Curious about whether medium blocks you from mentioning or linking your service here. It seems you have a huge following there, but a hard time moving them over here.
I have that challenge as well. Over 60k followers on a financial site but they prohibit discussing other websites or linking things we wrote on other websites.
I didn't deliberately make an effort to move followers from Medium to Substack. When I launched this newsletter I just posted an announcement on Medium. The follower count is different than my count of email subscribers. There was an option to download that list and upload it to Substack, but I chose not to do that. So, no, I'm not blocked from doing that, I just prefer to keep the two entities separate. Sometimes people contact me with specific questions and I direct them here. Substack is where I do my "how to succeed on Medium" posts because Medium is disinclined to promote those. I think I have them all linked on Twitter. One way or another, people find you. I'd prefer to find new readers on new platforms than oversaturate the ones I already have. thanks for the thoughtful comment, I'll have to think about this some more.
The point I should make is that, up until I got shadow-banned, I enjoyed my time on Medium. I met people like you who were slaving away in the word mines like I was who needed the cash, and who were much more expressive about the platform's flaws than I could ever be. I certainly would not have met a fair number of the people I met there without it, not even my fellow Canadians.
I only wish it paid without tying it to Internet metrics I don't understand, and it didn't force people to overproduce there to earn more. That's the main warning I have for any new people coming in there.
Why is it so hard...Oh, let me count the ways! I will start with what may seem such simple actions to set up the profile, etc. It took me ages and the help page never addressed my particular questions but returned me each time to that page. Useless. Then my debit card was declined because I forgot to change to my new one with Medium. When I straightened it out, Medium treated me as if I had not been a member for years. Moving along, I joined the platform to learn! I was retired and felt a lifetime of stories were bubbling inside but I was not a writer. There it was - Beginners. I read and read and some authors were kind enough to respond to my comments. (You were one of the few that always took the time to teach, and I am grateful.) I published a fluff piece once just to jump in but it was not at all what I had hoped to share. Not to worry. There were some authors with whom I exchanged light-hearted comments. While my humour may lean to sarcasm, I never meant to offend. Then I started receiving the "thank you for reading" responses. First one, then another as if they were sticking together! I asked for help and got no response at all. I have 200 followers based not on anything I wrote but on my responses? What is that about? I only go on Medium now to read three authors and keep my responses to a minimum. It's no fun is the short answer to why, Mr. Rhein. This rant is not meant to be a grievance against Medium but rather a perspective from a Beginner who was disappointed in the platform. There are others more accomodating to those of us wanting to learn the art of expression and story-telling through writing.
This message is extremely useful to me! It gives me a much better understanding of what to write about to help people find success on Medium. I'm glad that I left you comments that you found helpful, that's excellent feedback for me as well. I try to answer all the comments I receive, but sometimes they slip through (the delivery technology isn't great...sometimes I don't see them). The technical side (the credit card issue), is a problem anywhere, particularly setting up payments. I know that's kind of tough for some writers. It'd be nice if they could do their payments through PayPal or even by check! Retired individuals with a lifetime of stories are exactly what the platform is looking for, so it's discouraging that you felt frustrated. You hit on something really important though, yes, leaving comments is a great way to gain followers. I started using Medium as just a place to dump the stories that I couldn't sell elsewhere, and then my following on Medium began to take off. I'll keep thinking about this comment, thank you!
That's always a very good topic of debate. I've worked on platforms where I'd get 500 comments with death threats and insults, so "wide open" doesn't work for me. Perhaps Medium is a touch too quick to reprimand or ban writers, but the alternative is awful too. I receive a couple disrespectful comments on Medium every day. Usually I block those people rather than report them. I think the report tool is sometimes used as a weapon of censorship, so this is a complex topic.
Curious about whether medium blocks you from mentioning or linking your service here. It seems you have a huge following there, but a hard time moving them over here.
I have that challenge as well. Over 60k followers on a financial site but they prohibit discussing other websites or linking things we wrote on other websites.
I didn't deliberately make an effort to move followers from Medium to Substack. When I launched this newsletter I just posted an announcement on Medium. The follower count is different than my count of email subscribers. There was an option to download that list and upload it to Substack, but I chose not to do that. So, no, I'm not blocked from doing that, I just prefer to keep the two entities separate. Sometimes people contact me with specific questions and I direct them here. Substack is where I do my "how to succeed on Medium" posts because Medium is disinclined to promote those. I think I have them all linked on Twitter. One way or another, people find you. I'd prefer to find new readers on new platforms than oversaturate the ones I already have. thanks for the thoughtful comment, I'll have to think about this some more.
The point I should make is that, up until I got shadow-banned, I enjoyed my time on Medium. I met people like you who were slaving away in the word mines like I was who needed the cash, and who were much more expressive about the platform's flaws than I could ever be. I certainly would not have met a fair number of the people I met there without it, not even my fellow Canadians.
I only wish it paid without tying it to Internet metrics I don't understand, and it didn't force people to overproduce there to earn more. That's the main warning I have for any new people coming in there.
That's a very fair assessment in my opinion. The boost program has been a major benefit to the platform I think.
Why is it so hard...Oh, let me count the ways! I will start with what may seem such simple actions to set up the profile, etc. It took me ages and the help page never addressed my particular questions but returned me each time to that page. Useless. Then my debit card was declined because I forgot to change to my new one with Medium. When I straightened it out, Medium treated me as if I had not been a member for years. Moving along, I joined the platform to learn! I was retired and felt a lifetime of stories were bubbling inside but I was not a writer. There it was - Beginners. I read and read and some authors were kind enough to respond to my comments. (You were one of the few that always took the time to teach, and I am grateful.) I published a fluff piece once just to jump in but it was not at all what I had hoped to share. Not to worry. There were some authors with whom I exchanged light-hearted comments. While my humour may lean to sarcasm, I never meant to offend. Then I started receiving the "thank you for reading" responses. First one, then another as if they were sticking together! I asked for help and got no response at all. I have 200 followers based not on anything I wrote but on my responses? What is that about? I only go on Medium now to read three authors and keep my responses to a minimum. It's no fun is the short answer to why, Mr. Rhein. This rant is not meant to be a grievance against Medium but rather a perspective from a Beginner who was disappointed in the platform. There are others more accomodating to those of us wanting to learn the art of expression and story-telling through writing.
This message is extremely useful to me! It gives me a much better understanding of what to write about to help people find success on Medium. I'm glad that I left you comments that you found helpful, that's excellent feedback for me as well. I try to answer all the comments I receive, but sometimes they slip through (the delivery technology isn't great...sometimes I don't see them). The technical side (the credit card issue), is a problem anywhere, particularly setting up payments. I know that's kind of tough for some writers. It'd be nice if they could do their payments through PayPal or even by check! Retired individuals with a lifetime of stories are exactly what the platform is looking for, so it's discouraging that you felt frustrated. You hit on something really important though, yes, leaving comments is a great way to gain followers. I started using Medium as just a place to dump the stories that I couldn't sell elsewhere, and then my following on Medium began to take off. I'll keep thinking about this comment, thank you!
You can do fine on Medium so long as you don't offend the assholes who secretly troll the place for imagined terms of service violations.
That's always a very good topic of debate. I've worked on platforms where I'd get 500 comments with death threats and insults, so "wide open" doesn't work for me. Perhaps Medium is a touch too quick to reprimand or ban writers, but the alternative is awful too. I receive a couple disrespectful comments on Medium every day. Usually I block those people rather than report them. I think the report tool is sometimes used as a weapon of censorship, so this is a complex topic.