Blogging 101 — The Power of Starting a Publication

Medium for beginners.

Starting a publication is fun and a creative way to enter Medium.

Starting my two publications was one of my favorite things to do when I signed up for the Medium Partner Program (MPP).

It is the equivalent to setting up a website, but in the time it takes to load the dishwasher.

You get to choose an image for your header, and list which topics you’re going to tackle in your stories. You add these topics to your navigation bar, which is immediately below the image of your publication.

Here is my publication, The Happy Spot

You get to be a little creative here. You can add a tagline expressing what your publication is about, and what you, as a writer, want to reflect to your audience.

You can make up a quote or add a famous quote to your publication.

Once you have followers to your publication, you can use Medium’s ‘letter’ feature to let your publication followers know that you have a new story to share.

A publication is where all your posts reside — you’re the editor.

You get to choose how you organize your stories indicated by the tags you add at the end of your story. You are prompted to add tags after you hit the ‘Ready to publish?’ button.

When you choose a tag, it adds that story to the same topic listed on your navigation bar. It took me a while to figure this out and it is obvious, but it’s nice when someone tells you how the navigation of your publication gets organized.

In my publication, The Happy Spot, I write a lot about relationships and love.

So two of my categories on my navigation bar are “relationships” and “love.”

When I write a story, if I want that story to show up under the “love” category on the navigation bar, I tag it as “love.”

Organize your stories any way you see fit. You can add the same story under multiple topics using multiple tags.

It is similar to creating a website on WordPress without all the coding and techy stuff.

I started two publications immediately after I published my first post. The Write Path is my publication with a concentration in writing, business, productivity, and blogging.

My second publication, The Happy Spot, features more personal essays about love, relationships, and life lessons.

Even though these publications had zero followers in the beginning, they’re both growing steadily with regular posting to each.

I connect directly with my publication’s followers through a Medium feature called ‘letters.’ This feature allows you to send out a ‘letter’ to your publication’s followers.

I send one, or maybe two letters per week.

Inside the letter, I attach a link to that day’s Medium story I’ve written, which goes directly to my follower’s email. It is one more way to connect to your audience.

To utilize this feature, you need to start a publication.

I highly recommend starting a publication for anyone new to Medium with only a few followers and no outside email list.

You have more control and can curate your publication how you choose, although, if you want Medium’s curators to share your work, stick to the format Medium is going for.

Your stories within your publication can still be curated, and that is what you want because then Medium will distribute your story to a broader audience, one probably, larger — more readers — than your publication.

Start a publication today. It is a lot of fun.

Write on.

Click here to get my 100 Things to Get Started on Medium Now

Jessica is a writer, an online entrepreneur, and a recovering Type A personality. She lives in Los Angeles with her extrovert daughter, two dogs, and two cats.