Week 9, 2024
Top 10 Strategies and Writing Advice This Week
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Good morning you beautiful people!
Welcome to the first weekly digest of Weekly Writing Advice.
I’ve gathered the most influential articles about growing on Medium that were published this week.
The 5 first tips are about Medium strategies and the rest are dedicated to refining your writing.
Grab your coffee and some pen and paper — you’ll want to write these down.
1. Cannonball!
The most quoted piece of advice this week came from Ryan Canady — the most active member of Medium in 2024.
You know Ryan of course — he is omnipresent. His cannonball strategy made my stats go 📈📈📈, and changed the way I approach publishing.
It’s very simple advice:
Engage with at LEAST 10 People BEFORE You Release An Article.
Read more about it here:
2. Thank God It’s Thursday!
Have you ever wondered what’s the best day to publish your stories?
Charlie J 🕊️ used research data to reveal Thursday as the most popular day for posting new articles.
Can you guess what the second-best day is?
3. Wolves in Sheep Clothing
Rebecca Designs A Life earned 1,000 followers overnight after posting her viral story.
That’s amazing, right? It must feel great — but it may be a curse in disguise.
Followers who don’t engage with your stories offer little value.
What’s even worse, they can be extremely harmful. Rebecca witnessed a drop from 75% to 35% in her average Read Ratio, after her miraculous growth.
Join the discussion on her post on how to address this pitfall:
4. Hook, Line and Sinker
Talking about Read Ratio, the amazing Lea Bardot shared her strategy for increasing reader engagement in very simple terms.
It’s all about placing Hooks in your writing. In her own words:
A hook is the first line (or paragraph) of your writing that grabs your reader’s attention and compels them to keep reading.
Learn more about how to write the perfect hooks in her story here:
5. What’s your EPR?
This past week marked the end of February and you know what that means — earnings reports!
Bin Jiang spent March 1st reading tons of earnings reports and discovered an important correlation:
Longer articles make for increased Earnings Per Read.
It is settled; it’s not just about the 30-second rule. You want to keep your reader engaged with your story for the longest amount of time possible.
Read his story here:
6. The beginning is the most important part of the work.
We all know how important the Title and the opening lines of your story are.
Medium veteran Eve Arnold shared a fantastic story about crafting your Headlines.
Eve has written over 1,000 introductions — her approach is well-tested.
Thank you Nonso Emetoh for pointing out her story:
7. Do We Even Need Two Tips For Headlines??
Yes! The title of your story is the most important line of words you’ll write.
The title is 90% of the work to draw an audience to your stories.
So I’ll share another great piece about crafting Titles by Kevin Shan, this one focused more on practical solutions and choices.
Click on the great title below:
8. Capture the action in your stories
Ellie Kingswell 🐑 has put together a simple and humorous learning lesson about using active verbs in your writing.
This story has the punch of a good coffee.
The examples Ellie uses are funny and insightful.
Read about her story here, before the Italian mafia puts her down for misspelling Espresso:
9. If you can’t think of anything to say, get angry!
Talking about humor, Danny Wolf has given us another exceptional piece, imbued with his natural satiric tone.
Funny elements aside, Danny provides critical insight into the decision-making part of producing content.
Read his story here:
10. Sculpt Your Writing Into A Beautiful Form
Derek Hughes shared a masterful post about the 7 most important things to remove while editing your stories.
It’s filled with plenty of examples without getting overbearing.
I suggest you save this one and use it as a checklist when editing!
Closing Remarks
First of all, thank you for reading this post. Be sure to support these great writers by clicking their stories.
I want to end this article with some remarks of my own:
- Medium started seeing low traffic in the second half of February. This is natural — after New Year’s traffic faded out we hit the lowest point of activity on the website. Don’t be discouraged by your numbers, it’s only uphill from here!
- Too many new writers are not earning enough for their writing. They all make the same mistake — not making use of Publications and Tags. I’ve shared my post of the 23 Best Publications for New Writers more times than I can count.
- Medium is all about the long game. In my lowest points when I was discouraged and ready to quit, this beautiful community extended her hand and pulled me back on track. Remember to be warm and compassionate with each other, and share your failings and struggles as well as your success. We are together in this.
Check out the first installment of this series, featuring weeks 1 through 8 of 2024:
I will see you all next week.
Your friendly digital neighbor,
Orestis.
