20 Supposingly OBVIOUS Ways for your Content to Get more Readers and Make More Money

I have been working for free for the past 3 weeks as an editor on Medium. Although working on top of my job as a business owner can be rather stressful, I enjoy writing and reading what others on the platform are sharing.

I have created a publication called HustleVentureSG which is now one of the fastest-growing publications on personal finance and side hustle. To help all writers on the platform, I have decided to share some experiences on how I increase readership and make more money with my content writing strategy.

Ways to Improve your Content

Writing a professional-level type of content writing is tough. I do still once in a while receive messages on how to write better. Depending on how you take it, I take the criticism constructively and always thank my commenter for at least letting me know or having shown an effort to read my content.

To improve my writing, use these 10 easy steps that I use to structure my content for better readership.

1) Smart Title Strategy

Dude! Your title is the most important to consider!

For just 5 to 20 words, the title is a make or break when it comes to capturing your audience's attention. That means even though you have written an in-depth topic covering important information, no one is going to click on it if you do not look into improving your title.

8 out of 10 people are going to view your title but only 2 out of 8 of them are going to click on it. That stats speaks a lot.

Learn to improve your title writing ability. That way, you increase the likelihood of getting more readership.

2) Using Numbers to Spark Curiosity in Title

Numbers places a huge role in title creation because when we think of the topic, we may believe there are only 3 things to know. But when someone comes in with 5 more things. Naturally, we become curious to want to know more.

The magic numbers that have done well over the years are 5, 7, 10,15, and 20. Don’t ask me why but these numbers seem to capture audiences better.

3) The title should only be Question, VS, Reviews, or Best Types

There are many other titles you can use but these 4 are the ones that work best. Aim to come up with titles that address these issues.

4) Meaty Content

If you want more income through readership, your content needs to be long enough for viewers to enjoy reading. Don’t go for 2 to 3-minute reads, this level of content is most likely to be run through within less than a minute of scrolling. The information provided can hardly be worth anything.

In SEO terms, we have a response(500 words), staple(1,000 to 2,000 words), and pillar post(2,000+). Generally, pillar posts are the most valuable information that you want to be writing. These contents are most likely to be evergreen, which means your content gets to be used all year round.

Don’t believe me? Just Google search anything and you will find that the ones that rank number 1 are all pillar posts. If you can write pillar posts easily with an SEO strategy in place, I don’t see why you can’t be like me making 6-figures.

Most writers on Medium write whatever they want, and that’s okay. But if you are looking to make more money from your knowledge and information sharing, you need to start learning to write pillar posts.

5) Break down to bite-size

Yes, you can write a lot! But is the content digestible?

The problem with highly knowledgeable writers who have been experts in their field is how much information they write in their content. It’s great if you can add so much information, but you need to learn to break it down.

A general rule of thumb is to have only 2~5 sentences per paragraph. No more than that or else the content feels a bit too heavy.

Also, don’t try to fluff your way out of pushing more word count. Freelance writers are all forced to do these because they are all being paid based on word count. More word doesn’t equal more value, aim to be as concise in your writing as possible so your reader enjoys what they are reading better.

6) Grammar and Vocabulary

Arghh, they stand out so much!

Poor use of vocabulary and grammar stands out easily. Other than improving your content writing which will take time. The next best thing you could be doing is download Grammarly to help auto-correct or detect your mistakes for you so you can improve them. The paid Grammarly provides good content structuring for your article so that it becomes more presentable and easy to read for readers.

7) Solid CTA or Conclusion

Writers tend to think of the best title and starting phrases to write in their article but they always leave out the conclusion part.

Hello! That’s where you make your money!

It’s crazy, after all that time you spend creating value for your reader, the most important step you should be doing is giving recommendations to your audience. Most readers are just going to be there to read maybe 1 or 2 of your article and never come back. That’s why you MUST have something worth selling to them.

For this instance, I would recommend them my 30 pages long book on how to create a 6-figure content writing business by buying this book. I have set the price low so more people can get started reading it right away!

8) Worth the Click

To be worth clicking, your topic needs to be of interest to your readers. Using the right tags for the algorithm to place your article in the right place is important!

Check out my articles on the top few topics to use on Medium.

9) Usage of Internal and External Links

You see this article? It’s filled with internal and external links!

Writers need to learn how to use internal and external links to their advantage by building a proper sales funnel. For this instance, I use HustleVentureSG as my external link to promote my publication which is outside of Medium and I recommend internal links to the articles that I have written here on Medium.

10) Use Pictures to do the talking

Medium staff put the read estimate at 275 words per minute, and they added another 12 seconds for images. In other words, that’s 12 seconds of read time on Medium writers don’t have to work on increasing read time.

To also summarize your content, pictures can do all the work for you by displaying the text beside the character showing emotions. That helps. Just look at me!😅

Easy Peasy! Just don’t forget to add citations to the images so that you don’t break any infringement rights!

Way to Get Easy Traffic

Yes, you can write articles now but without traffic, you wouldn’t be making any money. Organic traffic takes 8~12 months for Google to take notice so the best way for you to get instant outreach is through these means:

11) Social Media

Depending on what topic you are writing about, here are the types of social media and what works best for them:

• Instagram — Aim at 20~35-year-olds, go for a more personal approach less business-related topic
• Pinterest — Works best with women since 65% of users are women. Go for colorful and interesting designs to capture their attention
• LinkedIn — Business only. Don’t be fancy and use it like Instagram.
• Facebook — now mainly consists of elderly people. Best use for recommending them product or service needs.
• Twitter — Short-form content selling.

12) Target Keywords for Organic Traffic

You don’t have to spend a crazy amount of money doing keyword research. You can start by scrolling down to the bottom of Google searches to find the top searches the people are looking for.

Another way you can do that is by downloading the extension called Keyword Everywhere tool which would place all keywords your searches are searching for on the right-hand side of Google searches. Take note, put at least 1~5 short-tail keyword and 1~2 long-tail keywords onto Google documents first to keep.

Now, if you have added some keywords in the content, then try to add more of them. You can do this by clicking on Ctrl+F to search how many short and long-tail keyword is being used.

Like this article, you would be able to find most of the top searches related topics (notice they are bold) in this article since I have taken down all of the most important keywords.

13) Writing Platforms (Substack, NewsBreak, Quora, Blogger)

You can also share your content on publications or newsletters, they are a great source of traffic. Given that most of them are niched down to the subject, it hits the target audience a lot easier.

Subscribe to me on Medium here: Click Here!

14) Help Others

By far one of the most underrated works to do. Writing and publishing in other publications or newsletters helps to foster relationships with other brands, this can be used to share prospects and deals.

15) Share your article Using Whatsapp or Telegram

Once you have done writing the article, you can share it with a blogger group on any social device. that is why can provide constructive feedback and also potential market outreach.

Ways to make more Income from your Article

If you want to make the most amount of money from content writing, you need to learn how to diversify and make multiple sources of income. Writers do not only make money from ads. We have partnership programs, affiliate marketing, sponsorship, or product and service selling.

16) Affiliate Links and Product Selling

By far the second easiest way to be making money, affiliate links, and product selling can be done at the mid or end of the content where trust is built with the reader.

17) Content with a targeted SEO strategy

If you are looking to have strong organic traffic, you need to have a proper SEO strategy. I use RankIQ to recommend me the best keywords to use and in a matter of weeks I was able to rank page 1 on many of their recommended topics to cover.

18) Have more than 1 place to submit your work

As I previously mentioned, diversifying your income is one of the most important skills for a content writer. Build yourself multiple sources of income so that you never have to depend on one of them ever again.

19) Ask for Sponsors

Be bold! Ask for sponsorship!

Since no one is going to know who you are behind the computer screen, you can boldly ask companies to recommend you some products for you to try on to start selling.

20) Take Time

Lastly, a content writing business takes years to build up but as long as you are providing valuable content to the community. Be expected to be paid in dividends for what you have written.

What are the BEST SKILLS TO HAVE for Writers

Don’t say I didn’t tell you this!

What if I tell you there is a way to get EASY traffic to your content if you just learn to use SEO?

SEO is all about finding the right keywords and information that people on the Internet are searching for. As a content writer, your job is to address these issues and help solve these inquiries on the Internet. If you do that, you will be rewarded with high traffic to your website. Thus, making more revenue from ads or affiliates.

You need to master SEO. It’s our bread and butter whether we like it or not. No one will read your book unless it meets certain SEO criteria. To ease my need to find keywords on the Internet, I use RankIQ to help me find all the keywords on Google and my job is to put all these words into an addressable article. It’s that simple!

Affiliate Marketing Disclaimer.

To keep this site running and do research, I may receive a commission if you purchase using some of the links. I only recommend products that I believe in. I appreciate your support!