How I Build my Audience as a Newbie
Prepare to be surprised
I have been going through some things on the home front which has kind of put me in a self-reflective mood. As a result of which I have been feeling conflicted about what I wanted to pursue as a Medium writer. As most of my readers know, I am a personal narrative writer who at one point shared a post on how I became a top writer. I never for a moment thought that article would become as popular as it has (6000 claps, 96 comments & counting) especially among new writers who are trying to figure out Medium and how it works.
“We rise by lifting others” — Robert Ingersoll
So in addition to my personal stories, I also try to include a couple about my Medium journey. It’s funny how some people judge me based on those alone instead of taking a moment to scroll down my body of work. And how they also overlook the fact that these articles about my Medium journey are not about me, myself, and I since I make every effort to include fellow writers and pubs that are part of my Medium journey.
On that note, I am happy to introduce Paul Kim, who has started a new pub “The Featured Writer” which is “ A publication for writers to write about writers.” How cool is that?
Well, long story short, I reached out to my friend & mentor Vishnu*s Virtues who was kind enough to give me his perspective on things.
It is clear to me that my articles on my Medium experience are part of the reason why I reach a wider audience on this platform, got the Medium bonuses for June and July, and am part of the $100 club. But more importantly, many writers find them helpful in navigating their Medium journey so I’ve decided to continue writing about it.
Let me focus on 3 interesting questions out of the many fellow writers ask me:
Abhimanyu Bhargava “You think I should write more of these?” (Regarding his lovely short piece “Every kid must lose”
Patty McMahon, M.Ed “How do you promote your work?”
Alexander Kant “I’m very curious about your writing journey and how you got to where you are today. Would you like to share?”
I believe all these questions in one way or another relate to reaching a wider audience. So here are my answers based on my observations:
- To my friend Abhimanyu, I would say go for it!
Why — you ask?
I’ll explain. I write on a variety of topics ranging from mental health, self-awareness, love, relationships, humor and Medium not because I’m an expert but because I believe that I can tell stories based on my personal experiences. This has helped my articles reach a wider audience as opposed to me sticking with just one niche.
As you may know, there are a variety of pubs that cater to different genres which have their own followers so it’s a good strategy to put your work out there to get more eyeballs on them.
*none of my articles have achieved virality
2. To Patty, I would say I don’t promote outside of Medium that much although I sometimes think I should.
A couple of months after I began writing on this platform, I joined a FaceBook group that was started by a Medium writer. Even though I had high expectations about it, I didn’t have a good experience there so I never went back.
I have had some of my Medium friends, including Kristina God, tweet my articles which is very kind of her to do but at the end of the day, Medium readers remain my primary audience.
So how do I build my audience?
I would say I leave it up to the reader to see whether they like what I write and decide for themselves if they want to be part of my journey.
Not the answer you were expecting, I know but hey this is what works for me!
3. To Alexander my response would be that I have documented my Medium journey for my readers although I now think it would be a good idea to create a topic index of my stories so they can easily access what they want to read.
Talking about my different readers, let me break down my audience based on inspiration obtained from an interesting article by Diana Adams for Bit Rebels:
Loyal Audience: Recently a fellow writer, BichoDoMato, commented on how my articles get highlighted a lot either because my readers find something they can relate to or a sentence/quote which connected with them. I can only say that I am fortunate to have such readers who give so much love to my articles.
My loyal audience consists of those readers who not only read my articles but who read them in their entirety. They try to understand where I am coming from and what I’m trying to say and who take the time to leave thoughtful comments.
The Skimmer: The Bit Rebels article describes the skimmer like this “The skimmer reader will do just that, skim your article. They will rarely read every word because they are in a hurry.”
I guess that’s why views don’t translate into reads.
The First Sentence Fireball: Bit Rebels describes the fireballs like this “They will read the first sentence of each paragraph, check out the images, and that’s all.”
Huh?
Indeed. The article goes on to explain the reason why the fireballs do this “They aren’t interested in the whole article; they just want to know the bare-bones basics, like a quick outline.”
Does that sound familiar?
Diana Adams suggests giving each type of reader what they want:
For the Loyal Audience — provide quality content.
For the Skimmers — provide scannable content in other words divide your writing into paragraphs with shorter sentences.
For the Fireballs — Use eye-catching images.
The article goes on to give additional tips “ Be sure to separate your paragraphs so that the first sentence of each one starts a new thought or gives a new piece of information. The key here is to make it look good.”
Not easy I know. These are just my insights but remember it’s up to you to figure out what works best for you depending on your goals as a writer.
I have to add that what I know about writing on this platform, I learned through a process of trial and error. For example, the topics I’m comfortable writing about, the topics that click with my audience, what my boundaries are with regards to sharing personal stuff as well as which pubs are a good fit for my articles.
I wouldn’t have obtained this knowledge had I chosen to blindly follow the advice of other writers/experts.
On a lighter note, do share which type of reader you have come across as a writer. I would love to hear your thoughts!
Thanks Be Open and Nick (editor at Be Open)
If you like this you might like these articles about my Medium journey:
I am Part of The $100 Club Thanks to Medium
Why I Rewrite The Title of my Articles at Least 10 Times and How it Works for Me