Part 4 — What story topics earn the most?

In Part 1 of this series we learned about the impact and importance of followers on our earnings, and we evaluated various techniques to gain them. In Part 2, we investigated the earnings impact of publishing our stories on Medium publications versus self publishing. In Part 3, we again used the data to discover the optimal read time for our stories.

Here, in Part 4 of this series, we'll investigate which topics earn the most.

Our data set consists of roughly 500 Medium author profiles and 50,000 stories.

"Goodness" vs Story Topics

Using our powerful measure of story "goodness", developed in Part 2, we wish to learn which topics are best for generating earnings.

We'll use a two step process. First, sort the 50,000 stories in order of Normalized Claps (our measure of goodness) in decreasing order. That is, we'll put the stories with the highest earnings based on normalized claps on the top and those with the lowest earnings on the bottom.

Next, we'll copy the URLs for the top 100 stories and send them to ChatGPT and ask it to use the URLs to discover the 10 topics most representative of those hundred stories. (Because, incredibly, it can do that.)

And finally, we'll copy the URLs for the bottom 100 stories and likewise send them to ChatGPT for evaluation.

Without further adieu, here are the results.

The Topics Represented in the Top 100 Stories

Here's what ChatGPT had to say about the topics represented in the top 100 stories (their words, not mine):

1. Personal Essays: Personal essays explore individual experiences, emotions, and reflections, often providing insights into the author's life and perspectives.
2. Relationship Advice: Relationship advice articles offer guidance and tips on navigating romantic relationships, addressing common issues, and fostering healthy connections.
3. Reflections on Love and Marriage: These pieces delve into the complexities of romantic relationships, discussing themes like love, betrayal, marriage dynamics, and personal growth.
4. Self-Improvement and Reflection: Self-improvement articles focus on personal development, offering strategies, insights, and reflections to help individuals grow and achieve their potential.
5. Marriage and Relationships: Articles in this category explore the dynamics of married life, including challenges, successes, communication, and maintaining a healthy partnership.
6. Life Reflections and Advice: These pieces provide reflections on life, society, and personal experiences, offering advice, observations, and commentary on various aspects of human existence.
7. Relationship Dynamics: Relationship dynamics articles examine the interactions between individuals in relationships, discussing communication styles, power dynamics, and emotional connections.
8. Writing and Creativity: Writing and creativity articles offer tips, techniques, and inspiration for writers, covering topics such as storytelling, creativity exercises, and improving writing skills.
9. Reflections on Life and Society: These pieces offer reflections on societal issues, cultural trends, and human experiences, providing commentary and analysis on various aspects of life and society.
10. Personal Growth and Reflection: Personal growth and reflection articles focus on individual development, offering strategies, stories, and insights to help readers pursue personal growth and fulfillment.

Very cool. And I feel sad technology and software engineering didn't make the list.

The Topics Represented in the Bottom 100 Stories

Now, let's look at the 10 topics that best represent the bottom 100 stories. Again, ChatGPT's words, not mine:

1. Entertainment Reviews (Movies and Video Games): These stories offer reviews and reflections on various forms of entertainment, including movies, video games, and TV shows.
2. Opinion Pieces on News and Media Consumption: These articles provide opinions and insights on the news industry, media consumption habits, and the relevance of staying updated with current events.
3. Personal Reflections on Hobbies and Interests: These pieces reflect on personal experiences and changing interests, such as hobbies like wrestling and the author's evolving relationship with them.
4. Philosophical Musings on Life and Society: These articles delve into philosophical topics, discussing themes like ego, societal norms, values, and personal growth.
5. Financial Advice and Commentary: These stories offer financial insights and commentary on topics like retirement, investments, and economic trends.
6. Personal Development and Self-Improvement: These pieces focus on personal development, offering advice, reflections, and strategies for self-improvement and growth.
7. Relationship Dynamics and Dating: These articles explore topics related to relationships, dating, and social dynamics, offering perspectives on topics like high-value individuals, dating apps, and marital advice.
8. Content Creation and Writing: These stories discuss content creation, writing techniques, and the value of short-form copy in marketing and communication.
9. Opinion Pieces on Cultural Trends and Industry Critiques: These articles offer opinions and critiques on cultural trends, industry practices, and societal norms, including topics like filler content in media and the use of stock photos.
10. Nostalgia and Reflections on Pop Culture: These pieces reflect on past cultural phenomena, offering nostalgic reflections on topics like Hollywood nostalgia, Star Wars, and the enduring legacy of films like Fight Club.

What can we learn from these findings? First, notice that the topics expressed in both categories are not wildly different from one another. This is because the vast majority of stories in Medium, at least as represented by the 50,000 stories in our data set, are about the "soft, humanistic topics" represented above. That is, there are relatively fewer articles about Science, Technology and Engineering in our data set.

That doesn't mean there aren't mountains of Medium stories on these other topics — there are — it's just that comparatively speaking, especially for our data set, they are not as well represented.

Another approach, used here, is to identify popular story tags based on number of followers (beware, this list is not ordered). Sadly, for me at least, topics like AI, Software Development and Technology tend to rank lower on the list. It's thus no surprise that there are significantly fewer stories on those topics in our data set.

Wrapping Up

Naturally, the majority of Medium authors are serving up the story topics that medium subscribers want to read, and those topics are well represented in both lists above.

The audience for science, technology, and software development appears considerably smaller, at least on Medium.