Snag a Tag and Receive Top Writer Status on Medium

Top Writer Status is more than a flex or a vanity metric. It's a real growth metric; achieving this status helps you expand your audience and community as you grow faster.

Topic tags play an essential role in our growth here on Medium. Several writers don't give two flying figs about being a top writer. And that's okay.

But for the rest, it is more than a flex or a vanity metric. It is an indication of how your content is reaching audiences. When you continue to snag topic tags, you can catapult your growth and eventually your earnings here on Medium.

If you think reaching Top Writer status is a vanity metric, then I must ask:

• How do you know when you've built an audience for a particular topic?
• Let's say you write under the topic of Relationships. How do you know you are building an audience in the topic category?
• Do you base it on the number of reads you get?
• How do you know you are making leeway in this topic and not just a one-hit wonder?

Make an impact on a Topic, and Medium designed its algorithm to put you on a list called "Top Writer." Here is what it looks like:

Here and now, I'd like to thank three people who have helped and inspired me to dig deeper into Top Writer status here on Medium. Art Bram asked essential questions when we celebrated his top writer status in Self-Growth.

Art truly puts his heart into his work. He makes sure he creates value and provides inspiration to his audience on topics such as Authenticity, Self-Growth, Self-Awareness, and Personal Growth. He motivates his audience with meaningful and insightful stories.

As Amanda Laughtland writes some of the coolest stories on Medium, she also shares her successes to inspire others. She's snagged Top Writer status for Topic tags under Poetry, Movies, Fashion, and more. You'd be wrong if you think she's writing about Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Hermes, and the next DC Superhero franchise.

Amanda has written and continues to write heartfelt and warm stories about Kermit, the frog, Trucker hats, Toaster Ovens, and a poem where "Thor" was center stage. Fun, cool stuff, right?

Amanda and I have spoken through comments for months about our goals and reasons for being on Medium. We are both dedicated to getting our work into the hands of readers. Amanda has her own Publishing company she calls Teeny Tiny Press (more on her brilliant strategy later). That's right, Amanda is an author and publisher. 🎊🎉

And, hey, I've got to salute the person who told me what Top Writer Status was. Everybody's girl, yep, Yana Bostongirl. She hit me up and let me know I received Top Writer Status the first time.

I had no idea what a Top Writer was, but you all know I'm curious.

Well, of course, I had to do tons of research about the subject because I wanted to duplicate it. Yana didn't have to be so kind. This act of kindness gave me the courage to continue writing stories about growing on Medium (Growth Hacking, Growth Marketing, Content Creation).

And what do you know, I gained Top Writer in Social Media and a few other topics. I am so glad to share this space with these three glorious writers and many others.

Benefits of Top Writer Status

Top writer status on Medium is a meaningful and actionable metric.

You can learn more about actionable and meaningful metrics here:

But as an actionable metric, what is the benefit? Before we get into the benefit of Top writer status, we need to establish what the metric relates to.

Top writer status is not a breadcrumb from Medium. It's a big ol' Billboard with flashing lights saying:

“Hey, you’re building an audience here. Continue to write content on this topic.”

What will be the benefits as a result?

Algorithm Support for Top Writers

The algorithm works to support your growth as a Top Writer. Before you start yelling, "I knew the algorithm was against me!"

Hold your horses, dogs, cats, whatever. If you've noticed, there isn't just "one" Top Writer. Depending on the tag, there can be many Top Writers on a Topic.

The algorithm supports you by adding you to the trends list under that Topic tag whenever you post for that tag.

So if you gain Top Writer Status for "Food," then when you publish a story with the "Food" tag, you go to the trends list.

Remember, as I shared in the story embedded above, the more you feed good engaging content to Medium, the more Medium will "feed" you. Medium runs on feeds (I highly recommend you read the above story to understand the context of growth on Medium fully).

Why Medium Rewards You With Top Writer Status

Accordingly, Top Writer Status is a reward for providing engaging content on a particular topic. As a result of earning this status, your work is given priority in the trends list, and the side feeds of similar stories.

Top Writer status benefits all Medium Creators, but it is specifically beneficial to those of us who write about more than one topic or subject. If you write content under more than one topic, genre, or niche, then Top Writer status makes finding your stories easier.

Okay, Sign Me Up. How Do I Get Top Writer Status?

Achieving top writer status comes down to a tight and concise content strategy. I know some folks hate talking strategy here on Medium. It makes them uncomfortable, but this story is about growth, and if you didn't care, you wouldn't have clicked on this story.

Without further ado, here are six guidelines to assist you on your writing journey to becoming a Top Writer on Medium:

1 Are you receiving regular curation or "further" distribution for this tag? Some writers on the platform can't wait to tell you that "curation" or "further distribution" doesn't matter. I ask:

"Where did you get that bad information, and why are you repeating it?"

I want to say, watch out for the "bitter ones" on Medium who are spreading misinformation and disinformation.

Because they're frustrated, they want to shame you, slow you down with their negativity, and tell you, "it doesn't take all that."

But I'm having fun.

How cool is it for word-lovers to make money and build an audience while reading and writing? I don't care what anyone says. That's SO FLY!

As I explained in other growth stories, "chosen for further distribution" puts you in more feeds on additional topics related to your story.

For example, you may have chosen food, cooking, vegetarian, vegan, and food photography as your tags, but Curators add you to the topics of entertainment, family, and lifestyle. Three additional feeds for your story are more ways your story can be found and read.

2 How much content do you have for this topic? I say "how much" for a reason. It's not about how many stories you have on that topic. Remember, Medium is about "member's read time" and engagement.

One writer and creator can have 15 low engagement 3-minute stories for "Food" and never reach Top Writer in Food. Another writer and creator may have nine moderately engaging 5-minute stories and receive top writer status in "Food."

3 Are readers engaging with your content for this topic? On Medium, engagement includes reading, highlighting, clapping, and responding (comments). Some writers here on Medium will tell you that "comments" don't matter.

When I see this, I don't bother to click on the story because I know this person is ill-informed. Comments are how we connect with our readers.

You can learn how to use comments and transform your stories into forums and build a strong platform and community on Medium with the following story 😉👍:

So please use your comment section to connect with readers, and you will create a community. Medium counts your responses. One thing we must understand about Social Media algorithms is this:

If any variable is counted, it’s counted for a reason. It may not be the most important variable, but it has significance.

4 Are readers sharing your content for this topic? Okay, I had a big brain fart on this one. I assumed Medium's platform made it easy for me to Tweet and sent my stories to Facebook, LinkedIn, and my Images and pics to Pinterest. "Yay."

So, I connected to Twitter and LinkedIn (Facebook will be in the first week of May). I thought no big deal. But it is. Medium has code attached to your shared links. Yes, the algo-juice flows when your story's link or friend link is shared.

5 Are You Snagging Small Related Tags? Everyone wants to be a Top Writer on Big Topics such as Life Lessons, Life, Social Media, and Poetry. Yes, please go for it.

But as I studied Amanda Laughtland's fun and laid-back way of growing on Medium along with Abena Talks technique for getting Top Writer in small tags, I noticed that snagging "related" tags can lead to you snagging a big Topic tag.

Amanda has achieved Top Writer Several times in large Topic tags such as poetry, movies, and food. Amanda used related topic tags, and as a result, she snagged large Topic Tags.

And check out Abena's strategy:

It happened to me as well. I snagged small tags such as Audience Engagement, Engagement Marketing, and Audience Development. In the process, I became a top writer on Social Media.

It has been very beneficial. The people who follow my content about growth and social media have now started to follow and engage with my content on Self-Growth, Life Lessons, Inspiration, and Self-Care.

And now, I am a Top Writer in Inspiration as well.

6 Make the Trends List For a Topic or Tag and continue to write under that topic or tag. If you make the trends list once on a topic, you are creating momentum towards Top Writer, and often (depending on the topic and the impact your story makes), you can snag the tag after trending once and continuing to write under that tag.

This is what Medium calls "making an impact."

How do you make it to the Trends List? You make it to the Trends list by getting your first ten fans as fast as possible.

What are fans? Fans are people who clap on your stories.

And Yes, I have an upcoming story on how to get to 10 Fans in 24 hours. Stay tuned. 😉👍

Play the Tag-Along Game

Tags are essential to every Social Media platform (even if they are referred to as "hashtags").

Hence, as your story travels all over the internet, your tags tag along. And the more places your story is shared, the more the Algorithm "values" your content. As Top Writer, when your content is shared, you are promoted via the algorithm through feeds.

And who knows, enough shares may add to Medium's coveted "Best" list/feed.

Snag tags as a Top Writer, and you will build a strong audience on Medium. Snag enough tags, and you will also build a solid and stable platform.

Build Authority on Medium

As a platform, Medium wants you to build authority that extends beyond Medium. This is why specific "People" are associated with various topics. Those "People" have authority. They have authority as "authors" of books on this topic, bloggers or website owners, podcasts, YouTube channels, and so on.

If you are building a platform for your content, stories, business, and brand on Medium, getting Top Writer status helps you build authority.

In some cases, especially for authors and bloggers with a website, books, and a powerful social media presence, Medium has already included them as one of the "People" associated with a topic. Why? Because they already have "authority."

And "Authority" my friends, is the brass ring on Medium. It is the brass ring for those who want to use the Medium platform as a launching pad for their writing career, content business, author platform, blogging platform, or media platform.

The wonderful thing is that you don't have to strive for it. It takes focus and strategy. We're writers and creators. We got this.

Fam, I'm curious. Is Medium your launching pad for your business, platform, or brand? Do you see the correlation between "Author" and "Authority" here on Medium?

Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Hey Fam, Be sure to follow Reciprocal and become a writer for a community built on engagement and reciprocity.