Strategic Focus on Writing

Strategic Changes on Medium in 2023: How I Adapted to the New Strategy

Insights into the unconventional approaches through my evolution as a writer, editor, boost nominator, and publisher guiding lights for 2024

While my story revolves around writing on Medium, it is not confined to the platform alone. It is a tale that transcends, resonating with adaptability’s universal significance for survival and success.

I wrote this short story as a practical guide, illuminating unconventional approaches I have embraced on Medium and my professional life to enrich our collective experience. I want to uncover adaptability's crucial role in thriving across life’s various domains.

Adaptability involves a spectrum of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses. It requires cognitive flexibility to reframe situations, emotional regulation to manage stress, and behavioral adjustments to cope with change.

In my personal life, adaptability helps me manage stress, enhance emotional well-being, and cultivate balance. Professionally, it is a crucial driver of innovation, problem-solving, and career advancement.

For personal growth, adaptability fosters mental agility, boosts self-confidence, and encourages openness to new experiences. Professionally, adaptability is pivotal in staying relevant in rapidly evolving industries, driving leadership, and nurturing teamwork.

I came across several psychological theories that support the significance of adaptability, such as the Theory of Resilience, which emphasizes our capacity to bounce back from adversity. The Growth Mindset Theory also highlights how embracing challenges leads to continuous learning and development.

The benefits of adaptability are extensive, including improved decision-making, heightened creativity and productivity, and better interpersonal relationships. Ultimately, adaptability is a mindset and a valuable skill that can empower us to thrive in an ever-changing world using a strategy.

A strategy is a detailed plan and approach designed to achieve specific objectives. It involves a systematic outline of actions and steps to be taken, considering resources, timelines, obstacles, and the desired outcome.

In this post, I utilize a specific case study outlining my strategic approach to align with Medium’s new strategy for success. I aim to provide practical tips, making this story a valuable and inspiring resource, a New Year’s present coming from my heart as a giveback activity to the community.

1 — My Strategic Approach as a Writer in 2023

Amid a notable decline in stats (views/reads/engagements) for my content around July, my attention shifted to the underlying dynamics within the platform.

First, carefully analyzing my performance statistics, I sought insights from fellow contributors to validate if they encountered comparable situations and scrutinized Medium’s recent policy alterations by triangulating my findings. The change was confirmed by all collaborators.

The transformation was evident, and its patterns became apparent swiftly. Essentially, the platform’s new strategy pivoted from emphasizing quantity to prioritizing quality.

While quantity was once a pivotal element for success, the platform’s shift rendered it negligible, spotlighting the newfound paramountcy of quality. The results I got were crystal clear quantitatively and qualitatively. So, I needed to adapt and make the necessary changes.

The changes I made were instantly depicted in my stats. The most prominent one was on my followers and subscribers, even though the follower matrix is not my major success factor. However, it is an indicator so worth mentioning.

As shown in the diagram before July, my content attracted significantly fewer followers, but after July, it doubled, bringing me 55K new followers in six months, illustrating that more readers are interested in my new content structured to meet Medium’s new strategy.

I mentioned this metric specifically as I did not write more, but I wrote higher quality and more engaging content that meets the platform rules as explained in the distribution and boost guidelines.

Gratefully, several stories were chosen for the boost, bringing me a new audience who couldn’t find my extensive content before. I have written around 2500 stories since joining the platform and hosting them in my publication EUPHORIA.

My adaptability approach encompassed an exhaustive analysis of distribution strategies and boost prerequisites, meticulously documented for educational purposes and shared within the writing community as a giveback activity to contribute to the adaptability of other writers.

Notably, while adhering to the boost guidelines in crafting each story, it is crucial to acknowledge that only approximately 1% of my stories were selected. This highlights a critical aspect for new writers: the boost program maintains exacting standards, and achieving selection demands exceptional storytelling prowess, meeting the platform's new strategy.

Upon realizing that my stories weren’t selected, I didn’t harbor feelings of sadness or disappointment. Instead, I empathized with the curators, understanding their commitment to the new strategy that prioritizes content of high quality, engagement, meaning, relatability, and impact.

Embracing this empathetic perspective is crucial for writers, recognizing that both the curators and the platform are responsible for their sustainability and growth for delighting subscribers who pay writers. Awareness of this reality by writers is crucial to succeed on this platform.

2 — My Strategic Approach as an Editor, Curator, and Publisher in 2023

The quality-centric approach adopted by Medium had a substantial impact on my publications. Until July, my editorial team had relied on quantity, leveraging our values of inclusivity and diversity for growth.

However, we promptly recognized that the old strategy would no longer align with our goals, prompting us to swiftly pivot our approach to support our writers and delight our loyal readers.

Initially, as the editorial team, we delved into the distribution and boost guidelines, updating our submission rules and creating new publishing checklists internally and externally to comply with the new quality-focused strategy. It was an intensive effort, but we knew that change would only come with initial discomfort.

Some writers’ initial reactions were less than enthusiastic. For instance, returning low-quality stories upset some writers, leading a few to cease contributing to our publications. However, this shift attracted accomplished writers to our pubs, and aspiring authors honed their skills, delighting our readers.

We transformed discomfort into delight, making both writers and readers happier. This shift elevated our publications and ensured they were more adaptable and sustainable, aligning with the platform’s new standards and meeting readers’ expectations.

The enhancements didn’t go unnoticed by Medium. In October, my publication, ILLUMINATION-Curated, earned recognition as a boost nominating publication. Consequently, many stories received boosts, elevating the stats of our writers and facilitating substantial growth for our publications.

I appreciated the chance to serve as a boost nominator. This role not only allowed me to grasp the process and understand Medium’s new strategy and curator expectations better but also enabled me to actively contribute to the growth of writers, ultimately bringing joy to our readers.

Adapting to this new role meant implementing procedural changes within my publications, effectively communicating these adjustments to writers regarding rules and expectations, setting realistic writer expectations, providing guidance, and editing content to enhance its likelihood of being boosted.

This shift significantly increased my workload and stress. However, the rewards proved worth the effort as each boosted story brought a sense of excitement and gratitude from the writers, coupled with the satisfaction of readers enjoying curated content within my publications. It’s a testament to the coexistence of challenges and rewards in our journey.

Following this context, I’d like to briefly introduce a new initiative on Medium that aligns with this fresh strategy aimed at fostering vibrancy and sustainability on the platform, making writers and readers happier.

The Value of Friends of Medium for Writers and Readers

Medium consistently impresses me with its innovative approaches to support writers and readers. For instance, two years ago, they introduced an innovative and profound feature that empowered writers to expand their audience by gaining subscribers, nurturing them via emails, and gaining a competitive edge. Investment in the boost initiative involving community engagement is another excellent example.

Besides the seemingly insignificant yet innovative tips feature, Medium launched another revolutionary initiative on 28 November to amplify writers’ income fourfold.

This groundbreaking program is called “Friends of Medium.” I want to briefly introduce it for those who may not be familiar with it as it is only one month old.

Medium Friendship, as announced by Alex Benzer on 28 November 2023, is only about a month old. Still, it has significantly impacted the platform, giving hope to writers and inspiring readers to support them better.

I wrote a story about it on 2 December 2023 from my secondary tech account, announcing the upgrade of my publication accounts to Medium Friendship.

Being a Friend of Medium significantly supports cherished writers, enhancing our backing for their craft. This initiative empowers writers and facilitates editorial and curation teams in fostering an inclusive space for human narratives within Medium.

Readers, upon becoming Friends of Medium, gain exclusive access to the innovative Friend Link feature. This facilitates seamless sharing of reading discoveries, fostering a sense of community around resonating stories.

The primary advantage relates to writers potentially earning four times more than standard membership support. Subscribing the $15 monthly plan can significantly amplify backing for the following writers, making a substantial impact compared to the standard $5 membership.

This augmented support significantly influences writers’ earnings, empowering them to thrive due to the generosity of their dedicated supporters.

Friends of Medium contribute four times more earnings for writers when reading member-only stories, significantly increasing their financial support compared to regular members.

Writers’ earnings on Medium are determined by metrics like read and listen time, claps, highlights, replies, and follows. However, Medium Friendship multiplies these metrics fourfold, markedly boosting writers’ earnings for their engaging content.

A notable benefit for writers is the chance to monetize external reading times by sharing links with supportive readers, ultimately contributing to the platform’s growth and sustainability.

Here is the innovation and investment from Medium to support writers: External reading times from non-members traditionally do not generate income for writers. Many viral stories in external views and reads generated no income for writers.

However, the Friend Link system enables non-members to contribute to writers’ earnings by reading stories through a Friend of Medium’s link, enhancing writers’ financial prospects and fostering active reader-writer support. Further details are in my recent story.

As a dedicated reader, I engage with over a hundred stories daily, absorbing diverse perspectives and enriching my understanding. Yet, considering the immense value I received, the thought of solely paying $5 a month felt insufficient.

This realization sparked a sense of duty within me — an opportunity to contribute further and actively support the growth of this knowledge and creativity ecosystem. Therefore, I upgraded all my accounts to Friends of Medium subscriptions to contribute to writers' earnings.

I advocate for it to encourage more readers to support writers, fostering a more vibrant and sustainable platform. When writers are content, readers are delighted. I explained it better in the previous story. You may also check out my perspective on the value of Medium Friendship in an interview with editors.

Takeaways for Writers to Align with Medium’s New Strategy

In this final section, I aim to guide and inspire you to write stories that meet Medium’s distribution and boosting guidelines.

How to Increase the Chance of Further Distribution

1 — Prioritize quality over quantity. This means write more meaningful, valuable, relevant, and engaging content. Boosted stories can bring at least ten times more views, reads, followers, and engagement.

2 — Identify your audience and write for their needs and expectations.

3 — Follow editorial guidelines for coherence and readability. I provided a comprehensive checklist to increase the quality.

4 — Focus on accuracy, curiosity, credibility, honesty, and modesty.

5 — Write from your heart and soul using your intellect and intuition.

6 — When writing your stories, always ask these five questions:

Is my story impactful and constructive? Is my story original? Do I write from relevant experience? Is my story well-crafted? Does my story feel memorable?

You may check out some of my boosted stories from Aiden's educational material. You may also find out some boosted story samples from this curated collection.

How to Increase Your Income from Writing Business

You may check out this practical guide if you want to increase your earnings from your writing practice and gain a steady income.

In summary, I identified ten principles in my decades of experience in content development and marketing strategies:

1 — Understand the basics of passive income.

2 — Learn fundamental rules before starting.

3 — Create serendipity with collaboration leading to synergy.

4 — Find topics that interest you and your readers.

5 — Build digital assets quickly and connect them logically.

6 — Craft exceptional, educative, engaging, and high quality content by repurposing previous assets.

7 — Create a well-functioning website with automated processes.

8 — Market your writing proactively and smartly without spamming.

9 — Find paying customers and nurture them dearly.

10 — Outsource routine tasks, focus on your strenghts, and enjoy a life balanced with work and wonderful relationships.

I hope these practical tips based on my experience, observations, and reviews on this platform can guide you to create stories that can make a desired impact on your readers in 2024.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

Happy festive season and a prosperous New Year.

To inform my new readers, I wrote numerous articles that might inform and inspire you. My topics include brain and cognitive function, significant health conditions, longevity, nutrition/food, valuable nutrients, ketogenic lifestyle, self-healing, weight management, writing/reading, and humor.

100+ Insightful Life Lessons from My Circles for the Last 50+ Years

I publish my health and wellness stories on EUPHORIA. My posts do not include professional or health advice. I only document my reviews, observations, experiences, and perspectives to provide information and create awareness. Be Your Own Therapist in 10 Steps.

If you are a writer, you are welcome to join my publications by sending a request via this link. I support 25K+ Writers who contribute to my publications on this platform. I also have another profile to write and curate tech stories.