Growth Hacks Will Never Get You as Far as This Will

The harsh truth about content creation.

If your Medium homepage is like mine, then you’re seeing article after article describing ‘growth hacks’ that will help you build a better audience for your stories.

Little things that you can do to game the system and maybe get a few extra views because of it.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sick of reading about these.

It’s no secret that many of us are writing on Medium to make a little money on the side, so it’s no surprise that articles in this niche perform relatively well.

My problem with that though, is that it’s comparable to getting rich off of selling a course teaching people how to get rich.

These articles don’t necessarily enhance your writing or give you legitimate tips on building a bigger audience.

With that being said, many great articles provide amazing tips on organic ways to grow an audience and become a better writer. To be clear, this is not about those articles.

I’m talking about the ones that try to provide shortcuts or hacks to people so they don’t have to spend time or effort growing an audience by themselves.

Those are the worst.

So What?

If you’re somebody who agrees with me so far, then why should we even care anyway?

My answer to that is as follows:

These methods of ‘growth hacking’, whether here on Medium or another platform like YouTube, incentivize the creation of garbage content.

We’ve all seen it before — clickbait titles, robotic scripts, and a structured flow that prioritizes read time rather than value for the audience.

In my eyes, nobody benefits from this approach to content creation.

The person writing the articles doesn’t necessarily improve their writing, and the viewer definitely doesn’t leave the article better off than before they read it.

It’s merely an easy way to, in the best-case scenario, milk a few extra views in the short term. I would be shocked if there was somebody who benefitted from this approach for more than a couple of months.

I think of it like building an excellent paved road while having a broken-down car.

You might be able to walk on this road, but your return on investment would be much higher if you just fixed the car.

What’s the Alternative?

Write something that people want to read. Provide value to your audience, and your audience will provide value to you.

Content creation is not a zero-sum game. It’s an equal exchange between the creator and the viewer.

The viewer gets entertainment and knowledge, while the creator gets views and acknowledgments.

Focusing on creating valuable content is a strategy that will benefit you much more in the long term, way more than any growth hacking will.

The top writers, YouTubers, artists, and singers aren’t people who ‘ grow hacked’ their way to the top while producing garbage content.

They’re talented people who spend much time mastering their craft to ensure that whatever they produce is worthy of the viewers’ attention.

If we as writers can take this same approach, we will be much better off as a whole.

Conclusion

Taking this approach might leave some people feeling like they have nothing valuable to write about.

This is a statement that I couldn’t disagree with more.

I’m a strong believer in the idea that I can learn something from everybody I meet.

Whether it be a concept that a person is interested in or a different perspective that this person’s way of thinking provides, we all have things to share with the world.

I also encourage you to experience as many things as possible. An exciting life is a guaranteed way to never run out of things to create content about.

Some of the most exciting writers I’ve encountered are also the most interesting people I’ve met. I’d like to think that it’s no coincidence.

Anyway, I hope this article can at least help you somehow.

As always, leave a comment if you’d like to connect. I look forward to hearing from you.