Can You Help A Sister Out? Creating A Following on Medium:Cultivating African Violets
I got a note from the Medium Editors the other day. I am at risk of losing my Partnership status. The same day I received a deposit into my account $2.26 from my Medium readership. At first, I thought it was a simple plea ever present in social media to ask anyone who has dropped by to “Please click follow and like”. If you don’t have friends or people who will consistently read or at a minimum click on your work, you lack not value but you are hereby forewarned that your participation in whatever marketing scheme is beneath the share is a bit shaky.
As a writer I have grown in what I like to think of as a three to four step process:
1) Just write because it brings you joy or makes you or someone else crazy if you don’t!
2) Just write every day as a spiritual discipline. Idea being keep it consistent no matter the muse or reason!
3) Share your work with someone, anyone who will read it or listen with curiosity and an OPEN HEART
4) Try to get paid for doing it even if it’s not a living wage or your day job. Just consider your writing, or your thoughts, or opinions worthy that someone would pay for. If someone would buy a cigarette, why not pay for something someone would write that you might want to read? Some a very modest few earn money as a writer, I have heard this from a reliable source.
I have 80 followers, and apparently, I only need 100 followers to make the cut. If each of you, or even 20 of you who now follow me invite one other friend or follower: I’m good! The world will not come to an end if I am dropped from the partnership. I won’t get lonely and I still belong! I will still write and post sporadically on a variety of topics that I think would be of interest to share. I also have the option of doing my part in researching what it takes to get followers on Medium and what kind of folks, generally other writers who are willing to pay for access.
I profoundly believe in paying artists. And while I agonize about paywalls and literacy and barriers to intriguing ideas and the benefits and evils of social media. I can see merits all around. Even if I only get $2.26 cents, it’s a start and I am participating in the system.
I also may have to be willing to change my own habits. Not just because I want results, but just because I fancy change and like to practice doing new things. Are there risks of course, but what if I posted more frequently and discovered my true audience? I often struggle with the notion of writing for its own sake and writing for my audience as if it was two different things.
Would I be willing to write and post daily between now and March first? Would I be willing to go back and Clap for more folks, and clap on clapping and share my thoughts and comments and subscribe to more emails? I have 60, 312 emails in my INBOX and only 20,509 unread yet I find time to read quite a few emails and actually acknowledge folks and write back. While most of my emails are ads or solicitations of some sort, I have been treating my INBOX as an unofficial filing system. This may need to change. During the isolation and sanctity of the holy hibernation, my habits for reading and writing have drastically changed. The pandemic while simultaneously killing people elsewhere; it also allowed me to sit for hours in front of a screen. Retirement plus quarantine and avoiding people, places, and things allowed me to read and write and oh yes watch you tube videos and listen to music, and podcasts; much of this content I happily pay for while developing the habit to purchase just access for things I don’t ever really use.
I am also willing to post a picture of myself. I have heard this helps. If you see me, you will love me. I finally figured out how to do this after several tries. It is another level of exposure, transparency, and visibility. I have another blog that I write for sporadically and occasionally and sometimes instead of just posting, I wonder where what I want to say will fit in.
I write poetry and what I think of as creative nonfiction, but I don’t see myself as fitting into a particular genre. If I listen to the advice about specialization and creating my own narrow niche. I truly over edit and sensor myself in ways that are not compatible with the way in which writing serves me and heals me. I would rather write something, then decide to share, and then even later decide where it fits in.
I attended a Medium webinar recently when they made the novel suggestion that you as the writer could go back and change the title of your post and tags and create a whole new audience of someone who may see your work that might otherwise not see it as it were because it was inadvertently mislabeled by you. Ahh the days of library stacks and bookstores where you could wander the aisles and just browse particular sections of things that you needed just that day.
I so like the Medium platform, and I am grateful for my friend and “godchild” who introduced me to it and a whole new world of bloggers and a world of ideas I might not get to readily be aware of in my usual walk. I like the notion that writing is in many respects a form of channeling from another dimension. I am dazzled by the fact that I can go back and read what I wrote weeks, or months or years later and say: “Where did that come from?” “Who wrote that?”; I have no recollection of it or why I connected the dots in that way, or why indeed did I post that for a share. It is so different than journaling where you think at the time like a diary that no one will ever read this or see this but you. More importantly, you might not have even written it down if you thought that someone might see it.
I also like the notion that if I attempt to write prose or post a blog, when I would prefer poetry, or even silent reflection; I am connecting and trying to give voice and explain many complex feelings in a different medium because I want to convey complex ideas to a wider audience from my very own perspective. I like the notion of tipping my toe in the water. I like the idea of testing out ideas so people can see them in new ways. Check me out, click you like me or following me or watching me or don’t. I love you still! Thank you for your courage and wisdom in writing things down and telling your story! I so so benefit from the time I spend with you!
80 Followers
