Celebrating Four Months of Publishing In Medium

Here’s what I learned.

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.” — Aristotle

I believe I documented myself extensively about writing in Medium before deciding to actually publish something. Nevertheless, I acknowledge that I learned significantly much more about the process by doing it than by observing.

Since I don't want to make this piece unnecessarily long, let's cut to the chase! Here is what I learned in the past four months:

1. Do submit to publications.

Of course, in the beginning, I was afraid of submitting anything because I didn't know what answer I would get. I was so scared of someone telling me my article wasn't “good enough” in other words mediocre.

I only submitted two publications so far and one of them did decide to publish my story.

This one article got me over a thousand views and probably by the end of the month is going to be over two thousand. I honestly didn’t think my post would get that multitude of views. I mean it's not viral, but I am happy!

So yes, this is the most important advice I can give you: submitting to publications. You are most likely to grow your views once you do this.

2. You won't get more views in other articles because of one.

I thought having a “popular article” would bring more readers to previous ones, but that's just not the case.

I read posts about being viral on Medium and many stated that having one viral post does not make the rest of the articles more successful and now I know they are absolutely right.

So if you want your stories to have more views then follow the first advice.

3. It's not mandatory to write every day.

It's not mandatory to post every day. It’s not mandatory to submit to publications. Frankly, you don’t have to do any of those things if you dont feel like it.

I've read stories about the 30 posts/30days/30 publications challenge. Stories about how writers are able to publish an article every day for the past month or so.

In my opinion, these writers are just sharing their experiences and giving you very well-intended advice. I don't believe they are sending the message “do A and you will get B” because as you already probably know what works for them won't necessarily work for you.

Don't put so much pressure on yourself to do what they do. Do what makes you feel comfortable and happy. Find a pace that works for you.

Last piece of advice:

To be successful at anything, you don't need to be different. You simply have to be what most people aren’t: consistent.

No one in Medium became notorious overnight. All of them consistently put in the effort and work to get there.

There isn't any specific “set in stone” manual or guide that you need to follow to be successful in this platform. You solely need to be consistent and committed to your content. You need to be your biggest fan!

So simply keep going, keep writing, keep submitting and keep publishing. You will get there, we all will. Believe in yourself and have a little bit of faith.