Summary

The author shares their journey of growth and development as a writer on Medium, detailing the strategies that helped them improve their craft and achieve success on the platform.

Abstract

The author, a novice writer, joined Medium in February 2020 upon a friend's recommendation and initially struggled to create impactful content. After a break due to job loss during the pandemic, the author returned with renewed vigor, employing strategic approaches such as using writing tools like Shortly AI and Grammarly, reading extensively about Medium, and finding motivation through competition and Medium's bonus program. These strategies led to significant improvements, including getting an article featured by Medium editors and publishing in reputable Medium publications. The author emphasizes the importance of persistence, investment in productivity tools, goal setting, competition, and not relying on luck. They express gratitude to their followers and encourage mutual support among writers.

Opinions

The author initially underestimated the difficulty of writing on Medium, thinking it was an easy way to make money.
Personal experience stories, such as the one about boxing, can resonate well with readers and lead to recognition by Medium editors.
Frustration and setbacks are part of the writing journey, but they should not lead to giving up.
Investing in writing tools and resources can significantly enhance a writer's abilities and output.
Reading about other writers' success stories on Medium can provide valuable insights and strategies for one's own writing career.
Healthy competition with peers can be a strong motivator for improvement and productivity.
Medium's bonus program is seen as a motivating factor that encourages writers to produce quality content consistently.
The author values the support of their followers and believes in the power of community among writers on Medium.

A Strategical Approach Towards Medium

“A goal without a plan is just a wish” -Henry David Thoreau

I joined medium in February 2020, this writing platform was introduced to me by my long-lost friend Mahdhi Rezvi who is also a great writer. while having a discussion about career and living we came across this topic of making money just by writing articles online.

It sounded so easy and doable until I actually stepped into the writing game.

I had no prior experience in writing when I joined medium, in fact, I’ve never even shown much interest in writing ever before.

When I started my writing journey, I had no idea how medium works, what is curation, editing, and how to make quality content.

Earlier days, I just spent my time writing articles on whatever I find interesting, with minimum research. This approach didn’t work so well, and I was finding time to write only when I had a bit of free time while I was committed to a 9–5 job.

Thanks to corona, I had to quit my job due to certain circumstances.

In May 2020, I was back in the business. wrote few articles, read few pieces from other successful authors, gathered sufficient information on how medium actually works.

Then this happened!, one of the articles about my personal experience in my boxing career and how I faced failure — was curated and indeed was recognized by the editors of Medium.

My Story got featured in Medium by the editors

I was just over the moon seeing this unbelievable mail in my inbox. The earnings, views, responses for this particular piece gave me confidence and proved I have the ability to write content that people would love to read. This piece below is what I’m talking about:

A Three-Minute Fight Worth a Million-Dollar Lesson

Lessons I learned from my first boxing fight

sudharavi47.medium.com

It was just a one-time success, and I was pulled back into the flop zone again.

The frustration was real this time!

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find my way to the top of the ladder, was just stuck halfway. I gave up!

After 10 months away from writing, I came across a thread on Facebook that my fellow writers were thanking medium for treating them with a writer bonus for May 2021.

To be honest, this was the incident that got me into writing once again, if you’re a gamer you can relate to this, just like we keep telling ourselves “one last game” every time we lose until we actually win.

Medium seems to be like my girlfriend, we break up, and get back more often, but what matters is, we don't give up on each other. ❤

However this time, my approach on Medium was strategically different. I decided to know the depth before entering the sea.

Strategies I Followed to Uplift My Writing Game:

Strategy 1: Invested in writing tools

I took some time to reflect on my mistakes and where could I have gone wrong. Then realized I’m not a professional writer nor have any adequate experience to hit the big jackpot. Just courage won’t help me unless I become smart enough.

Investing in these two writing tools helped me make take the next big step on the ladder:

Shortly: A web-based writing tool that helps you create long-form content like, articles, stories, and essays. This tool uses the artificial intelligence known as GPT-3. Whenever I felt stuck and out ideas to write, Shortly AI helped me get past the blinking cursor. I have written a separate piece based on this tool, you can find it here for more clarification.
Grammarly: I do have to call this tool my life savior. Being a non-native English speaker I make a lot of mistakes in grammar and while constructing sentences. Investing in a premium Grammarly subscription helped me correct spelling mistakes and suggest perfectly structured sentences.

My first strategy itself helped me take a giant leap in my writing ladder, I was able to write an article based on GPT-3 technology and pitch it on one of the largest and reputed publications in Medium: The Startup

Thanks to Elizabeth Dawber (Editor of The Startup & Curious), for being the most humble editor I’ve come across so far, without her support and guidance, I wouldn’t have achieved this major milestone.

Strategy 2: Read more about medium

Rather than spending money on personalized writing classes, I subscribed to Medium and became a member.

The commitment was real, I started to read stories about writers and their successful journey on this platform. I made this a habit of reading hundreds of articles every day. Mostly, I read about the experience from authors how they leveled up.

This strategy helped me understand how exactly this platform works and, gave me a clear insight into what it means to be a successful writer in Medium.

Strategy 3: Finding the correct motivation

We all need some sort of motivation in order to achieve something greater in life. What if you already have the resources to make your dreams a reality, but you still need something that will push you to where success is?

This is the point where I believe I found the correct motivation that will keep driving me into my goals:

Competition: I introduced my best buddy Umair Feroze to this platform, he is highly competent and a knowledgeable resource. I find him as a healthy competition to me regardless of our bond and friendship even though we share tips and brainstorm ideas together.

Having a competitive approach towards writing helped us both explore writing from a whole new angle. It helped us to be productive ever than before.

Medium’s bonus program: One common motivation we all have is “money”. Regardless of my passion, “money” has always been a factor that kept me moving upwards on the ladder.

As I said before I got deviated away from writing for a while. But ever since the time I heard that Medium is paying out bonuses to its writers who have performed well, I was pulled back into the business.

On the other hand, this bonus program promotes healthy competition between all the writers on this platform.

Final Words

Taking up this new strategy to explore Medium has helped me understand the insights of this platform. This helped me take the next big step.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

One viral article won’t count as a full-time success.
It’s okay to fall and get back on track.
Invest in tools that may boost your productivity.
Set the goals.
Start competing with others.
Don’t wait for luck.

My stats, earnings, and a small uplift in my writing career might look very tiny in front of other legendary writers. I’m neither legendary (yet) nor lucky, but courageous.

I have gained a few loyal followers and regular readers of my work. I take this moment to thank you all for the love and support.

I hope one day in the future when I look back at this article, It will surely put a smile on my face.

Thank you for reading, let us all support each other and build this hustle together!