Inspiration
100-Day Challenge for New Writers to Shine on Medium
How to grow and become a top writer on Medium in three months
New writer inquiries and applications for Illumination Integration Publications are through the registration portal. Please review the onboarding pack before submitting your stories. I look forward to supporting your stories on Medium.
Introduction
Over 1,000 new writers joined ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications within the last month. Now, we support 22,000+ writers contributing to our publications. Many of them ask me three questions:
1 — How can I gain more followers?
2 — How can I gain more readers and reading times?
3 — How can I be a top writer?
I’ve helped hundreds of writers to level up within the last 15 months. Their success gave me delight and further inspired me to help more writers.
When mentoring and coaching my proteges, I provide a pragmatic, realistic, and action-oriented approach.
Without a willingness to grow and take action, nothing happens.
Being a writer is not as difficult as being a rocket scientist. All you need is to develop micro-habits and stick to them.
Here are the key 15 action items that can help you achieve your three goals in the next 100 days:
1 — gaining more followers,
2 — getting more readers and reading times, and
3 — gaining top writer badges in a few categories.
1 — Creating visibility via meaningful engagement
Your success as a writer depends on your engagement rate.
The reason most of us choose Medium is the collaboration. There are many writing platforms, but not many provide collaboration facilities similar to this platform.
You can interact with writers by leaving comments and highlighting text, and you can follow their accounts and show your reaction by clapping. These features look simple, but they are powerful when you use them meaningfully.
I emphasize the term “meaningfully” because random comments, claps, and following would not do you any favors. Fake action is easily noticeable.
If you leave a comment, ensure it is relevant, uplifting, and enhances the writers’ messages. If you follow, ensure you read from the same author and show your presence in their upcoming articles.
2 — Follow first and expect to be followed later
Some people just wait to be followed. The chance is meager. Perhaps a few will follow you but passively waiting to be followed is not a sustainable solution.
You first follow other people and engage with them. Most likely, you will be followed. If those you follow don’t show any engagement in your stories, you can still un-follow them. The feature is available. By the way, no reasonable person would complain about being followed.
We always create onboarding packs for new writers tagging their accounts. Here is the latest pack that can allow you to find new writers to connect with. You can find more in the ILLUMINATION Blog.
3 — Introduce yourself
Don’t be shy about introducing yourself. Remember how you mingle with people at parties? First, you introduce yourself, handshake, listen and interact. The same approach applies to virtual environments.
You can create a writer bio introducing your background, sharing your goals and aspirations, and giving a quick taste of your work without overdoing it.
When people respond, you need to reply. You might check some writer bios from this collection. I explained why each writer needs a bio here.
4 — Post Regularly
Send at least one post per day for the next 100 days. This is a crucial point.
Don’t try to be perfect. We can never be. There is no such thing as perfect in real life. The optimal solution is to make progress with small steps. These small steps will have a ripple effect.
Start with 100 words, then increase to 300 words, then 500, then 1000 words, or more later when you gain momentum and stamina.
But write and post at least one story a day. Writing 100 words shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes. Some run out of topics to write about. But there are lots of points that you can write about.
You don’t have to write outstanding articles on complex topics. Instead, you can start by sharing your interesting experiences, thoughts, and feelings about a situation. You can write about your parents, children, and friends. Or you can introduce a device or a concept.
Remember to use consistent tags. As they determine you to become a top writer on relevant topics.
Just start with 150 words if you are too busy. If you want to become a writer, you should be able to allocate 10 minutes a day.
Some “wanna-be” writers post an article once a month or sometimes once every three months and expect results. The chances are too low. You can’t satisfy your thirst with a drop.
All good writers consider it like having a shower every day. I don’t think anyone takes a shower once a month. I don’t know about you, but I take at least three cold showers daily to boost my energy and stay motivated.
6 — Create short-form stories to give a second life to your stories
There is a new feature on Medium. We are all excited about it.
If you run out of time, you can just post a short form consisting of 150 words. This can be your daily post.
You can also use short forms to boost your longer articles by introducing the concept with a paragraph and linking to the story. You can learn more about short forms in this story.
7 — Take the many benefits of our integrated publications
I offer six integrated publications. They all have specific purposes.
As contributors to my publications, you can use each of them to host and amplify your stories meaningfully. You can post multiple stories to different publications. We promote them in different ways.
I explained the integrated approach in this story. To submit high-quality stories, please use our quality checklist. To learn how to make money on Medium, please take a quick look at this story.
To increase the chance of writing trending and viral stories, you may gain insights from this story. Many useful stories about writers and writing for our publications can be found on the ILLUMINATION Blog.
8 — Create collections
Finding content on Medium is a nightmare for readers due to the volume and frequency of posts.
Unless you share your content proactively and meaningfully, readers can hardly find your work.
One smart approach is creating collections. You can post them and link them to your profile. I will guide you on how to create a collection in this story.
9 — Feature work of other writers
Writers must be avid readers. I know almost all writers read a lot. Learning from other writers is an excellent approach.
But you can go one step further in this game. You can take quick notes of your reading and create a post featuring those stories that you read.
This can include your takeaway points with a link to the story and a tag to the author of this story.
If you can feature 5 to 10 writers a day for the next 100 days, you can see a substantial increase in your followers, regular readers, and reading times.
ILLUMINATION features articles each day. You can choose a few from the list. It is easy to access the story and find the writers from this list.
10 — Participate in writing prompts and challenges
Many writers create prompts and writing challenges. These are great opportunities to engage meaningfully.
Contributors are willing to engage with others, and they don’t mind. if they’re tagged. You tag someone by placing an “@” followed by the person’s name. They will get a notification you tagged them and are likely to read your article.
I recently created a writing challenge for our contributors. This can be an excellent opportunity to introduce yourself and your work to a broader community.
11 — Create an act of kindness each day
An act of kindness can open new doors to serendipity.
Just leaving a brief comment on an article featuring a story that touched your heart and sharing them on social media can give you many intangible benefits.
Creating serendipity can be the best investment in your growth.
12 — Deepen your relationships
Writers need regular readers.
You need to find intelligent ways to turn your followers into your fans. Meaningful engagement is the best way to deepen your relationships.
The easiest way to have meaningful engagement with your readers is to get into conversations when they comment on your articles.
13 — Create your own publication
While using other publications to find new followers, it can also be great to create your own publication and show your leadership in your field.
Your publication can serve as a blog or a journal.
You can introduce your publications to a broader community by posting an article about them. I keep a collection of publications owned by our contributing writers.
14 — Ignore noise
There will always be noise on any noisy platform.
Like any platform, there are some idiots and lazy people who try to attract attention by randomly criticizing and attacking other people and speculating uselessly. They have no self-esteem or confidence and nothing better to do in their lives.
Just ignore them, and they will get bored and stop bothering you.
If they keep disturbing and distracting you, just block them so that you don’t waste your precious time. You can block them by clicking the block this member option on their account name.
You can check this story on how to survive and thrive on Medium.
15 — Stay optimistic and persistent
We always face challenges. Things may not work as we plan.
In difficult times, the best approach is to stay optimistic, persistent, and consistent. You have your dreams, and don’t let others or circumstances kill your dreams.
Express yourself, take risks, be confident to face challenges, and keep shining.
Conclusions
I have provided you with some high-level points to consider.
This 100-day challenge is open to all writers. I will be glad to support your progress. You can contact me on our Slack workspace when you need help.
You can set monthly milestones and post your progress in a story to SYNERGY each month or even fortnightly if you can afford and make substantial progress.
If you follow these simple suggestions, within the next 100 days, you will make a noticeable improvement in gaining more followers, more regular readers, and more reading times.
And, without a doubt, your writing will substantially improve within the next 100 days. When you start writing high-quality stories, you can join our special collection and benefit from discerning readers on ILLUMINATION-Curated.
These 100 stories that you create can bring you new followers. From my experience, each story brings around six followers. So you might gain 600 followers in the next 100 days.
You may also turn your stories into potential manuscripts and submit them as book chapters to our new publications, ILLUMINATION Book Chapters. This exciting venture can help you become a published author one day. The possibilities are endless.
The key to your success is making a daily habit of posting at least one story. The more, the better. Success is in front of you. All you need is to take one step a day consistently.
And always share your work generously, amplify them on various social platforms and create serendipity.
Let’s review your progress in the next 100 days. I’d love to read your success story.
Here is a sample story of how we create visibility for those who complete the challenge.
Guiding Articles for Beginners on Medium
Here are some guiding stories for the new writers
I Interview writers to create visibility.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
As a new reader, please check my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting my reviews, observations, and decades of experiments optimizing my hormones and neurotransmitters. I write about health as it matters. I believe health is all about homeostasis.
Petechiae, ALS, Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Heart Disease, Strokes, Obesity, Liver Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders, Homocysteine, Lungs Health, Pancreas Health, Kidneys Health, NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Brain Health, Dementia, Depression, Brain Atrophy, Neonatal Disorders, Skin Health, Dental Health, Bone Health, Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain, Brain Fog, Chronic Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Elevated Cortisol, Leptin Resistance, Anabolic Resistance, Cholesterol, High Triglycerides, Metabolic Disorders, Gastrointestinal Disorders, Thyroid Disorders, Anemia, Dysautonomia, cardiac output, and urinary track disorders.
I also wrote about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:
Lutein/Zeaxanthin, Phosphatidylserine, Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, zinc, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, and other nutrients.
Disclaimer: My posts do not include professional or health advice. I only document my reviews, observations, experiences, and perspectives to provide information and create awareness.
As part of my creative non-fiction writing goals, I’d like to share a few stories that might warm our hearts with a bit of humor into weighty topics.
Sample Humorous Stories
Finally, After Burning Her House, Georgia Found Enlightenment
Hilarious Tips to Prevent Brain Atrophy and Keep the Gray Matter Giggling
8 Psychological Points I Had to Unlearn and Relearn the Opposite
Based on my writing experience and observations, I documented findings and strategies that might help you amplify your voice, engage your audience, and achieve your desired outcomes in your writing journey.
I publish my lifestyle, health, and well-being stories on EUPHORIA. My focus is on cellular, mitochondrial, metabolic, and mental health. Here is my collection of Insightful Life Lessons from Personal Stories.
You might join my six publications on Medium as a writer by sending a request via this link. 22K writers contribute to my publications. You might find more information about my professional background.
As a writer, blogger, content developer, and reader, you might join Medium, Vocal Media, NewsBreak, Medium Writing Superstars, Writing Paychecks, WordPress, Cliqly, and Thinkers360 with my referral links. These affiliate links will not cost you extra to join the services.
