Medium Curation Gains Momentum With MPP's New Model
Medium isn't a platform for every writer anymore; only those fitting their aesthetic vision will be able to survive
Hi friends,
This past week as an interesting one; I genuinely got surprised with some of the results I achieved. I’ve had stories earning more money than I thought, while others I had high hopes for failed spectacularly.
A Look Into Medium Stats
As per my last update, my daily views record was 230 views, and I was averaging 64 views per day. While I haven’t been able to break my record yet, there are other achievements I’m proud of.
I had 1,166 new visitors and 149 new fans. Due to some struggles in my personal life, there were two days of the week when I just didn’t do much. Honestly, I didn’t do anything, I didn’t publish or engage online.
What this graph shows is that I’m at a stage where I can take a break without my growth to suffer a significant hit — which is an achievement, in itself! I could dwell over how my progress wasn’t as fast this week as the previous one, but I’d rather celebrate any win I can get — and so should you.
Moreover, I’ve consistently had more than 150 views for the past 8 days, so I’m making that my daily target, for now. This brings my average daily views to 102! Quite the progress, having in mind I had an average of 28, just three weeks ago.
The Consequences of Medium Curation
As the Medium community slowly comes to terms with the not-so-new Medium Partner Program changes, it has become abundantly clear that you need one of two things to succeed: a large email list, or to have most of your articles curated.
I’ll be honest, I currently have 22 subscribers in this newsletter, and my publication has 39 followers — many of you are part of both. As much as I appreciate you all, even if all of you spent hours reading everything I write, it would still not be enough to cover my rent or my expenses.
I’ve spoken a lot about this in our community, and in my latest article — Medium is looking for a specific type of content, and I’ve figured out what that means for me and my writing.
While I definitely want to be curated — that’s how I got to 230 views in one day, — I also want to write different types of content every once in a while.
At the same, Curation Jail seems to be a thing these days, and rumors say if you’re not curated for far too long, you may be left there to rot for an uncertain amount of time. What to do?
I haven’t figured that out just yet, but my advice would be to try mixing it up. What I’ve been doing this week is to write an article for curation, and one “for myself.” I’ll see how that goes and I’ll report back next week.
A Community for Growth and Support
It’s been exactly a week since I started my community and we’re at 12 members already! In this short time, we’ve already had some interesting discussions about curation, and people are starting to be open about requesting feedback.
Solopreneuring Like a Boss is slowly starting to become the place I envisioned — a group of people genuinely committed to supporting each other, whether that means giving feedback on a draft or sharing some encouraging words.
If you’re already following the publication, all you have to do is join our fun group on Facebook.
Weekly Analysis and Knowledge Sharing
I will stress what I said last week — owning a publication matters and sending letters to your followers makes a difference.
Because I’m all-too-familiar with feelings of self-doubt, fear of failure, and demotivation, let me tell you this: you don’t need to have everything figured out from day one.
As an example, when I started this newsletter I had no idea what to call it so I just left the default name, Mauro’s Newsletter. As I keep investing time in growing it and communicating with you, the essence of this project is starting to be clearer.
As of today, this newsletter has been renamed to The Mauro Way. Maybe I’ll change it again in two weeks, but for now, it feels right.
So stop imposing limits on yourself and just start doing things, whether or not you have a clear idea of where you’re headed.
Owning your publication gives you the power to reach your Medium audience, and gives you an additional Stats page which makes it easier to project how much you’re earning for the current day — personally, I love this graph.
Now, let’s talk numbers:
How to Use Facebook to Grow an Email List in Solopreneuring Like a Boss
Honestly, I think this article would’ve performed better if Better Marketing had published it, but sometimes you have to take a chance on your own publication if you want to grow a fanbase.
Date: 17 Nov / Total views: 55 / Read ratio: 58% / Lifetime earnings: $1.97How to Combine Two Tools to Catch All Flaws in Your Titles in Better Marketing
Initially, I published this one under a different headline. When curators passed it, I deleted it and published it via Better Marketing, and changed the headline. This time, it was curated in Marketing, Writing, and Freelancing.
Date: 18 Nov / Total views: 122 / Read ratio: 34% / Lifetime earnings: $2.47You’re Looking at the 10-Year Challenge the Wrong Way
This is an article where I decided to open up about a few things in my life, and tried to connect with my audience. Sadly, it bombed, and curators passed it, even though this is the perfect story candidate for curation. I believe, as with the previous one, the headline got in the way.
Date: 19 Nov / Total views: 25 / Read ratio: 40% / Lifetime earnings: $0.22Understanding Medium Curation in Solopreneuring Like a Boss
Surprisingly, I earned a lot more from this story in its first few days than I had expected. It’s currently my best-performing story for the week.
Date: 21 Nov / Total views: 72 / Read ratio: 56% / Lifetime earnings: $3.76How to Seduce Your Audience to Join Your Email List in Solopreneuring Like a Boss
I’m not entirely sure what’s going on this week, but I just can’t think of proper headlines. Bad headlines mean no curation. While it’s doing better now than on the day I published it, I still believe this story deserves a lot more attention than it’s receiving.
Date: 22 Nov / Total views: 44 / Read ratio: 48% / Lifetime earnings: $0.57Focus on Progress If You Want to Achieve Oprah Winfrey-Level Success
I just published this one, and again it’s a story I truly believe is of high quality, but might fail due to its headline. After spending 30 min playing with headline analyzer tools, this is the title that scored the highest. Deep down, I’m a bit concerned Medium curators might find it a bit too clickbait-y.
Date: 23 Nov / Total views: N/A / Read ratio: N/A / Lifetime earnings: N/A
Top 3 Best-Performing Articles Based on Earnings
This week, there’s a new entry in third place, taking down I’m Going to Earn $100 in November and You Can, Too! Follow These 5 Steps which dropped to 5th place.
$16.92: If You’re a Solopreneur, Here’s How to Start Your Email List Today
$9.67: I Refused to Grow an Email List, Just Like You. Here’s What I Learned
While I’m a bit discouraged I had less curated articles this week compared to last week, I’m able to identify what’s wrong, and how to course-correct. The question is if I’m willing to — not everything is immediate profits.
Have a great weekend, and I'll be back next week ✌️
— Mauro