Blogging 101 — The Power of the Large In-House Publication

Medium for beginners.

If you’re new to Medium and want to earn money, it can be kind of challenging to gain a following in the beginning.

Starting from zero isn’t easy on any social media platform unless you have name recognition outside of the platform.

Or, you have a substantial email list built.

If you have a large email list, it is much easier to drive traffic to your Medium stories through your list. With a hardy email list, you can send a mass email containing a link to an article you’ve written or a free ebook you want to give away within the body of the email reaching your audience directly.

But if you don’t have a substantial email list and you want to grow a following, you need to think outside the box and try something new.

Enter the Medium in-house publication.

Maybe instead of just posting your story on Medium, and hoping curators find it, perhaps you need another platform — enter the larger Medium in-house publications.

Another way to get traffic.

One way to get more followers is to get your story accepted by one of these in-house publications like One Zero, Forge, Gen, ZORA, and Human Parts.

Although not entirely easy, it’s possible with a strong, well-written story.

A story I wrote, one I was proud of because it was a solid piece, with research to back up my ideas, wasn’t accepted by one of the big publications at first, but I kept trying.

I sent it to another one, OneZero, where it found a home. I didn’t know they accepted it because the email telling me so went directly into my spam folder.

Luckily, I was checking my spam filter one day, and the congratulations email was right there. I got in touch with the editor right away, and they published my story less than a month later.

I received a flat fee for the piece and worked with editors of OneZero to improve the article in a few areas.

It was a great experience.

It got my name in a significant publication, which meant exposure to another group of people I didn’t previously have from my publications and followers.

A great way to build a following from scratch.

There are smaller publications on Medium that have thousands of followers, a few I like are Publishous, Jane Austen’s Wastebasket, and The Startup.

The Startup has 300K plus followers; that’s an excellent place to start. No pun intended.

The Startup posts content of a wide variety. Here is something I wrote for them.

I often write for smaller publications, as well as my own.

Once you become a writer for a publication, it’s easy to submit a draft to them when you have another story that fits their publication. You’re now a writer for them, and when you go to hit “Ready to publish?” next click, “Add to publication,” scroll down the list of publications you are a writer for, and submit it to the appropriate one.

That’s it.

I don’t think enough people write about how easy it is to be accepted by these publications, and they are a great way to get your brand out there. Most publications accept you in a day or two, giving you access to a whole new audience — another way for the Medium newbie to gain traction.

How to determine what publications are looking for.

So, how do you figure out what these publications are looking for, so you can figure out what to write?

One way is to go to the publication and see what categories are listed in their navigation bar.

Let’s take a look at OneZero’s navigation bar.

So my story, 13 Screen Time Rules For When You Give Your Kid an iPhone, fits into ‘Digital Life’ and ‘Consumer Tech’, and probably why OneZero accepted it to their publication.

When you write for a larger in-house publication, tag your story accordingly, with tags that reflect the topics and content in the navigation bar.

You’ll have a greater chance of being accepted.

Understand their submission guidelines.

Writers typically don’t like rules. We are rebels. We see ourselves traveling the world, writing our interests and experiences. We are entrepreneurs; we break the rules.

But to have a greater chance of having your story accepted by larger publications, you have to adhere to that publication’s submission guidelines — give the editors what they are looking for.

They are looking for something specific, and the specifics are found in the submission guidelines.

Read the guidelines.

Read the articles in the publication.

The second best way to know what the editors are looking for is to go to the publication and check it out. Read the articles, and then, write your version of that.

Don’t copy, just be inspired.

There are a lot of topics Medium writers write about; there are several writers who write the same topics. It would be impossible not to have many writers writing about similar issues, but they’re all different because each person’s perspective is different.

Go to the homepage of each publication you want to write for, live there, and through osmosis, or just through reading, you will be more clear on the type of content that gets published.

Another way — tags.

Another way to figure out what a publication is looking for is to look at their top five most-read stories.

Scroll down to the bottom of each of those five stories and see what the story is tagged in. This is the way you should be tagging your posts, to get into that publication. Target those tags in your story.

Once accepted to a publication, do your best to promote your work through your social media channels.

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.