QuickTalk Friday Interview

How To Succeed On Medium From A Writer with 16K Followers

Great insights for newbies and veterans

Hey y’all, you’re going to love this interview with Linda Caroll.

It’s filled with deep insights about writing on Medium. Linda has been writing on Medium since 2016 and is a student of what works on the platform.

I’ve already started to implement what I learned from this interview and want to thank Linda for the education I received on Medium from talking with her.

So get out your highlighters and be ready to soak up the insights from Linda.

Scot: Tell me how you got started on Medium…

Linda: I wrote three stories in 2016. They bombed. Then I left Medium for 10 months. I came back in 2017 and left again. I came back in 2018 and stayed. That was my pattern for a long time. Dabble and disappear. Most of my growth has been in the last year. At the end of 2020, my follower count was half what it is today.

Scot: How do you go from 0 to 16K followers?

Linda: Well, if you’re me, you sluff around for years and then suddenly double in growth. Lol. Not even kidding. At the end of 2020, I had only 8K followers. Then I wrote a story that went kind of viral. Like, over 100K reads. My views, followers, reads, and income shot up like a rocket and I earned 4x what I’d ever earned before. It was the first time I took Medium seriously.

Scot: So your viral article changed your attitude toward Medium …

Linda: That’s when I started paying attention, and here’s what a lot of people don’t understand. One strong story will bring more income and followers than 100 crappy ones. We don’t grow in a nice chart that arcs upward. It doesn’t work that way. We grow in bursts that correspond with pieces that take off.

You never know which story it will be. Sometimes I spend hours on a post and it flops, while a rant I vomited out in 20 minutes goes crazy. But it’s not always that way. Some of my best-paying stories are ones I worked really hard on.

It’s a crapshoot. But if writers understand that new followers will find them with their best work, maybe they’d pause before they’re so quick to publish.

Scot: What do top writers do that newbies don’t do?

Linda: God, what a question. That’s an article in itself. First, it’s not really about being new, because there are writers who’ve been at Medium a long time and never got any traction and there are newbies who slay it out the gate. But what I see is when people have had no results for a long time, they get into a stinking thinking mindset and it’s really hard to pull them out of it.

That’s why I write stories targeting newbies. Because I don’t want to see them make the mistakes that push people into that “it’s never going to work for me” mindset. What do top writers do differently? That’s easy. They write good titles and engage the reader. They find what works for them because what works for one person might not work for another.

Scot: What makes Tim Denning with 240K followers successful?

Tim has a big following because he’s a workhorse and writes stuff his readers want to read. We both started in 2016. He was consistent. I was not. Plus, I wrote stupid titles like “So, this happened” and “Everything I can’t do.” I wish I was kidding. You want to know what makes it harder? Being a woman. 85% of the top writers are men. But I won’t go there. I’ve written about it if you’re curious. It’s in my feminism list.

Scot: What’s the secret to making money on Medium?

Linda: It’s not even a secret. Good titles and engaging writing. That’s about it. Because, we get paid for reads, right? But you can’t get a read if you don’t get the click first. So it starts with a great title and finishes with engaging writing. Plus, an element of luck. Because if Barack Obama posts a story on the same day as me, mine isn’t getting the clicks. Know what I mean?

Scot: Yep, I do. So how do I write a title that doesn’t suck?

Linda: Titles are hard. And at the same time, not hard at all. What if I turned that around? What if I said to you, hey Scot, why did you click the stories you did? Usually, the answer is curiosity. In psychology, they say curiosity is the greatest human motivator. And it is. But with titles, there’s a second element. Why should I read this? That’s the second element.

People try to “sum up” their story in one sentence. But that doesn’t work most of the time. Readers don’t want a summary. They want to know if it’s worth their time. So if you can tell them why they should read it… what they’ll get from it… and make them curious at the same time, that’s usually a good title.

Scot: How do you write a strong opening to a story?

Linda: Start with the most interesting part. Go from there. And don’t use passive language. The best tip I can give is to keep an eye out for stories that go viral and pay attention to how they open. Not just 10 examples, but 50.

Scot: How do I write a story that keeps people reading?

Linda: It sounds trite, but you have to write something people want to read. Too many people start slow like they’re “building up” and they think they’re building suspense or setting the scene–but what they’re really doing is losing readers because they start slow. There’s just so much rambling and fluff and taking too long to engage. As the saying goes, easy reading is hard writing.

Scot: What have you learned about the algorithm on Medium?

Linda: The algorithm on Medium isn’t much different than the algorithm anywhere. Algorithms are fueled by engagement. It doesn’t matter how many followers we have or how big or small the publication is. If a story gets good engagement, the algorithm pushes it out to more people. There are tons of examples of newbies writing stories that go viral. The algorithm doesn’t care if it’s your first story. It only cares about whether readers click and engage.

Scot: So your advice is to engage, engage, engage and write good stories?

No, I don’t mean the writer needs to engage. I mean they need to watch to see where they’re getting engagement. What are people clicking, reading, and sharing?

Scot: What do you consider a good read-to-view percentage?

Linda: Honestly, that depends because sometimes when a story gets wider exposure, the read rate goes down. I’ve had stories start out with a high read rate when it’s just “my” audience and then drop when it gets more exposure. Personally, I strive for over 50%. I think if less than half the people who clicked actually read, something was off. You know?

Scot: You write a lot about history…are you a history buff?

Linda: Yes and no — depends on how you define history. When you say history, most people tend to think of wars or a dry list of historical dates and all the crap they taught in school under the label of history. I don’t care about those. But I have a deep passion for the weird stuff most people don’t know, and the people whose stories were left on the cutting room floor, you know?

Scot: What’s your writing routine?

Linda: I don’t have one other than if I’m going to write, it’s going to be in the morning when my brain is fresh. If I’m going to edit, it’s going to be at night when I have no patience left for anyone’s rambling crap, including my own. I slash and burn more words at night than any other time.

Scot: What is your goal on Medium with 16K followers?

Linda: In my work life, I help people earn more money. I’ve taken mom-and-pop businesses from zero to a million in sales. I’ve helped solo entrepreneurs increase their income tenfold. It’s what I’ve done for over 20 years. But you never see any of that in my writing because my writing was a break from work. It’s my sandbox. The place I went to play. So, I feel like I could be helping people more, but I don’t want to turn my sandbox into an office. I struggle with that. But I’ll figure it out because that’s what we humans do.

Scot: Final words of encouragement Medium writers?

Linda: Don’t look for advice except for technical tips. If you’re not sure how to link images or add a kicker or do things you’ve seen other people do — yes, look for those tips. But otherwise? Don’t. I made that mistake. It just slowed down my progress. It took longer to figure out what works for me when I was trying to do what worked for someone else.

Here’s a list on my stories about writing on Medium if you’re new and looking to learn tips and tricks of writing on the platform:

or check out my YouTube video on 3 Myths about Medium That Hold Writers back … and if you want to read thousands of stories and write your own on Medium you can join Medium for $5 a month with my referral link : )