Crucial Aspects of Shortform and the Latest Update
By: Morris T
Tags: Shortform Stories, Writing Tips, Ｍedium, Medium Writers, Medium Smarts

MEDIUM SMARTS

Crucial Aspects of Shortform and the Latest Update

You need to know this if you are writing shortform.

Heads up! Image by Peter Mill from Pixabay

Medium released a blog post with more details about shortform and its new update. This is important to note if you are into shortform writing on Medium.

Highlights and My Thoughts

Shortform posts do not get chosen for further distribution.

This strengthens the positioning that shortform posts are suitable for quick updates to your followers. For example, further developments on a topic you wrote about or updates in your life if your audience follows you on a more personal basis.

This is because without further distribution, your main sources of readership will only be your followers, the publication followers, and any sharing being done out on the internet.

This strengthens the positioning that shortform posts are suitable for quick updates to your followers. For example, further developments on a topic you wrote about or updates in your life if your audience follows you on a more personal basis. This is because without further distribution, your main sources of readership will only be your followers, the publication followers, and any sharing being done out on the internet. When you post a new shortform story, your followers will see a notification in the “Latest from Following” section on the web and in the app.

Therefore I will personally use shortform for updates to my articles that people had followed me for, instead of exploring new topics. New content remains as longform for me as I am not confident that I will capture the essence of new subjects within that relatively small canvas available to me. I do not want to risk disengagement.

Therefore I will personally use shortform for updates to my articles that people had followed me for, instead of exploring new topics. New content remains as longform for me as I am not confident that I will capture the essence of new subjects within that relatively small canvas available to me. I do not want to risk disengagement. Metered shortform posts only earn if clicked and viewed on its story page, not as part of a feed. For example, your profile feed.

This is critical to your writing approach. Unless you have followers who know your work and are eager to click without prompting, you have to consider how well your shortform preview will attract would-be readers. More on the preview itself below.

The Latest Update

The kind people at Medium noticed a dip in earnings for shortforms due to readers not clicking to read more. To address this, shortform is now truncated again.

Shortform with image

If your shortform story contains an image, the new preview will be the title overlaying the image.

Image by the author.

Shortform without image

If your shortform story contains only words, the new preview will display 30 words.

Image by the author.

Full shortform without preview

If there is content that you prefer for it to show its full immediately, perhaps in an attempt to get information out as easily as possible, this is still doable. You just need to leave it unmetered. (meaning you do not earn)

What to do next

Spend a minute to think about your shortform strategy.

Do you want to use it as a communication tool with your followers? If yes, the next question to ask will be if they are likely to click on your shortform stories without more context?

Should the answer be no, you need to give some thoughts as to how your preview can attract people to click on read more. Otherwise, you may be wasting time and risking disengagement. (How many times do you think a follower will ignore an unappealing post before considering to unfollow?)

Perhaps you are an avid wordsmith of short pieces. Then in this case, it is absolutely critical that you pay attention to how your preview looks like.

After all, we are in this hyper-competition for the readers’ attention and every single factor is important. Your preview must have that differentiating factor for the person to be attracted to click on read more, even if it is just for the content of 150 words or less.

All the best for your Medium writing. We are in this together!

Source:

Shortform: Earnings, distribution, and a helpful update