From My First Medium Story to Full-Time Content Creator In 1 Year
If you want progress, you need an actionable process
In February 2021, I started writing here. In February 2022, it’s official: I’ll be going full-time content creator soon.
How did I get there in 12 months? Here are my 5 top tips!
Wait…
Some of these tips, you hear over and over again, I’m certain.
Why? Because they work!
You hear them often because successful Medium writers follow these steps.
My 5 steps to success
1. Consistency
Yeah, booooring… I know. You’ve read this a million times.
For good reason.
Once I started writing daily, my views and earnings increased. Consistency isn’t a shallow term, it’s the basis for success. It doesn’t mean writing daily for everyone, but it’s probably more than 1 story per month.
You know what else starts happening through consistent writing? The following:
1. The likelihood of hitting a viral post.
2. Writing evergreen content that keeps getting views.
3. In my case, my confidence with a second language (I’m a German native) grew
4. The likelihood of automatically creating an actionable productivity system with a reasonable schedule.
2. Utilise popular publications
While I see huge advantages of self-publishing for newbies and experienced writers alike, Medium publications offer range, reach, and a niche-relevant audience. My viral stories reside in two publications, in general. I have written for a few dozen pubs.
I started writing for publications from the get-go. Furthermore, I targeted the large ones like Better Marketing, Start it up, Curious, Better Humans, or Illumination.
My first stories were well-received and still gain reads a year later.
Publications are powerful.
3. React
This might be the most important tip for my growth on this platform. What does reacting mean? A few things:
1. Reacting to the audience. Communicate with your readers, respond to questions, read other writers’ stories.
2. React to trendy topics. While controversial for some, this is a sure way to get more exposure on Medium. Some topics are trending. Write about these topics, find a fitting publication, and your views will increase.
3. React to the platform. In my case, I’ve been reporting on and letting people in on my journey on Medium. This includes giving tips along the way or giving criticism where you see fit. Many people will have the same issues or a completely fresh approach to them.
Medium isn’t like a traditional blog hosted on WordPress where you get traffic through SEO from search engines. Medium is social blogging. You have a large audience at your fingertips. The way to utilise that is by reacting to this audience, to the platform, and to trends.
4. Don’t give up
Another obvious one, yet one of the biggest reasons for failure, I believe. Give Medium time!
If I had stopped after two months, I would have missed out on the biggest opportunity of my creative life.
I’ve seen many writers start writing a few stories here over one month and then disappear.
You won’t become successful in a month. You have a better chance of winning the lottery.
5. Take a break before you burn out
Writing daily is hard. In December of last year, I reached a point where I couldn’t write daily anymore. Coupled with three sick kids at home and Christmas around the corner, I took a two-week break.
What happened?
Well, first my views tanked. From almost 50K to 15K in a matter of days.
That sucked.
Once I picked up daily writing in January, though, I reached this level again and much more. My views shot up from 15K to over 220K to date.
The break didn’t hurt. It made me want to write again. That was beautiful. I also thoroughly enjoyed the time off.
The bottom line
It’s still possible to find success on Medium in 2022. Furthermore, Medium is the gateway to so much more than success in writing. It can kickstart an entire creative career. Some start building courses, others sell digital products, a few get opportunities to write for other platforms or renown websites.
I’ve grown an email list, sold products, tried other outlets like NewsBreak, and advanced my YouTube channels. All thanks to Medium.
Tim Denning wrote a great tweet about writing in 2022. Let this be an inspiration to you!
P.S.: First, you should get my posts in your inbox. Do that here! Secondly, if you like to experience Medium yourself, consider supporting me and thousands of other writers by signing up for a membership. It only costs $5 per month, it supports us, writers, greatly, and you have the chance to make money with your writing as well. When I started, I made $3000 in 6 months. By signing up with this link, you’ll support me directly with a portion of your fee, it won’t cost you more. If you do so, thank you a million times!
