5 Genius Tips For Medium Beginners (and Everybody Else)

Medium is not a get rich quick platform. It’s no money-making machine. A small number of people in a sea of thousands and thousands make a decent amount of money per month on this platform. An even smaller number of writers make stellar amounts.

This is the harsh truth.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about tips and tricks to get into the aforementioned club of people. While there might be no shortcuts, there are most certainly ways to improve your chances on Medium.

Here’s what I’ve found. And yes, some of these tips are obvious and have been mentioned before. For good reason! Wait for rest, though. You’ll be surprised.

1. Grab the attention

Clickbait.

Don’t think of this term in a negative way. Instead, call it click-worthiness. That’s what we want to achieve as writers, don’t we? How do we do that?

1. With a great headline. Duh… I know. I’ve never been a master at headlines. I’m learning. Learn with me.
2. A great opening paragraph. Again, I’m my own student here. Far from perfect, but I’m trying to improve with every new intro.
3. Some SEO. Thankfully, SEO is not a must on Medium. This community-driven platform doesn’t depend on search engine traffic. It never hurts to get high Google rankings, though. This might lead to more Medium members and a couple of referrals for you here and there. So, some SEO is good. Don’t overthink it, however.
4. Sharing is caring. Share your own stuff, of course, but also share great reads from other writers. That way, you build connections. Comment on posts. Engagement will lead to more reads and friends.

2. Chase the “right” stats

I’ve gotten some flack for mentioning this in the past, but I stand by it. Medium has some great features, it also has some largely overrated ones. One of those overrated terms is the Top Writer status.

Now, hear me out!

Becoming a top writer is a great confidence boost. Enjoy this achievement. BUT remember that top writer status in and of itself won’t make you successful. It won’t increase your views or reads, and certainly not your earnings.

The same goes for claps and followers. These metrics boost confidence, and they should. Just don’t chase them.

Instead, what you should focus on are the following metrics and achievements:

1. Subscribers: Followers are one thing, but subscribers are the real opportunity on Medium. Subscribers actively decided to get your stories to their inbox. That’s awesome!
2. Referrals. Medium is a great place for writers, compared to many other platforms on the internet. Spread the word and get rewarded. It’s a win-win.
3. Member reading time. The one metric you really want to increase is member reading time, i.e., the time paying members spent on your stories. This time is money. Literally. Find ways to increase reading time. One obvious solution is longer stories, though this is hard to consistently do. Other tips are CTAs and media attachments. I wrote a post about this here.

3. Use Medium lists to your advantage

Some dismissed Medium’s list feature as negligible when Medium released it last year. I was underutilizing lists the first few months.

Just another way to organize your posts, I thought.

Oh, it’s much more than that.

Lists are powerful. I’ve written multiple stories about their capabilities and how to use them properly. Read the latest one here.

To give you a quick overview, here are the crucial points:

1. Use lists to organize your posts by category, topic, time, popularity, etc.
2. Share lists instead of single stories, within Medium and on social media
3. embed lists in your story footer
4. Tackle list names like they were story headlines.

4. Recycle your content

You’ve put a lot of time and energy into your posts. Make the most of them by recycling your content. That’s actually a popular strategy. Tim Denning does it all time, for example.

What does recycling mean?

Well, you shouldn’t copy your posts or duplicate them. That’s not allowed on Medium.

But you can repurpose your posts in different ways.

1. Take a popular long-form story and create a shortform piece around it. Short and sweet, straight to the point, without fluff. I do that all the time. Many writers do. Kristina God is the queen here.
2. Add to an existing post. You might have written a story in the past which seems outdated or incomplete now. Build on that foundation and add to it. A few new arguments, additional resources, a different perspective, etc.
3. Quote yourself. Yeah, you can do that. Why not? You’re great!
4. Repurpose content from other platforms. Republish old blog posts, recycle popular newsletter issues, or stitch together a well-received Twitter thread and create a story from there.

5. Keep at it

Lastly, and this is the one I always use and preach, keep going!

Don’t stop after 5 unsuccessful posts. Hell, don’t stop after 100. Keep going!

Write for a year. See where it takes you. It took me from 0 to $2500 in the past month.

Consistency and a daily or weekly writing routine are and will always be king, or queen, or queer. Be you!

The bottom line

Yeah, Medium has changed. In fact, Medium has probably changed countless times over the years. Some changes are good, others aren’t. Recently, it’s the latter, it feels like.

We can’t control that. What we can control is writing consistently, coming up with great stories, sharing our knowledge, and engaging with other writers. That’s what makes Medium great, after all.

It’s social blogging. Let’s keep it social.

Try the 5 tips above and see where they take you.

Happy writing!

P.S.: First, you should get my posts in your inbox. Do that here! Secondly, if you like to experience Medium yourself, consider supporting me and thousands of other writers by signing up for a membership. It only costs $5 per month, and you have the chance to make money with your writing as well. When I started, I made $3000 in 6 months. By signing up with this link, you’ll support me directly with a portion of your fee, it won’t cost you more. If you do so, thank you a million times! Lastly, I create freebies all the time. Subscribe for more.