Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie discussion

I noticed a couple of things on Medium. First, I had an astonishingly high number of views on September 16, hitting 652 for that day. Previously, I've had a few days topping 100 and even 150, but not many, so this is a crazy number for my stories.

Second, while looking over my statistics page, I discovered what seems to be a new feature. Before, when I clicked on the title of a story, the graph at the top changed to reflect the stats for just that story. Clicking it again reverted to the aggregate numbers.

But today, clicking a story title calls up a new page I haven't seen before, showing details for that story. The new page shows a graph for that story with Medium and external referrers broken out. It also shows traffic by source, and even the total earnings to date for the story (if earnings have been paid out for it yet). There is also a section about readers' interests, but I'm not seeing anything there, so I don't know if that doesn't work yet or if I just don't have enough readers to show it.

Another thing I noted (from the new page) was that the story that lead my views for September 16, I Did All That?, garnered most of its views from a service called flipboard.com. It's been responsible for 95% of the hits, with Medium itself only generating 5%. I'd never heard of flipboard. It's apparently a mobile news aggregation app. They must have picked up my story for a feature or something, and a lot of people saw it.

But I have no idea why they would do that. That story was just an off-the-cuff thing I threw together fairly quickly. Odd.

That's great, Dale. Medium's been a wonderful tool to help promote an author's style and bring followers. Keep up the great work!

I should take a look. The app looks the same. I haven’t checked the other version. I don’t reach very heady numbers but I get by.

Dale, Thank you for noticing these new features and passing them on to the rest of us, Hugs!

All Medium Members,
I'm glad I joined. I'm not earning much, but it covers the fee. I'm honing my writing skills... I hope. Please PM me if you disagree. I may be sensitive, but I"m open to criticism, especially when it comes to something I take so seriously. Thank you all for your interest and support. Hugs!

I enjoy your posts Sam. Keep going. I was glad to read your latest one-good for you!

I see what you mean about the changes now, Dale. I like a graph. I particularly like the amusing lifetime earnings of $2 some of mine have. Awwww bless!

Thank you Alex and D.J. I always worry about the quality of my writing. Thank you again. Hugs to you both!

Your writing is very readable.

Alex wrote: "I had a similar thing, Dale, one of my stories got picked up, somehow, by a Chinese news site of some kind and ended up with over 4.5k views. Unfortunately, Medium doesn't count them towards earnin..."
Wow! that's wonderful Alex. The thing is none of our personal blogs could have done that. Who knows who will read it and say- I want to see how this guy handles a crime thriller.
Sam- every time you write it's practice. You know what they say about practice- it makes perfect- so keep honing your skills. You're doing great.
Debz- I just finished a questionnaire for the publicist for the publisher for my book and the biggest question was - do you post regularly? I can answer- I do and it's on Medium! It's gotta help, I'm thinking.
Very impressive, Dale.
Whatever we are making- if you were selling that much in books, you'd be dancing on the ceiling- here we are bringing in a few bucks and you know what- writing on medium doesn't have expenses- no cover, editors, publicity. Just imagine if you build an audience that may support you...

Carol, Thank you for your kind words. I truly enjoy writing. Hugs!

You're absolutely right. Some of these writers on Medium have thousands of followers, but they also write every day and I can't do that. I do read the monthly payout email about what article got paid the most, etc. and it's shocking! Wow!

Alex wrote: "I had a similar thing, Dale, one of my stories got picked up, somehow, by a Chinese news site of some kind and ended up with over 4.5k views. Unfortunately, Medium doesn't count them towards earnin..."

Yeah, we only get money for Medium members who view/read/clap for stories, so if someone goes in as a guest from an external link and doesn't sign in, it won't count for money. But as Carole says, it's at least exposure, which could translate into money somewhere down the line.

We hope...

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Dale, Thank you for noticing these new features and passing them on to the rest of us, Hugs!

All Medium Members,
I'm glad I joined. I'm not earning much, but it covers the fee. I'm honing my writi..."

I don't think most of us earn all that much from Medium. I've more than covered my fees by now, and the extra income is nice, but if I get a tank of gas out of it each month that's probably about it.

I really like your work, Sam. We all worry about quality in some measure, but don't stress over it. You're better than you probably think.

D.J. wrote: "I enjoy your posts Sam. Keep going. I was glad to read your latest one-good for you!

I see what you mean about the changes now, Dale. I like a graph. I particularly like the amusing lifetime earni..."

Yeah, $2 in a lifetime! ;-) Look at it this way. That's infinitely better than $0 in a lifetime, mathematically speaking . . .

Dale wrote: "I really like your work, Sam. We all worry about quality in some measure, but don't stress over it. You're better than you probably think..."

Thank you very much for your kind comments, Dale. Hugs

P.S. To All - I enjoy reading everyone's work on Medium. Sometimes it makes me laugh, or cry, and it certainly brightens my day to be part of this group. Thank you all for your acceptance and support. Hugs!!

;)