YOUR JOURNEY MATTERS
How I Navigated Medium As a Newbie
Perspectives from the first few days
I started a blog to release the noises in my brain. I didn’t care about numbers. Then once I had readers, I wanted more. And various Google searches came back with one recommendation — Publish in Medium.
Pre Membership
I didn’t understand how Medium worked. Like you, I had read several articles from Medium, but I kinda thought it was a massive general information blog. In truth, I did not stop to check it out. But in Nov 2019, I explored a little further. My first stumbling block was the home page. ZORA, FORGE, ONEZERO — what in heaven’s name are those? I clicked through to TOPICS, that made a little more sense. Medium Partner Program? To be or not to be. I was confronted with so many options, so I took a simple step and submitted an article: Broken? There is Value in the Pieces, sharing the link on Twitter. It got 3 claps. It seemed highly unlike that Mediumverse would notice or acknowledge the words I exhaled. I left the article and went to play elsewhere. I did come back to read 3 free articles.
Twitter for friends, anyone?
I played happily on iamkeno.co.uk/blog, but I was alone, and I did not like the feeling. You see, my writing journey started when I was 9. I filled up journals with bits of poetry, sentences and dreams. Then at 15, I got my first fiction idea. I knew I was a writer deep within, but I lacked the confidence, the will or motivation to write. It took 40 more years before I emerged from ink dots on pages. Blinking twice in the sunlight, I saw several others like me, and I loved them. Writing by myself was going back to my 9 yr old self, and I did not want that. So I reached out to the people I loved and we started walked together sharing tiny life moments on a storytelling platform I created. Gurpreet Dhariwal was one of them, we met via the #writingcommunity on Twitter. I saw Medium through her eyes, and came back with a game play. Thank you Gurpreet! You are special.
Membership
At $5.00 a month, Medium does not break the bank. But was it good value? As a Digital Product Owner, my decisions are based on value first before cost. Would you pay $1.00 for nothing or $100.00 for everything? Think about it.
I played happily on my blog, but I was alone.
Medium works, of course it does. Every Google search seems to bring back a Medium somewhere. I felt it worked best for early adopters, technical experts or industry leaders. For this newbie, expelling brain noise, perhaps not. But it was $5.00, so I subscribed for the year on the 2nd May 2020.
Best way to get seen
I was done playing in the shadows. My random musings had a place in this world. My words are strong, kind, positive and influencing. People needed to hear me and Medium is my podium, but how the heck do I connect with people and make faceless Medium deities AKA curators aware of my presence. How does this work? Gurpreet recently became a top ranked writer in Poetry. Boy, was I impressed. So top rankings were reachable to mortals? If she did it, I could also. She kindly showed me the way. One newbie word, Publications.
Take the plunge
I am a fairly okay swimmer. Standing on cliff looking into dark waters, far down, swarming with unknown creatures. My skill does not matter, I jump. Who dares, wins. Not who can, or who knows. I did my research and applied to four publications. Was I perfect for them? Where they perfect for me? No. If I waited for perfection, I would still be standing on the cliff. Life is empirical, you learn by doing. I believe that.
Are there publications I wanted to write for? Yep! Did they want new writers? No. I moved on. I have learnt three things in my 50 years on planet earth.
- Confidently enter wherever you are wanted and invited because a chair awaits.
- Bravely enter wherever the door is open, but take your chair along.
- If the doors are closed and you are not wanted, fall back on courage and smash a window. PS: You may get hurt, you may hurt others, so tread carefully.
In the Meantime
The Medium Editor is super easy, but you can still go the extra mile. I learnt how to capitalise my title, use the subtitle for my articles. This helped, as well as this article written by Kevin Buddaeus. I capitalise my titles, and guess what, I am now a member of the Medium Partner Program. Still not sure what it yields, and it’s another tax headache; but I am jumping off cliffs and it’s fun. I set up my own publication whilst waiting a response from others. I have no members, no guidelines and I don’t know what to do with it, but who cares, really. I reckon my first week is the time to make mistakes. It’s called learning.
36 Claps
I published my second ever Medium article in my own publication! It got 36 claps. I was elated, how did 36 people even know I existed. Wow, if 36 people clapped, it meant hundreds more saw it. The 80/20 rule. I looked at the stats. One reader: 36 claps. It did not make sense. Then I learnt. Each reader can clap up to 50 times on an article. Oops! I gave single claps on articles I liked, this will change.
Who dares, wins. Not who can, or who knows.
36 Claps from one reader, thank you, Simran Kankas. Is this a huge achievement or insignificant? It doesn’t matter. I am grateful and excited that you liked my story enough to give over one clap. I hope I don’t ever get jaded, and take even a single clap for granted. Now I have 280 claps from introducing myself to Illumination. People are so very kind.
Published Stories
Under my published stories, I see the “comments” I wrote on other articles. This is a little annoying, why are my comments stories? So now I have 8 published stories, but only three matter. Does anyone else find this maddening?
Accepted
I have been accepted by three publications. Get Inside, Spiritual Tree and Illumination. They had a chair for me, and I am grateful. I’ll work super hard to submit an article within the week. It’s maddening to have someone express interest in what you do, then stay silent for days on end.
Highlighted Sentences
O golly, a few of my sentences are highlighted by readers. What does this mean. I have read those sentences over and over again. There are no spelling mistakes.
I was done playing in the shadows.
Grammar is debatable, but heck, it’s all readable. Some of the sentences are great, but others are passable. Is the highlight a bookmark? Does it mean you love my writing? I am off to highlight a few sentences to check out what this really mean. I must admit, I am excited that I got highlighted. Thank you.
To follow or not to follow
Like everyone here, I came to build a community. I see a few people have followed me, Thank you. I have followed back and I look forward to our interactions. Is it similar to Twitter? Scratch my back, I scratch yours? Am I being followed to be unfollowed, once I follow? Is the aim to get a large number of followers? What’s your take. You are the only people I know here, so I trust your advice. Darrin Atkins Simran Kankas Terry Mansfield Kira Dawn Mallika Chopra Chowa Sekai Ken Bourke Dr Mehmet Yildiz Suntonu Bhadra Adam VanHo Besom & Bletherskite Rick Dobson Erezi Ogbo and Oruaro Ogbo
Treading water and looking around
After a few days on Medium — it does feel like a week, there are still a lot of things I don’t know. But I am off the cliff, I jumped and I did not drown. I am not yet swimming, but I am afloat. No big bad monster has swallowed me yet, not even a bite. Perhaps there are no trolls here. So far, my new playground has been a pleasant experience. I hope to meet more of you here.
PS: Now you know me, can you give me one top tip — how can I be the best I can be on here?
Update
After I wrote this article, I learnt SO much. This second article outlines everything I learnt.
Postscript
You can ignore this bit, but I though it would be helpful to craft a mission statement for myself. Kinda driving tent pegs as I pitch my tent here.
My Mission:
To build a world of hope through words.
My Values
Transparency: Being open about what I do and how I do it
Courage: Owning my space, whilst allowing others to be comfortable in theirs
My Goals for 2020
To write at least one article a month for each publication I join
