How to Effectively And Creatively Monetise Medium’s Short Form Feature.

Writers! Strategy matters more than writing! (For now …)

I wrote about Medium’s Short Form yesterday. It got published in Illumination, and Dr Mehmet Yildiz “curated” my piece in his own story. That story was an affirmation for shorter stories and that writers can now submit Short Forms to Illumination, Illumination-Curated, and Technology Hits.

You can read the 2 stories here.

The story about Medium’s Short Form received the first response almost immediately after I received an email for successful publication. Illumination editor, Maria Rattray, responded with very kind comments. She mentioned she was coming to terms with the new Short Form feature and thanked me for sharing my post-experimentation review via my story.

And that rocks. Writers are a curious bunch who oscillates between doggedly doing what we do well (writing) and poking the box. If I managed to poke your “thinking” box — I am pleased to contribute to the writing universe.

Now, back to Medium’s Short Form.

If you have been publishing using Short Form, you will realize that it is capped at a “1-minute” read. Unless you have thousands of followers who have been drooling in anticipation of your next viral story, Short Forms itself is difficult to monetize effectively.

I know that earnings do drive the way we write. Many of us here make a living through writing. Some of us are opening a new stream of revenue. Practical issues have to be attended to.

That circles back to my point 2 paragraphs back. What is the utility of Medium’s Short Form Feature if it does not drive earnings directly?

If we cannot monetize Short Forms directly, then the path to Short Form monetization has to be an indirect manner.

Short Forms alone does little. It is like one Lego block. However, it can be used as a bolt and nut to secure the giant writing machinery.

I am going to share what I mean.

Practitioner Review 1 — Use Short Forms To Present The Long-Form Stories.

This is like using the Short Forms as an appetizer to the Long-Form main course.

I have used this for my older stories, especially those that have lost their ability to generate eyeballs and earnings.

I used Short Forms as a cover letter for the Long Form. Sometimes, a little effort is what it takes for a makeover. This is an example.

Practitioner Review 2 — Use Short Forms To Monetise Your Profile.

The key here is to self-publish behind the metered paywall.

This ensures that the Short Forms funnel readers to your profile, effectively monetizing all the possible Short Forms nested in your profile.

Do not forget that all stories published in various publication houses are ALL PRESENT in your profile. As the reader scrolls through your profile, they could potentially hit up one of your published stories.

You have effectively monetized your Long Forms via your Profile, through your Short Forms.

Practitioner Review 3 — Use the Short Forms to Pre-Sell Your Pipeline Stories.

Before sales, there are pre-sales.

Look, you got to have something to sell before you sell, right? It is the thing that sells the thing that matters. Short Forms can do this job for you.

This is my sample.

I can choose to push this content in front of Medium’s paywall (meaning not metered for payment) if my intention is to circulate to the Linkedin platform, bringing awareness to my professional circle that I am going to share my know-how on Medium.

In that sense, it is important to use the non-monetized version of Short Form to promote the monetized Long-Form.

Our strategy drives the way we use various available features.

Practitioner Review 4 — Use the Short Form To Perform The Platform Cross-Over.

There are many ways to think about it, especially to the population of writers who started from somewhere else.

You can write a short form, put it in front of the paywall and have it distributed to all your social media platforms. That way, everyone connected to you will know you are writing on Medium.

And precisely because it is Short Form, you will not feel the pinch of writing for free. Truth be told, there is a limit to the earning prowess of Short Forms. As that is already the case, we need not get too caught up with it.

Practitioner Review 5 — Use the Short Forms To Cross-Pollinate Stories Across Various Publications.

I have stories published in 3 publications.

Subjected to the flexibility of the publication houses you are contributing to — You may clip an old story from Publication A into a Short Form and push it to Publication B.

I might have done a light touch on this yesterday, and I want to elaborate further in this segment.

Do not underestimate this, especially if you write for multiple publications. For instance, if you write for 5 publications, it means an older Long Form story can be circulated fresh from Publication A to Publications B, C, D, and E.

This does not go against Medium’s policy of publishing only original, draft stories. The effort to write 4 Short Forms as a cover letter to carry your older Long Form stories is less strenuous than writing one fresh Long Form story.

Before dissing and pissing on the Short Form feature, think, think, think.

My Concluding Statements for Now.

Short Forms and Long-Form are features we are tap on.

It allows us to think about how we can use it for our benefits, monetarily or non-monetarily. If we are confused about how new features work to our benefit, we can always experiment.

I am still experimenting with the prowess of using Short Forms and Long-Forms.

Eventually, we will find a writing strategy that works to our benefit.

Keep trying. We will find a way to use new features to become a better writer.

Using Short Forms and Long-Forms Together.

Aldric

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