Having a low read ratio is a common problem that many writers face (including me once).
It’s irritating and enraging when you put hours into writing an article and no one ends up reading it, but let’s change that.
First, let’s quickly cover what a low read ratio is:
A read ratio is the percentage of viewers from your article that read your article, so if your article has ten views and four of them read it, then your read ratio is 40%.
A low read ratio means that a large portion of your audience isn’t interested in reading your work, and it also means that the readers that do read your work aren’t the most engaged.
This is all caused by a bundle of small mistakes working as one.
Some say the read ratio is low if it’s below 20%; others say it’s 30%, but it all depends on how many views your article gets; the more views, the lower the boundary.
I generally say to keep it above 40%.
If you’re wondering why yours is low, then it’s probably because you are making these two mistakes.
Remember that I’m speaking from experience; take a look:
So let’s begin with the first issue. This one has a huge impact on your read ratio as well as your distribution.
Your headlines and intros aren’t good enough.
I can’t stress enough how important a strong headline is. Picture your headline as the foundation of a building; if the foundation of a building is weak, then the building will either collapse or won’t last long at all.
It applies the same way to your articles.
Here are a couple simple steps you can use to strengthen your article headlines:
Capitalise each word, which means you add a capital letter to each word of your title, so you go from “How I beat the world record” to “How I Beat the World Record.” It sounds useless, but trust me, it does the job.
Have a headline that is relatable; having a headline that people can relate to drastically increases the click-chance. For example, “How a Human Can Fly By Tomorrow” to “How You Can Fly By Tomorrow”.
These are some basic steps, but to finish it off, ask yourself, if you were a reader, would you click on it? Probably not, so adjust everything and make it perfect.
This way, we can get more views on your article; the more views, the higher the chance people will read it.
Moving onto the intro, having a long, boring, or misleading intro will decrease your read rate completely, directly resulting in a lower read ratio.
Especially nowadays, where everyone’s attention span is so short, one little mistake in that intro can lead to a viewer clicking off your article. It’s that bad.
Also, don’t forget that clickbait titles and intros won’t work on Medium, just in case you were going to use them. These clickbait titles may work on YouTube, but blogs punishes you for them, so be careful.
Simple ways this can be reduced are by going straight to the point. I know you want that longer read time, but trust me, let them know straight away what’s up, no lies.
Finally, embed the introduction with the main point of your article to make it seamless and effective, just like I have in this article.
Too much unwanted fluff in your articles
After the reader reaches past your introduction, they can still click off your article. That’s if your writing begins to lose quality, becomes irrelevant, or loses flow.
Keep it on topic, write like the reader is still missing something to learn throughout the article, and answer it at the end.
This allows you to get high-quality reads compared to low ones. Especially on Medium, a high-quality read can generate you 10x the earnings of a basic one.
I hope this gave some clarity on how to structure and write your articles.
Anyway, that’s it from me.
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