Med for Dummies Deep Dive — Top Writer
Do You Need Big Medium Publications To Be a Top Writer?
Surprising results ahead.
Medium Top Writer, what is that?
I’m here to answer your questions, first, there is no prize or money when you become a Top Writer for a topic, and there are more chances of becoming a top writer with tags, more on that later.
There are 74 topics that you can be a Top Writer, and for now, let’s focus on these topics, because when you do become one, it shows on your About page, check mine.
So, if there is no prize money, why would you care?
Top writer badges are social proof. It means you have achieved something; it doesn’t mean you are the best. I won’t claim to be a food or movie critic.
But I’ll take these top writer awards anytime, it helps me grow my audience and that is what we need to be amongst the ‘Best Medium writers’ to build our audience.
It also feels like a pat on the shoulders from Medium, like a virtual “job well done,” and I have to say, every time I get a top writer badge, I try to do better, both as a writer and as a content creator each day.
Aside from the top writer badges, I’m also grateful whenever any of my stories are chosen for further distribution or Medium curated. And lastly, I’m also happy when the best Medium publications publish my stories.
Medium publications
Think of Medium as a library, and Medium publications are the shelves and stories as books. Sometimes people come to the library to find a particular book, sometimes people come to the library to discover a book.
Medium publications can help you get discovered as a writer.
When I was starting, it was my goal to get published by the biggest Medium publications. Even when I got rejected, it is all part of the learning curve.
I wrote about Medium publications, and my thoughts would sometimes change from ‘I need them’ to ‘I don’t need them’ and that’s Ok, there are benefits you gain from submitting your stories to publications and benefits when you self-published.
One of the biggest benefits you get is with having to work with an editor, a fresh set of eyes to look at your work, you don’t have to agree with them when you are rejected but their feedback good or bad helps you become a better writer, and everyone gets rejected even Stephen King said so himself.
As to as having your very own Medium publications even if you are the only writer, you must try it at least have one, aside from publishing stories directly from your profile.
The benefits are as follows:
- You can publish anytime.
- You can edit anytime.
- You will have access to stats that are special to Medium publications.
Medium traffic
The biggest revelation I had was that virality isn’t a foregone conclusion if you are published by the biggest Medium publications. Nobody knows how the Medium algorithm works, and with all the changes I’m no longer surprised to see that there are times my self-published stories get more reading time.
But I will never stop submitting my stories to other publications because they provide an opportunity to be found by a new reader who hopefully either subscribes or follows me.
How to be chosen as a Top Writer?
The rules are the same, you only need three stories from that topic to qualify, and those stories are on the email you receive from Medium when you get to be one of the top writers.
Movies and Food
I’m surprised that I got the Top Writer badges for Movies and Food. I’m not complaining, instead, I’m very grateful.
At the start of the year, I was writing a lot of movie reviews but never got the award. I also wrote about losing all of my five top writer awards, and I guess I manifested what I was looking for, more visible rewards for me to continue writing.
Yes, I also ask for $1,000 a month, or a $500 story whichever comes first. — Universe do your thing!!!
Ask and ye shall receive.
Do you need big medium publications to be a top writer?
Surprisingly it’s a yes and a no. If we look closely at my screenshots.
Napoleon, you’re a top writer in the topic of Movies. Your stories that made an impact
- What Happens to Your Story When It’s Read for 11 Hours? 7 fans · 83 views — Published under ILLUMINATION Curated, 13,600 followers Published Date: March 17, 2022.
- A Piece of Her Paid My Netflix Subscription for the Month 4 fans · 32 views — Published under ILLUMINATION Curated, 13,600 followers Published Date: March 20, 2022.
- Joey King Her Young Life and Finding Her in Between 0 fans · 16 views — Published under my publication Ask-Answer, 2 followers Published Date: March 11, 2022.
Napoleon, you’re a top writer in the topic of Food. Your stories that made an impact
- How To Lose 20 Lbs. Of Fat in 30 Days Like Tim Ferriss 1 fan · 176 views — Published under my publication Body-Mind-Soul, 63 followers Published Date: March 21, 2022.
- McDo Closes All Its Russian Stores 2 fans · 13 views — Published under my publication Ask-Answer, 2 followers Published Date: March 9, 2022.
- What is Britain’s oldest pub, and is it still open? 2 fans · 25 views — Published under my publication Ask-Answer, 2 followers Published Date: February 7, 2022.
Four of the stories that made me a Top Writer were self-published under my Medium publications, one had 2 followers and the other had 63 followers. I’m also the lone writer in these publications.
Also, two of my stories are short stories like 1-minute reads.
I’m a top writer on these topics
- Privacy (past)
- Music (past)
- Social Media (present)
- Photography (past)
- This Happened to Me (past)
- Food (present)
- Movies (present)
The three big takeaways are as follows:
1. It only takes three stories, and even 1-minute reads count, Welcome to writing short forms.
2. Write frequently, and use the proper tags, Kristina God has a great article on How to tag correctly.
3. Each topic only has 50 spots, you can lose your top writer if someone else does a better job, consistency is the name of the game.
I recently wrote the top 50 top writers on social media.
Updated (2022) — Here are the 74 topics you can get the Top Writer badge.
- 2016 Election (51K stories)
- Advice (77K)
- Architecture (37K )
- Art (180 K)
- Artificial Intelligence (168K)
- Bitcoin (311K)
- BlackLivesMatter (57K)
- Books (160K)
- Business (381K)
- Climate Change (93K)
- Cooking (29K)
- Creativity (154K)
- Culture (164K)
- Design (287K)
- Diversity (37K)
- Economics (75K)
- Education (369K)
- Energy (39K)
- Entrepreneurship (364K)
- Fashion (104K)
- Feminism (81K)
- Fiction (172K)
- Finance (177K)
- Food (186K)
- Future (57K)
- Gaming (117K)
- Government (61K)
- Health (438K)
- History (121K)
- Humor (171K)
- Ideas (40K)
- Innovation (120K)
- Inspiration (166K)
- Internet of Things (26K)
- Investing (128K)
- Journalism (63K)
- Leadership (191K)
- LGBTQ (64K)
- Life (630K)
- Life Lessons (530K)
- Love (416K)
- Mental Health (263K)
- Movies (174K)
- Music (255K)
- NBA (38K)
- Parenting (113K)
- Photography (142K)
- Poetry (547K)
- Politics (432K)
- Privacy (46K)
- Productivity (213K)
- Psychology (157K)
- Racism (67K)
- Reading (70K)
- Relationships (273K)
- Satire (54K)
- Science (118K)
- Self Driving Cars (19.2K)
- Self Improvement (404K)
- Short Story (167K)
- Social Media (271K)
- Space (31K)
- Sports (229K)
- Startup (524K)
- Sustainability (56K)
- Technology (425K)
- Television (76K)
- This Happened To Me (36K)
- Transportation (25K)
- Travel (362K)
- Venture Capital (65K)
- Virtual Reality (44K)
- Women In Tech (33K)
- Writing (409K)
Bonus: Food has only 46 there 4 spots left and there are topics up for grabs.
Do check out this story from Martin van Soest, a great read — Top Writer Tags Made Easy With This Comprehensive List
Conclusion
To recap, Top Writer awards don’t have prize money, but a great emotional boost to continue writing on Medium.
For me, they’re social proof, that could convert a reader to a follower.
Top Writer badges don’t mean you are the best, but you are one of the top 50 writers who write consistently about a topic.
You can also get be a top writer on any tags, but they don’t show on your About page. I was once a top writer in ‘Only Fans’, seriously.
As to the question, ‘Do you need big Medium publications to be a top writer?’ Again it’s a Yes and No. As it happened to me, two of the qualifying stories were published by a big Medium publication, the rest were all self-published.
This line from one of my favorite movies can sum this story all up.
‘if you build it, he will come’ — Field of Dreams.
Is writing on Medium in 2022 still worth it?
As a Medium writer in 2022, I would say, it is not easy but not impossible to make money on the platform. It is not a sprint but a marathon, even while as a Medium writer it can be frustrating when the money doesn’t come, or even if we believe we wrote the best stories and yet, there are no readers.
I say it is worth all the effort and commitment.
I love being a Medium writer, I don’t know where my writing journey will take me, but writing on Medium is great practice, it is the only way to become the writer I want to be, to show up every day and write.
Stay true to your dreams of becoming a successful writer, I do dream of being not only a top writer but a top earner, and I wish the same for you. If we build it, it will come.
Namaste
Medium had begun sharing with writers a 50% cut of the subscriber revenue, I invite you to become a member. Medium has become my source of income in the last two years, I invite you to be a Medium writer too. Thank you.
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