Congrats, David. Per Medium rules meta stories aren't distributed so this was just a glitch in the Matrix. Nevertheless, some yours tips can be applied to non-meta. I'd recommend not using clickbait as it's also a big no-no on Medium.
"Here's what happened" is a clickbait formula. Using it will make any non-meta story not suitable for further distribution outside your network. Medium rules are strict regarding the use of those.
That's a simplist take on clickbait and not Medium's official stance:
"Clickbait text or images. We like the Wikipedia definition of clickbait as “...designed to attract attention and to entice users to follow that link and read, view, or listen to the linked piece of online content."
You can disagree, everyone is entitled to an opinion, but that title, as per Medium quality guidelines, would clearly fall into the clickbait category.
Rui's correct here; I'm not saying you're doing anything clickbait-y; rather your title meet's *Medium's* definition of it, and it wouldn't be eligible for Boost. Meta stories are one of the categories explicitly marked as ineligible as well.
It doesn't make a lot of sense to me - the Medium algorithm or the Boost algorithm.
I wrote an article last June titled "As a Heavy User, My Mood Towards GPT Has Changed: Here’s Why".
It didn't get a lot of reads at the start, then in the middle of July, it went kooky. It's made me $503 so far and is my 4th highest-paying article. The article was never Boosted and pretty much all the views/reads were internal. With external, I've had a few articles show up high on Google search (15K-20K views) but they don't make much money on Medium.
On Medium Boosts - I've had 17 of them - some in Tech, some in life style. Very recently, I started focusing on title generation using an online headline analyzer tool. Once I started using it, I had 3 boosts in 6 articles. This made me realize that there's a connection between titles and boost-ability.
All this variability has also made me realize I need something more stable, which is why I'm gradually sliding over her to Substack.
I like both platforms, and I sometimes cross-share between them. Readers on each tend to prefer a slightly different approach but it’s worth experimenting.
Fascinating thank you so much. I’ve not long joined Substack and only recently heard about Medium. I’m a Past Life Expert and Medium is a word that gets banded around my circles so I could have been missing signs. Do you find it easy to run Substack and Medium concurrently? Do you write different content for both? I’d love your feedback. 💜
Medium's interesting; readers say they don't want to see these kinds of stories in their feeds, yet as writers/editors, we know they do extremely well. It's an odd disconnect.
In my limited and modest experience, algorithms have not always predicted results for articles or stories. Moreover, sometimes even a book may take off for no perceivable reason. Years ago, I tried to salvage some segments of a very incomplete manuscript my mother left behind (*A Slow Train to Budapest*, by Ann Abelson). Eventually, I "rescued" two parts, and put them up on Kindle for 99 cents each. [I later combined them in a single volume when I went "wide."] I appended to the manuscript a crappy cover and did absolutely NO marketing/promo.
For whatever reason, this "Jewish roots" title did surprisingly well not in the USA, but in the UK. Volume One had well over 5,000 sales; Volume Two had almost as many. And surprise, surprise: I've spent hundreds marketing other works and garnered virtually no sales whatsoever.
Congrats, David. Per Medium rules meta stories aren't distributed so this was just a glitch in the Matrix. Nevertheless, some yours tips can be applied to non-meta. I'd recommend not using clickbait as it's also a big no-no on Medium.
Thanks Rui. I don’t use clickbait.
"Here's what happened" is a clickbait formula. Using it will make any non-meta story not suitable for further distribution outside your network. Medium rules are strict regarding the use of those.
Clickbait draws people in with a false promise and fails to deliver, which isn't my approach. But we can agree to disagree on that one.
That's a simplist take on clickbait and not Medium's official stance:
"Clickbait text or images. We like the Wikipedia definition of clickbait as “...designed to attract attention and to entice users to follow that link and read, view, or listen to the linked piece of online content."
You can disagree, everyone is entitled to an opinion, but that title, as per Medium quality guidelines, would clearly fall into the clickbait category.
Rui's correct here; I'm not saying you're doing anything clickbait-y; rather your title meet's *Medium's* definition of it, and it wouldn't be eligible for Boost. Meta stories are one of the categories explicitly marked as ineligible as well.
It doesn't make a lot of sense to me - the Medium algorithm or the Boost algorithm.
I wrote an article last June titled "As a Heavy User, My Mood Towards GPT Has Changed: Here’s Why".
It didn't get a lot of reads at the start, then in the middle of July, it went kooky. It's made me $503 so far and is my 4th highest-paying article. The article was never Boosted and pretty much all the views/reads were internal. With external, I've had a few articles show up high on Google search (15K-20K views) but they don't make much money on Medium.
On Medium Boosts - I've had 17 of them - some in Tech, some in life style. Very recently, I started focusing on title generation using an online headline analyzer tool. Once I started using it, I had 3 boosts in 6 articles. This made me realize that there's a connection between titles and boost-ability.
All this variability has also made me realize I need something more stable, which is why I'm gradually sliding over her to Substack.
My .02 :-)
I agree John, it's a very unpredictable platform. I usually just try to optimise my articles there as best I can and see what happens.
That is great. It gives us all a lot of hope.
I only write on Substack - do you recommend adding my posts to medium too? I know the answer might differ for each person.
I like both platforms, and I sometimes cross-share between them. Readers on each tend to prefer a slightly different approach but it’s worth experimenting.
Thanks for sharing this. Very insightful!
Really interesting, thanks for sharing.
Nice. Still thinking of posting on medium, but think I'd need to do something different.
Really interesting. Thanks for sharing your insights.
Hey, well done.
Fascinating thank you so much. I’ve not long joined Substack and only recently heard about Medium. I’m a Past Life Expert and Medium is a word that gets banded around my circles so I could have been missing signs. Do you find it easy to run Substack and Medium concurrently? Do you write different content for both? I’d love your feedback. 💜
That was not a bad earning!
Hope your future post get similar effect 😊
Medium's interesting; readers say they don't want to see these kinds of stories in their feeds, yet as writers/editors, we know they do extremely well. It's an odd disconnect.
That's cool. So far I haven't made more than 8 or so dollars on a story.
In my limited and modest experience, algorithms have not always predicted results for articles or stories. Moreover, sometimes even a book may take off for no perceivable reason. Years ago, I tried to salvage some segments of a very incomplete manuscript my mother left behind (*A Slow Train to Budapest*, by Ann Abelson). Eventually, I "rescued" two parts, and put them up on Kindle for 99 cents each. [I later combined them in a single volume when I went "wide."] I appended to the manuscript a crappy cover and did absolutely NO marketing/promo.
For whatever reason, this "Jewish roots" title did surprisingly well not in the USA, but in the UK. Volume One had well over 5,000 sales; Volume Two had almost as many. And surprise, surprise: I've spent hundreds marketing other works and garnered virtually no sales whatsoever.