avatarHazel Paradise

Summary

The article discusses strategies for increasing engagement on Medium articles, emphasizing the importance of a compelling title.

Abstract

The content delves into the significance of crafting an engaging title for Medium articles to attract readers, suggesting that a good title can be the difference between an article being read or ignored. It acknowledges the debate on whether metrics like claps contribute to viewership and invites reader input on the matter. The author stresses that even well-written articles may go unnoticed without an effective title, and conversely, catchy titles can sometimes lead to high engagement for subpar content. The article also provides a personal example of a successful title, "Earn $100 from writing shorts," which gained traction due to its realistic earnings promise, the accessibility of writing shorts, and its appeal to those seeking additional income. The author concludes by encouraging the use of specific, informative titles and invites readers to explore more of their work, including a book on growing on Medium.

Opinions

  • The author believes that claps' impact on viewership is uncertain but comments and reads definitely contribute to engagement.
  • A compelling title is crucial for attracting initial clicks, which are necessary for further engagement like claps and comments.
  • The aesthetic appeal of an article, including its title, significantly influences reader interest, despite the adage "Never judge a book by its cover."
  • The author suggests that the content quality doesn't always correlate with engagement; well-titled articles can outperform better-written pieces.
  • Realistic and achievable promises in titles, such as earning a modest amount from writing, can be more effective than exaggerated claims.
  • The ease of writing and publishing "shorts" (short-form content) is highlighted as a current trend that aligns with people's limited time and the success of short-form content on platforms like YouTube.
  • The author posits that a title should provide concrete details about the article's content without giving away too much, striking a balance between intrigue and information.

How to get more engagement on Medium articles

Hacks to grow on Medium

Photo by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash

This is the second part of the series on “How To Increase Engagement on your articles”.

There have been many ways already discussed on how to increase the engagement rate on your articles. But there is one thing that will make people click on your article more than ever.

If no one will click on your article, then no question arises of claps and comments and reads. I still cannot tell if claps play an important role in increasing your views or not, but commenting and reading do for sure. I am yet to figure out about claps and would love to hear if you have some other views on this.

Click on the article is possible only if the title is relevant or tries to solve a problem of the readers. And the very first thing that you, as a writer, need to pay attention to is to have a proper title. That’s what readers see first and will decide whether to click on the article or not.

There is a saying that goes on -” Never judge a book by its cover.”

But we all know the reality is quite different. People do judge everything by the way it looks. We cannot blame anyone for this. With so many articles floating on the internet (or Medium in this case) and more being written on a daily basis, how is one supposed to find a proper piece to read?

Sometimes, a good article has a bad title.

Sometimes, bad articles have very good titles. And unfortunately lots of views and comments as well.

See this title -

“Earn $100 from writing shorts.”

It’s an old article I wrote a few months back. This was based on my experience when I was fully focused on Amazon.

Why did people click on this article?

  1. The earnings mentioned were realistic as compared to $1000 which seems a faraway dream for many. Writers can earn more than $100 following the tactics I mentioned but the thing is that I don’t know how much time and effort one will put into this work. Writing many bad short books or a few good short books yields different results.
  2. Anyone can write shorts. It’s easy to write shorts nowadays. I used to spend time reading novels back in my college days but now, as we have less time, shorts work best. Maybe this is the reason why YouTube introduced shorts for their viewers. And we all know, we get more views on short than on long videos. At least in my experience.
  3. It was good for people who wanna earn some extra income. For full-time, you need more than this and we all know that. Some writers complete a short book within a week including writing, editing, cover designing and so on. If you hire a ghostwriter (if you want to) then you can make shorts within a few days. I know someone from YouTube who hired a team of writers and would publish on Amazon every week. He has around 800 books on Amazon now.

All the above-mentioned qualities made this title attractive and so this was more clickable as compared to other titles.

Instead of using some general info-based title, make sure you have a title that gives actual details of your article without revealing too much.

There are so many things that are required to make an article interesting but I guess I’ll stop here for now.

If you want, then you can also take a look at my other articles that are relevant to this subject. See you soon.

If you have read this far, I hope you are finding it useful. Do check my book The Medium Program, if you wanna grow on this platform. I’ll share my tips and tricks with you. Thanks!

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