Dear Fellow Medium Members,

I’m feeling prickly. This is why…

Image by Myléne from Pixabay

I’ve been on Medium daily (with only a very few exceptions) since the end of June 2022 and in the Medium Partner Program since the first week in August. I’ve joined a few publications (the experience with those has been good) but mostly published on my own. Right now, I have 404 followers and my earnings have not exceeded $10.21 for a month. Most of my articles are between three and five minutes long.

Screenshot by author, 12–02–22.

I’m not new to writing a blog or trying to gain a following. I’ve had a WordPress blog since February 2017, The Apples in My Orchard. So I know the drill. I know networking is important.

But, I’m irritated!

Here’s why…

My articles are not being clapped for. Would it kill you to clap for my article when you read it…clap more than once? You do know you can clap up to 50 times, right? There are some great articles on Medium, and there are some crappy ones. I’m putting myself in between those. But, when a crappy article on orchids gets over 400 claps and 9 comments, I am dumbfounded.