Blogging tips

What Shortform Articles Are Really For

…plus a bonus method for driving up your reads

When I first heard about shortform articles on Medium, I though the format sounded great. A way to get the point across to readers directly, and quick to write, too.

I’ve since realized that neither of these advantages are the main point.

What shortform articles are really about is about giving readers a taster of your work. After all, there is a lot of content on Medium. Obviously, people don’t have time to read an unlimited number of long articles.

What shortform articles are really about is about giving readers a taster of your work.

Curation and publications address this problem to an extent, but they are not under your control as a writer. Another way to achieve the same goal is to use your shortform articles as tasters for your longer content.

Take these two examples of my own articles, below. Notice that each one is only around 150 words, but each is followed by a link to one of my longer articles on the same topic:

A tip

Now, this strategy can work in either direction:

• You can write something in shortform, and then craft a deeper dive to expand on your idea.
• You can take an existing longer article that you want to boost, and write a shortform piece on the same topic.

In my view, the second of these is much easier to do. If you already have a piece that you are proud of, why not find one more way to gain views, and to drive up your reads?

What’s more, you can write more than one shortform article to link to the same longer piece.

With those tools to drive traffic, that longer article should soon be one of your best-performing stories on Medium.

A brief reflection

Now, I’m not saying that I’m getting this perfectly right. Probably the short -and longform articles t hat I’ve written should be more clearlyconnected. And issues like the strength of headlines will still matter a heck of a lot.

All the same, I can see a lot of advantages. It’s a way to boost reads, and a way to generate more articles, too — this way, each idea leads to two or more articles to publish.

Have you used shortform writing this way? I’d be interested in hearing your perspective!

A shoutout to Paul Walker for this piece on learning to say no.

And to J.J. Pryor for this super helpful tip on newsletters.

And finally to Ilam Padmanabhan for this article on why writing success doesn’t just come down to luck.

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