The other day I saw someone complaining about getting 100 views on their latest blog post.
100 views is a miracle.
Go start your own Wordpress blog and try to get 100 views on your next post. Unless you have 100 Facebook friends who suddenly care about what you do, you’re not getting 100 views. You’re not even going to get 10.
I wrote an article recently about how Medium is dying, and while I stand by that analysis, I wanted to talk about how much it spoiled us when it was actually decent.
Let’s dive into why..
When Did 100 Views Start Seeming Insignificant?
Once, long ago, I had one student publish their first story on the Medium Partner Program and it made $7,000.
SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS.
He could’ve gone out and bought a car with that money at the time.
For too long Medium was an oasis in the middle of the desert that is blogging online, and we all forgot what life was like outside of that oasis.
Think about 100 views for a second. That’s 100 human beings who read your article. That’s like three high school classrooms full of people reading your words.
I don’t know about you, but that seems pretty incredible to me.
Would you get nervous if you had to get up in front of 100 people and read your blog post line by line? I know I would!
If you would get nervous too, and you still think 100 views isn’t a lot, please go put on a clown outfit immediately.
Don’t Underestimate The Value Of 1 Reader
Every reader you attract is a miracle. Someone decided, for instance, that your article was more important to pay attention to than the tidal wave of eye candy on Instagram.
Someone stopped scrolling Facebook for you.
Someone had a choice between the cutest cat video of all time and your article, and they chose your article.
This is a miracle.
You captured a strangers attention through the fog of war that is the internet. Someone who doesn’t know you, and someone who you don’t know, either.
That’s pretty powerful stuff. When we spend so much time refreshing stats pages and seeing articles get 3,000–4,000 views easily, we stop valuing the 1.
The 1 reader.
I hope people never forget the 1 reader through all of this.
Sorry for the short newsletter this week. I thought it was a powerful message to share.
I always have made a living out of a bunch of true fans.
target the right audience + your personality and you win.
I get excited any time someone 'likes' what I've written, I mean it TOTALLY makes my day! I'm still at the point in my Substack development that I want to write for the sake of writing and connecting with people, so I try not to pay attention to the numbers too much. But it still lights me up to think that someone enjoyed or agreed with or could use my ideas enough to click that little heart button! I'm also the kind of person who feels nearly the same level of joy when I 'like' someone else's post...I just love recognizing and celebrating each other, whether we have 43🙋♀️Subscribers or 5 thousand! ❤️