1 Month On Medium: These Numbers Might Surprise You!
Takeaways and Statistics
Takeaways and Statistics
-Personal NumbersÂ
-The Taoist Online Publication NumbersÂ
-External vs. InternalÂ
-Show me the MoneyÂ
-Key Takeaways
As a writer on Medium.com, I always strive to create quality content that informs, entertains, and inspires my readers. And I’m happy to say that my efforts have paid off. Here are some incredible statistics showing how many people read my articles last month.
It’s important to note I am not a member of the Medium Partner Program, so all of my articles are not behind a paywall.
Since I both write articles and operate a publication, I’ll look at both data sets. First up are my personal numbers.
Personal Numbers
As you can see from the line chart below, viewership took off like a rocket ship from the beginning. While I expected a slow increase over time. I wasn’t expecting such a quick climb. After joining several publications and Discord communities and starting my own publication, my readership numbers grew fast.
However, the end of the month brought something upsetting.
From my peak daily viewers at 350, I lost 55% in just four days. I immediately began to investigate what caused the dramatic fall. The charts for reads and read ratio are similar in growth and drops.
As with nearly all social media platforms, Medium’s algorithm is a fickle monster. It requires a constant diet of writing, claps, and responses which I was still doing daily. However, I believe there is another component…reach.
If you aren’t reaching a new group of readers, the algorithm won’t push your content further. Think of it as saturating the marketplace. Everyone you can currently reach has seen your work and either liked it or doesn’t. Once most of every has seen it and either passed or not, the algorithm knows exactly who to show your article to and won’t show it to anyone else. I believe that is what happened. I only published the same three publications for most of March, and the steep fall is caused by a loss of reach.
The Taoist Online Publication Numbers
A different trend, however, is shown for March with The Taoist Online publication.
Notice that for half of the month, we see an average viewership of around 40 viewers per day. However, on March 13th, a spike of nearly 150 occurred. That’s an increase of 200% in 24 hours! The spike was caused by Simon Kupfer's article Stoicism: The BEST Mindset To Change Your Life.
After the spike, readership dropped, but to a new, much higher average of 125 viewers per day.
External vs. Internal
Social media can play a key role in your readership and viewer numbers, especially when your content isn’t paywalled. In my case, none of the articles I released were paywalled, and I posted everything to social media. Currently, I’m operating six social media accounts to attract readers.
So who is reading? Let’s take a look at my A Beginner’s Guide to Taoism Part 3: Wu-Wei 無爲 Non-Action and Here is Why You Suck At Meditation
Notice the extreme external view percentage at the start, which quickly tapers off into majority internal views later as social media moves on to other topics and Medium’s algorithm takes over and begins to populate members' feeds.
Show me the money
At the beginning of the month, I was denied membership to the partner program, however, having now waited the necessary 30 days, I’ve reapplied. Having the option to monetize is something I want to have, but I have philosophical problems with putting information that could help change people's lives behind a paywall. Given my reach on social media, I could always post a friend link there.
Key takeaways
In 30 days, I’ve managed to become the top writer for Taoism, and TTO is in second place for the same tag. I know Taoism is a small nitch, but I didn’t expect to climb the ranks so fast! Since Medium doesn’t give out an official badge for my topic, I made my own! When TTO becomes the top publication, I would love to be able to change that banner as well.
Overall, I’m so thankful for all of the love and support my readers have expressed over the last few weeks, and I can’t wait to keep growing with everyone. I plan on writing a review article each month. If you’re just starting on Medium, perhaps you’ll have a better idea of what to expect!
Much love to all of you!
Thank you for reading! If you want to read more of Patrick’s work, please consider purchasing his book of poetry and prose, available from all major ebook stores and Amazon.
In Progress (The Life of Patrick Stewart Book 1)
Amazon.com: In Progress (The Life of Patrick Stewart Book 1) eBook : Stewart, Patrick: Booksa.co
