5 Things You Should Not Do On Medium

A short and useful listicle every Mediumite should read

No boring introduction. Let’s just cut straight to it!

1️⃣ Delete an older story and post it again

To say that most older stories don’t get much traction is not completely wrong. Although, based on my personal experience, a bunch of them can still generate you a few cents and dollars months later.

That being said, the worst strategy you can adopt is to delete an older story and post it again, hoping that you can trick the algorithm and make easy money using this hack loop.

You will not. Therefore, it’s much better to use an alternative title and rewrite or spin the story in a slightly different style if you’re insisting on going down that road.

It’s important to mention that if the story in question is a boosted story, you have to be even more careful and make sure no foul play is involved.

The above paragraph is something that can be used as a closing statement for the next two points on the list.

OFFICIAL SOURCE UPDATE: Here’s the best procedure for reposting an older story:

The “written in 2020” part is just an example. When I formulated my question to the Medium Staff, I used “an old story posted in 2020” as a reference.

2️⃣ Send the same draft to multiple publications

I had no idea this was a thing until I heard someone mention it. Apparently, this is done to increase the chance of the draft being published faster.

In this case, the person would just pull out the other pending copies (if one of them was published) or delete the duplicates if the same draft ended up published in more than one publication around the same time.

The problem with this is that it’s not much different from point #1️⃣. So the same considerations apply.

Plus, unless we’re talking about a huge time lapse, publishing right away is not that important. A 2 or 3 hour delay won’t do much harm in 9 out of 10 cases.

If you’re adamant about following a set schedule, you can publish the draft independently (on your profile) and then send the finished product (story) to a publication that accepts already published stories.

If you do this, then how fast the publication accepts your story is irrelevant.

3️⃣ Pull out stories from a publication

Yes. This one is partially related to the previous point we discussed, and I think that the connection is evident.

But we need to address the situation from the other side , not just from the writer’s perspective.

No respectable publication will appreciate or condone this type of “poaching” or “highest bidder” behavior. So it is best if you discuss it with the publication owner.

Also, if you decide to pull out an article you sent to another publication and republish it in your new publication, know that this action will not help you much in any way.

So, even if you get permission, it’s basically a meaningless action.

4️⃣ Upset or bother other people too much

Be very careful how you promote your content.

Tagging too many people who you don’t know or have no connection with on a regular basis or plastering your links in their comment section, acting like “Yo, check out my stuff,” can turn off a lot of people.

Also, being too conflictual with other users or writing things that could get you some strong backlash.

All of this could end up with other users pressing the “show less of this” button on your articles, muting, or even blocking you. And the more people do that, the less beneficial it is for you.

The site algorithm is trained to distribute your content less based on these drastic actions that are perceived as user feedback, so thread carefully.

5️⃣ Criticize Medium too much

One time, I wrote an article that expressed my dissatisfaction about something Medium related. I wouldn’t say that it was criticism; it was more like me bitching about things and laying out my frustrations on digital paper.

Someone with decades of experience in corporate saw my post and advised me not to focus too much on that since corporate rarely likes feedback, as they put it.

Now, I don’t know much about the corporate world. So, I can’t tell if that’s true or not, but I know for sure that I appreciate all types of feedback. That’s why I took that advice to heart. 😁

I’ve heard this conspiracy theory that if you upset someone up high on Medium, you will be put on a blacklist and both your distribution and earnings will be sacked.

Personally, I don’t think that’s a thing. Based on my personal experience with the Medium staff, the people with whom I interacted were very decent and helpful.

However, we’re all humans, and if we have a negative impression of someone, that will make the said person less likely to gain our favor or help, especially when they barely make the cut for it.

This could either increase or decrease your chance of ever being accepted as a boost nominator, for example. And so on.