avatarShahid Chap

Summary

Sinem Gunel, a top writer on Medium, shares her journey of earning over $11,000 in July 2020 and provides insights into her writing strategy, including choosing the right publications, writing longer articles, and helping new writers.

Abstract

Sinem Gunel began her writing journey on Medium two years ago and has since become a top writer in 16 tags, earning more than 5,000 for six consecutive months. In July 2020, she earned 11,000. Gunel attributes her success to her persistence and understanding of Medium's potential. She advises writers to talk in the language of the platform, write longer articles, and choose the right publications. Gunel also emphasizes the importance of helping new writers and engaging with her audience on social media.

Opinions

  • Sinem Gunel believes that persistence and understanding of Medium's potential are key to success on the platform.
  • She advises writers to write longer articles, with an average of five articles per week.
  • Gunel emphasizes the importance of choosing the right publications and using the top writer's tags.
  • She encourages writers to help new writers and engage with their audience on social media.
  • Gunel suggests that writers should spend time crafting accurate and eye-catching titles to attract readers.
  • She highlights the importance of quantity in writing articles, as she has published over 350 articles in two years.
  • Gunel recommends aiming high and discovering the real potential of the platform.

A Quick Analysis of 15x Top Writer-Sinem Gunel

Here’s how she earned $11,000 in July 2020.

Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash

Sinem Günel started her writing journey two years ago with the article “How to create habits that push you towards your life goals.”

In an interview with Dejan Stojanovic, she described her writing journey in these words.

The story is super weird and not sexy at all. Looking back at the post is really bad.

She earned just a few dollars for several months. In this two year journey, Sinem Günel is now earning more than $5000 from the last six consecutive months. Her first payment was just $17.65.

Screenshot by Sinem Gunel

She had achieved the $10,000 milestone and had earned $11,000 in July. In a personal conversation with her, she said, I didn’t make much money when I started the journey but I was well aware of the potential that Medium has, so I continued my writing.

Screenshot by Sinem Gunel

Why people fail on Medium

There are certain rules to apply. Most people do not like to apply these rules are they think it would cut off their creativity. Advising writers, she said

Talk of the language of the platform.

A Quick Analysis

Sinem is a top writer in 16 tags — reading, education, ideas, business, mental health, health, self-improvement, psychology, life, life lessons, advice, inspiration, productivity, creativity, entrepreneurship, social media, writing.

She has 15.8 K followers. The cool thing is I am writing this article and by the time I will finish writing my article, Sinem’s followers would have increased by 50.

Screenshot by Sinem gunel

She’s very active in her Facebook group and helping a lot of new writers. She writes an average of five articles per week. For new writers, she said,

Nobody can write the way as you can.

Publications

She had published 350 articles till 24 July. Following is the list of publications she had chosen in her two-year journey.

The Assent: 65 articles

Mind café: 55 articles

Better marketing: 54 articles

Publishous: 44 articles

The startup: 43 articles

Source: Author

Articles with 10K+ Claps

Article Name: 7 Quotes By The Dalai Lama That Will Change Your Mind

Claps: 10.2K

Views: 67K

Publication: Mind Cafe

Article Name: 3 Simple Ways to Charm Anyone

Claps: 11.8K

Views: 94K

Publication: Mind Cafe

Article Name: If You Only Read A Few Books In 2020, Read These

Claps: 14.2K

Views: 183K

Publication: Mind Cafe

Article Name: 6 Quotes By Buddha That Will Change How You See The World And Yourself

Claps: 26K

Views: 255K

Publication: Mind Cafe

Article Name: 10 Quotes by Confucius That Will Change Your Life Forever

Claps: 14.8K

Views: 103K

Publication: Mind Cafe

The common thing in all these articles are

  • Publication Mind Cafe.
  • All articles contain mathematical numbers.
  • Almost all articles are above 5-minute read.
  • All articles have less than 12 words in the title line.
Screenshot by Author

Read Time of Articles

  • Number of 2-minute reads articles: 06
  • Number of 3-minute reads articles:33
  • Number of 4-minute reads articles:46
  • Number of 5-minute reads articles:69
  • Number of 6-minute reads articles:53
  • Number of 7-minute reads articles:50
  • Number of 8-minute reads article:46
  • Number of 9-minute reads article:20
  • Number of 10-minute reads article:12
  • Number of 11-minute reads article:5
  • Number of 12-minute reads article:4
  • Number of 13–19 minute reads article: 06
Source: Shahid Chap

After reviewing all of Sinem articles, what I had found is that you should write articles longer than three-minute read. She had written a lot of three minutes read articles in the 1st year. In the 2nd year, she had written an average of some 6 to 7 minute read articles.

Takeaways

  • Write an article with a three-plus minute read.
  • Use the top writer’s tags.
  • Spend some time writing title and subtitle. Accurate and eye-catching titles urge readers to click on the article. 7 out of 10 readers leave seeing dull and boring titles.
  • The quantity of articles matters a lot.
  • Help new writers and they will become your fans.
  • Choose the right publication.

I started on Medium with zero expectations and zero writing experience. So I had lots of room for improvement, just like 99.99% of all writers who start out writing on Medium.

— Sinem Gunel

Aim high and discover the real potential of the platform.

Business
Entrepreneurship
Writing
Inspiration
Productivity
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