I Don’t Follow Most Advice on Medium

But I managed to get into the top 7% of writers.

“I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations — one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it — you will regret both.”

— Soren Kierkegaard

Advice is cheap. And often wrong.

The problems with advice is that it is usually presented as the answer for everyone to everything.

I’ve received a lot of bad advice in my life. We learn to filter out bad advice over time.

The challenge is that advice is always given from someone else’s context. It is almost impossible to give advice that aligns with someone’s needs and situation.

Medium has a lot of advice. A lot. A real lot. Lots lot.

It isn’t for everyone and it can be misleading.

Some Points of Clarification

I’ve said I don’t follow the advice but here I am giving advice. I get the irony.

I am not telling anyone to do this.

I am sharing my perspective as someone who doesn’t follow all the advice, is very happy on Medium, and broke into the top 7% of writers within seven months.

I am a top writer in Parenting and Education.

Some people are here because it is their living or they want to be a full time writer. That is not me.

I write everyday either on Medium, my novel or a newsletter for a colearning center. I do other work and projects in education, environment and social programs.

I did not join Medium to make money. I had no idea that there was a Partner Program until three months in when the 100th article on “How to make money on Medium” came across my new writer’s feed.

I got to 100 followers and joined the program.

I find it fun making money. My first month I made $4.10 and I was happier with this than when I was earning my corporate pay a few years back.

As new writers come onto Medium they are seeking guidance and advice. And there is excellent advice here and I learn from every article I read each day.

People like Kristina God provide incredibly helpful and professional advice on writing. And while there are so many great writers I could name, I find people like Susie Kearley, Jason Provencio, Araci Almeida, Martha Manning, Ph.D., David Todd McCarty, Klara Jane Holloway and Natasha MH to be excellent examples of quality, authenticity and balance.

Everyone’s list will be different.

I don’t agree with everything they write but they are all very good at what they do and have their own voice.

Here are some of my observations on rules that should not always be followed.

Headlines

I violate almost every rule on headlines. The general advice is that you need to treat your audience as somewhat stupid and write out exactly what your story is going to be about.

The guidance usually suggests listicles and How Tos.

I find the headline game one of the most boring things I have done in my life. I get why it is done. I don’t do it.

Some of my most successful stories utilize vague headlines that entice the reader but give no details on the story. Some examples are The Empty Glass, Listening to Leaves and 40 Minutes Left in Your Life.

These violate most every single rule for Medium. And if you put any of these into the headline analyzer, Coschedule, these headlines will fail.

Someone is going to tell me that if I wrote according to the rules then my stories would do even better. Maybe.

But then I am selling my soul to give in to a writing structure that doesn’t resonate with me.

I will of course utilize a more obvious headline at times if it feels right. But for me the headline is the soul of the story. It needs to entice, evoke and provoke.

Make your headlines fun. It will feel better.

Writing Every Day

The general rule is you have to write every day and some suggest two to three articles a day.

For some writers and in certain circumstances, this can be a good plan.

For most I feel it is a disaster and the single biggest cause of burnout.

I see so many articles about people who are unhappy on Medium, burnt out, and complaining about faulty algorithms. They say they have followed the rules but are not making enough money.

The simple fact that they aren’t happy means they need to stop following the general guidance and do what feels best for them.

I started writing last February 2022 (I wrote a one-off project in 2018). Here are the number of stories I wrote each month:

February: 4 March: 1 April: 2 May: 5 June: 7 July: 13 August: 15 September: 20 October: 17 November: 22 December: 31 January: 24

Here are my earnings since I began:

Even though I wrote seven less articles in January, I made almost 33% more revenue than December.

I have only written 153 stories since I started. That is one story every other day. I would be failing most Medium Advice Classes.

But the point is that I didn’t start out writing an article every day. And to get to 100 followers I only wrote 12 stories.

I went at my pace, completely broke the Golden Rule of writing every day, and my earnings keep going up even when I write less.

This won’t be enough for someone trying to be a full time writer. But this is better than most who are trying to be full time writers. And if I continued on this trajectory my earnings will continue to rise and could possibly provide a steady supplementary income.

Follow for Follow

The next advice is to follow as many people as possible and expect them to follow you back.

I sort of did this for one month but then stopped. I felt like a stalker.

This comes from the perpetuated idea that Medium is a numbers game: more stories and more followers will make you more money.

Why do I want to follow people just because I can click on their name?

Many people will follow you, wait for you to follow them and then drop you as they want their following number to be less than their follow number. People feel they look less desperate that way.

This tactic violates the most basic rule of marketing. You cannot sell a product to everyone.

Find people you enjoy and follow them. And over time people will naturally come to you. I am very happy to have over 1,100+ followers in my first year.

It. Is. Only. About. Quality.

I have been involved in creative media (video games, music, books, movies, theater) for over 30 years. I have been a speaker at music and video game conferences. I have advised governments in Abu Dhabi and Singapore on the development of their creative industries.

The only thing that is a constant in media is quality. In the end nothing else matters.

Here on Medium you can write three stories a day. If they don’t have depth, quality, interest, passion and reflection, they will have no staying power.

This is the hardest thing for new writers to understand. If you are trying to make a living, it will be a slow and steady process. But once you have over 100 quality stories, then older stories start to pay more and add to your earnings.

But if they aren’t good, it doesn’t matter. They will go to the Medium graveyard where they won’t be shared or read by anyone.

Find Your Path

I am a new writer here. I am no expert. My goal is not to make a thousand dollars a month. If it happens, it happens.

There are thousands of smarter people here than me.

But according to statistics I have achieved some level of success.

I did it my way and against much advice.

Your path will be different. Find one that works for you. Read advice from people you trust and enjoy and apply it.

But do not simply fall back on daily statistics and metrics to assess how well you are doing. It will take time and effort. Writing is a complicated business.

I am not here to give advice but reflection. But I will leave you with some advice from someone who was pretty good at it:

“No enemy is worse than bad advice.” — Sophocles

I hope some of this was helpful.

Please share your thoughts and observations. What works for you? What have you changed?

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