Content Development And Marketing Strategy
Why Quit Medium? Just Do the Opposite!
You might enjoy creating an additional income stream by repurposing your content meaningfully, ethically, and productively on multiple platforms.
2022 Update of this story
I recently documented my sentiments and thoughts on the distribution system of Medium. I hope this story can provide a better perspective. However, the old story still provides my intended viewpoints.
Introduction
Do you want to earn more income and increase your regular readers?
If the answer is yes, you need to repurpose your content on multiple platforms by customizing your content and following the rules of different platforms.
I cut to the chase and focus on crucial points, as your time is valuable.
As a writer on multiple platforms, I don’t find it valuable and relevant to compare platforms and demonize some. This approach does not serve a purpose. Simply, it resembles comparing apples to oranges. So instead, we should follow the rules of each platform and reap the benefits. Each platform has its pros and cons. It is up to us to take the benefits of the pros.
For example, the self-publishing benefits of Medium are appealing to many of us. Monetizing content through any readers from the Internet is an excellent benefit of News Break and Vocal Media.
Here is how I approach platforms and recommend this pragmatic approach to aspiring writers based on my proven experience.
The first point is engagement rules matter. Obeying them determines our success. Understanding platform rules is essential. Each platform has its own mission, vision, strategy, policies, and rules. Not all platforms may resonate with our goals. Rather than fighting with them, we can cooperate with them by adopting our practice to reap the benefits.
I’ve written for Medium longer than other platforms. And I enjoy many intangible benefits of this platform. I also write for News Break and Vocal Media. I enjoy the different benefits of those platforms. These three platforms have different rules and benefits for creators and readers.
For example, after a while, News Break rejected my stories when I linked my relevant books as references to my articles. My reason was my books would add credibility to the points I discussed in my articles. This was my assumption.
However, News Break had a different perspective on this approach. Their rule is not to allow any self-promotion of creators. So they interpreted linking my books as self-promotion.
Did I get upset about this rule? Not really! On the contrary, I thanked the support team, who informed me about their rules and expectations. They have a specific rule, and they communicate it clearly to me.
They made my job easy. I respect their rules and thus stopped adding links to my books as references. And they kindly continued publishing my articles. It is a win-win because the support team followed their process. As a writer, I got the privilege of getting published and reaching out to a broader audience.
However, Medium and Vocal Media never made referencing my books an issue. It is a bonus. As far as I know, all authors have the opportunity to link references to their books on Medium and Vocal Media.
I even publish my book chapters on these two platforms. It is a win-win between the platforms and the authors. Readers of Medium and Vocal benefit from our books without purchasing them from bookstores.
I simply framed the constraint of News Break as having a different purpose and different audience. I appreciate the service of NewsBreak, which pays for my articles and gives visibility to a large audience.
My critical point in this article is writing for NewsBreak, or Vocal Media does not require you to give up Medium. None of these platforms put a rule for writers to be exclusive. This flexibility provided by these three platforms is an advantage that writers can leverage and benefit from. More importantly, all these platforms allow the repurposing of your content. Even better, all of them allow you to keep the copyright of your content. As writers, we need to understand and appreciate these privileges.
I highly recommend writers of Medium repurpose their content on News Break and Vocal Media. You have nothing to lose for repurposing. But a lot to gain! It is low-hanging fruit, easy and doable. I know you have some concerns about search engines from rumors. Let me clarify this point.
There is misinformation about Google penalizing your content if you repurpose it on multiple platforms. Like many experienced content developers, I debunked this myth. Google and other search engines do not do that. It is just a rumor.
However, it is a fact that search engines favor some platforms. It is called domain authority. Some platforms get better domain authority than others. For example, a story with the same title and content published on three different platforms gets different priority orders when showing in search engine results.
From my experience, content from Medium always comes first. Vocal Media comes next, and News Break comes after. This is the current situation and may change with high-quality content. For example, I know that News Break added rigor to its quality standards which may be recognized by search engines.
Everyone talks about search engines, but they provide only one way of creating traffic to our content. There are several other ways. For me, the best way is to use my mailing list, which produces the best outcome. Next is the meaningful use of social media for creating serendipity. In addition, the use of social media also increases the chance of creating visibility in search engines.
For example, posts providing links on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Quora, and especially Pinterest created better visibility in search engines. I only share my own experience related to social media boosting, as different people might have different results.
I have been observing social media content-sharing benefits for over a decade. Currently, my social media posts receive over three million impressions per month. But it took me years of effort to build my followers on multiple platforms. Here is a practical guide for you to use social media meaningfully to create visibility of your content.
Getting desired results from search engines depends on multiple factors, such as content quality, genre, size, and several other factors that are unknown to us. Undoubtedly, search engine algorithms are proprietary. They don’t publish granular details. They only provide high-level guidance, such as quality materials getting priority. But quality may mean different things to different people. For example, what I characterize as quality may be different from what the Google algorithm characterizes as quality. So it is all subjective in the end.
I witnessed some articles that I wouldn’t necessarily call high quality hit the top of the page, and some others which I thought were high quality did not even show on the first or second page.
Another vital point: Monetizing your content by earning income is not a shame. You make an effort and create value for readers. Valuable content deserves payment. If we pay to watch a movie, why should readers not pay to read valuable content?
As a writer, you invest your time and create value for your reader. Be proud of your creation and accept rewards. Ignore those who make you feel guilty for charging for your content.
Here’s how to look at the value in the context of the customer. We need to be realistic about value. What I offer as a technician may not necessarily resonate with a fitness enthusiast. Or what you provide as a makeup artist may not relate to the needs of a data scientist. For a fitness enthusiast, not consuming my technical papers does not mean it has no value. Instead, it offers value for my interested audience.
Takeaways
After this background and pointing out critical points, my takeaway point is to keep writing on Medium. However, you can explore other platforms to repurpose your content.
Repurposing your content is not rocket science. But it is a sort of science. You need to approach with awareness, acceptance, diligence, and caution. You need to perform minor tweaks to meet the guidelines of the platform. You can read the policies and guidelines and tailor your content to suit specific platforms.
There is no point in cursing a platform if they reject your content due to not meeting its guidelines. If we respect and obey the rules, the platforms will support our content, and the relationship with that platform will be smooth.
If you are writing for Medium, you can also apply to News Break and Vocal Media. I enjoy the fact that Vocal Media opens its door to all creators. You can quickly and easily start with Vocal by creating an account.
Here is the link to get you started if you haven’t joined Vocal Media yet. You can start repurposing your Medium articles on Vocal right away. They even offer free registration and you can upgrade to a paid model later.
Another piece of good news is that News Break is now making it easier for new creators to join their exciting program. If your application was rejected previously, you can re-apply and explore the benefits. Here is the link to join the News Break Creators program.
These links are my affiliate links. As pointed out in my previous articles, affiliate links must be declared to comply with the Federal Trade Commission guidelines and Medium policies.
So I openly declare that this article includes affiliate links which means earning a commission for qualified candidates selected by the platforms that I recommend.
By the way, affiliate marketing is a legal and ethical approach. Moreover, it is an excellent revenue stream for freelance writers, bloggers, and other content developers. I highly recommend all writers consider affiliate marketing and use it meaningfully and ethically.
If you want to discover the opportunities of digital affiliate marketing for writers, you can check my book titled The Power Digital Affiliate Marketing for Authors published chapter by chapter on ILLUMINATION Book Chapters and Vocal Media. You don’t have to purchase the book. It is free reading for Medium and Vocal members. I hope you find this practical book valuable to get you started with affiliate marketing and earn passive income using your content. If you enjoy the book and find it valuable, I’d appreciate your feedback on Goodreads.
Conclusions
To conclude, repurposing your stories by modifying them to meet the requirements of other platforms like News Break and Vocal can bring benefits to you.
You can monetize your content using their terms and conditions. In addition, you can create more visibility for your content and gain new readers. Remember, no one gets anywhere by being shy and hiding content.
You have nothing to lose by creating visibility of your content on multiple platforms. And you don’t have to leave Medium to write for News Break or Vocal Media. You are not exclusive to any platform. There is no such requirement.
The easiest and most productive way is to repurpose your original content on multiple platforms. Due to domain authority and other reasons, I prefer keeping my original content on Medium.
As an exception, I sometimes create original content for News Break and Vocal Media, depending on my content strategy requirements. I also create original content on my own platforms, serving different purposes.
We all are different; hence I recommend you choose your strategy based on your needs and goals.
I am pleased to inform you that Medium has started paying bonuses to the top 2,000 writers. Now, you have a goal to be in this selected group of writers. A good start is investing your time and effort to be a top writer soon. Here is the practical guide on how you can become a top writer in three months.
Another issue on Medium is DE-CURATION. It upsets many writers, but we can’t do much about it. Like many writers my stories also got de-curated. It means that the curation team removed them from further distribution. As a writer, it hurts initially, but I reframed it, so it does not bother me.
I documented my perspective on DE-CURATION in the attached story.
“De-Curation” Is a Thing Now
Here’s How to Turn Rejections into Blessings in Three Steps.
Thank you for reading my perspectives.
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About The Author
I am a technologist, published author, editor, blogger, digital marketing strategist, and content developer with four decades of industry experience. I write articles for Medium, News Break, and Vocal Media. On Medium, I established ILLUMINATION, ILLUMINATION-Curated, ILLUMINATION’ S MIRROR, ILLUMINATION Book Chapter, Technology Hits, and SYNERGY publications, supporting 16,000+ writers and serving 150,000+ readers on Medium. You can Join my publications requesting access here.
I publish my lifestyle, health, and well-being stories on EUPHORIA. I wrote several articles on major diseases and valuable nutrients for health. My focus is on metabolic, cellular, mitochondrial, and mental health. Here is my collection of Insightful Life Lessons from Personal Stories.
You might join my six publications on Medium as a writer by sending a request via this link. More than 16,000 writers contribute to my publications with inspiring content for readers of this platform. You might find more information about my professional background. Join Medium with my referral link
