2 Months of Writing: Expect The Unexpected

It has been a wild second month for me since there’s a lot of surprises that I didn’t expect at all.

New Month = New Commitment

At the beginning of June, I commit to my self to write consistently and frequently. I set goals based on the important aspects that I set last time, which are:

• Expanding the network with wonderful people in the community
• Developing personal skills and,
• Influence other people

To support these goals, I also increase my engagement level with the other writers, by reading, clapping and responding to their stories.

Applying and invited from various publishers

Since I want to increase my engagement and exposure level with other writers and readers, I challenged myself to get into various publishers. I think this is a great challenge to step up my writing skills and understanding the readers and editors’ expectations.

The first publisher that I applied was ILLUMINATION. The reason is that there are many great stories and insight from various topics that resonates me. I saw a lot of stories being published by ILLUMINATION and it is one of the fastest-growing publishers in Medium. Not long after that, I inquired Dr Mehmet Yildiz to be added as a writer. He kindly accepts my request and I immediately wrote for them.

I also joined numbers of publications in Medium, some of them are quite specific in the topic. Moreover, numbers of publishers send me an invitation to become a writer in their publication. An honourable mention for Jay Squires that kindly invited me to his publication, Genius in a Bottle.

Learning new tips and tricks

I kept exploring new ways to increase the readers’ engagement, such as improving my writing style and using an attractive title, heading and photos.

One day, I saw this story from Luis Pereira in one of the Facebook group,

He taught me some useful extensions to gain analytics in Medium and turning stories into an audio form. As soon as I finished reading it, I immediately installed theses extensions.

Once, I try an audio recording of one of my stories. This is a great idea to increase the engagement to more people, as some readers may prefer to listen in an audio form.

Numbers don’t lie when you work hard

As I kept writing and exploring, I didn’t expect my stats increased significantly from the previous month and gaining more viewers and readers. I was very pleased and it kept me motivated to write more stories.

I reached a total of 2k of views and 1k of readers in two months since I started back on the 6th of May. Maybe it’s still considered low compared to other writers, but I’m quite happy with this achievement.

I also had my most viewed from a single story last week, which is “iOS 14: 10 Hidden Features That Apple Didn’t Mention in Their Keynote”, that I published in Mac O’Clock.

I was quite surprised that it took less than a day to finish the story, but it gains the most views up to date. It also helo me to achieve my record, which is my first story that reached a single dollar digit. I was quite overwhelmed and I didn’t expect anything like this.

Curated! Finally!

In the last day of June, I received an email from Medium Writer Program that one of my stories has been curated. I can’t express how happy I am with this achievement. Not only one, but TWO stories had been curated. Both of them are related to Technology and Gadgets. Two topics that I love to write, but I do not expect that I will get a curation from it.

So what is the outcome of my three top stories?

Attractive title and content is key

I learned from my top three stories so far is all about attractive title and content. When readers saw an attractive title, they will immediately open it. It’s also gaining attraction to the publisher and curators. I believe that keyword placement in a title is crucial enough to determine the success of an article. Not just in Medium, but in general.

This is what I learnt from most stories in Medium since I always click and read through to stories that caught my eye. Providing a great preview of the content is a great start and make sure that the content is also interesting to read, instead of becoming a clickbait.

I know this is just one out of millions of tips to create great content. There are still a lot of things that I need to learn and improve in my writing piece.

What’s Next?

The next month will be far more challenging than the previous twos. I have to keep up with the momentum that I build and I can’t afford to lose it. I need to keep doing what I love and try my best to improve. It’s okay to enjoy what I achieved, but it’s time for me to get back working and pushing hard. Never stop learning and overcome all obstacles in life.

Lastly, As I previously said on my first reflection post, I wanted to say this again.

For people that gave me comments and critics, I sincerely thank each and one of you for the support. You are the reason why I’m still writing.

More from the author

Christopher Reno Budiman is a writer, explorer and entrepreneur-minded person. He received Bachelor of Business (Hospitality Management) and Bachelor of International Hospitality Management with Swiss Hotel Association accreditation. He’s on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn if you would like to know more about him.