I was right about Medium (unfortunately)—>
Mark Ellis:
Therein lies the rub. Without boosts, you will not enjoy writing on Medium - nor will you feel valued as a writer. During the months when I’m lucky enough for a human being to hit the boost button on a couple of my stories, everything changes - numbers shoot up in all directions. But I can’t live like that as a creator - I’m not here to play the lottery; I’m here to build an audience, help that audience consistently, and create a profitable business off the back of it. I can do that on my website and YouTube. Medium? I’ve given up, I’m afraid. Adopting the role of a Medium writer is incredibly bad for your inspiration, motivation, and mental health.
I have always looked up to Mark and his ability to continue to post so much each week. He was and is an inspiration to writing and blogging. The fact that he has been boosted, and still has struggled to keep his views and audience seeing his work is sad.
I have yet to be boosted, ever, since the new Partner Program was implemented. The revenue loss sucks and it sounds like Mark was making a lot more than me and seeing his losses is very disappointing. But the fact that he has double my followers (over 20,000+) but only got 900+ views on a post that should have been popular shows the downfall of Medium.
Building an audience and having that audience read your work is what made Medium so enticing. The extra cash was just a bonus. To see a more successful writer in Medium seeing the downfall clearly shows that what Medium doing is not it.
The only criticism in Marks post is that he did it in Substack:
Substack still excites me. I’m here for the long run. It doesn’t come close to Medium yet in terms of audience size or revenue, but I can see a future when it does. And, what’s more, I think about Substack a lot - which means something.
Come over to Ghost, Mark, it’s pretty great!