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How Does Medium Calculate Reads?

So, how does Medium calculate reads? If you’re an avid user of Medium you’ve probably seen on your stats screen that Medium tracks numerically how many people read your content.

But what does this actually mean?

What’s The Difference Between A Medium Read And A Medium View?

Well, the short answer is a Medium read is when the person viewing your story makes it all the way to the bottom.

Yes, it means that Medium can show you how many people actually loved your article enough to finish it.

But how does Medium CALCULATE reads?

What’s the technological system they’re using in your browser to accomplish this feat?

I have no idea what tools Medium uses to actually calculate reads, but just know that the good engineers over there have developed something awesome that allows them to.

What’s A Good “Read Ratio” On Medium?

I’ve published nearly 400 blog posts on Medium, and I can tell you that the “average” read ratio of my stories floats between 40-45 percent.

If I get up to 50 percent, I just pulled off a miracle as far as I’m concerned.

The truth is it’s hard as crap to keep people engaged. And to be honest there’s probably a good number of people who just “skim” your articles anyway and only make it to the bottom on accident/by coincidence.

This artificially boosts your read ratios in the short term, so if you really think about it.. whatever read ratios you’re getting are probably inflated a little.

How Can You Boost Your Medium Read Ratio?

This is a topic, perhaps, for another post, but you can boost your Medium read ratio in a number of ways..

Just to be clear, it’s REALLY important to optimize for “reads” because Medium’s made it known they value reads perhaps more than any other metric.

Reads > Views, claps, fans, etc. for Medium.

https://youtu.be/xx2R9yV_vs0

 

Getting back to how you can boost your read ratio..

For one, you can write shorter posts. I’ve found posts that are 2-3 minute reads have higher read ratios simply because they’re easier to get through.

Second, you can make your posts more visually appealing. Medium allows you to insert beautiful pull quotes, subtitles, dividers, and images into your posts.

You’d be a fool not to use these elements to create a stunning work of word art. As readers, the last thing we want to see is long walls of text that all look exactly the same. Use pull quotes and titles to jazz it up and keep those eyes moving.

Third, you can just write better. This comes with practice. Using shorter sentences helps. Eliminating sentences that aren’t adding anything helps.

Being a tad provocative helps as well.

There’s so many articles you can read that’ll teach you how to write better, so I’ll leave this to you.

One more piece of advice? Use a personal story. They always seem to rope me in and keep me reading until the end. Writers don’t use this enough. 

I hope that helps you understand how Medium calculates reads, and why Medium reads are SO important when choosing to publish on this great platform.

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