Following 10 Days of Inactivity…
… I was in for a not so pleasant surprise
This has been a prolific year for me on this platform. September was my best ever month in terms of consistency. I made a total of 13 posts in the first 25 days of the month. That’s an average of one post every two days, and maintained a steady increase that I have been attempting to achieve over the course of the last many months.
This unusually high productivity, and consequently a steady increase in readership as also the overall engagement with readers, has palpably been beyond my expectations. No wonder I got carried away to an extent. It wasn’t as if consistency led to complacency, but it did make me wonder what will be the case if there is a break in the momentum.
And so I made a deliberate move. I took a somewhat elaborate vacation and visited three different countries in the period. I made no posts for 10 days in succession. In fact, I didn’t log into my account at all in this period.
On a rest day, when I was relaxing in my hotel room, I happened to check my account. I was in for a shock. The period of inactivity had had a drastic impact. The views had dropped significantly. Other prolific writers show screen shots of their page views and overall performance.
I don’t have the guts to do that simply because I do not have as many followers. My competition is with myself and no one else. The overall readership of my submissions may have increased hugely in the last 15 months or so, thanks to a consistent approach, but it’s still a long way to go before I can fathom displaying numbers with some pride.
On the 11th day I made my first posting for October. It didn’t register at all. I had expected it to do well, but I was left disappointed. A few days later I made another posting. On this occasion, it worked. Not only did it attain steady readership, but I also got to interact with quite a few of the readers.
While I have posted a few times since, and would like to believe I am back on track, these 10 days of inactivity — in fact two weeks with just one posting — made me wonder if I will always be able to maintain a certain consistency that will have readers consistently hooked.
Till the middle of 2021 I had been inconsistent on Medium, and as such indifferent to the number game. I posted when I wanted to, and didn’t care how well the post was received. It didn’t matter if the same didn’t register at all. However, things have become a lot different since. I contribute regularly and numbers do matter.
So the drastic drop in numbers, even as I was enjoying a vacation, did leave me disappointed. It is not that I couldn’t have published during those 10 days of inactivity. There are always ready-made drafts — written keeping periods like these in mind — that can be published at any given time. It is just that I chose not to. I wanted to witness the outcome of this period of lull. Needless to say, I was in for a surprise that was anything but pleasant.
That being said, I also got to know Medium’s overall engagement is down. Kristina God’s posts, something I read on a regular basis, not only confirmed the overall views on this platform are at an all-time low but also were motivational to an extent. It’s not as if I was the only one suffering.
As such, even though I was somewhat disappointed, I wasn’t entirely dejected. The vacation is over, and I am back to try to regain the momentum that I have achieved over the last few months. The message is clear. I have to do more, and maintain the consistency that I have worked so diligently towards achieving. I plan to end the year on a high. Hopefully, at the start of next year, I will be able to come up with more positive news.
That being said, there has been a ray of hope amid all the gloom. Despite the overall readership going down quite a few notches, my account actually witnessed an increase in followers. In fact, it has been a sizeable increase, of almost 10 per cent. For someone who cannot yet boast of having many followers, there is no better motivation to start afresh, on a clean slate, and continue going forward with the rebuilding phase.
