AMEN! To be clear, I’m not hating on Medium. I’m a huge fan of the fact that they come let us write and earn money. All I’m saying is that I can completely relate to the fact that trying to figure out the inner mechanics can drive your crazy.

I do think you’re on to something that followers matter in helping your posts get reach, but they aren’t all that matters. The piece of evidence that I always go back to is that of all 4 posts I’ve ever had that blew up, each one was more successful than the last because it built off of the influx of followers from the last one. I definitely think the initial reception matters too though. If I had to guess I would say that curation + followers + initial audience interest = a massive success, but I have no idea how much to wight those three factors.

Also, I think you are dead on accurate that people aren’t using Medium for search. I’m not. I read things that they email to me and that catch my eye as I’m scrolling through. I follow you and so this article was in my “from your network” section and I clicked on it. Basically for me to read something it needs to either be in an email, on the home page, or on the suggested reading, and I have to either be intrigued by the headline and/or image or know that I enjoy the writer.

Finally, I really like the idea of thoughtful comments on other writers’ posts. I’ve heard Gary Vaynerchuk say that the way to win at social media is to be social, which sounds obvious when it’s said but is actually counter-intuitive when you look at how people behave. For too much of my time on different social platforms I’ve been a lurker, consuming content but never contributing. Then I did a complete 180 when I started writing online: broadcasting my opinion but never interacting. I really think there is value in becoming part of the conversation and I’ve been struck by the fact that since I’ve started leaving thoughtful comments, they’ve actually been getting fans. Sometimes my comments get more fans than my posts. Obviously these fans don’t help me directly, but they are a positive indicator that I am onto something and that comments provide another way of providing value to the Medium community.