I am a spy. I am a retired magazine photographer and writer. I am retired because the bottom fell out of paid journalism a few years ago. Nobody is going to hire me to go to Paris to take photographs for an essay in a magazine. They used to.
To stay sane I have been writing a daily blog since January 2006. When I began it my RSS feed was a busy one. Access to my blog was via webpage or via my name in Google. Those who were fans subscribed to the RSS feed.
Without having any evidence to substantiate my claim I believe the RSS feed (or the notion of it) is moribund.
Every time a post a blog I put a link (with a photograph) into Twitter and facebook. People I know, and friends I don’t, will communicate to me that I have not posted a blog (even if I have) if they don’t see it in facebook (I am a stickler to note here that facebook should be in lower case). What this means is that the social networks are the portals to blogs and websites.
When I first read about Medium in my NY Times (It is delivered to my Vancouver home every day) I was intrigued. I have written a few pieces expressly for Medium but the bulk of my over 100 (I am not sure that Medium can accommodate all of them in my stats page) blogs are imported with the nifty Import Tool. I modify some of them to make them a bit less provincial and more US centered. It seems that Medium is very about the US with the exception of some of the Español and Portuguese postings.
When I check my Blogger blog statistics I have seen that the viewings of my blog straight from my webpage or the RSS feed are down. Many are Google searches. But I see a steady increase via Medium.
I have noticed that my most-viewed blogs are the ones that feature a racy photograph like this one. And a blog of which I am most proud for its content is ignored! This one is an example. And strange, too, while the photographer here is not racy the title does include the word breasts. This one was seen by many. It has little content.
I wonder if inserting hyperlinks within a Medium essay affects the statistics that divides those who read and those who look.
I am 72 years old and I find that my venture into social media and Medium has given me a splendid window into how people many years younger than I think and compose their thoughts.
Am I a spy?
