One-Month Anniversary with Medium
What I’ve learned and want to share with you
Today is a special day for Medium and me — it’s our one-month anniversary!
I have been an avid reader on Medium for approximately two years now, but it’s officially one month since I joined the dark side — the writers’ side.
Time flies when you’re having fun.
Now, as I said, I read a lot, so I got this idea for analysis from Shamar M’s article My First Month on Medium: 11 Tips for Others— thank you, Shamar!).
Without further ado, let’s get to it:
1. Stories
During this one-month, I’ve written 29 articles. Not bad, since my initial goal was to publish two articles a week. But like with finding anything you enjoy doing, I couldn’t help but not to write and publish.
I’ve received 771 views in total, which I’m more than satisfied with — I expected way less. I have 66 followers, and I am grateful for each and every one of them!
My very first article was How to Live Life, According to My Dog, and my current most read is My Dog Didn’t Love me at First. Huh, maybe my dog could be the star of this show…
2. Publications
I’m currently contributing to 7 publications:
- and Inner Thoughts (which I started myself — feel free to join it!).
I didn’t get curated yet, but hey, hope lives on! 😃
3. Money
Honestly, what I’ve earned is not even worth mentioning. It’s not nothing but it’s not thousands either. But honestly, I don’t bother myself with it yet, paycheck wasn’t my main motivation for starting this. I rather consider any earnings a nice bonus.
4. Important facts
Ok, so reviewing everything, here are my key learnings that will be helpful to you:
- The stories I thought would get a lot of readers didn’t, and the one I didn’t think would did. Not only quality but publications and promotions all play a huge role in the number of views your article’s going to get.
- Yes, I got rejected by publications a few times, but that’s life. When (because it will) happen to you, don’t take it personally. You and the publication just weren’t the right fit. Try another one. And if that one doesn’t work either, try another one. Or better yet — create a publication yourself.
- Don’t spend too much time on the platform. I used to spend hours on the app until I realized it’s taking time from my creativity. Set a limit on how much time you want to get lost in this wonderful community.
- Highlighting is my all-time favourite feature. Why? Read here: A Thank You Note to All You Highlighters.
- Set up a writing schedule. If you wait for ‘inspiration’ to strike, it won’t happen. When you’re focused on creating, ideas will come from pretty much everywhere.
- There will be days when you don’t feel like writing. It’s normal, take a day off, allow your brilliant mind to rest and come back stronger.
- Talk to your readers like you would to your friends. If you’re easy-going, use that tone, if you’re a more factual person, use that tone. Don’t force yourself to be something you’re not — it will make it more fun for you as well as for the readers.
- Titles, titles, titles. Titles are very important for grabbing the reader’s attention. In this sea of content, you want your article to stand out (but please no clickbaits — no one likes those).
- Photos are equally important. It’s better to use your own, since the same ones tend to reappear a lot (especially the ones from Unsplash and Pexels — amazing websites, but a lot of authors use them as a source for photos).
- Fonts and formatting matter: no one wants to read a chunk of text.
- Lists grab most readers’ attention. Like this one: you’re still reading, so it must be working 😉
- Yes, you can use emojis 💩 (here are very useful instructions by Emma Zhou: Emoji in the editor! 🍾 🙌 🎉 ).
In conclusion, it’s been 31 days since I started publishing here, and I have loved every second of it. Will I continue? Obviously. If nothing else, it’s an amazing way for sharing work, learning new things every day, and getting a slight inside into the ‘writers’ world’.
Reading suggestions:
