100 word articles no longer 💯?

Why recent Medium changes may have affected some authors more than others

I wonder if the 100 word articles were getting claps but minimal read time. That would have paid pretty well under the old system.

Meanwhile articles that were getting read but not clapped are making more for people now under the new system.

I also think the daily statistics may have changed things. Instead of knowing definitely how a Medium member spent their $5 a month, the algorithm now has to guess day-to-day how much said member will read during the month.

And curation is obviously a black box. But I think credibility and competition play into it. For example, it’s relatively easy to get curated in JavaScript, because there are a lot of people interested but few articles that meet the curation guidelines. Meanwhile fiction probably has a lot of competition — but would a short story by JK Rowling get curated? I bet it would.

I’ve read that there’s a familiarity and name recognition bias as well among curators — which is why publishing frequently and consistently on Medium week in and week out seems to be the best strategy for the platform.

I hope things pick up for you Jimmy Doom !!

Selfie of the author