Lessons Learned from 31 Articles in 30 Days
I learned a lot about the platform — and myself.
At the beginning of April, I set myself a challenge. I would publish 30 articles in 30 days. It was so successful, I promptly gave myself a May challenge.
In my original article, I promised that I’d recap all of the lessons I learned — about the Medium platform, and about myself as a writer. Hopefully these lessons will help you, as well.
April was my second month as a writer on the platform, so I was still figuring out a lot of the nuances. Here are the 5 biggest things I figured out.
1️⃣Newbie-friendly publications can launch your visibility
The publication ILLUMINATION is extremely newbie-friendly. They published 6 of my articles in April.
Their motto is that writers learn best by getting feedback on their writing. So they will publish pretty much anything that’s publishable. Fiction, Poetry, Essays, Information articles — they publish it all. They will even republish things that you previously posted without a publication. Or publish a profile about your personal publication.
You’d think that with all those articles getting published, your article would sink without a trace. But the ILLUMINATION community is very active. They have a newsletter that will introduce new writers and promote the best articles of the day. And they have a Slack channel where you can promote your work, or talk to other authors.
The great feedback I got from the articles published there gave me the confidence to submit my writing to other, more exclusive publications.
✔️Your takeaway
If you’re looking to grow your audience, join ILLUMINATION.
2️⃣Tightly focus your articles
I come from a book writing background. If you have tens of thousands of words to explore a topic, you want to be sure you cover everything.
You can still do that on Medium, if you have an audience. But to grow an audience, you need to keep your articles in the sweet spot for audience engagement.
My longest published story was a 12-minute read. Only 4 people were brave enough to read all the way through it. (Although those that did, really liked the helpful tips for using Medium formatting.)
My longest unpublished story came in at 20 minutes. It was a top 10 tips article. The editor requested I pick my favorite 5, which resulted in a very strong 10-minute article. It was one of my top performers of April, being named an Editor’s Choice and being featured in their newsletter.
I also learned that reader engagement drops off for articles in a series, so it’s best to make every article a standalone piece.
✔️Your takeaway
If you want more audience engagement, keep your articles in the 5–9 minute range. If you must, you can stretch it to 10, but no longer.
3️⃣Create a profile index
I got this tip from Paul Ryburn, M.Sc. He recommended creating a profile index. It’s a brilliant idea. Pin a short index to the top of your profile that lists the main categories you write in, plus an “about me” link and an “other stories” link. (See mine for an example.)
Then create unlisted index pages that have your best stories from each of those categories. This will let people interested in the categories you write about see your showcase stories. They’re more likely to read more of your work, or to follow you.
I’ve noticed that my number of followers has really picked up after implementing this. So I assume that a lot of people read an article by an author new to them, then check out the author’s profile before deciding to follow or not.
✔️Your takeaway
If you want more followers, and more reads of your best articles, create a profile index.
4️⃣Find your tribe and your voice
It took a while for me to discover my authentic voice for writing articles. My first ones sounded a lot like I was a professor lecturing on the subject.
One tool that really helped me was the Hemingway editor. It keeps my sentences and paragraphs short and crisp.
The other thing that helped me was embracing my fiction writing background. I’m a story teller. I tell stories. Even in non-fiction articles.
Once I really settled in to my authentic voice, I needed to find my tribe. Where were the people who would most resonate with that voice? When I found the publication whose readers felt I was speaking to them, my read rate was an astonishing 65%.
Different publications can speak to different segments of your readership. For example, the readers of Writers’ Blokke are my tribe for articles about writing on Medium. The read rate runs between 50% and 60%.
✔️Your takeaway
If you want to increase your reader engagement (and the payments on your articles), write in your authentic voice. Publish your stories with publications filled with readers who belong to your tribe.
5️⃣Bank stories in advance
The final thing I learned is that it pays to bank stories in advance. I went into the challenge with no stories banked. I didn’t even have a plan. I just wrote.
On weeks when things went sideways, that meant I was often looking at a deficit to make up. I would end up writing 4 articles over the weekend — three of those on Sunday.
Most of my articles take, on average, 4 hours to write/edit/format. So that would be 12 hours of writing on Sunday. That’s not a pleasant way to live.
You also cheat yourself out of visibility.
If you don’t finish writing until 11pm, and publish the article right away, there aren’t a lot of readers available. You’ll get pushed out by all the articles showing up the next morning.
If a bunch of your articles come out at the same time, your followers will probably pick one to look at. If they are spaced out over a few days, you’ve got a better chance of getting more views.
Even if you’re publishing articles on your own blog or personal publication, you can schedule when they are published. By banking articles in advance, you can schedule them to come out on a steady schedule that your followers can anticipate.
This increases your reader engagement. And makes your spouse happier.
✔️Your takeaway
Don’t start publishing right away. Build up a reserve of articles, and allow them to be scheduled in advance.
Conclusion
You can learn a lot by participating in a 30-day writing challenge. I learned these five big lessons.
🔹Join newbie-friendly publications to boost confidence and visibility 🔹Focus articles to stay within 5–9 minutes reading length 🔹Create a profile index 🔹Find your authentic voice and locate your tribe 🔹Bank stories in advance
I hope these lessons will help you grow your success as a writer on Medium, without having to sweat through a 30-day challenge of your own. Although, if you think you’re up for it, give it a try. I guarantee you’ll learn a lot from the process.
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