Solving The #1 Problem On Medium

How do you get your work noticed on the platform?

I’ve been writing on Medium off and on for about 6 years. A friend once told me writing online is a lot like dog years. So isn’t that like 30 or 40 years? I digress. Let’s talk about Medium.

First off, Medium never stops changing.

Remember the hearts? Those were replaced with claps. And even today most readers don’t know you can give more than one clap, let alone up to 50.

For a long time, you could not have any links at all or a call to action in posts that would earn money. And you used to get paid for engagement with your work.

Then in 2019, the entire Medium payment system changed. It became all about time spent on the site and every poet and writer who writes shorter pieces saw their earnings drop substantially and never come back to where they used to be. That’s a problem for sure. But there’s another serious problem — one that when it is resolved could even help take care of the earnings problem.

But Here’s The Biggest Challenge On Medium

Over the years, there has been a constant shift: Medium is all about the publications.

If a piece is not in a popular publication, it simply doesn’t get traction.

It’s a lot like a tree falling in the woods. No one knows about it. It doesn’t really matter how many followers you have on Medium. Sure, there may be outliers — but those are just that: outliers.

Let’s look at a recent example. Seth Godin — yes THAT Seth Godin — posted on Medium a while ago.

This post is curated in society, going from the title in the top left corner. It has also been self-published, so it is not in a publication.

Even Seth’s self-published curated posts are not getting very much traction.

Seth has over 122K followers. I don’t know Seth’s specific number of views, but I do know several facts. This post is not getting remotely as much traction because it is self-published.

Very, very, very few of his followers are actually seeing it. The day this post was released, 1K claps. Keep in mind that claps drive engagement. If people clap for a post then it is curated more often by Medium.

Let’s say that only 5% of Seth’s peeps saw the post. That’s 6,100 people. Say of those that Even if 10% of those people clapped for the post with 10 claps, it would be over 6,100 claps. That’s almost triple the amount of Seth’s 2.3K claps.

Even someone with over a hundred and twenty thousand followers does not get very many views or claps.

Maybe this is a fluke. Let’s dig deeper.

Benjamin Hardy is a Medium rock star who has over 247K followers. That’s roughly double the amount of Seth. He recently self-published a few posts on Medium too. Take a quick look.

Ben has 247,000 followers, yet his most recent self-published posts have less than 1,000 claps.

It’s worth stating again: getting real traction on Medium is all about the publications.

As I look at some of Ben’s most popular posts (going by claps), every single one is in a publication.

Allow me to play Devil’s advocate here for a moment. What if claps are not necessarily connected with views and money generated from each post?

There are always exceptions. That’s why I feel it is fair to look at several posts here, not just one.

And here are my own top posts, sorted by the number of claps (shown here as fans in the far right column).

For my own work, everything with the most claps is curated (see the word above each title). For example, 5 Things Charles Bukowski Taught Me is curated in poetry. And every single post is in a publication too.

It’s not an exact science, but, in general, the more claps you get for a piece, you will also have a higher amount of views and reads.

Essentially, claps help drive how much a piece is promoted by Medium. That’s key. You can even think of claps as “likes” on Facebook.

After having written over 800 posts on Medium, I can safely say this pattern holds true. Self-published pieces almost always get less traction.

So what can we do?

As more people join Medium, the competition for being published in popular publications becomes even more fierce.

What was once a responsive publication that published your work becomes overloaded with new submissions. Suddenly, you can’t get a response, let alone get anything published.

Or, if you are lucky and you do get a piece published, your piece is one of many pieces published on a given day. Good luck getting traction if your piece isn’t even on the front page of a major publication.

Ruh-roh.

And the problem only worsens over time. What was once a good publishing option simply disappears.

Eventually, some publications switch hands and there is a change of leadership. A publication that used to be focused on productivity now has no pieces on productivity.

Or some publications simply neglect evergreen content and pursue whatever is trending today.

Frustrating, right?

Sadly, you can’t control any of these things. Let’s focus on the things you CAN control.

Things You Can Do As A Writer

One of the best things you can do right now start your own publication and make your own rules. I’ve been the owner of the publication Write Stuff for over a year now. It’s not a big publication by any means, but the great thing is I control it. And I know when content is going live on it. You can’t say that about a publication you don’t own.

But you don’t have to do this solo. You can connect with some other writers to form a publication. The key there is to have the same vision and goals. You could team up to edit and proofread the content that goes live.

Another option is to focus more attention on writing outside of Medium. This one is a bit scary, I know. I love Medium. Medium always pays. Some freelance clients, not so much. In addition, the experience of writing and formatting content on Medium makes Wordpress feel very clunky and dated. But don’t ever put all your eggs in one basket, right?

Here are a few resources you can use to branch out and find more writing jobs that pay:

LinkedIn ProFinder is an option. But know it takes time to get any traction here. I believe I’ve landed 3 different jobs there over the last year. You basically reply to project inquiries there. I don’t bid for jobs personally. I like to contact each individual who posts there saying they need help. I’ll send a short message or a short video for them just saying hello and a little about myself.
Twitter has a lot of potential too. It’s not so great for promoting your own content but it’s great for networking. Plus, you can always reverse engineer the Tweets. Take a look at this pic using the search feature.

Ask people you know if they need writing help. I know this is so obvious it’s crazy, but many times writers do not do this.
Lastly, Facebook. I know, I know. It’s a wild experience there. But you can find work through groups there like The Secret Team. That one in particular is easily one of the best FB groups around. People are often asking for help finding freelancers in that group.
Other writers you know. I was actually asking another writer as recently as yesterday about her freelancing services. I get jobs referred to me all the time from other writers. If you don’t have any writing friends yet, you’ve got me. Fire me an email and let’s connect: [email protected]

As always, trust your gut. If something feels shady, simply don’t accept it. I always try to get 50% down for any work. It’s a good policy to have. If you can get more than 50% down, go for it! You provide a valuable service and your content is more valuable today than ever. Know your worth and don’t ever write for free.

The Takeaway

I know I’ve given you a lot in this post. Don’t play it safe. Don’t settle for the status quo. Keep pushing yourself and experimenting.

I’m not saying you should give up on Medium. Rather, I’m saying it is really important to start building long-term assets.

Writing a book is still by far one of the best options out there for you. Building a Medium publication could be another long-term asset too. What does the future really hold for Medium? It’s hard to say. But there is no doubt things have changed a lot over the years and will continue to change as we move forward.

No matter what, keep writing, keep sharing your stories. Don’t limit yourself and you’ll continue to find ways to grow and learn and earn more income.