Five More Tips For Succeeding On Medium

Use your individuality to identify the ways for you to reach your goals and achieve your idea of success writing on Medium.

I recently wrote the quintessential “How to Be Successful on Medium” post in which I attempted to provide some suggestions not included in other articles.

That post included a discussion of determining your definition of success, how often you should write and publish, the best ways to promote your work, not comparing yourself to others, and balancing publication submissions and publishing on your own page. In this article, I want to follow up on some of the suggestions from that post and add a few new ones.

At the risk of losing your interest in continuing to read, the takeaway from the first article was that while these types of articles can sometimes be helpful in coming up with possible techniques, ultimately you need to determine the best strategies for you. The way to success and a satisfying, enjoyable writing life on Medium as well as in your other writing endeavors is to be true to who you are. Stick to what makes sense for you as a writer for coming up with new ideas and for producing and publishing posts.

In some cases, you may not be certain what provides the best result or feels right until you try out different ideas but in other cases, you will likely know what works for you and what doesn’t. If you know ahead of time that something doesn’t work, trying to force yourself to follow someone else’s advice, especially when it’s presented as the only way to do something, will likely not have the outcome you’re looking for and only result in frustrating and disappointing you,.

You may think that because others have achieved what you are hoping to, or because they are looked up to as an authority or are prominent writers, they know the right way to create. And they likely do. But what they know is the right way for them to create, not necessarily the right way for you to create.

Stephen King, Ray Bradbury or Neil Gaiman may have certain pieces of advice that are helpful for you but that is likely because it speaks to the way that’s best for you to do something. But not everything they say will be helpful. That is because trying to write exactly the way they do will only work if you are, in fact, one of them. The creative process is something that is unique and individual for each of us. In fact, individuality, I think, is one of the hallmarks of creativity.

You have to develop your own sense of how to work, where to get ideas from, what type of posts to write, and what your voice is like. This takes time but the only way you’ll do it is to construct your own writing tool bag. This bag is filled with those things that you can use to come up with and develop ideas for different types of posts. Some may be the same as are found in others’ bags and some may not but your tool bag is your individual road map to creating a successful and happy writing life.

So without further ado, here are a few more tips that made a difference for me and which will hopefully help you find success on Medium:

1. Start off focusing articles on a single idea or point you want to make — Part of my reservations about some of the articles I read was that, for me, they tried to tackle too many things. When I’m reading a lot of articles throughout the day, I want them to be focused and to impart a clear idea, suggestion, opinion or solution.

I’m not drawn to articles like, “50 Ways to Solve Common Problems Around the House.” I am drawn to, “How to Get Red Wine Out of Your Carpet With Two Common Ingredients You Probably Already Have.” (Okay, so maybe the second title could be tightened up a bit). Personally, I enjoy articles the most when they provide a simple solution to a common problem, suggestions to improve something that focuses on a single area, or an opinion on something that is in the news and is of interest to many people. If an article tries to focus on too much I rarely get past the opening few paragraphs.

2. Write shorter posts. When I started on Medium, I looked for the perfect formula for success which I defined as lots of views leading to lots of claps which translated into decent earnings. One of the things that I saw that was recommended had to do with the length of posts. Many said that the ideal length for a post is 7–8 minutes with some saying it is more along the lines of 11–12 minutes.

I attempted to follow this formula for every post having been convinced that “longer is better.” But I noticed the posts I was reading, personally, tended to be on the shorter side. I wasn’t impressed with posts that were only a few hundred words but I also didn’t need 1500 words to feel an article was valuable. There was just so much information on Medium that I wanted to read, I felt I got antsy when I was reading a very lengthy post.

3. Write posts that don’t require research. One commonly used method for creating posts regularly in a non-stressful way that isn’t overly time consuming is to write a short post on something you feel strongly about. This can be reactions to anything in your day or something that you’ve been thinking about for a while. You can keep a small notebook for jotting down ideas and hopefully one will spark a new post. Then, without googling anything, free write your post. You can go back and edit it to better organize it and trim out excess material. These don’t have to be long. Start by trying 300–500 words.

This is often a great technique to learn for those of us who tend to get caught up in the research or find that researching a topic leads to finding interesting content and jumping from topic to topic. I have days when I start an article in the morning and start researching, then am startled when the sun starts to set and I have nothing but an opening paragraph and a bunch of disjointed notes on 100 other ideas and topics that I’ll probably never get around to writing up.

4. Write posts that do require research. I know, I know, I just told you to do the opposite. But that’s the whole part of this article, doing what makes sense for you, remember? Some people need to see what else is out there before feeling comfortable writing their own article. This is not to say they should take other people’s ideas or opinions as their own obviously. But this is another way to come up with a jumping off point or help determine what you want to include and what tone you want to write in.

For me, coming from an academic background, I find I need to write articles that are a bit more formal every so often to prevent myself from going off track and getting way too “touchy-feely”. So every so often I write about different psychological disorders or the latest research on health advances or other similar topics.

I still try to make them less formal than my normal academic voice and am getting better at this. But you may find you need to be able to pull back from more personal posts to re-establish a sense of equilibrium and establish boundaries. If writing these types of articles isn’t your thing, that’s fine too. Stick with the previous point. Just remember, you can do both if you feel like it.

5. Writing from anger isn’t right for everyone. One of the common suggestions for coming up with topics in the articles I read was to write about what makes you angry. This was one I knew better than to use. Those who use writing as a means of catharsis often write about thinly veiled issues, problems they have with others that they have no control over and fantasy revenge schemes.

For those of us who use writing as a means of coping with negative emotions and a means of escape or distraction from major life stress find writing from anger to be overwhelming. When I attempted this, my emotions wore me out long before I finished the article. I now have a ton of half finished articles that will likely never see the light of day because even the thought of returning to them makes me tired and I’d rather not revisit the issues that sparked them.

I find that when I write as a means of stress relief I need to either write something objective that limits my emotions so I can get them back under control or something I feel would help others. If my emotions are really getting the better of me, I will turn to creative writing and write a fantasy or horror story, something not based in reality.

I don’t want to write about what is happening in the real world although I’m sure it sneaks into my writing regardless. If you can write great posts based on what makes you angry, go for it. If not, try writing something that helps you better cope with your anger, or distracts you from it. Or if that doesn’t work maybe choose not to write when you are angry.

I hope by now that the point I intended to make with this article and the last one is clear. Be yourself, be an individual and find your way of writing. It’s great to read what has been useful for others in becoming successful writers and some of what you read may be helpful for you as well. But some of it may not.

Just because articles are strongly worded and suggest there is a right way of doing something doesn’t mean that’s how it is. Truthfully, while there may be certain things that help lead to being a successful writer here on Medium, some of what goes into it are elements that we can’t necessarily put our finger on.

It isn’t always clear why a certain article will resonate with readers. And for every long article that gains a large following there are just as many short articles that do so This applies to all the “rules for succeeding” that you may see. The solution to achieving success is more writer than rule. Find the genuine you in your writing process. That is the true beginning of success, no matter how you measure it.

This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by +431,678 people.

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