When I finished the fourth version of my TDG book in 2017, I created a Twitter account to help promote this alternative democracy. I followed a few people, but they were mostly reposting noise. I posted a few posts; but with few followers, not much happened. I could not grok this internet forum, either as an internet marketing tool or recreation to keep up with the times. My Twitter account has not been used for five years. I won’t blame Elon Musk for that!
I started Medium in 2019. My first year was my best year in terms of traction for the TDG. Since last November, my usual traction has dropped to less than half of my traditional traction. I decided to reduce time on Medium in favor of spending more time on writing a new TDG novel.
But I also thought I should try a new internet forum. Mastodon is the newest rage. So why not? I set up my Mastodon account in late February. I was not expecting much. There was a learning curve to work through.
My first objective with Mastodon is not to get sucked into a time waster. So I set these limits for myself: 1) one post a day, using one of my 350 Medium articles, 2) one comment per day of another Mastodon user’s post — and usually dovetailing with a TDG mention, 3) one repost (or “reboost” in Mastodon talk) of a Mastodon post I like a lot, and 4) a handful of “favorites” (“likes” in FB talk) of Mastodon posts I just like. In essence, I spend no more than 10 minutes with Mastodon a day.
My Mastodon Adventures:
I use a few common hashtags to help my post get some traction with people interested in topics like democracy, politics, and other societal angles.
I created the hashtag #tiereddemocraticgovernance which gives a place for other Mastodonians to find my work — if they ever become interested in an alternative democracy. I use that hashtag almost always. I hope it becomes more recognized as time passes.
I have 30 followers. Some of them occasionally reboost my TDG posts.
A couple weeks ago, I found myself in a small Mastodon waterfall. I commented on someone else’s article. My comment immediately got boosted and reboosted. I was quite busy for a couple of hours talking to about 20 people about the TDG, at 500 characters per post. I got 15 people to read my two flagship articles on Medium.
An Interesting Surprise
I think most Medium contributors have experienced the following response after publishing a Medium article. The first day is not so great. But the second, third, and fourth days are when most of the traction comes in. The fifth day is a drop. The sixth day is a bigger drop. After a week, there are very few new views coming in. About 95% of whatever traction that is going to happen to a Medium article happens by the end of Day 6.
On my Mastodon posts (with links to my Medium articles), I noticed the view numbers slowly going up. When I dive into the “details,” I see these views come from external sources. The Medium software does not specify the source. But since I never had this response before, I have to assume that these views are coming from Mastodon.
To show my point: I will just use this article I published on April 17:
Toto, I have a feeling we aren’t in the 1960s anymore
I really liked this title. It is an allusion from the “Wizard of Oz.” It refers to a previous age: either the “Good Old Days” or the “Hippie/Peace Movement,” take your pick. This title should have moved this article to above my usual average traction. Rather this provocative title got only seven Medium views by Day 6.
But after Day 6, this article has had a fairly sustained external readership. Its run does not appear finished yet.
The strange thing is that I only posted this “Toto” link once to Mastodon. This one link has had a better run than the original posting on Medium.
This article is perhaps the better response of my Mastodon posts. But even my less glamorous articles are still getting two or three extra views a week, week-after-week. I never had that kind of post-six-day traction before.
In other words, Mastodon is doing more for me than Medium.
I’m not sure why Mastodon is moving traffic to Medium long after Medium’s stale date. And I think Mastodon posts become stale after a few hours.
I’m not sure how Mastodon users are engaging with my Medium articles. The stats are not that strong.
Unfortunately, Medium does not pay for external views.
But I’m happy that new people are looking at my TDG articles. This is a small victory.
I will keep posting one TDG article (already written) to Mastodon each day!
From what I can gather, Mastodon (and “instances”) are funded by donations. I promised myself to give 10% of my revenues to Mastodon if it proves to be the vehicle that moves the TDG into the spotlight.
I just checked my Kindle account. No new book sales in the past three months. I would like to pay Mastodon $1,000 by the end of the year!
My current usual readership has been about 20 views per Medium article. Then the Medium algorithm cuts me off from the feeds. Such is the life of a bottom writer.
For those 20 of you who will read this particular article, I hope this has been useful information for you. I have appreciated the findings from other Medium writers working with other internet forums. Their insights have been useful of where to go next (or not). I guess I am trying to repay them for presenting their findings with this quick article.
Published on Medium 2023
Be the example you want our politicians to be
