Behind the Shadows: Bringing Amazing Content into the Spotlight
12 Reasons Why Remarkable Article Went Unnoticed — The Secret Behind 30 Seconds Read
# How Remarkable Articles Go Unnoticed and How to Change It
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It's the genuine connections and the spirit of true readership that I hold dear.As some of you may know, Follower Booster Hub (FBH) is a publication with a community of writers who practice “50 claps” and “Follow-for-follow”. This story is dedicated to all Follower Booster Hub writers. Hope you will find some tips/help from this article to make your journey as a writer more enjoyable and exciting.
I have noticed many of the great writers in Medium go unnoticed, just like the hidden treasure. Although these writers create fantastic content, but still struggle to get views, reads, or followers.
To help these treasures get discovered and benefit the Medium community, I have made my own writing checklist & strategy based on my experience on Medium and only added the one that I strongly believe has helped me, so stay tuned!
1. Poor Formatting — Did You “Properly” Format Your Article?
Let me get straight to the point and help you to visualize what I mean by examples.
Readers will enjoy articles in this format (Generally speaking).
And people don’t enjoy content with this kind of format below :
Notice how the same content looks totally different and affects the readability.
So, Please Learn How to Use Your Story Editor Tool: Medium Story Editor
How many of you can confidently say that you know all the formatting options available for writing in the medium? If you are not so confident in answering this question, start by looking at Medium’s story editor guide.
There are many other formatting tools available and shared in the above link so if you are not familiar with them, please take some time to go through them as it will increase the readability of your article by hips.
2. No Visual Aids — Did You Add Relevant & Eye-Catching Visual Aids to Your Article?
Pretty please try to add visual aids in your article such as photos, gifs, and even embedded video, to please others who will be reading your article.
You should use relevant images to further enhance the impact of your blog post at the beginning. Pictures grab attention and can also work as supplements to your title and intro, which makes a great hook for the beginning of your blog. I use Pexels heavily for images in my story. Also, Unsplash is a good source for high-quality & free images.
Alternatively, you can embed a YouTube video. This helps to grab people’s attention for a few seconds (at least I hope), even minutes!
Please see below for how you can embed links to your article:
Caution to Avoid Any Copyright Issues When Embedding Other YouTube Videos
Note: For YouTube, please ensure to use only embedded links to avoid any copyright issues. When you use and share a YouTube embedded link, you’re generally not violating copyright because YouTube’s embedding feature is designed to allow videos to be shared and viewed on other websites while keeping the content hosted on YouTube itself.
This means the video plays on YouTube’s servers, and the original content creator’s rights and monetization (if applicable) are preserved. The content creator has the option to disable embedding if they choose.
Or use a “Friend Link” to your other relevant article. It’ll look like this once you embed it:
To use the “Friend Link” feature in Medium, you can find this in your “Story settings”.
If you have similar articles that you want to highlight or feature, you can copy the link and put it on your post together. The other way is to put it at the end of your article so that people who enjoyed your story can also read your other stories that were posted earlier.
3. Information Overload — Get to Your Points Straight From the Beginning!
We’re in a time where there’s just so much stuff online — from news to tweets, it’s like a never-ending flood of info hitting us. Because of this, most of us end up just scanning through stuff to catch the main bits, hardly ever diving deep into anything.
Grabbing your readers’ attention means creating content that pulls them in right from the start. Sadly, not everything we read does that well. If the start doesn’t hook them or the way it’s written doesn’t grab them, they’re probably going to click away pretty fast.
Right at the start of your article, let your readers know how it’ll help them. Lay out the main points early on.
What’s the value proposition you are suggesting to the readers? How are you adding value to their life by reading your article? Is it humor, joy, advice from your experience, knowledge, etc?
Share and give your best elevator pitch at the beginning of the article. Impress the readers at an early stage, so that they would like to learn more about your story!
4. Lack of Engagement With Other Writers/Readers
Yes, you’ve written a masterpiece article! That’s great! But did you engage with other writers/readers? Do you pay attention to and listen to other’s stories as well? Or, do you feel that it’s not needed as you’re the best and others only have to listen to you?
Not to my own surprise, people enjoy reading articles from people who take an interest in and listen to their stories. It’s a reciprocal relationship we are building just like a healthy conversation. We should try to listen as much as we speak.
How to do this on an online platform like Medium? You can do any one of the following actions to interact with the author.
- Highlight some of the well-written portions of articles that you agree/disagree with.
- Write comments showing your ideas and giving feedback.
- Clap as much as you like. You can clap up to 50 times for the same article.
- Follow the author.
- Subscribe to get email whenever the author publishes.
If you want your work to be appreciated, you should appreciate other’s work as well! It’s the same as the biblical concept spoken by Jesus in Luke 6:31, and Matthew 7:12;
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
5. Your Content is Too Short for 30 Seconds Read to Convert into View in Medium Stats
As many of you already know, for a “view” to qualify as a “read” the reader must stay on the page for 30 seconds or more in Medium Stats. This is also known as “Read Ratio”.
Often I see people complaining about people who just “read” their stories and didn’t really “view”. There could be 3 major issues in this case.
- Your article was too short to spend 30 seconds on. Maybe your article is still great and all, just that there wasn’t enough content to keep the reader engaged for a full 30 seconds.
- Your article content was not interesting enough or did not add value to readers to stay 30 seconds.
- You gave a fake hook to catch the fish with your title and intro and people realized you were lying about the hook that you gave them.
Sample Example of Fake Hook
The title would go like “How I Made Million Dollars in a Day! — Practical Way to Earn Money with My Personal Experience”, then in the content you share that it was “In my dream, I once earned million dollars in a day. I wish~~~”.
Yeah right, it’s your personal experience (your dream) but you are kind of cheating other readers with the fake hook.
People will definitely feel cheated and won’t engage with your article anymore.
If you have committed to deliver value upfront, deliver it. Don’t throw the fake bait so that you will get the clicks. It will naturally lower your read ratio.
6. You Lack in Sharing Your Personal Experience
People are more interested in your personal experience than just listening to facts.
Please find below for highlight on “Author’s Experience” in “Medium’s Quality Guidelines”.
You don’t need to be the Subject Matter Expert (SME) to write about something but your personal experience does add value to the story and readers can truly resonate with such stories.
7. Too Many Grammar Errors— Not Confident in Grammar? Please Use Grammarly
Disclaimer: I am neither related to Grammarly nor I will earn any income by sharing this application with others.
Please, please, please install Grammarly and use it. Its free version is sufficient for correcting your writing and it can be installed on almost all devices including your Google documents or your Word document on your laptop etc.
8. Let’s Face It — Maybe Your Content Was Not Good
Let’s change our perspective. Instead of a writer’s perspective, think from the reader’s perspective. What value would you gain from reading your own article? Is it for humor? Joy? Knowledge?
We humans behave to gain pleasure from our behavior.
- We eat tasty food as our brain produces dopamine while we are eating it which in turn brings joy.
- Exercising gives us a rush of endorphins, leading to a “runner’s high” that makes us feel happier and more relaxed.
- Listening to our favorite music releases dopamine, instantly boosting our mood.
- Spending time with loved ones releases oxytocin, making us feel content and connected.
- Learning new things stimulates our brain, producing a pleasurable response that encourages curiosity.
- Helping others triggers a “helper’s high,” associated with feelings of well-being and reduced stress.
What would be the value add of your story to your readers to make them behave and want to read your story?
Let’s check out Medium’s Quality Guidelines once again for “Story Content”.
One more thing to take note! Just to let you know Medium also deprioritizes stories that could have been easily written by an AI. You can check the details on this link. It is clearly highlighted below:
“Medium is not a place for fully AI-generated stories, and 100% AI-generated stories will not be eligible for distribution beyond the writer’s personal network.”
9. You Didn’t Choose a Topic People Are Interested — Even Worse, You Are Not Interested As Well
Let’s be honest, not every topic out there grabs everyone’s attention. The reality is, that the topic you pick can hugely affect how big your audience might be.
But here’s a tip: Stick to 3 to 5 main topics you’re passionate about. This way, you keep your audience engaged and consistent. The articles that really hit the mark? They’re often the ones where you can just tell the writer had a blast writing them.
So, if you’re not into your topic, chances are, your readers won’t be either. Choose something that both you and your audience can get excited about!
10. You’ve Paywalled Your Article and People Simply Can’t Read Your Full Article
This was a main headache for me. But I finally got it all sorted out. At the beginning of the article, try to add a “Friend link” just like how I did it below.
This will ensure that non-members can read your full article through your friend link, as they only have access to the beginning portion of the article. They can read your article to full content, you get more views — so everyone wins in this game!
For those of you who may have skimmed through the article and are unaware of how to do it, I have highlighted the steps on the 2nd point “2. No Visual Aids — Did You Add Relevant & Eye-Catching Visual Aids to Your Article?”.
11. Don’t Waste Your Topics — Utilize all 5 Tags of Your Topic
Tags play a crucial role in helping curators and readers discover your work. Remember, every time you publish an article without using at least five tags, it’s like an angel loses its wings.
The maximum topic tag you can add is 5. Try to add relevant tags and add in all 5 topics. This will definitely widen your audience reach.
12. Mention Old Articles in Your New Articles
No one has time to scroll all the way down in your profile to check your story which may have been written months or even years ago. If you have relevant stories which you feel will add value to your readers, try to add them as a “Friend Link”.
This will not only benefit your users but also revive & rejuvenate your old stories, making them young again to gain more views!
Below is an example I would use for this article since this article is about sharing writing tips.
If you want to know about other writing tips, please refer to the below links:
Wrapping It Up
In wrapping up, this guide has journeyed through the shadows to shine a light on why some remarkable articles remain hidden and how you can steer your content toward the spotlight. From the essential use of formatting and visual aids to the significance of engagement and choosing topics with care, each point serves as a crucial step in making your writing resonate with readers.
Remember, the essence of your article is not just in the topic you choose but in how passionately you present it and how well it connects with your audience. By embracing these strategies, not only do you elevate your content, but you also enhance the experience for your readers, making every article a potential treasure waiting to be discovered.
So, let’s not leave any more angels wingless — tag thoughtfully, engage genuinely, and write with your heart. Here’s to making every word count and every article a stepping stone to greater visibility and impact on Medium and beyond.
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