Does anyone use Medium for Blogging here?

[Cromulent]

I'm wondering if anyone blogs on Medium here? I get about 1000 views per month which I know if pretty low, but I've put minimal effort into the blog. I'd quite like to earn some income from my blog, but I'm not sure on the best way to go about it? Does Medium prefer long-form content or simple tutorials for complex topics?

 

[Cromulent]

Not used it myself however what posts are your views on? Are you posting the same sort of thing or a mixed bag. If you find that a certain subject is getting more hits than other subjects actively focus on that initially, test what gets more attention, long-form content or simple tutorials for complex topics.

test your own audience and see how it goes.

Thank you for your reply. Most of my posts are on technical subjects relating to Linux but I'm thinking of expanding into doing Windows stuff as well.

 

[Cromulent]

I'm looking at moving into infosec so linux, windows, networking, sysadmin etc are all of interest to me. Give the channel a share here

If you know linux, the topics are massive. Difference in distro's, the different layouts, common install issues such as with Kodi, you can install home etc folders in a single drive or in they can be separate, but then I found they fill up when updating, Massive subject and constantly growing, especially if you can do a comparison with windows, especially on costs etc.

Set yourself a bunch of topics (how to's, reviews, troubleshooting etc) and a time frame of say 6 months and see what you can do with it

I'll warn you that my blog is nothing special but seeing as you asked here it is:

https://medium.com/@simonconnah

I think I'm going to try and come up with a more structured content strategy like you suggest and see if I can kickstart the blog into some form of life. I enjoy doing it anyway so I won't really stand to lose anything.

 

[Cromulent]

Not really an efficient way to blog, scroll type content. Needs a search and less white space.

Can't help that. The site is designed and maintained by Medium. Most of the content is curated for the front page which gets quite a bit of traffic and the rest of the traffic comes directly to the article from Google. I get about 1000 views a month at the moment.

 

[Cromulent]

You can help it, you develop it in a way there is less white space and a search. I wouldn't want to look through content like that imo.

As I said the site is designed and maintained by Medium so I can't change the design and I certainly can't add search (although there is a search function on the front page I believe). 99% of people won't view my portfolio like that. They'll just read individual articles they've found from either the front page or via Google.

 

[Cromulent]

Oh, there is a search function. Click on the magnifying glass on the top right of the screen.

 

[Cromulent]

Couldn't you just pick up all your content and move it onto your own blog site and make sure you keyword & SEO the hell out of it to make it searchable?

My website has >1000 views a month and that has been with nearly no new content for 6 months. Even then the bulk of "blogging" is that I've put a new video up on YouTube but the "technical" bits are just a written format of what I made videos about.

Stick some Google advertising or whatever the relevant flavour of ad stuff is and you will start to make "a bit".

I personally don't bother as the traffic amount isn't enough to warrant any kind of advertising media (also means visitors aren't getting bothered) but it also encourages people to engage with me asking for consultation and custom configs, quite a few offer gratuity which I'm sure is far more than ad based revenue will earn.

I was just looking at Patreon as a way of trying to make some money from my vlogging and blogging. Not sure how I feel about it at the moment. I was also going to search for some suitable products for my audience and then do product reviews perhaps.

 

[Cromulent]

The problem with product reviews is that there is a STRONG competition from virtually anyone from age 8-80 who can get their hands on a product and a PC and secondly whilst you can build up an audience, it's a long haul and requires regular content. Probably even commitment lol

My ex-boss started doing a techie/home automation channel just before we were all made redundant, 4 maybe 5 years on he's just reached the 50K subscriber point. I would say he's really good, the content is informative with a sensible touch of humour, the right amount of charisma and a likeable guy. I know it's not his "day job" but it certainly shows that you can't just turn on being a "go to" reviewer overnight.

TL;DR Reviewing is a competitive market and if you have a niche, stick with it (as aggravating as that may be).

Oh I've been blogging and vlogging for fun for some time but I'd like to try and make more out of it by doing it on a more consistent basis. I just want to look into the options.

Edit: I think I'm going to set up a Wordpress blog on my VPS.

 

[Cromulent]

I thought you were one of our resident WordPress haters?

I am. But frankly at this stage I have two options. I can build my own blog which will take me some time and I'm not in the right state of health at the moment or I could start off with a Wordpress blog on my VPS and then export the posts at a later stage.

@mrbell1984 will be along soon to shout at you for even considering it.

Feel free to shout . I know Wordpresses limitations by now.

 

[Cromulent]

I thought you were one of our resident WordPress haters?

I think I'm going to use a static website generator. I don't think I need all of the features of a proper blog so having static HTML files means I can host it directly on a CDN which should result in the fastest website possible.

Edit: Next.js looks like what I am looking for.