Appreciate the reply, Tony. I must say that this doesn't make an ounce of sense to me: "For 12 months we lost subscribers and the better we got at recommending stories people wanted to read the more subscribers we lost". That suggests there was a much deeper issue for readers. As one myself, I've always been dismayed by the poor recommendations in my feed - it's full of old stories and advice on how to earn $92,092 per month on Medium.
...but I'm not the one with the very difficult job behind the scenes at Medium. I have a feeling we just fundamentally disagree about how a platform like Medium should deliver content to its users. For me, an algorithmic approach which delivers the right content at the right time to the right people just works more often than it doesn't. Certainly, it works for tech content and it's with a heavy heart that I - and I think several other tech writers on here - am rapidly coming to the conclusion that Medium just isn't for that niche any more.
I'm going to continue writing on here, but I only have so much patience and time. It strikes me that you only need a few boosted stories each month to earn relatively good income. The problem I have is that the boost program is so subjective (regardless of the many rules or flow charts involved - I've seen very little consistency and, as noted earlier, zero feedback on non-boosted stories) and it feels like a lottery. As a content business owner, I can't invest my and my team's time in seeking lottery results, which means the additional time I was investing in Medium as a writer and coach will unfortunately go elsewhere. That really saddens me, Tony - I can't overemphasise that.
Over the last few months, my audience on here has been sharply pulled away and, overnight, my earnings have gone from predictable and positive to unprofitable. It has been a brutal learning exercise in assuming you know how a platform works and values its creators. I remember when I received the top monthly writers bonus every single month for the duration it ran. Now, I feel like an outcast and as though my writing is no longer good enough for the platform or its audience. It hurts.
Let's see what the next couple of months bring, and I hope Medium day goes well this weekend (appreciate the mini keynote).
