3 Overwhelming Reasons Why Your Audience Ignores Your Milestones

There is still one more, but this one is worth gold

I don’t read the comments section since the first day of February 2021. I also don’t see stats or earnings until the last day of the month. And I promised myself only to care about my writing.

On my whiteboard, I have written in big letters: Spent 10 to 15 minutes on headlines!

As a non-native writer, I frequently see myself writing the English language as I write in Portuguese. That’s why I’m learning grammar and structure in an online course. It’s an introductory course to remember simple details about writing.

I will keep investing in advanced English lessons for the next year because I want to be a top writer.

My goal is to keep my audience satisfied and get my articles closer and closer to virality. There are three reasons your article can go viral:

1. Noticeability on your style;
2. Clickability on your headlines;
3. Sonority on your writing.

Let us break these three fundamental characteristics. And let us find the right path to a successful career.

Who Cares About Pretty? I’m Going for Noticeable.

If you don’t write correctly, forget noticeability. A good structure and correct grammar are crucial and are always the first step.

Use applications like Grammarly and Hemingway to help you get quality on your work. They allow you to identify your own errors and fix them. These apps will be your first English teacher.

To be noticed on Medium, you have to focus on three details: publications, curation, and SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Most beginners try to submit their pieces to significant publications rather than start small and simple. A large part of the rejections in publications has to do with the lack of framing of the themes. You have to find publications getting traction, but also those where your article fully integrates.

Be also aware that you’re writing to Medium’s curation standards. If you want your articles to go viral, you have to read those standards carefully. Being curated means Medium will distribute your piece internally to several platforms. And the probability of more and more readers get into your work is potentially improved.

Medium has a high domain authority. The platform potentializes your keywords to rank higher in Google searches when you write and publish an article. Yet, if you go to Advanced Settings, you can edit your title and description to improve your SEO. You can also see all videos from my friend [arlie] PEYTON about keyword research and other very compelling content.

When You Meet Someone and You Instantly Click

I’ve been writing on Medium for ten months. And one of the components of my business as a full-time writer is headlines.

Headlines are like the front store of your business. Take a look at my article Your Writing Portfolio Should Be the Most Beautiful Store in Town. And you’ll understand what I mean by your headlines being a front store of a business.

In the intro, I said I have written on my whiteboard: Spent 10 to 15 minutes on headlines!

If you don’t reflect on your headline as if you had to do a complicated math calculation, you’ll be punished with indifference. Use deep thinking on any headline you write.

If you have written a super exciting article with juicy insights, but you underestimate your headline, nobody will click. Unfortunately, your best choice to go viral will not be accomplished because you neglect your headline. Don’t make that mistake.

Close Your Eyes and Listen to Every Sonority Around You

To turn your work sonorous, you have to write about subjects you deeply understand. Remember, your audience wants to read what you have to say.

Yet, if you don’t show expertise in what you write about, they’ll live and never came back.

Write about things you love. Write about something you know about. And give your audience your personal perspective.

Your voice is unique, and that’s what your audience is looking for. Your fans want more of you, not copies of someone else’s work. Your uniqueness is your gold. You have to share what you love and what you know the best way you can.

For that to happen, you have to write every day. I write daily for ten months, and I’m still finding my voice, my uniqueness. So, don’t create false expectations. Stop believing that after a month of writing and half a dozen articles, you turn expert. Make no mistake believing your voice is already touching the entire universe of Medium.

When you reach one hundred articles, you will notice a large difference. You are looser in your writing. And the connection between what you think and what you write is already flowing. The greater this fluency, the closer you are approaching your true essence as a writer. Until then, pick up the keyboard daily and write. There are no secrets behind this premise.

If you don’t write every day, it’s not worth creating expectations. But if you write every day, you are getting closer and closer to become a real writer.

I write a thousand to two thousand words a day.

What about you?

Final Thought

To get your first 1,000 followers quickly, you have to be lucky and have an article go viral.

If you haven’t yet discovered what your audience wants to read, the probability of having a viral article is low. My best article had 7.3k views. And it’s not even close to what I’m capable of doing. I know I can do better. So, I learn every day about my own mistakes. I keep searching what themes my audience most love to read. You should do it too.

Another thing interesting is to comment on other writer’s work. Before Amardeep Parmar starts writing the first article, he already had two hundred followers. He was interacting intensively in the comment section. And the way he argued his opinion on specific items made people love his thoughts and perspectives. Maybe Amardeep found his voice by commenting on other writer’s work.

Michael Thompson highlights three essential characteristics where we should focus. Personality, thoughtfulness, and consistency. These three attributes must be improved for your writing to mature.

Editors don’t care about your followers’ milestones. They read your work, and if they want more of you, they’ll publish your work.

Don’t worry about reaching 1,000 followers.

It’s just a viral article away.

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