9 Lessons Learned from 3 Months on Medium Full-time (ish)
A review on what I’ve learned in the last 3 months writing on Medium.com and the things I’ve tried (and failed)
Back at the end of September, I decided I wanted to get more serious about my hobbies. I had just finished traveling around Asia and North America for 6 wonderful months after leaving my corporate job and was feeling a bit out of place.
I started pursuing writing as one of the hobbies that I wanted to learn — and improve. And I’m glad to say I have (at least I think I have). I just wanted to share some of the results that I’ve discovered over the journey so far, and I look forward to learning a lot more in the next 3 months!
Blogging on Medium
I tried writing many about many different topics on Medium as well as a few different styles. Before I ever started here, I thought that blogging was just like an online diary of your life. It seems that my definition is about 20 years too old.
Lesson 1: Blogging has changed
I must’ve read hundreds of hours of blogs in the last 3 months. The majority of that was probably on Medium and I have discovered many writers that are great to follow.
I entered into this as a newbie to blogging — a 35-year-old newbie at that. I’m not usually a learn-by-doing type of person, but I wanted to try that angle with this platform. And it’s been fun!
And frustrating at times.
Whenever we try to venture out into new hobbies, businesses, or relationships, we expect Rome in a day. It’s a natural tendency of people. And I was guilty of this myself even though I ‘knew better’ the whole time.
I thought that if I wrote about my unique stories that it’d be difficult but not so hard to get 1,000 views or so. I was mistaken, of course!
These types of blogs do exist, and a few of these styles are big on Medium. This platform is home to many kinds of articles, and diaries are not usually the more popular ones.
I also thought that since I wasn’t working anymore, that I had a leg-up on other people on Medium.
Surely if I were to write on Medium as a full-time job that I’d be able to boost myself up pretty quickly.
Nope!
Lesson 2: Being successful on Medium takes a lot of time and effort
All of the big writers on this platform that give advice, give this advice. That’s because it's true! But none of us newbies want to listen of course. And that’s fine, as long as you can fight through the lack of initial success.
I tried writing a lot, reading a lot, and self-publishing a lot, and I achieved a little success — but much less than I was hoping for.
And that’s okay.
All good things come with time and effort. It’s one of the most important lessons to remember on this journey (and life in general — probably).
Lesson 3: Only read a few ‘How to Get Rich on Medium’ articles then stop — trust me
Of the three things that I was doing though, the reading part was definitely the biggest help. I wasn’t just reading good articles about random topics like China bank robberies and how wifi works on airplanes (great reads on here btw).
I spent a huge amount of time reading about how to be a better blogger on Medium.
And I read from the best.
After all, why are success stories so popular on the internet? People want to read what the most successful people are doing so that we can emulate them.
But after some time, I quickly realized that reading about Medium improvement-porn can get a bit tiring. The most popular articles often state the same general advice — which is great the 1st time, but not the 23rd time.
I’m hoping this piece isn’t too ironic in that sense. 😉
So for any of you that are brand new here, save yourself some time and go to https://writingcooperative.com/ or https://medium.com/blogging-guide.
Both of these publications have a HUGE amount of specific-topic articles for all aspects of blogging, writing, and Medium.
That’s where you’ll find specific advice that can answer your questions or aid your progress.
Reading about success stories on Medium writers can give a few useful insights, but beyond that, they tend to be similar.
Use them for inspiration and motivation — not as a ‘magic bullet’
Lesson 4: Try many different things with each story you write
Experiment, experiment, experiment! The most important factor in success on Medium (and with any venture) is that you continue to do it!
And if you can’t find a writing topic or category that will continue to enthrall you, then you might as well stop your journey here.
Most of us don’t know what we like to write about when first venturing out, and the only way to do that is to try different things.
It’s also fun to try other topics.
- I tried weekly writing challenges on different topics
- I did a pseudo-experiment about niche vs generalist blogging
- I made attempts at short humorous poetry
- I scribbled down stories about large events in my life
- I created a failed publication (since destroyed) and another publication full of (hopefully) useful information about Medium
- Hell, I’m even doing a challenge to get Wil Wheaton to comment on one of my articles
**Come on Wil, just comment, please!
These are just a few of the different types of stories that I tried to write.
I’m enjoying trying them out because it helps me discover what I like to write about — and what other people like to read about.
Medium also gives us the benefit of the crowd. Great articles and stories will gain traction (at varying levels). Go write about 10 different kinds of things and you’ll see what gets views and what doesn’t.
And I don’t mean 1,000 views. That will come later for those that stick it out. I mean some stories at the beginning might get 20 views and others 0. If one story gets 20, it’s time to ask yourself why that article got more views than your other ones.
Which leads me to the next big lesson I learned.
Lesson 5: Titles, format, and pictures matter a lot on Medium
This is another one of those repeatable lessons that the big boys and girls on Medium always state.
Again, they state it because it’s true!
They won’t matter if your content is garbage though. The only way to see that these days is to check how many people ‘read’ your article versus ‘view’. Claps are also a nice indication, but they aren’t used as much since Medium changed their payment methods in October.
And you don’t have to spend a hundred hours as I did learning about these subjects. You can find some very specific articles on the two publications I mentioned that will tell you mostly everything you need to know on the three subjects.
That one hour of reading will do wonders for your writing on Medium.
But at the end of the day, if your writing isn’t interesting, useful, or fun, the eyeballs will never come.
Lesson 6: See which styles of writing work better for you
This lesson took me a while to figure out. And I was only able to after writing a bunch and reading a bunch. I’m still not quite where I want to be but that’s the beauty of continuing to learn and develop.
There’re many different writing styles to use, and I am by no means an expert in any of them. So I like to keep them generalized into a few that I’m interested in (even though there’s many more out there). After trying out many different kinds, the below are the ones I find more effective for me.
I enjoy writing on these topics, and some people seem to enjoy reading them.
- This happened to me
- Travel picture stories
- Research wrap-ups
- Silly stuff
Go out and find your own areas — and enjoy the journey!
Some tend to do better on Medium and some don’t. There’re also publications that tend to focus on one area or another. These can be not only great to read, but a nice boost to your sense of self-writing-worth if you get published in one.
Lesson 7: Getting curated isn’t a huge deal but does feel nice
Most writers on this platform strive to get curated in the beginning. And many do!
From what I’ve seen though (in my newbie eyes) is that curation is probably better for the long-term than the short term.
When you use the Medium search-tool, it will tend to pop up articles that have been curated much more often than those that haven’t. It’s not a steadfast rule, but it is used by the platform to help sort and search the stories.
So by all means, try your best to get curated. There are many articles that will try to show you how to do it as well. But the bottom line is if your content is good, and if you’re not in curation jail, you’ll probably get curated.
#1 rule for getting curated is to follow the curation guidelines on Medium!
There is also another way to get curated that is mentioned a lot, and that is through publications.
Lesson 8: Getting published is a big deal on Medium
And this leads to the last lesson I want to point out in this story.
Getting published.
I’ve obsessed a bit over this topic for a month or two on here — perhaps a bit too much.
If you check out Feedium you’ll see just how many lists I’ve made to help find suitable publications).
Publications seemed like a big deal for me to get into after I started researching them. I didn’t know much about them and still probably don’t.
But I have found out a few things:
- Publications are the best way to improve your writing skills
- Medium publications give you the biggest chance to go viral as a newbie
- Getting published in a publication doesn’t mean it will get many views
- Each publication has its own style
- Getting featured in a publication can give you more opportunities to get noticed
I guessed at some of these before I started researching, but I had no idea about the writing improving part of it. To get into any of the bigger publications here, your writing needs to have a certain level of quality.
It usually needs (or should) follow the curation guidelines. Spacing is important. The story has to be interesting to follow. It has to be related and/or topical to the publication.
Just about every aspect of your work will get a bit better through the process of publication.
It’s great when some of the editors give you tips, criticism, and feedback for your submissions. This is what I found to help my writing improve the most so far (and it still has a long way to go I know).
So my only suggestion for this to newbies is to pinpoint ~5 publications that you enjoy reading, and see if you can write an article for them. Review what kind of style the editors like. See what stories are more popular in them. Then think of your own concept and try your best!
The feedback you’ll get will be amazingly helpful. And if you’re lucky enough to get published, then let the views start rolling in.
And keep trying to improve.
Lesson 9: Ignore everything I say
This last one is optional but probably advisable 😉
Wrap up
I could write a book of all the stuff I’ve gleaned from the massive rabbit hole I’ve dug on Medium. So can many other writers on here — and ones with way more experience than I’ve had.
I just wanted to share some of the larger lessons that I’ve learned in the hopes that it can save any other newbies some time in their own journey.
As for myself, I’m doing my best to climb out of this particular rabbit hole.
I think I’ve learned more than what I needed to do and now need to focus on the actual fun of Medium — the act of creating!
‘Rant’ over.