5 Tips for Boosting your Read Ratio, Views, and Audience Engagement

 

Are You Beginning Your Writer’s Experience on Medium and Want To Start Strong?

I wrote a variety of articles in 2022: memoirs, letters to my lost father, how to’s, lists, etcetera. 48 in all. I earned around ninety bucks for the entire year. It was a glorious failure of a learning experience. With each beautiful mess up, I found ways to combat the ploy & hype around money on Medium to validate writing and tactics that brought real results not flash in the pan bursts that die and fizzle without constant maintenance.

Are you tired of having to read what feels like a ton of Medium articles to comment on only to get a trickle of traffic? It makes you feel like a Medium employee writing to read to comment to get views to get pennies to write more to . . . . It’s like, “If You Give a Moose a Muffin,” or “This Is the Song that Never Ends.”

#1 Beginner’s Mind

“Zazen practice is the direct expression of our true nature. Strictly speaking, for a human being, there is no other practice than this practice; there is no other way of life than this way of life.” — Shunryu Suzuki

I currently have 50 articles published on this platform. It took me that many articles to realize, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. I loved writing in high school. I journaled. I wrote poetry and short stories. I read Ginsberg, Dylan Thomas, and Rita Dove. I thought it would be easy to get the results I wanted from Medium. Medium taught me what’s what.

Why should anyone in the world that speaks English care to read my writing? Which, at this point, is about 17% of the population or 1.35 billion according to Elizabeth Gration at preply.com. That’s a bigger pond than I am able to picture! What about our writing makes it more pertinent or desirable than any of the other attractive, lucrative, educational, entertaining, comical options out there? What makes us appealing? What makes you stand out? What makes you unique?

Sure, you can copy other people’s style. This may work for you a bit, to grease the wheels and get you moving. Try meditating in the lotus position, for instance, and realize, “this is not zazen.”

At some point, you have to dare to jump out of the airplane without strapping to an instructor. If you mimic other writer’s to practice writing, don’t be embarrassed. It’s a common technique in almost every writing class/course I’ve ever taken. Sitting in lotus can help from time to time; act like you can write.

#2 Your best commenters are roasters

Welcome critiques. Trolls don’t realize they are a wealth of information. Engaging on articles with other commenters can help you investigate the heartbeat of a topic you may be studying in real time. This could lead to controversy. Where there is controversy, there is untapped potential material or a buzzing hornets nest, either one gets views. Read How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie before interacting with some of these people to avoid too many stings. Once your comment is out there, it’s there as long as the internet exists. I’ve had to delete my entire blog before due to a severe turn in world views. Reputations are a thing whether we believe in them or not.

And good ole buddy writers who are willing to tell you that last post was crap are worth their weight in gold. The best roasters bite right down to the bone. If we aren’t getting readers, we aren’t doing something right. Someone always knows more than us. It doesn’t matter how they say it if we want to learn from what they have to say. I’m not saying to NOT go and check out their profile for a bit of ego confirming. You wanna make sure sources are relevant and all.

I’ve had other writers go so far as edit my work with the private notes option. Their willingness to point out my mistakes hurt my pride but made polishing this turd that is my writing a little easier.

#3 Headlines

God damn it, right?! Haven’t we read this enough? And still, I scroll through my newsfeed suggestions from who I follow and think, “Come on, really?” Practice. If you can’t sell the article in the headline, how do you think people are going to consume your content? Burgers and fries, shoes and lipstick, fast cars and chrome hubcaps, everyone uses marketing. Use your headline to market your article. Create conflict, leverage intrigue, promise educational fulfillment, tease but deliver. I practice and update my headlines on the regular.

#4 Stop Using Unsplash Images

This was not always the case. It used to be that Unsplash stood out on the Medium platform. Most of the photos are clean and crisp. It gave Medium a feeling of cohesiveness when you scrolled.

Now, people using the same images has been a problem since forever on here. Okay, so, at least 2020. That’s not what I am talking about. Unsplash has a particular look about it. I started experimenting with my own photos which weren’t great. I am startled at my increase in views. I did not want to keep leaning on my far-sighted less than quality pictures. I am over 40, drew better than a fourth grader, and know that jeans go with everything, and have standards. I used to do art and paint and draw and stuff. So, I have been divulging in Canva and Shutterstock. Again, not an affiliate promo. The learning curve is bumpy if you don’t have much time. (I confess, and raise my hand here!)

And, again, an increase in clicks. Bye-bye for now Unsplash!

#5 Exceed Expectations with Stories and Watch Your Read Ratio Climb!

Yes, of course, value, value, value. But, how you serve the value matters.

I love making pies. I used to tell my kids if I ever opened a pie shop, I would lovingly call it the “The Ugly Pie Place.” My pies taste great, especially my french silk and apple, but with homeschooling 6 kids, I’m not able to serve up an immaculate gourmet presentation. I can’t lattice each topping or make leaf formations out of the pie dough all the time.

Pie is pie and facts are facts. If we can work on our presentation, serve it to them in a story with some a la mode, some whip cream . . .

It makes taking bites past your headline that much more enjoyable and dreamy.

Stories are entertaining. Weave your value in them.

#6 Keep Publishing

It’s painful. I’ve taken the tortoise’s course. I am not a hare. I hope that means that I will keep going. I didn’t add too much too fast which is my standard default. Not sure if anyone can relate to that. I’m freakin’ 42. You’d think I would have that propensity worked out by now.

Instead, I fought looking at my stats. I’ve watched the platform. Ayo Awosika talks about understanding the psychology of a platform. I get this idea a little more each day. And, I kept publishing when I was able to squeeze in time.

Now, I am waking up like a crazy person when it is still dark to squeeze in writing time before the kids’ lessons and fixing food. I’m working on headlines before bed, saving article ideas in my note app on my phone, or scribbling down on my tablet on the run.

Writing is beginning to get fun. I’ve only written 60 articles. I’ve gone from around nonexistent in views in the past three months, say 200 per month to 2,300 . . . and it keeps climbing.

Could be a fluke or we should keep publishing.

Happy Writing!