Social Writing Platforms Are Limiting
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My Personal Opinion Regarding The Mass Writing Madness Online.
At the beginning of 2022, I heard about a writer’s platform called Medium. Some fantastic reviews were not accurate in the long term. The thinking confession today is based on my six months of experience on a few writing platforms.
Since I don’t write in the white spots, but only from my perspective and probation, today I share my opinion about Medium, Quora, Tealfeed, Simily, Wattpad, Dreame, and Feeding Trends.
Medium is limiting in terms of creativity and appreciation of uniqueness.
When I joined Medium, it was like a drug. Spending my day, reading many writers and getting inspired by them, was intoxicating. I got delusional my writing found its voice and auditory. Time passed by, and I earned no money, appreciation for my writing, or loyal readers.
I still have 281 followers there, but they left the platform. The most read articles were for home-based money-making. The focus was on the writers that lived in Partner Program Countries. That was disappointing in terms of expressing the writer’s point of view in various genres and limiting by the location.
Many Medium writers write fantastic short stories, poetry, and flash fiction, but stay unrecognized by the mass community there.
When I joined that platform, my best friend said it was good to experience writing in English. She knew I will not earn anything from there but supported my decision and I’m grateful to have a realist like her in my life. My passion is for writing and I gave it a go every possible time.
Time passed by, and I saw I should publish daily on Medium to become known. That was not convenient because of my full time-job and child care. Even so, I did my best to write daily short posts the first week, and after I did publish once or twice per week. The thing on Medium is that people do not read something new, but what is most reading. That social platform became a gossiping place, filled with opinions that led nowhere in terms of improving writing skills, or even a step closer to financial independence for writers.
Staying there for six months on Medium made me clear a full-time writer will not earn enough for a living, especially if the country is not featured in the partnership program.
The Medium platform limits its writers in terms of grammatical expression when they write daily because there is not enough time to review the post. The platform cuts the writer’s wings if they’re not writing on trendy topics. As time goes by, the writers feel unappreciated like me and quit the platform.
However, there are some pros on Medium: supporting writers who do not read everything others write but if they’re interested, buy an author’s book.
Money clauses on Medium are unequal. It’s like a daily mouse wheel that is good for improving writing skills but is not worth it when the writer’s country is not on the Partner Program list.
Some writers whose countries are not qualified for the Partner program stay on Medium, making them delusional that they will build a loyal readers base. Sometimes happens, others not, but in general is like a prison of writing inspiration.
Let’s be honest here.
An author can not write inspirational daily, and that makes the written blog’s quality not good enough for continuous reading. Most readers prefer to read quality blog posts seldom. Being published daily it’s like drowning deeper in the writing platform’s ocean because most people will not see the post.
Quora is limiting in terms of Opinion, accompanied by cursing.
I learned about Quora from Medium. It’s a numbers game. By the way, the Quora partnership program was stopped recently. It’s not worth it because on that platform are many people, who asked similar questions to find appropriate answers.
For me, Quora responding to questions was therapeutic. I was motivated to support many people by replying to their questions and my answers were respected until I found haters who cursed me for a different opinion. It was amazing how many people on Quora saw no farther than their noses. But there I found many interesting personalities and developed my thinking and English writing skills.
However, most Quora questions are similar, and with time it becomes tiresome to reply.
One of The important things is the number of followers. If there are around 100 000 people, members can earn something. Another point of Quora is the importance of credentials. Until I was there, people received money for their answers. I wouldn’t pay for something when I can find a free answer.
While I wrote my answers on that social platform, many people started to hate and curse me which is not tolerable and I quit replying. My country wasn’t in the Quora partner program, nor I was appreciated, when I was active there, so it was pointless to spend any more time there for me.
At first, I wanted to help as many people as possible with my knowledge and experience, because I like to support and show care to humans. I grew fond of those who cared to read what I wrote and found many inspiring stories, but it became emotional and time-consuming baggage with time.
Indeed, I needed to write a lot to heal my broken heart and made the mistake to jump into five different writing platforms. They ate my time and my child felt neglected. My brokenness back then was huge and the healing way was my writing.
Usually, when I face challenges, my work motivation goes high because the will to think about the problem is foggy.
Tealfeed limits in terms of payment, topics, and professionalism.
That social platform is business-oriented. They made a partner program at a later date, but only a few people could qualify. The visitors there are not many and the information could be found in other professional places on the Internet. I spent around two months there and saw the web has not much traffic. I did not have many readers and was limited to writing only on business topics. The Tealfeed writing editor there is simple and easy to use but I do not suggest that platform. They do not care much for their blog post writers. The team does not post on social media their new posts and people should do it on their own. That is not bad, but why should I promote another site than my blog?
In my life, there has always been a fight between my business side and creative writing. Back in the years, I divided my posts into two places: creative and professional. Business posts are the most searched and read, but my heart stays close to poetry. That’s why I published two poetry books, and now have a third. It’s the purity and control of my emotions since I am a deeply emotional Scorpio.
When I want to look professional, business doing and writing is my suit, because of my knowledge about it. Sometimes I feel deceived by myself because it’s like playing a game to write about professionalism when my heart longs for romance and poetry.
That is why I finally created my blog to contain everything I write based on my moods and like a diary.
Simily limits the price for something new that is not proven on the web.
Simily is one of my favorite platforms, but I quit it. It’s a new place for creative writing. Many poets and fantasy writers are there, but the membership price per month is a bit much for a platform that doesn’t promote its content. I have many works there and used to love it.
The traffic there is not much and people use the platform mainly for sci-fi stories. Many poets on Simily enjoy a loyal reader base. The good thing about the platform is the team creates monthly contests with paid rewards for the winners and makes free promotions.
The con is Simily is not popular or indexed on Google. It still uses a WordPress blog pattern which makes it look unprofessional. The team, however, cares for their authors but has no capital to promote more. The main point I love about Simily is that is the first place I received a paycheck for my poetry. It was one of the best moments in my life but it happened once.
However, Simily is not my place.
My love for writing is accompanied by my self-work. Right said I am not the usual team player. Sometimes it happens, depending on the situation and the decisions that should be made.
In general, Simily reminds me of Wattpad and Dreame, but these places are dead.
Wattpad and Dreame limit in terms of reading genres.
Almost every writer knows about Wattpad. Most read stories there are erotic and many writers started it as a draft place for their books. Poetry is not popular on that platform. Recently, the site is used mostly as a dating application based on my experience. It’s a free place where teenagers write.
The worst con on that platform is copyrighted.
They are taken from the authors. For some people, it may be good, but for most is not working. The paid stories earn money but since there are many free writings with similar content, nobody pays to read. I suppose it’s a matter of the before-built reputation of authors who earn money there.
I suggest it for beginners who do not want to publish anywhere else. The most read content is mature fantasies and unfulfilling sex life. Many violent words are used in Wattpad stories and it seems aggression is respected.
Dreame has a big pro in terms of Wattpad.
On that unpopular platform, people can start their novels in their languages and promote themselves in their countries. Most writing pieces are novels. Many books can be read on Dreame. But once again, there is not much traffic on that platform. It also has contests for stories, but it takes much time to get recognized and much self-promotion. That can be done on an individual blog.
Feeding Trends limits in terms of payment for writing on their platform.
Despite Feeding Trends paying only to writers who write on their platform, I like it a lot. The team of FT cares deeply for its authors and promotes them everywhere possible. The condition is to write only for them. But they have great communication and the option to import links and receive traffic on the author’s blog. It’s one of the most popular Indian platforms and many writers know about them.
They do have not much traffic, but it’s solid, and use every social media to promote their authors. It’s great working with them if the writer is a student or has free time without many engagements. I highly recommend that platform, but I haven’t used it recently. Maybe I should, because they generate traffic to my current website. FT is great for teamwork between authors and the team that cares for the platform.
In conclusion
Based on my experience, professional authors do not use social platforms because they limit them in a way of their writing language and trending topics. On the other side, for a side hustle, the websites above, are a way to earn additional income with good self-promotion skills, discipline, and a schedule.
For myself, I am happier owning that blog and expressing my opinion freely. It builds a loyal reader base with a similar way of thinking. On the platforms I have been on, my expression had limits, defined by the topics and mind manipulation to earn whatever it takes. My writing is not only for earning and it never was the reason to do it. My motivation to be an author is to make people think and broaden their life horizons because it’s undeniable fact today humanity lost its mind to earn more money than fully experience life shades.
Everyone can write for money without touching people’s hearts and minds. It’s like a mental box that makes the sad reality more obvious. Humans start to think they’re robots and forget what it’s authentic live contact between them. They forget to think emotionally and in perspective. Living day for the day is understandable, but it’s good to have at least general genuine goals for life to make it worth living and put a trace on that dirty and fake in most parts of the world.
I would like to share one of my favorite sayings popular in Bulgaria: “After you die, you should leave a trace in the shape of a child, book or kindness to be remembered.”
That indeed is the purpose of life, don’t you think?
