Summary

The author, James Julian, shares his experience of achieving unexpected viral success with a story on Medium, emphasizing the importance of publishing content despite personal doubts.

Abstract

James Julian, a writer on Medium, recounts how a story he initially had low expectations for became his highest-earning piece to date. He contrasts the success of this internally viral story with previous externally viral content, noting that internal virality leads to better earnings due to Medium's payment model, which rewards engagement from subscribers. Julian discusses his initial hesitation to write the story, doubting its originality and appeal, and how he eventually pushed through to publish it. The story's success, which earned him over $500, taught him that one can never predict which content will resonate with readers, and therefore, the key is to consistently publish and let the audience decide.

Opinions

The author believes in the importance of writing with the intention of creating impactful content, but also acknowledges the unpredictability of viral success.
Julian suggests that writers should not be discouraged by previous flops or their own negative assessments of their work, as readers may respond differently than expected.
He emphasizes the value of Medium subscriber views (green views) over external views (blue views) due to the direct financial reward associated with the former.
The author advises writers to focus on writing and publishing, rather than overthinking the potential reception of their work, as the audience's response can be surprisingly positive.
Julian implies that persistence and the willingness to revise and improve one's work can lead to unexpected success.
He encourages writers to take action and publish, highlighting the potential financial benefits and the learning experience that comes with each published piece.

My first viral story taught me not to chase viral stories

Everyone here is trying to create viral content, but sometimes the stories you least expect to take off are the ones that actually do.

One of the stories over at my main account James Julian is in the midst of a monster run, quickly becoming my highest earner to date.

Before we get to that, I think it’s important to explain that there are two kinds of viral stories on Medium — primarily internal and primarily external.

I’ve already had a story go viral externally, which I touched on briefly here.

That post, titled “I quit alcohol for one month and my side hustle income exploded”, still stands as my most-read story in the four months or so that I’ve been active on the platform.

It has generated close to 17,000 views to this point.

But as anyone who writes on here could tell you within seconds of looking at the following stats, there’s not a whole lot to get excited about here.

On Medium, blue means bad, green means good.

Green views are from Medium subscribers — i.e. the kinds of views that get you paid.

Blues, which are from external readers, are nice to have — they can generate subscribers and give your numbers a boost — but they don’t pay you anything in and of themselves.

Contrast that with my first internal viral story, which continues to rack up relatively huge view and engagement numbers every single day.

Although I write all my stories with the intention of them becoming big hits, I can tell you that I had extremely low expecations for this one.

Reasons to procrastinate

I can’t tell you what a pain it was to motivate myself to write this.

First of all, my first two attempts at fitness stories fell flat.

I mean flat.

This one, about my mid-life crisis and fitness journey, has only generated 93 views since Mid-October, even though it was published in one of the top Health and Fitness publications on Medium.

The second one, also posted in that publication and titled “What getting COVID taught me about fitness over 40”, had an even weaker performance. It has only drawn 62 views since it was posted around the same time.

I also didn’t think the 4 exercises idea was all that original.

While I intended to make it my own by drawing on my own personal experience with health challenges (including an MS scare, COVID, and alcohol use disorder), stories with headlines like “Do these 4 exercises and you’ll be in the best shape of your life” are a dime a dozen on this site.

I really didn’t expect it to stand out in any way.

As a result, I wasn’t super psyched to get started.

A woman working on a laptop. (Photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash, modified by the author)

Pushing through the pain

I had written down the idea a while back, and it just sat on the “maybe pile” until one day it was bugging me so much that I had to get it off my plate.

Even after writing it, I thought it sucked.

I thought the headline sucked and I thought the top of the story was boring.

It sat in my drafts a little while longer until I finally drummed up the courage to look at it again.

I moved the personal stuff to the top of the story and put a more interesting line in the “sell” paragraph in the story settings about being shocked when I stepped on the scale.

I also snapped a pic of myself to use as art since it was probably the only way it would stand out in a sea of Unsplash gym pics.

Then I hit publish and forgot about it, expecting it to maybe touch 100 views (if I was lucky).

Cleared for takeoff

And it certainly started on that track. From November 23 to Dec. 3, it rarely touched even 10 views per day.

Then, all of a sudden on December 4, it started to take off.

Things are finally starting to taper off a bit now — one month later — but it’s still my best-performing story every day at the moment.

It has also resulted in $500+ in earnings, which is very nice indeed.

I’m Canadian, so after the currency conversion, that’s closer to $650 in my bank account from one story. There’s also a noticeable earnings lag on this site, so there’s a lot more where that came from.

Just hit publish

The moral of this story is this: just hit publish.

Yes, you should be trying to figure out what people want to read and how your particular platform works — and I’d be lying if I said I haven’t invested a lot of time and mental bandwidth in figuring it out — but just because you think one of your stories sucks, it doesn’t mean others will think the same thing.

For whatever reason, the one story I thought would be universally ignored is my biggest hit to date.

Just write. Then publish. Then see what happens.

You might surprise yourself too!

Thank you so much for reading all the way to the end, my friends! If you found this piece useful, please don’t hesitate to give it a few claps so others can find it!

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