Short Form On Lessons From Short Form

Lessons (and questions) from this week’s experiences in focusing on short form

• I published four (five if you count this one) short-form articles on Medium this week. None went to publications.
• “Shortform” is a specific Medium format.
• Medium automatically classifies shortform content based on word count.
• Allegedly: “If your [sic] post 150 words or less, the entire post will appear in profile and publication preview feeds.” (Note: this has not been the case in my experience).
• Even Medium.com (see above) makes typos on what they put online!
• All of my shortform articles had engagement rates higher than many of my articles in some of Medium’s most popular publications.
• As of right now, my conclusion from this experiment is that the Medium has yet to fully deliver on the promise of this format.
• I’m self-conscious that I’ve missed something! Are you a fan or (or familiar with short-form)? Tell me what I am missing — if anything?

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