
And not only Google is there. Potential readers and referrers who consider Medium a barrier are more than you can think.
I’m here for fun and because of no alternatives. But there’s no future for writers like me, on Medium, apart from the fun. I need to put my feet outside. Views are not my goal but being read is. The few readers here — given the new course of Medium — will never become a crowd.
I’m already building the external website related to one of my publications on Medium. With a custom domain, featured posts, and all the others bell and whistles. I can also do a multilingual setup, one of the needs of many writers that Medium still refuses to address.
It’s a sad move. And I’m fully aware that it’s a step back regarding results and Medium love.
Still, I prefer a step back than two false steps ahead.
