6 Mistakes I See New Writers Make When They Come to Medium
Save your mental energy for writing well by not making assumptions.
I’m no longer a newbie on Medium. I’ve read Medium since its infancy and published consistently coming up on two years now. I published my first post in 2016, and I got serious in 2019. I’ve earned my place as an experienced Medium writer who has had success. I’ve had several posts go viral; I know Medium well.
I belong to several Medium-centric Facebook groups and am part of a few online communities offered through Medium courses I’m taking, making me privy to many newbie comments and complaints.
Below are some of the mistakes I hear writers comment on frequently
#1. They don’t realize Medium is a social media platform
First and foremost, Medium is a social media platform. Yes, it offers a unique opportunity for the non-professional writer to make a considerable chunk of money, but, ultimately, it is a social media platform like Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.
There will be new rollouts several times a year. Once you get used to a change, it changes again.
I’ve been on the site through several iterations. The major change was when Medium went from clapping as the metric to obsess over to read time, which determines earnings.
Lately, views are tanking for writers across the board. I have seen my views drop significantly for the last several weeks, as have many successful writers. Reminding us once again not to depend solely on Medium for income, but as a jumping-off point to build a solid writing career with Medium as one piece of that puzzle.
My earnings dropped a bit when Medium changed how it paid its writers at the end of 2019, but then quickly shot up again in the following months.
To survive these imminent changes, it is best to take the long-view here. Realize Medium will change again, making it evident to concentrate on other avenues to build revenue and a solid writing business.
#2. They think the outliner is the norm
There are outliers on Medium who write one or two articles that go viral, and then that new writer uses that metric as a badge that they know of what they speak when it comes to all things Medium.
They don’t.
If you’re going to take advice from writers about Medium, make sure they’ve been on the platform for a while, especially before you pay for a course.
Success isn’t stumbling on a viral article your first time out; it’s creating one your 25th time out, your 50th, your 150th. Medium is more about longevity and the slow burn so that your accumulative content makes your writing career. While success with the first article published is wonderful, that doesn’t mean success is guaranteed for each article that follows.
Many people have been successful on Medium only to leave because they weren’t seeing the same monetary success they experienced in the short term.
There will be dips. There will be ups and downs.
Honestly, the best way to learn the ins and outs of Medium is to publish on the platform consistently for a whole year, not looking at stats, but concentrating on writing habits and routine. That is what I did. I didn’t look at my stats for a year. I occasionally checked to make sure I was being curated at a high rate; when I knew I was, I put my head down and concentrated on the writing part.
After all, quality writing is really the only sure thing that will make you a successful writer on Medium or on any other platform.
I wanted to know if writing content daily was doable for me and if I would enjoy writing for a large part of the day.
If you can write for a year straight, through the ups and downs that a writer’s life guarantees, then this gig is for you. If you can’t, you’ll quickly know that maybe you should try something else. Writing isn’t easy; daily publishing is hard. It gets more effortless after a year, but there are much easier ways to make money.
Just because a new writer goes viral the first time out does not mean they will each time. I’ve seen it again and again. The writer who wins on Medium takes the long-view. That way, you stay and don’t quit.
#3. They quit
You can’t see success right now. I know what that is like. I made my first $100 pretty quickly on Medium, but if I had considered how much I was working, I was really writing for free.
You have to believe that you’ll see success down the road if you put in the work required. I did. That doesn’t mean I didn’t want to give up; I did want to, several times. It took three months for a story to take off, earning me close to 10K to date. The next one took off shortly after the first. The period between each story that takes off gets shorter, but that would not be the case if I didn’t write consistently — 5% of my stories drive my income. I wouldn’t have written that 5% without the other 95% before, after, and in between.
That is the hardest part — the quantity of your content is more important than anyone piece of content you’ll write.
When you don’t see a lot of movement towards your monetary goals, you need to believe that writing for free, in the beginning, will eventually lead to writing that makes an income.
A lot of people give up right before success is about to blossom. If you can keep going when success isn’t there, you will see it. You won’t see it if you give up.
#4. They don’t have another platform on which to build an audience
To go from novice writer to never-have-to-work-in-an-office-again writer, realize being a professional writer is not only about writing. It’s about a lot more than writing.
Here are just a few:
- A “call to action.” A one-sentence, “Hey, join my email list here,” line to build your email list.
- Create a product — eBook, course, service — to sell to your true fans.
- Work for free in the beginning while you create a backlog of useful content to turn into a course or eBook one day.
- Work on creating a name for yourself on other social media platforms or a blog.
- Own a website, or at the very least, a landing page.
- Build a strong email list of loyal fans to sell your products to.
- Engage in life-long learning to add value to your audience.
A professional writer has many hats to wear, one of which is writing. If you’re serious about making an income that supports you full-time, it requires other skill sets you may have to bone up on or learn from scratch.
Writers are continually learning. Or, they hire one or two people to work for them (or a team of people) to do the techie stuff.
#5. They don’t have a routine or a system
Motivation alone will not keep you writing and publishing over the long-term.
Motivation is unreliable. You need a system.
Your system is how often you write, where you write, what time of day you write, how often you submit to publications, whether you take a class to get better at writing, when you edit and how you break down an article to make it clear and concise for your readers.
A writing system is what drives your life toward what you want, your goal — to make money from writing.
For success, focus more on the system and not the goal.
If you don’t have a writing routine, you will burn out or give up. Routine is what makes writers go from novice to professional. You must have a routine because the system becomes a habit. If you rely on inspiration alone, you will write maybe once a week or less.
Concentrate on the system of writing. The system of writing can be broken down into three parts; ideation, creation, and editing.
These are three different parts of the writing process and should be done at different times.
When taken as three separate parts, it makes the process of creating large amounts of content easier. And you are more likely to turn your I-want-to-be-a-writer dream into the reality of making a stable monthly income.
#6. They wait on publications or curation
I never look for curation. I don’t even know what people are talking about when they say they got an email that reads, “hold tight, our curators…”
I just focus on writing the best quality articles I can for that week.
Newbie writers, especially in Medium-centric Facebook groups, complain about curators taking a long time. I have not found this. Curators are human and doing their job to the best of their abilities.
Do you think Tim Denning or Shannon Ashley is concerned about curation?
No, they are too busy writing their next 34K-clapped-for article. They get curated. But they aren’t mentally hanging on to whether or not their last article was curated.
When I submit to publications, I let it go. Meaning, I put it on the back burner in my mind and start writing, editing, formatting other pieces I’m working on for Medium in my drafts folder.
In June of 2019, I wrote and published every single day for the first three months of my Medium journey. I was so concerned about not missing a day, I would check obsessively whether my writing was accepted to publications I’d submitted to. I’d worry about the timing of when my story was published because I wanted to know which day it would count for. This over concern about when publications would publish my work would affect my writing output.
Now, I let it go. I assume they won’t get back to me right away, and I just look at that pending draft as not counting toward my five articles per week quota.
So when they do publish it, it is a bonus to my writing week. By setting expectations low, I come out ahead with more content. If they reject it, I submit to another publication, which usually accepts it. My philosophy on publications wastes a lot less of my energy.
Every writer will have a different Medium journey, but yours will be easier if you can avoid some of the above six assumptions I see new writers make all the time.
Jessica is a writer, an online entrepreneur, and a recovering type-A personality. She lives in Los Angeles with her extrovert daughter, two dogs, and two cats.
