I went back to read two of your mid-December articles. Plus I read an article from the Medium gods a week ago.
The hypothesis I'm coming to is that Medium has been flooded by AI bots. These bots reinforce each other with claps and cheap comments, giving the impression that these articles are popular. So the algos give these AI articles a higher popularity score, which then leads to more exposure to the feeds.
In essence, the AI consortium is taking a bigger share of the Medium shekels, even if the AIs are mostly reading themselves. The real writers are getting shafted in both feed exposure and shekels. Most of the action on Medium is AIs reading each other. Writer subscription fees are moving the AI consortium.
If this hypothesis resonates with you, feel to use and/or enhance it.
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I'll just provide a bit more of my story as it might provide more clues for you.
Here has been my strategy for the past four years. I mostly wrote 5-8 minute articles, using a current headline to build a story that I could dovetail into the TDG. Last year, it was about two articles per week.
When Trump won the presidency, I thought it was time to be more direct with my TDG teaching. Maybe people would be ready for my ideas. Articles ran one to four minutes. I wrote almost every day, starting November 7. I would not have been surprised to get an increase in traction. I would not have been surprised to get a 50% reduction
I saw an 80% reduction right in that second week in November away. And it has not recovered. At first, I believed that the direct TDG articles were offending people. After all, the TDG has not exactly warmed up to the political readers/writers here. People are annoyed with me telling them to build a new democracy.
But maybe there was a coincidence between November 7 and AI consortium getting more active.
Or maybe Medium deemed my work as being AI, giving it short times on the feed. I usually get much views after the second day.
Anyways, it is a mystery.
With not many readers, it is pointless for me to stay on Medium
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Despite being a bottom writer, I still earned about $200-$300 a year. How Medium pays the bills is a mystery to me, but that is not my immediate concern.
If trends continue, I will be lucky to make $100 in 2025.
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Hope this helps in you sorting this out.
