3 Lessons About Medium I Wish I Knew About Earlier

Sometimes, there is a shortcut

I love writing, I love making money online, I love Medium, and I love empowering people to create a life they truly enjoy.

I am convinced everyone can have it all and live in full abundance and joy.

I don’t think you making it big on Medium will dim my light, or lower my stats.

This might be a naive approach, but in my 22 years of life, I had great results, so I’ll keep living that way.

There’s too much greed, hate, and envy on this planet anyway, so I am trying to be the opposite: I want to be your biggest cheerleader and support you as much as I can in building a life and business you love.

Let’s be honest for a second: Life is too short not to be happy.

Every day is a present, and it’s up to you to make the most out of it.

And if your goal is to build a thriving writing business through Medium, I am here to share anything I found out while publishing over 300 pieces here and making an additional income of more than $5,000 per month.

Most tips about Medium are self-explanatory.

Of course, your writing needs to be on point.

Of course, you need to use a grammar- and spellchecker.

Of course, you can’t expect to make it big here if you just publish whenever you feel like.

However, besides these banalities, there are a bunch of tips I wish I knew about earlier. Here are some of them.

Build deep, humane connections

When you first publish on Medium, you feel kind of lonely.

You write your ass off, but nobody even sees your pieces, not to talk about appreciating them.

There’s a sense of hope, some sense of belief that this might also be your way of making a full-time income through writing, but for some reason, it just doesn’t work.

Been there, done that.

I published more than 200 pieces until my work got read.

Two hundred times of hitting the ‘Publish’ button and waiting for a miracle to happen.

My first posts on Medium were awful, and most of them hardly got 100 views.

As a result, I felt if I was writing and hustling for nothing.

Yet, I kept going.

Even though I didn’t have a particular goal in mind, I felt as if publishing here was the right thing.

However, when I decided to take Medium seriously and write every day, not only my stats but also my motivation changed.

Once I started publishing more and better pieces, curation and being published in the major publications became ordinary.

As a result, thousands of people started reading my work, and some of my pieces have hundreds of comments.

Hundreds of responses from people all over the globe.

Can you imagine how crazy it feels to connect with a bunch of people through your writing?

It’s an honor.

And it’s so much fun.

On some days, I had tons of new comments on my posts.

And I replied to each of them.

Even now, I am still responding to each comment I receive, no matter if it’s a positive or a negative one (yes, those also exist).

I am convinced that building human relationships and serving people beyond the ordinary is a massive part of Medium success.

If you are open and honest, people who think alike will resonate with you.

And they will come back.

They will read the majority of your pieces, they will tell their friends, they will sign up for your newsletter. And they will eventually buy your book or online course.

Work with Medium, not against it

First, the bad news: Medium is continuously changing.

And it will always be changing.

By writing on Medium, you are dependent on Medium. You can’t do anything about their changes.

From one day to the other, you might suddenly make zero dollars here, and there’s nothing you can do because they don’t owe you anything.

However, it’s here right now. And it holds incredible potential for writers and entrepreneurs who are willing to invest time and energy into creating valuable content.

You can not succeed on Medium by complaining about it.

You either accept the rules and play the game accordingly, or you drop out.

Gary Vee once said:

“We have to start looking at these platforms like shows, not like channels.”

Look at Medium as a show. Make it your show. Use it as long as it is here, and instead of being worried about changes, sit down and write great shit.

Don’t copy but learn from the best

You won’t ever succeed in life by copying someone else.

If there’s an original, why would people follow the fake, copied version?

You need to find your own voice, your uniqueness. There must be something you provide that no one else on this entire planet has.

And you know what?

You are unique.

The odds of you being born are about one in 400 trillion.

You are a fucking miracle. And you have something to say. Something that nobody else can put into words.

Nobody is wearing your shoes, nobody has your unique story and your way of understanding the world.

There is something you can share and write that nobody else can copy.

However, even if your writing is unique and your story is outstanding, Medium has its own rules. And the best way to understand these rules is by taking a close look at what the successful writers are doing.

Take your time to analyze the top writers of the platform, pick a few role models, and analyze their work.

For instance, here are my stats from last month:

More than 350,000 people checking out my stories resulted in a paycheck of more than $7,700 in a month.

If that’s something you desire and if your goals on Medium are similar to my outcomes, why would you not check out each of my posts and do an in-depth analysis?

You can see everything I’m doing here.

If you take the time to analyze my work, you will be able to create similar results.

And it’s the same with any other successful Medium writer: Their work is online, you can read it, you can analyze it. You just need to do the work.

One of the biggest mistakes I see aspiring Medium writers making is they chose the path of trial and error.

They want to give it a try before getting support from those who already know the rules.

If you are writing on Medium for fun, go for it.

If you, however, desire to reach the top, the trial-and-error-approach might not work anymore.

Thousands of people are writing here, and each day, new people are publishing their first posts.

If you want to stand out, you’ll need to make quick progress. And the best way to make rapid progress is to getting mentored by those who already produce your desired results.

Want to succeed on Medium? Join my free 5-Day Medium Writing Course.