Read This if Curation is the Only Strategy You Know to be Noticed on Medium

I increased my earnings by 2k%. Passed from $0.50 in my best month to $7.55 Isn’t that impressive? See my screenshots with your own eyes

I can tell about this topic because none of my stories have been curated yet. Nevertheless, I have increased my views, my reads and my earnings by +2000% in one month. I passed from $0.50 in my best month to $7.55 Isn’t that impressive?

Almost one year ago I started writing on Medium. I thought that the fact of not being a native English speaker would be a big detractor for me for earning money from the platform. That was my belief until a few months ago.

I decided to focus on building an audience because:

Curation indeed gives you chances to get views, reads and increase your earnings. But nowadays curation doesn't warranty anything but a nice bandage in your stats.

Instead, the best and most ancient way to get noticed is by word of mouth.

Not for nothing, the Word-Of-Mouth Marketing considered the most important social media.

This means that if you are creating valuable content that deserves to be enjoyed by others, your audience will share it with their communities.

I also thought of creating a community my strategy to follow because in case I wanted to write in Spanish, I would have an audience to read, and earn money regardless of curation.

The myths about curation.

So far I have been writing inconsistently for almost one year and this is my 45th story.

From the first 10 stories, I knew I should devise another strategy for getting noticed on Medium. But I didn’t know-how.

Everything I read from Medium gurus where: Tips and hacks to be curated and the myth of the curation jail. All these stories made curation to look like:

1. The desired achievement
2. An obsession
3. A point of comparison with other writers
4. A reference of success

Experienced writers already know that not being curated is not the end of the world. And that curation doesn't reflect your success as a writer.

Why are you wasting your time focusing on what you can’t really have control of?

I mean, surely you can improve your writing and your English skills but other than that you don’t have control over the rest. — I told myself.

I put the pieces together to achieve my new strategy for increasing my views, my reads and my earnings:

1. I started to recognize people who were frequently engaging with my content
2. My stats showed that most of my reads came from my fans
3. All my stories would give me followers
4. From the comments, I knew my audience could feel identified with my personal stories

Voilá.

Focus on building your audience and connect with people.

This is where I started thinking about building an audience, a community to get noticed in and outside Medium.

If your audience loves and connects with your writing, they will be seeking more of what they loved! — It makes sense, right?

If they engage, they will happily come back to read what’s new from you and share it with their community. As easy as that.

Have you noticed that there are public figures that whatever they do, are supported by their audience because they love them?

For example:

The beauty blogger Rosy McMichael. When she launched a lipstick in collaboration with Mac it quickly sold out. Even though the marketing campaign couldn’t be run smoothly as planned due to covid.

The product looked nice and Mac is indeed a very well-known brand but it sold out because her community wanted to support and sympathize with her.

Another example is Super Holly. She is a USA bilingual YouTuber, and most of her community is in Latin America. Holly recently launched a clothing brand. and despite the high taxes and fees from the shipping, some of her merch soon sold out.

YES! The dresses and the bomber jacket were nice, but again: it quickly sold out because her community wanted to support and sympathize with her.

The same happens here in Medium and everywhere in the Social Media World.

How can you build your audience to get noticed on Medium?

Building an audience is easy and simple as being yourself. That is exactly the most challenging thing to achieve. — Isn’t it?

Being yourself is the most advised when it comes to copywriting, social media engagement and building a community online. But how can you achieve that?

Bring to the table your very own qualities and your personal story. Focus on what makes you special and STOP embody someone you genuinely are not.

I started writing about my home country, my culture and wrote about the differences between my culture and other cultures I have been involved in.

Surprisingly the post that I thought would be meaningless, has had a very good acceptance within the travel community. Here is it:

From there I have been trying to replicate this formula:

Write personal experiences while adding value to people.

That is why this single story got me most of my last month's revenue. It made me increase my earnings by +2k%. From $0.37 to $7.50

Still, I can’t believe that this story has been read for 51 minutes!

Plus, the last but not least of this formula is:

Make worth the engagement of your community

Replying back to a comment in your story is not only about courtesy but making your audience feel important to you. Aren’t they important to you?

YESSSSSSS! Your community is the most important ingredient for this formula and for your writing career.

Without an audience, there are no reads, no views, and more important: not motivation to moving forward. — It’s not all about money, tho.

Do you want to know the secret to create engaging content on the Internet? Shhh… It’s all about writing in a conversational way. The more natural, the best.

I don’t know if you still remember but: A conversation starts when someone pitches an idea and the other replies back and so on.

If there is not feedback, it is like if you were directing to an inert stone. Right?

If your audience is following the conversation; join them!!! — You are a real conversational person, aren’t you? Then, show it!

Let your readers know that they are indeed important and appreciated by you. At the end of the day, is thanks to them that you are feeling inspired to keep writing and don’t give up.

Final thoughts:

Making money on the Internet is indeed easy. You just need to build an audience who enjoys (consumes) your content. As simple as that.

Think of yourself as an audience. You want to consume content that sums value to you your life. Don’t you?

This is exactly what your readers are expecting from you as a writer. Give it to them!

Secret Top Tips:

1. Be real
2. Be Yourself
3. Be Genuine

These are secret top tips because only you know how to be like yourself. None will be yourself in the most genuine way that only you can be.