Fuck These Medium Statistics
In case you didn’t know, I haven’t been writing on Medium for the last month.
Because we came out with a huge Magazine, I published content that was in the Magazine itself instead of writing brand new stories.
(Well, the one new story I wrote was this one, but that’s it.)
It was nice to take a step back from pushing myself on here every day, but since I got bored, I ended up writing damn near 50,000 words of my new ebook instead.
So much for a writing break.
There’s been a weird trend I’ve noticed here lately: my stories aren’t getting as many views as usual.
They’re still getting responses and fans, but I used to have a nice little view-to-fan formula that worked pretty damn well:
For every 10 views my article got, I’d normally garner 1 fan.
So, if my story had 500 views, it was only natural that I should expect it to have somewhere near 50 fans.
It’s not quite the same anymore.
I think Medium changed its algorithm sometime during the last two weeks. I’ve been getting just as many fans, but MUCH less traffic to my pieces recently.
I think it’s because they aren’t putting as much weight in the fans/claps as they did the recommends.
As I thought about this, my declining follower rate, and how Medium is slowly but surely changing things around here, I realized something:
Fuck the stats.
Medium Has Been A Blessing
There was a stretch there where I was getting 500 new followers per week. It was ridiculous. Now I’m lucky to get 100, which is still RIDICULOUS if you asked me.
Why am I upset about my stats going down?
Maybe because I feel like I’m a bad writer or something.
It’s not even about the stats, though. It’s about the people I get to meet here.
It’s about expressing myself to an audience — any audience — that likes to hear from me.
I’m not saying “Fuck Medium!” Far from it, actually.
I just have to realize that my little unchecked run here on this platform had its day. I seem to believe this place MIGHT BE promoting pieces from lesser-known authors more, and if they are, that’s completely fine with me.
I’m serious.
I try to shout out people to follow in my newsletters all the time. It’s been one of my favorite aspects of running my publication.
In the end, Medium needs to have equal opportunity for everybody to TRULY be great. I want everyone to feel like I did when I really started to gain an audience here.
Medium Is Ever-Changing, And I Have To Love It Through Said Changes
Just recently Medium opened up its “claps” feature, and I must say I was less-than enthused.
Then a couple weeks later they rolled out their Partner Program, and I basically jumped through the roof!
Medium’s changing, and I have to love it through these changes.
It’s not the same platform it was one year ago. One year ago it seemed like the wild wild west where 5–10 writers dominated the scene. Now it definitely seems like a platform with a level playing field (ESPECIALLY RECENTLY).
As an avid user, it’s been cool to watch Medium change over the months.
Statistics Don’t Make You A Good Writer
The Medium algorithms are constantly evolving. You can’t let the stats determine whether you’re a “good writer” or not.
There’s pieces I’ve republished from my old blog that got 10 views back in the day, but on here they get 200.
That tells you my writing back then WASN’T bad, it’s just that I have an audience now.
Feel me?
So don’t put too much weight in the statistics. Just write, edit, publish, then leave the damn thing to hang out with friends/family.
It’s better this way, trust me.
