7 Improvements to Make Before Investing In a Medium Course

Surefire ways to make your posts better today

The best way to get better on Medium is to take a course.

Or so you would think. Recently, a friend reached out to me asking about my opinions about taking a Medium course. I read over the copy of the course she shared and reflected on the many points the course seller was promising if you signed up for the course.

Hmmm…yes, all of these are good reasons to sign up for the course, and I told my friend that she might be a good candidate for the course.

“Hey, before you sign up, can you sent me links to your most recent posts,” I requested. It’s only when I went through her posts that I saw many improvements that she could make before signing up for a course.

“Before you sign up for any course, let’s work on a piece together,” I suggested and offered her my best tips to draft her next piece. I noticed some very basic things that could be improved before she signed up for a course.

Yes, a Medium course may be right for you, but not until you make some of these basic improvements first.

1. Sharpen your ideas

This is the most important thing that I can say to someone who wants to improve their chance of succeeding on Medium. You can’t write the same old boring crap. People really don’t want to know your morning routine or be told to meditate. You cannot tell people how to overcome heartbreak or overcome adversity without anything more. There has to be a twist to your writing. There has to be some kind of unique ideas that you’re introducing.

There has to be something new that you’re saying to make it more interesting for people to read. Don’t write every idea that pops into your mind. Write about the most interesting and unique ideas that you have. Medium is a platform that is looking for the best ideas.

2. Write enticing headlines (please)

I spent about 20 minutes on the article for this post because I want you to read it. I want you to make these changes before you buy a course. If you’re not doing these things now and you sign up for Medium course, you might be spending money you don’t need to. So, I write the most enticing headline I can.

You have to become an artist at headlines to succeed on Medium. People will be drawn towards interesting headlines that will benefit their lives. They want to be challenged, surprised, educated, or entertained. Your headline is the agent or promoter to your story getting read. Your articles desperately need you to improve your headlines. Make it catchy, make it interesting, and make it, so people want to read it.

The secret to writing catchy headlines is to read many headlines and jot down the best headlines you come across. Customize those headlines for your own posts when you’re ready to write a headline.

3. Use your subheadings to keep people reading.

If you’re reading this post, you might just be skimming it. The way to get people to slow down and read it is by making the subheadings more interesting. The more interesting the subheading is, the more likely people will read it. Since most people are skimming your posts, you want to offer interesting and unique takes for your subheading to keep them reading. Spend a little bit more time than your subheading than you used to before. You have to make your subheadings as interesting as your title if possible. You not only want people to start reading your post, but you want them to finish. The subheading is what makes the reading journey interesting for your readers.

4. Write more for more wins.

I know that you don’t want to hear another person telling you to write more. Well, I’m going to do exactly that, but I’m going to give you a different reason for it. Most people tell you to write more so that you can become a better writer. The better writer you become, the better you can do on Medium.

Another reason to become consistent is to have more shots at producing a popular article. The more you write on Medium, the more chances you have of going viral. If you wrote 5 articles a month, you only have 5 chances. If you wrote 25 articles a month, that’s 25 opportunities to write something that people will read. You want to increase your chances of popular articles that are read more and earn more, so you publish more.

5. Share your story in your posts.

Every post you write has to have some kind of story in it. Ideally, it’s a personal story between you and the subject you’re writing about. For example, in this article, I included the story about a friend who wanted to purchase a course on Medium. I then offered her the exact tips that I’m sharing with you in this article. This article happened because of a conversation with a friend who wanted to figure out how to do better on the platform.

Always write a post with a story in it, especially if it’s a non-fiction, advice-filled post. Don’t offer advice in the abstract or a vacuum. Tell people how you’re affected, how you handled something, or what worked for you. Tell them your struggles, your challenges, and your journey. Tell them why the piece is important to you by including your story, and they’ll see why the post is important to them.

6. Let your posts overflow with value.

Give your audience what they’re looking for. Provide more value in each of your posts. Go more depth with your advice posts and provide more detailed how-to’s. Write exactly what worked for you and teach people to do the same. The more you show people how to do it, the more practical your piece becomes. You provide value by providing stories, personal anecdotes, statistics, studies, research, and best practices.

Try not to hold anything back when it comes to sharing your knowledge. Go beyond your headlines and deliver helpful content to your readers so they’ll keep coming back to read your posts. Create bullet points of action-packed tips to help people with the problem your piece is trying to solve. Break things down. Explain every step. Show them what worked and didn’t work for you.

7. Figure out what works and keep doing that

You have to write things that people want to read. Don’t write in a vacuum or like every article is separate. You are not writing anew every day. You are writing based on yesterday’s post and yesterday’s results.

Your writing each day must take into account what happened yesterday. Your results, discoveries, and experience from the day before must be considered for today’s post. If your post is about morning routines falls flat, you have to figure out if it was the topic, the headline or the message. If your post on exercise does well, figure out what made it do well.

Analyze and continue to keep in mind what’s working as you’re moving forward on your writing journey. You get better by doing more of what you did before. Your previous failures are what’s going to set up your posts that do well in the future. Once you figure out the formula that works, keep doing that.

There’s a day that you need a Medium course, but that time isn’t right now.

You can improve significantly by doing the following:

• Sharpen your ideas
• Make your article headlines count.
• Work on your subheadings
• Write more regularly to get more wins.
• Tell more of your story.
• Give people more value in your posts.
• Use your previous posts to improve your writing.

Keep getting better and improving your writing on your own before registering for a Medium course. Get the basics out of the way so you can use a Medium course for advanced strategies.

You got this.

What other tips do you have for people beginning on the platform? Please share in the comments and help us all out.