How I Became a Top Writer on Medium in 45 Days
Publishing curation-worthy articles daily helped, but I only needed 3 good articles to become a top writer in Technology.
On September 22, 2019, I became a top writer in Technology on Medium for “publishing great stories tagged Technology”:
This was only 6 weeks after my first ever Medium article was published on August 12, 2019. (That article was added to Noteworthy — The Journal Blog about a week after its initial publication.)
Because becoming a top writer took me less than 45 days, I think that it is a goal accessible to anyone who wants to write on Medium.
The timeline
Here are my stats, not to brag about the numbers, but so you can see the timeline clearly — it took me 45 days to become a top writer:
Between August 8 and September 23, I went from 0 articles to 35 published articles, 31 of which were on technical subjects, of which 19 articles were curated for distribution in topics by Medium.
That is how I reached the status of top writer in the tag of Technology.
What it means
Yes, it is very possible to become a top writer within 45 days, even in a big tag like Technology — and I am living proof!
Currently there are 50 top writers on Medium for the topic Technology:
Being a top writer on Medium is a badge of honor, and it means I got a cool little extra line on my Medium profile that looks nice:
Beyond adding to my credibility, top writer status may mean that I am more likely to be featured on the Medium topic page for Technology, though I am unable to confirm this detail for sure.
How it happened
How did I achieve this elite status, let alone so quickly? I really only had 3 articles in Technology help, at least that I am aware of:
What was my formula for success?
These three stories are a great example of the type of writing that I both like to produce and think can be successful on Medium:
- Tells a story: Revisiting a reported story with new analysis “Why the Guardian Switched From MongoDB to PostgreSQL”
- A partner piece: A technical article to accompany the story “The Top Three Alternatives to MongoDB in 2019”
- Teaches something: A how-to article for a common problem “How to check for NaN in JavaScript”
But I have to admit— becoming a top writer in Technology surprised me.
It was a surprise to me!
I didn’t even know I had been curated in Technology! In fact, I may have never been curated in that topic, but I am now a top writer in it!
What do I mean? Actually I have never been told by Medium that I was curated in the topic of Technology, though I may have been.
On the three articles that earned me top writer status, Medium shows other curated topics —not that I was curated for the Technology tag:
That means that these articles were also curated in Technology, or possibly that my credit from these other tags was flowing “up” to Technology.
On the other hand, curation and top writer status may be separate, and those three were some of my better-performing articles tagged Technology.
Either way, I am stoked to now be a top writer in Technology!
Next up: Top writer in JavaScript?
Actually, I would have been a top writer in the tags of JavaScript or Programming much earlier except for one thing.
For those topics, I have had many more articles curated than in Technology, but these tags do not have top writers yet:
My experience shows that writing on a specialized topic (Programming) can lead to becoming a top writer in a large topic (Technology).
Medium defines top writers to mean “frequent writers on Medium with popular stories tagged [topic]” — so publishing frequency is key!
What you can do to be a top writer
Becoming a top writer involves getting curated, publishing quality articles frequently, and writing for publications.
Study the curation guidelines
My top advice to someone who wants to be curated on Medium is to write exactly according to the Medium curation guidelines:
Read and re-read those, especially the parts about headlines, images, citations, and profile — these are my keys 🔑 to getting curated.
Definitely do not include ads, request for claps or donations, or serialization (stories split into multiple posts).
I initially asked for claps and never got curated once when I did so.
Publish quality articles frequently
Setting a goal or a personal challenge can be helpful, but at the end of the day I had to force myself to get into the habit of saying I was “done” and submitting my article to a publication.
For myself, I did use the goal setting tip of making my goals public:
Honestly, I felt frustrated writing those 2 articles, because I knew they would not be of interest to developers and that they would not get curated.
Nevertheless, I took them seriously — and doing so paid off, because I have been very motivated to stick to that public commitment.
I am reminded of my public commitment because I see those articles every time I scroll down my Medium profile page.
Apply to write for publications
Submitting your work to publications on Medium is free, and a great way to gain exposure, which is important for becoming a top writer.
To gain top writer status, the articles have to be “popular” — meaning they get a certain amount of engagement, measured in part by claps and views.
Obviously, pushing content to The Startup and its 500k followers would be ideal, but there are a lot more publications out there.
I got into almost all the publications I can write for using Smedian, which lets writers apply for free to write for tons of Medium publications:
Conclusion
What I learned from becoming a top writer is that I had little idea which articles were going to do well, so I ended up writing broadly.
People clearly love articles that tell a story, answer a question, or discuss a controversial topic. For example, here is my most popular article ever:
I have also learned which articles will do poorly—especially those articles that lack citations from other sources, clear titles, or stunning imagery.
Indeed, the experience of getting curated on Medium inspired me to create my own publication, where I can try my own hand at “curation”:
Overall, I would definitely encourage anyone to try to work your way up to top writer status on Medium — it is very possible if one focuses for 2 months!
“Thankfully, good content rules above all.”
— Jon Brosio in Jon Brosio
As they say, good content floats to the top, so find what works for you personally to get your articles curated, then keep it up!
Further reading
- Jon Brosio thinks the secret to become a top writer is mostly headlines:
- Kevin Horton reveals how he beat me to top writer on Writers Guild:
- Louis Chew discusses quality and frequency on The Writing Cooperative:
- Stevie Adler maintains an up-to-date list of tags with top writer status:
- The site Top Authors shows Medium authors ranked by follower count:
- The original Medium post about top authors is actually broken:
Dr. Derek Austin is the author of Career Programming: How You Can Become a Successful 6-Figure Programmer in 6 Months, now available on Amazon.
