3 Lessons I Learned on My First Week on Medium
I have been one week on Medium now, and I have published 5 stories. I have 44 followers, so I’m almost halfway to being monetized. I actually thought it might take a month or even longer to get 100 followers, but now it seems it won’t take that long.
My stories have gained 195 views with a read ratio ranging from 40% to 65%. The post with most reads out of the ones I’ve published so far is this story:
This was the second story I published on Medium, and it was chosen for further distribution. This means it was curated. As it has far more reads than any of the other stories I’ve published so far(which have not been curated), curating does seem to bring more views and reads to your story.
I have been accepted as a writer for 10 publications, which is fantastic. Now I have plenty of places to publish my stories.
As you can guess, I’ve already made some beginner mistakes during my first week on Medium. So, I’d like to share some lessons I’ve learned from my first week to help other beginners.
3 Lessons from My First Week on Medium
1. Don’t Self-Publish as a Beginner
I self-published my first story on Medium because I didn’t understand how the publications work. That story has only 5 views and 2 reads.
Lesson learned: Don’t self-publish your stories as a beginner. When you don’t have many followers, self-published stories won’t get found. Instead, publish on one of the various publications available on Medium. Many publications accept beginners as well.
2. Be Active to Get Followers
I want to join the Medium partner program to be able to make money here. But first, I need to get 100 followers. If you’re new here, you’re probably in the same situation.
As soon as I started writing on Medium, I also started reading as many stories by other writers as possible. I also left comments on their stories and followed other writers. I haven’t gone crazy with the following, though. I might have got 100 followers already if I had followed more people. But it seems it’s relatively easy to get 100 followers without going crazy, so I chose to go for just being active.
So, if you want to get 100 followers fast, publish stories, comment on other writers’ stories and follow writers you’re interested in.
3. Publish Stories on “Difficult”, Personal and Important Topics
In my most successful story so far I talked about the struggles Autistic people face in finding employment. I also included my personal experiences as an Autistic person.
So, I wrote about my difficulties as a disabled person and social injustice. I talked about something that needs to be talked about. After this story, I wrote some more “light-hearted” stories and they didn’t do as well. Have a look at the stats below.
It’s fun to write about sunshine and rainbows once in a while. But these stats say it clearly: Most of the time you should write about the “hard stuff”. Instead of the “5 Ways to Make Money by Painting Pictures of Unicorns” stuff. You get the idea.
What makes you angry? What do you struggle with? Is there something in the world that needs to be made right? Write about that!
What have you learned on Medium as a beginner? Please share your lessons in the comments!
More Medium Tips:
My First Month on Medium in Numbers
