4 Valuable Lessons From My 17 Viral Articles on NewsBreak
The first and most helpful being I have never aspired to be the next wannabe superstar writer on Medium or elsewhere therefore started with zero expectations
I can’t tell you how many new writers claim they are going to be the next Tim, Zulie, XYZ only to crash and burn — never to be heard from again.
This is not me criticizing — there is nothing wrong with having a role model and aiming to be like them.
But bragging just cuz you had a good month or two in the earnings department or gained 100 followers in 1 hour never doth maketh you a Zulie nor Tim.
It just makes you a one-hit-wonder or worse, a wannabe who never became.
Is that the long-term goal?
Or should you rather be looking for consistent results?
To be honest, I too have fallen for the get-rich-quick schemes. I listened to a bunch of writers waxing lyrical about Quora, LinkedIn, Vocal Media, and finally Simily.
Yes, I too hopped on all of them out of equal parts FOMO and curiosity.
We know how that turned out for the majority of us while they laughed all the way to the bank to reap the rewards of read time — courtesy of us.
So I decided enough was enough and forged out my own path and I must say it has worked out just fine.
For me writing on Medium is an intense business. That’s because I write personal stories which are heavy on the emotional side — heartbreak, heartache, healing, and such.
And I have an audience for that. In fact, one of my followers recently told me that they visit my Medium page just to read those stories.
Doesn’t give me much room to experiment, does it?
But as a writer, I’m certainly not limited to just one genre!
I am an avid reader — of horror, sci-fi, science— you name it.
So am I glad I got to be a contributor for NewsBreak — it gives me to explore my other interest and yes seems to be paying off as well because I’ve had about 17 viral stories (10K plus views) since got monetized at end of January.
Things I’ve learned:
- Know thy marketing: Someone once told me they just write and they have no knowledge about the marketing side of things. I just hate it when people automatically assume that just cuz I write, that is what I do 24/7. My background is in Economics and I never learned anything about Social Media or marketing prior to writing on this platform.
But let me tell you an important point I picked up right away — claiming you know nothing about marketing is not going to get you anywhere because simply put — promotion is king.
For example, how else are you going to stand out among 244K writers on this one platform?
For promotional purposes, I use the following:
- Social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook)
- Substack
2. Know thy audience: I think this pretty much sums up what it takes for getting views. While I have no magic formula, I can offer observations based on my experience.
In his article, marketer Mike Fishbein divides the audience on Medium into three types:
The Author’s audience: these are the people who follow you because of what you write.
Having said that, I have two completely different audiences on Medium and Newsbreak, and although I write what I am passionate about, I am also mindful of what they want to read.
The Publication’s Audience: this refers to the followers of a pub. Some writers go for big publications hoping to reach a wider audience. In my experience, small and medium pubs work just fine. What is important though is to pick publications that are a good fit for your articles. That way, your articles have a better chance of reaching your target audience.
The Tag’s Audience: this is why picking article-appropriate tags are so important. By making use of the correct tags, your articles have a better chance of popping up in the feed of users who follow those tags so that way you get more eyes on your articles.
For this express purpose, I learned how to use tags not only on Medium and NewsBreak but also on my social media channels.
3. Connect with thy audience: I have also heard writers on this platform whine and moan about how their articles are not getting views despite the high quality of their writing. Remember, on Medium, it doesn’t matter much if you have a degree in writing or are already a published author if your words don’t have the power to connect with the reader.
And unless your target audience loves dazzling wordplay, it is not going to help you with traction.
4. Know thy ideas: Generating random ideas and writing about them is not going to help if nobody is interested in reading about them. I also read a lot about writing about the first thing that comes to your mind and so forth but what is the end goal here? If it is just to write and hit publish in the hopes of gaining traction then that is going to take forever.
Instead, try thinking about what you are trying to achieve here?
If it is for the views, earnings, or credibility then are you offering any sort of value to the reader to make them want to come back over and over again?
A writer once attributed my success to luck. I don’t think so. It is the result of a lot of hard work, showing up every day, continuously learning new things, and yes, being aware that I still have a long way to go.
I would love to hear about more steps that you have learned and which have helped you in your writing journey!
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