Don’t beg people for claps on Medium anymore, instead give them reasons to love your stories

What you need to build a loyal reader base.

Why do you write and publish stories on Medium?

There are two main groups of people that regularly publish on Medium.

Writers who hustle

The majority of the people in this category are writing only to make money on Medium. As such, when they publish their stories, they hustle, shout, and beg to get people to read and clap for their stories. They join Facebook groups to lobby other writers to scan through, clap, highlight if possible, or read their work. The goal is to get as many views and read as possible so that they can make some money. I am not condemning this practice at all; I am only saying there is a better way.

Writing without hustling

This other group of writers does it because of the love they have for writing. They enjoy the process of converting their thoughts into written words that other people will not only learn from but also enjoy the stories. These groups of people naturally attract readers who always crave to read their works because of what they will get from reading their articles. They publish stories without hustling.

There are a couple of writers that I already follow on Medium. Whenever they publish any new story, I automatically get notifications in my email, and I take my time to read their works without them pitching to me, because I know I will learn something new.

The question now is, how can you attract readers without having to hustle and beg people to read your work?

To do that, you need to offer your readers a unique selling point (USP), by answering two questions.

1. Who are your ideal readers?

Medium has over 150 million monthly unique visitors. It may be tempting to want to cast a wide net and target every visitor to the website; however, that will strategy will lead you to nowhere. You need to identify your readers and start writing quality and helpful stories that will attract them and keep them to build your audience base.

If you write for everyone, you will attract no one, and you will hustle for a very long time. After a while, you will get tired and most likely give up writing, because your $0.27 per month income on Medium will not provide strong enough motivation for you to continue to write. For example, you can pitch me a story on “German Polka History” all day long, I will not read it because I have no interest in the subject. But that doesn’t mean that other readers won’t enjoy that topic. You just need to know your audience and write specifically for them, and they will naturally follow you, and ultimately you will thrive.

To do that, you should always have a mental picture of your readers on your mind when you are about to write, and:

- Ask yourself, what does your reader want?

- How best can you serve them?

- What will they gain after reading your piece?

2. Why should the reader read your story?

The concept of write it and readers will come is not automatic. Your unique selling point (USP) is what will bring readers to read your piece. The readers must first find you, know you, and see value in your work before they will become loyal readers. This may mean hustling a little bit when you are starting out by regularly sharing and promoting your stories on social media. But you should get to a point in your writing career when things will be on autopilot. When you will have raving fans that will readily share your works and tell others about you.

There are millions of stories published on Medium every year. By defining your USP, you will make it easier for readers to want to read your work without needing to pitch it to them. There are other groups of writers who write on the same subject as you.

Why should I read your story and not that of the other person that writes on the same topic?

Here is what you need to do to answer that question.

- Become a subject matter expert on the topics you are writing about.

- Do your research by making sure that your story is captivating, well laid out, and free of errors.

- Write a compelling headline that will arouse the curiosity of the readers.

So what do you need to do moving forward?

- Identify your target readers.

- Articulate your unique selling points.

- Improve your writing skills and provide helpful information.

- Make them always look forward to reading your stories.

- Continue to serve them diligently.

- They will love you and share your work.