Read.Cash-Medium: Content Performance Analysis & Comparison
I have published 378 articles on read.cash, and this one will be number 379.
While some articles performed remarkably well, many more didn't.
I examine some of my top posts on read.cash, and try to analyze data further, based on comparisons with Medium.
Some platforms can suppress news, articles, and accounts while also promoting content creators according to the personal preferences of just one admin.
YouTube, for example, suggests content according to what fits the AI algorithms, although it is not flawless, as bots often define trends instead of real people.
Content belonging to companies and influencers dominates today what is trending. There are always opportunities, though, as trends change and the niche we focus on writing can become the trend in the future.
My Top Two Articles On Read.Cash
I examine my top two articles on read.cash in terms of views numbers, and try to compare them with Medium results while analyzing further how SEO works with both websites.
1997 Views:
My top article at read.cash is not about cryptocurrencies.
"SOS Sign in Japan" is a story I spend days researching, aiming to discover the missing pieces of information of an incident that shook the world in the 80s.
This story currently has 1997 views as Google's SEO brought it to the top page of search results with multiple word choices concerning this incident.
Searching with a word selection such as "SOS sign Japan" or "SOS sign mystery" will even fetch it second in the search results.
I don't want to write just about cryptocurrencies, and I often tried to change the subject, but to be completely frank, the way it went, my account is connected with Bitcoin Cash, and the rest articles don't get too much attention (or tips).
Two months ago, I checked the views of the "SOS" article, and it had 1714. So, this is an increase of almost 300 views in two months, suggesting it is a topic people on the internet enjoy researching and will probably find this link when searching for this story.
Still A Low Number Compared to Other Platforms
Publish0x
Some authors may think this is a low number if they haven't tried read.cash so far. Users of Publish0x, for example, will often claim tens of thousands of views monthly.
Publish0x, though, is not accurate with its charts of views.
Besides boosting articles with fake numbers, according to the preferences of the two or three admins of that platform, a Publish0x user can just refresh the page, and the numbers are added to the total. Views on Publish0x is like they didn't happen.
Medium
I compare read.cash with Medium, for which I also have many concerns and reservations, but not on the counters for viewers and reads, as it provides sufficient data to analyze the performance of our published content.
A view that Medium gives is this:
Medium presents different statistics between members of the platform (with subscription) and the number of the total views (including visitors). Medium also provides analytical data, even the traffic source and the interests of our readers.
This tool can help us with prediction analysis and support writers to reach decisions and adjust content to increase their views and reads.
These results are only visible to the owner of the account. Those writers with the means and time to examine this data further can boost their presence on Medium.
1401 Views:
This one has 1401 reads so far on read.cash. However, I have also republished this guide on Medium, where it achieved more than 15,000 views.
Why did this happen?
I have no technical knowledge of SEO. I am still researching, and until recently, most of my questions remained unanswered.
A while ago, a friend on the platform commented on one of my articles and provided details on the structure of websites and how Google's SEO works with precision.
In short you want to make it easy for google spider bot to index your website by crawling trough all the links, people usualy provide sitemap xlm file that spider bot can easily find and use for crawling.
I don't know if the read.cash has something like that but if not than spider bot starts to crawling trough website by searching for links and going on every link repeating that process recursively.
Problem here is that bot doesn't use javascript so asynchronous "load more" for articles doesn't work, this means that google bot sees only first 32 articles on the landing page of read.cash this might have bad effect on SEO if developer's didn't take into a account that spider bots don't run javascript while crawling
(read.cash user: @Jackal, Source)
This answer makes sense from a technical point of view, as it is the first step required to understand how Google's SEO works and why the same content on some platforms is ranked lower than others.
Although, I'm not entirely convinced if the spider bot of Google only finds the first 32 articles on the landing page.
Read.Cash Landing Page
My content is never featured on the landing page of read.cash.
I examined this with multiple browsers and mobiles while logged out from read.cash, for a long time.
Moreover, it always displays just five or six accounts at all times. The accounts on the landing page while logged out are always the same accounts any time I've checked in the past (including today for the purpose of this article).
I have never found my account on the landing page with the only exception when my boosted content appears on the top.
It was the same for the SOS article, if I recall correctly, still this article was picked by Google's spider bot and displayed on the front page of search results for most regions.
I don't have further knowledge on how the spider bot works, but the landing page might need a refresh.
Top Articles on Medium
Medium gives a different perspective. These numbers were mostly from articles I published while still being a Medium partner and monetizing my Medium content.
All these articles are republished from read.cash and performing at least ten times better than on read.cash.
I don't have the "SOS" article published on Medium at this point and wouldn't want to risk the read.cash link removed from the top searches.
Describing and Interpreting
With time and data available we now know what happened and why.
I have seen stats from writers also using the Coinmonks publication, mostly featuring in the work hyped cryptocurrencies or BTC content and all achieving results similar or better than mine.
Bitcoin Cash is currently a small part of the market and the attention shifts from project to project according to what pays the influencers most.
Polygon->Cardano->Shiba Inu->Solana->Avalanche.
Writers on Medium followed what was hyped and trending.
Those that followed this route in 2021, managed hundreds of thousands of views monthly, and a stable income compared to the average wage of a western country, just from Medium.
Moreover, the same applied to cryptocurrency-related video content creators on YouTube.
The number of Tweets can indicate trending cryptocurrencies at each specific time.
FACTS on Bitcoin Cash
These numbers prove the interest at times is on what is trending, and for multiple reasons we all know, Bitcoin Cash is not trending as crypto news limits and suppresses positive news on Bitcoin Cash.
SmartBCH is not trending either, as coverage outside the Bitcoin Cash community and support by mainstream websites is minimum. Only a few mentions exist in the crypto and mainstream news of smartBCH.
However, I am not interested in changing my content to write in favor of projects like Cardano or Shiba Inu.
I have researched and dismissed these projects, finding them pointless and only containing an exaggerating hype.
My content that reached "trending" status on Medium (for a while) had to do with research, guides, and proper analysis, but only when this was about BTC and certainly not about Bitcoin Cash.
I feel that I didn't help Bitcoin Cash as I was expecting. I didn't have thousands of views on my Bitcoin Cash posts which constitute 90-95% of my work.
The writers on Medium present the case that this market is a clown's market driven by unreasonable hype without any substantial utility involved.
In fact, crypto content on Medium is the mirror representation of this clown's market.
Medium Partnership
Ending the partnership with Medium and removing the pay-wall from my posts did not affect the number of views. Views are still on the decline, following the general interest in cryptocurrency during these bear market conditions.
In Conclusion
I was hoping to reach a conclusion and discover how SEO works.
Of course, I discuss authentic views only, and by no means cheaters that exploit the platforms trying to create an artificially high number. I am not interested in this type of views manipulation.
Reaching the top is not easy in any field. I don't dismiss anyone having achieved popularity, starting from scratch, but try to learn and emulate them.
Content creators must present unique and high-quality content to reach there, and it is harder to stay on top for the long run than to achieve it.
Feedback, reports, and the various tools of analysis we can use can help us draw valid conclusions, understand how these platforms operate, and allow us to determine what changes we should make in our writing style and topics.
I've found many writers on Medium either flip-flopping or publishing ignorant content about topics they never researched properly since it served them to deliver trending content and increase their views, followers, and income from Medium.
There is a lot more thinking to put into this, as I definitely won't change my topics but will always focus on separating cryptocurrencies that work from vaporware.
Undoubtedly writers ought to seek balance without selling out values to achieve better visibility and popularity.
Cover Photo: by "path digital" on Unsplash (modified)
Copyright Disclaimer:
Material published in this content, is used for entertainment and educational purposes and falls within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of images used in this article, and have an issue with the use of said material, please notify me.Not financial advice.
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