MEDIUM, YOUV’E BEEN SUCH A DISAPPOINTMENT TO ME
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That’s the title of the piece I would write on Medium if I decided to post it there. Right now, I’m writing on another platform-which shall remain nameless. I don’t have to come up with titles, photos, I don’t have to tag anything, I just write. Maybe you’ve figured out the platform. No matter whether you have or not. I just like the fact that I’m writing every day, mostly, since July began.
Medium has changed. This will come as no surprise to many of you. A lot of you have bailed on it completely. I haven’t yet, but I’ve yet to post anything for this month. And, I may not at all, if ever, again.
I really liked writing on Medium when I started out. As my writing began to gain traction, followers, and I started earning a few dollars, and my posts began to get picked up by publications, enabling me to reach a wider audience, it was pretty thrilling. I wasn’t doing anything I didn’t normally do. Publications were finding me, not vise versa.
That has all stopped. Even though I’m paying for a membership, and I’m still reaching people, I’m earning zilch. Nada.
What has happened? I’m not sure, but I don’t have time to figure it out, try to beat the game, defeat the algorithm, while I try to make a living, as a side gig on this platform. I just want to write. And, where I’m writing now, I can just do that, without all of the preliminary, aforementioned steps. Those tools were meant to enhance my rank in order to help me get more page views, audience sharing, yada, yada, yada. Now, it’s pretty much all a void in that arena.
I guess I wasn’t one of the lucky ones who figured it out. Although, even a lot of those people, from what I read, are seeing their numbers and earnings drop. Way down. Many, as I’ve said, have left the platform entirely and are finding, if not more success, at least new inspiration on other sites — Linkedin comes to mind for one.
I’ll have to admit that I guess I’m disappointed in myself as well. Here’s another dead end, a failed attempt at writing for dollars. I hate that word. Failure.
I had a blog once, and I never seemed to get it monetized. Wasn’t the best at that. I guess I should have hired someone to help me out. Eventually, my site got hacked and it never recovered. Just…
