I offer Insights as a scientist, content strategist, book author, online writer, editor, curator, and owner of ILLUMINATION publications on Medium supporting 31K writers and 111K readers for 5 years
Yes, thanks for sharing. I wish I could hire you as a strategist. I’m trying to learn all of this on my own. LOL. But articles like this help. I’m also sick of being censored on Medium, but I’m still not earning anything on Substack, so I’m putting up with it.
I found Zulie's suggestions invaluable when I first joined Medium, but I didn't read her Remi post on principle-- how can you put any faith in such a post when Medium's boost program and content distribution protocols remain a mystery?
Funny how boosts and views really took off for many of us when Medium was plugging its Become a "Friend of Medium" program. Many of us signed on, and now boosts and views have dried up. A coincidence??-- hmmm... 🤔
I look forward to joining the Illumination to Substack work on Substack. I've just begun on Substack a couple of days ago and don't know yet how to set up a newsletter or even use my Stripe from Medium on Substack and easily transfer posts. (Because I'm working on a book, I'm trying to focus there and enter Substack too). I appreciate Aiden noting and highlighting posts of mine on Medium, and am glad he and you are experiencing success here.
Somehow, when I first joined the Friends of Medium my posts seemed to earn more than they do now. I have seen at least one and probably two follower schemes on Medium. And I don't understand why we put tags on the articles we write on Medium when, at least for me, my articles are rarely distributed beyond the publications who published them. Thanks for helping us understand the recent lack of response you had from relevant Medium people re: your concerns, and how you are so proactively going forward to support others on Substack.
I think it's disappointing that Medium would promote such a story and that Zulie, who has been in the game for quite some time, would think to write it, or rather portray such a piece of writing as a realistic approach to advancing as a writer. That piece is also the antithesis of what she has stood for in the past. To her credit, she changed the title after you called her out on it, Mehmet. Points to her and you for that. Yet, I think the decision to bombastically promote such an article speaks to the culture at large at Medium which, while on the one hand, is aiming for authenticity is on the other, willing to sell out for the sake of promoting its brand. YUCK. I mean before Zulie changed the title, the piece was a classic bait. (Is this Medium Groupthink in action? I hope they are more emotionally intelligent than that). The other thing is, I have watched Medium's algorithms change at least twice now, in two big waves. One, I think was in 2022 and again (now) with the Boost Program. During the first wave, many established writers were pissed off because their income dropped significantly. And of course it's quite frustrating to experience such massive drops in income. The second wave (now) many are complaining about the same thing. My thoughts are: One, part of the algorithm change had to do with Medium's tanking economy back...was it in 2017?? (correct me if I'm wrong, I am in no means a Medium historian). Medium wasn't making money and so naturally things need to be balanced out. I get, in other words, that for Medium to stay financially afloat, there had to be some changes in pay. Now, back to authenticity, Medium then needs to be transparent about that. Not hide behind some other explanation or rhetoric. Today at Medium's conference, Tony admitted to this being a reason for the pay cuts writers are seeing, which was nice to hear. Still, I'm left with the feeling that Medium still needs to do some self-examination, check its own internal mechanisms to see if they align with what they are expecting of its writers. (As a side, I wonder: Are any of these platforms capable of such radical honesty? I'm not sure, I don't think Substack, from what I've heard, is in that kind of practice either.) All that to say, we have to work with what we've got, use what is offered to our advantage, and of course give back and definitely make it our practice not to engage in the kind of black and white thinking that corrupts all systems. For now, I'm going to sit back, relax and observe. See how this next wave rolls out. My last five Medium stories were boosted and (with 585 followers) have made anywhere from $65 to $465 on them). For me, that feels luke warm to quite pleasurable. My Substack is in it's early years and so for now, I'm using both to see what the future brings. Cheers!
Insightful breakdown of Medium’s shifting dynamics! The disparity between follower count and genuine engagement is eye-opening. Embracing platforms like Substack could be the key to thriving in today's evolving content landscape. Keep inspiring and adapting, Dr. Mehmet!👍
As you pointed out, followers mean nothing. I have never gotten any benefits so far. I like subscribers who at least read our stories occasionally. It looks like the author has changed the title of that clickbait story.
Thank you Dr Mehmet for bringing this story to light.
I came here from Medium.
As an 18 year old myself (whose two stories got boosted on medium) I only have 300 followers and that didn't really bother me because I gained them even after I took long breaks because of my exams.
This changed when I once came across Remi's profile and read some articles of hers. They felt very low quality but I didn't think much of it because I thought I'm acting jealous.
But this simple incidence of me knowing about Remi's popularity made me question everything I had ever written. "Are my articles boring?" "Are my articles too long?" "Are my articles to confusing?"
So, I'm glad to know that my judgement was right and that her articles aren't that good to justify 150k+ followers.
It's also sad to know that people with high quality writing aren't being recommended. I had stopped reading on Medium because every article I was being recommended was similar to Remi's. A lot of them tried to sound intellectual but clearly were not and they seemed extremely low effort and sometimes felt like reading a diary entry of someone who just gained consciousness.
Team, thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings on this issue. I am pleased that our discussion made a valuable impact. I noticed that Zulie changed the title of the story we discussed. It sounds better now. It was my major concern.
Wow this is mind-boggling. I've stopped publishing on Medium since last year so I'm quite unaware of the changes made. To think such an article was published by a Medium employee... I've also noticed that on Medium there are loads of blogs with names like matchagreentea or rainydays or something similar having 20-50K followers and 1K+ claps in every article they've published, and they have not been publishing for too long. I wonder if anyone has noticed this too 😐
I have less views on Medium now with 5K+ followers than I did with 1K.
I'm still publishing there but less and less because they don't support writers' growth. On Substack, I feel that they want me to grow, get views and make money.
On Medium, I feel that the system is ruled by an algorithm that changes hats every month.
Funny how I get way more views on Substack than Medium even though I started later here.
They need to sort ouf their stuff and have TRANSPARENCY.
Thanks for sharing your valuable experience and perspectives, Veronica. Your points resonates with me. I am also concerned about the lack of transparency. Your success on Substack is inspiring.
The whole thing is set up unfairly. I have been on Medium about the same amount of time and have about 650 followers and about 60 stories. Honestly, I thought the account was fake and the stories AI generated when I first read them. Medium is doing some unsavory things lately and rather questionable.
Thank you for bringing attention to this matter and providing this information.
I find it beyond fascinating that Medium promotes this person's attainment of 168K followers knowing she's not part of the MPP - it makes it easier to brag when they don't have to pay her anything. Stats are like sign out in the bush. You track them to understand what changes are happening in the environment. If you track Medium's constant changes in their algorithm and the resulting drops in writer views, read and $$$ made, it tells you that Medium's bottom line is hurting and has been for some time. The changes reduce payouts to writers while increasing dollars retained by the company. It's understandable, they're a business. But when they highlight flawed stories and promote "changes" as helping distribution while many writers see far less distribution every day, then it's disingenuous. Very sad.
I read her work. Gaming TikTok is the key here, not having written high quality pieces. Also, I do think they were written by AI (at least to an extent). I suspect the majority of the claps and comments are fake.
I mean, probably the same way, it's just a bot farm.
TikTok has no incentive in removing fake views. She's not part of a partner program there either. So they aren't paying her out.
Like I looked at 20 of her comments on Medium. She doesn't respond to any of them. All of them had 5-9 followers even though they'd never written anything. And there was a lot of overlap between followers. Of the 20 comment accounts I looked at, many followed each other. Only 1 of them posted anything. Why is anyone following people on medium who don't post?
The 1 person who did post something, posted 3 articles that were just gibberish.
My guess, if it isn't set up by Medium. The scam is this, someone is setting up a bot farm, so they can sell the bot farm's service on fivr.
My best guess, the tiktok situation was cover they had to quickly create when Zulie asked for an interview. She didn't become famous on tiktok first.
She became "famous" on Medium and then used that to become "famous" on tiktok. She made the tiktok in Dec of 2023 and then she "blew up" when she started posting about how she was famous on Medium. As far as I can tell, the flow is in the opposite direction. Medium then tiktok. But nothing about the behavior of her audience on either platform would lead me to believe it's real.
"Ever since high school, I knew you'd be famous." Read multiple comments. She is 18, just graduated high school and doesn't reply to even those people?
On tiktok Remi doesn't post videos. They post still photos of her Medium follower count.
No one is subscribing to that content. Except bots.
A fascinating read! I'm also a Medium defector. I've witnessed too many bot accounts and favoritism on that platform to want to continue. It makes me happy to mind Illumination here on Substack.
Yes, thanks for sharing. I wish I could hire you as a strategist. I’m trying to learn all of this on my own. LOL. But articles like this help. I’m also sick of being censored on Medium, but I’m still not earning anything on Substack, so I’m putting up with it.
You know I like a good detective story. Here's some great sleuthing into that "18 Year Old Girl":
https://yanagy.substack.com/p/how-medium-turned-profitable-on-behalf
I found Zulie's suggestions invaluable when I first joined Medium, but I didn't read her Remi post on principle-- how can you put any faith in such a post when Medium's boost program and content distribution protocols remain a mystery?
Funny how boosts and views really took off for many of us when Medium was plugging its Become a "Friend of Medium" program. Many of us signed on, and now boosts and views have dried up. A coincidence??-- hmmm... 🤔
I look forward to joining the Illumination to Substack work on Substack. I've just begun on Substack a couple of days ago and don't know yet how to set up a newsletter or even use my Stripe from Medium on Substack and easily transfer posts. (Because I'm working on a book, I'm trying to focus there and enter Substack too). I appreciate Aiden noting and highlighting posts of mine on Medium, and am glad he and you are experiencing success here.
Somehow, when I first joined the Friends of Medium my posts seemed to earn more than they do now. I have seen at least one and probably two follower schemes on Medium. And I don't understand why we put tags on the articles we write on Medium when, at least for me, my articles are rarely distributed beyond the publications who published them. Thanks for helping us understand the recent lack of response you had from relevant Medium people re: your concerns, and how you are so proactively going forward to support others on Substack.
I think it's disappointing that Medium would promote such a story and that Zulie, who has been in the game for quite some time, would think to write it, or rather portray such a piece of writing as a realistic approach to advancing as a writer. That piece is also the antithesis of what she has stood for in the past. To her credit, she changed the title after you called her out on it, Mehmet. Points to her and you for that. Yet, I think the decision to bombastically promote such an article speaks to the culture at large at Medium which, while on the one hand, is aiming for authenticity is on the other, willing to sell out for the sake of promoting its brand. YUCK. I mean before Zulie changed the title, the piece was a classic bait. (Is this Medium Groupthink in action? I hope they are more emotionally intelligent than that). The other thing is, I have watched Medium's algorithms change at least twice now, in two big waves. One, I think was in 2022 and again (now) with the Boost Program. During the first wave, many established writers were pissed off because their income dropped significantly. And of course it's quite frustrating to experience such massive drops in income. The second wave (now) many are complaining about the same thing. My thoughts are: One, part of the algorithm change had to do with Medium's tanking economy back...was it in 2017?? (correct me if I'm wrong, I am in no means a Medium historian). Medium wasn't making money and so naturally things need to be balanced out. I get, in other words, that for Medium to stay financially afloat, there had to be some changes in pay. Now, back to authenticity, Medium then needs to be transparent about that. Not hide behind some other explanation or rhetoric. Today at Medium's conference, Tony admitted to this being a reason for the pay cuts writers are seeing, which was nice to hear. Still, I'm left with the feeling that Medium still needs to do some self-examination, check its own internal mechanisms to see if they align with what they are expecting of its writers. (As a side, I wonder: Are any of these platforms capable of such radical honesty? I'm not sure, I don't think Substack, from what I've heard, is in that kind of practice either.) All that to say, we have to work with what we've got, use what is offered to our advantage, and of course give back and definitely make it our practice not to engage in the kind of black and white thinking that corrupts all systems. For now, I'm going to sit back, relax and observe. See how this next wave rolls out. My last five Medium stories were boosted and (with 585 followers) have made anywhere from $65 to $465 on them). For me, that feels luke warm to quite pleasurable. My Substack is in it's early years and so for now, I'm using both to see what the future brings. Cheers!
Insightful breakdown of Medium’s shifting dynamics! The disparity between follower count and genuine engagement is eye-opening. Embracing platforms like Substack could be the key to thriving in today's evolving content landscape. Keep inspiring and adapting, Dr. Mehmet!👍
As you pointed out, followers mean nothing. I have never gotten any benefits so far. I like subscribers who at least read our stories occasionally. It looks like the author has changed the title of that clickbait story.
Thank you Dr Mehmet for bringing this story to light.
I came here from Medium.
As an 18 year old myself (whose two stories got boosted on medium) I only have 300 followers and that didn't really bother me because I gained them even after I took long breaks because of my exams.
This changed when I once came across Remi's profile and read some articles of hers. They felt very low quality but I didn't think much of it because I thought I'm acting jealous.
But this simple incidence of me knowing about Remi's popularity made me question everything I had ever written. "Are my articles boring?" "Are my articles too long?" "Are my articles to confusing?"
So, I'm glad to know that my judgement was right and that her articles aren't that good to justify 150k+ followers.
It's also sad to know that people with high quality writing aren't being recommended. I had stopped reading on Medium because every article I was being recommended was similar to Remi's. A lot of them tried to sound intellectual but clearly were not and they seemed extremely low effort and sometimes felt like reading a diary entry of someone who just gained consciousness.
Team, thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings on this issue. I am pleased that our discussion made a valuable impact. I noticed that Zulie changed the title of the story we discussed. It sounds better now. It was my major concern.
Wow this is mind-boggling. I've stopped publishing on Medium since last year so I'm quite unaware of the changes made. To think such an article was published by a Medium employee... I've also noticed that on Medium there are loads of blogs with names like matchagreentea or rainydays or something similar having 20-50K followers and 1K+ claps in every article they've published, and they have not been publishing for too long. I wonder if anyone has noticed this too 😐
Thank you for sharing your perspective.
I have less views on Medium now with 5K+ followers than I did with 1K.
I'm still publishing there but less and less because they don't support writers' growth. On Substack, I feel that they want me to grow, get views and make money.
On Medium, I feel that the system is ruled by an algorithm that changes hats every month.
Funny how I get way more views on Substack than Medium even though I started later here.
They need to sort ouf their stuff and have TRANSPARENCY.
Thanks for sharing your valuable experience and perspectives, Veronica. Your points resonates with me. I am also concerned about the lack of transparency. Your success on Substack is inspiring.
Thank you, Dr Mehmet, and likewise, I love the community you have built - and continue to and would love to collaborate somehow!
Cheers
Followers don’t matter. That number has more to do with the length of time you’ve been on the platform.
Spot on! I fully agree.
The whole thing is set up unfairly. I have been on Medium about the same amount of time and have about 650 followers and about 60 stories. Honestly, I thought the account was fake and the stories AI generated when I first read them. Medium is doing some unsavory things lately and rather questionable.
Thank you for bringing attention to this matter and providing this information.
It's infuriating! I can't believe that stuff like that is getting promoted
I find it beyond fascinating that Medium promotes this person's attainment of 168K followers knowing she's not part of the MPP - it makes it easier to brag when they don't have to pay her anything. Stats are like sign out in the bush. You track them to understand what changes are happening in the environment. If you track Medium's constant changes in their algorithm and the resulting drops in writer views, read and $$$ made, it tells you that Medium's bottom line is hurting and has been for some time. The changes reduce payouts to writers while increasing dollars retained by the company. It's understandable, they're a business. But when they highlight flawed stories and promote "changes" as helping distribution while many writers see far less distribution every day, then it's disingenuous. Very sad.
I read her work. Gaming TikTok is the key here, not having written high quality pieces. Also, I do think they were written by AI (at least to an extent). I suspect the majority of the claps and comments are fake.
The problem is, she didn't game tiktok either.
Her tiktok exists as a ruse for the article. Her whole tiktok is plugging her medium. All her "viral" tiktoks are about how she's big on Medium.
They aren't even videos. It's just static images of her 100k followers.
The whole thing was fake.
How do you get MILLIONS of views on Tiktok without having any audience though?
I mean, probably the same way, it's just a bot farm.
TikTok has no incentive in removing fake views. She's not part of a partner program there either. So they aren't paying her out.
Like I looked at 20 of her comments on Medium. She doesn't respond to any of them. All of them had 5-9 followers even though they'd never written anything. And there was a lot of overlap between followers. Of the 20 comment accounts I looked at, many followed each other. Only 1 of them posted anything. Why is anyone following people on medium who don't post?
The 1 person who did post something, posted 3 articles that were just gibberish.
My guess, if it isn't set up by Medium. The scam is this, someone is setting up a bot farm, so they can sell the bot farm's service on fivr.
My best guess, the tiktok situation was cover they had to quickly create when Zulie asked for an interview. She didn't become famous on tiktok first.
She became "famous" on Medium and then used that to become "famous" on tiktok. She made the tiktok in Dec of 2023 and then she "blew up" when she started posting about how she was famous on Medium. As far as I can tell, the flow is in the opposite direction. Medium then tiktok. But nothing about the behavior of her audience on either platform would lead me to believe it's real.
"Ever since high school, I knew you'd be famous." Read multiple comments. She is 18, just graduated high school and doesn't reply to even those people?
On tiktok Remi doesn't post videos. They post still photos of her Medium follower count.
No one is subscribing to that content. Except bots.
A fascinating read! I'm also a Medium defector. I've witnessed too many bot accounts and favoritism on that platform to want to continue. It makes me happy to mind Illumination here on Substack.