Medium-Sized Insights About Medium and a Few Story Links of Note

The other day I set out to write a blog post about some of the things I've been learning as an active participant on Medium, the blogging platform created by Ev Williams. I've noted before the elegance and ease of use of this platform. I've also noted that there a lot of interesting people participating in this growing community of readers and writers.

At this point I have been enjoying--since June 2018-- the interactivity provided without the artificial nudges Facebook and LinkedIn generate. I do not mind friend requests, but I do tire of "friend suggestions" being dished up every three hours by these rival teams.

Here are a few things I've come to appreciate at Medium.

You can highlight phrases, sentences and paragraphs you like in others' pieces.

You can comment and get into discussions about what you read.

You can show appreciation by clapping.... up to 50 times if you want.

Medium also has accessible staff who will help you and actually get back to you, along with a Bot for the basic questions.

Help Center: https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us

You can also ask Google for answers and you will get answers from other members on Medium.

What I like most is that you can import stories you have published elsewhere on the web. Medium not only imports your work, it also writes additional behind-the-scenes code that lets Google know the original source. This helps maintain SEO benefits as opposed to leaving you penalized for duplicate content.

* * * *

Because of this last feature (easy to import) many of my stories on Medium were recycled or updated from articles I published here first on Ennyman's Territory. Some, however, are new and here are few recent favorites.

A Lesson from 29 Golden Gate Suicide Attempts

9 Maxims That Carried Me Through Three Decades in Corporate America

Coyote with Broken Mouth (A Black Hills Story)

* * * *
One other feature I like about the Medium platform is that you privately share links of unfinished articles in order to get feedback on a piece before sending it public. I wrote an article about human exceptionalism, for example, which I had mixed feelings about because there were weak links between some of the ideas in the piece. I shared it with someone I trust and she affirmed what I sensed intuitively. It needs more work.

Here's another as yet unpublished piece, an interview with the author of Ennyman's Territory. The piece originally appeared five or nine years ago. Something caused me to hold back...  Maybe you can help me decide whether to let it fly:  The Leonardo Interview

In the meantime, it's time to move along and run through the rest of my "to do" list. Thanks for checking in.  Feedback always welcome.

A Medium-Sized Update on Medium

Medium Update

Photo courtesy John Heino Photography

Earlier this summer I began blogging on a platform called Medium. Medium was founded by Ev Williams, the same geek/entrepreneur who created Blogger and later co-founded Twitter. As a writer I have found both of Williams' creations exceedingly valuable, so it seemed only natural to explore what he was trying to achieve with the third iteration of social engagement. Since I learn best by doing, I have been going through my Ennyman's Territory blog posts (near every day since Spring 2007) and building an archive of the "evergreen content." (Evergreen as in "not seasonal." Much of my blog content features events and happenings that are here today and gone tomorrow... or important for the season.) In other words, I have been taking an inventory of my 4000 blog posts to determine what has enough value to be recycled and what should be left on the vine. 

It's been an eye opening experience, and I will share more of what I've learned about blogging in a separate post. 

Right now I am trying to learn what I can about Medium. This Hubspot blog post offers a Beginners Guide, but it's two years out-of-date so that some features have changed, because like the Internet itself, things keep getting upgraded, revised for the purpose of improving the "user experience."

For what it's worth, I am liking many features that Medium offers. The platform has been clearly designed to make it easy for writers to create elegant pages. One of my favorite features is that you can re-post (import) other things you have created online by pasting the URL into a box and hitting a button. Boom! Your whole article with images is right there. You may need to edit a couple things or make adjustments on photo placement, but dagnabbit that's a really nice feature. 

More importantly, though, for all you SEO buffs... Medium automatically writes code into your blog post that tells Google where the origin of this article or story came from. Google accepts this and does not penalize you for duplicate content. (As someone familiar with the ways of Google Search and SEO, this was a huge HUGE relief... 

I Still Have Questions

The whole point of writing and sharing your work is to have it read. I haven't yet found the best path to find readers yet on Medium. Currently I average more readers in a day (1000) here at Ennyman's Territory than I do in a month on Medium. Granted, I only just started there in June, and that first month I did better by three-fold than my first month here in 2007. By way of contrast I am averaging 5000 readers a week on Quora. I never did any promotion of the Quora writings. I simply found it an intriguing diversion at first, and kept answering questions trying to help people, occasionally linking to blog posts here when the post addressed issues people were inquiring about. 

SO, BOTTOM LINE, if you participate in Medium and have had success finding readers, I'd be interested in connecting with you. Send me a note via my ennyman3 Gmail account or Message me on Twitter @ennyman3.

FWIW DEPT.
Some of my Medium results:

MY BEST ARTICLES so far (Number of Readers)
Why Print Still Matters For Marketers
Future Hype: The Myths of Technological Change
Five Significant Qualities Shared By Balzac, Picasso and Dylan

My FAVORITE ARTICLES So Far (Non-Fiction)
Ten Art Quotes That Will Surprise You
What Is A Writer?
Why Print Still Matters for Marketers
11 Sterling Quotes Reflecting the Wit & Wisdom of Mark Twain

Though my fiction has significantly fewer readers, here are my three best performers:

MY BEST STORIES So Far (Fiction)
Two Acts That Changed the World
Duel of the Poets
The Gladiator


I LEARNED SOMETHING NEW ABOUT MEDIUM THIS WEEK

Medium has an unusual method of rewarding its writers (who pay $5 a month for the privilege of earning income for their words.) You earn revenue based on readers showing their appreciation by clapping. WHAT I DIDN'T KNOW is that you can actually Clap UP TO 50 TIMES if you really like a story.

Thank you to all those who have given encouragement through the years. It means a lot and is part of what keeps me going. My aim, always, is to provide something of value for those who return from time to time. You are much appreciated.

Related Links
The Medium Model in Ev's Own Words
12 Types of Writers on Medium

Meantime, life goes on all around us. Get into it.

Navigating the Cyber Seas with Skipper Ev Williams on the Good Ship Medium

I think writers should work for readers instead of advertisers, so I’m voting with my credit card. I happily pay for products I love. Writing is no exception. ~ Andrew Courter

Ev Williams may not be the household name that Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are, yet, but he's made an impact that touches households wherever there is Internet access and electricity. Born in '72, he's still just getting started, but look what this Nebraska farm boy has thus far accomplished.

He began his career in the marketing wing of the tech publisher O'Reilly Media and eventually got into writing computer code. While still in his 20s he co-founded a company called Pyra Labs to make project management software. One of the by-products was Blogger, one of the first apps for creating blogs, which was eventually sold to Google for a tidy little sum in 2003. (Ennyman's Territory was born four years later in 2007.) Williams was just 31 when he was getting recognition as a somebody to watch by MIT Technology Review and PC Magazine.

In 2007, around the time I began blogging Williams co-founded Twitter, which I began using a year later. The app was very powerful and candidate Obama was very quick to explore its capabilities. Eight years later another candidate exploited its power to effectively bypass a hostile media and speak directly to his fan/followers.

The entrepreneur's current passion is a new platform called Medium, a community of readers and writers that is intentionally ad-free. Though his vision for this new space has been criticized by some, it's apparent that Medium is being widely embraced by others.

In a NYTimes article titled "The Internet Is Broken": @Ev Is Trying To Salvage It, Mr. Williams elaborates on what he is trying to do on Medium. It's Utopian and another interesting experiment. Trying to create a community without the corrosive effects of advertising does not mean it has not shortcomings. In theory it's supposed to be better writing, better content, without the distractions of marketers. And yet, how can everyone be above average?

When I discovered Blogger I immediately recognized its power, and appreciated its ease of use. Twitter, though an entirely different user experience, likewise opened new possibilities of social interaction. Many of the great thinkers of our age have Twitter accounts and share with us what is on their minds.

Medium is like a separate universe. Or maybe a separate galaxy within the cyber-universe. It's less clear how to best utilize its capabilities, but I'm making an attempt to see how it works. There are purportedly 30 million monthly visitors, and based on the publication readerships a vast quantity of these are loyal readers and dedicated writers.

FWIW, @Ev is Ev Willams' Twitter handle and you can follow him here.

Related Links
The Battle for the Soul of Advertising Will Affect Everything
Ev Williams Explains the Medium Model

Everything Is Broken

Meantime life goes on all around you. Get into it.