Medium Tips

The 3 Awful Marketing Tactics Hurting Your Medium Success

tl;dr: If it’s tit-for-tat, you’ll probably just annoy people

Medium is full of advice. Everyone has a source, struggle, and two cents on how you’re doing everything wrong in life. I’m OK with it. I don’t have to read what I don’t want to read. But I get triggered by nasty marketing. A partial reason is that I’ve done the same. The whole list below is me somehow. The entire list of stuff I hate is also me somehow.

Without further ado, let’s dive into the worst of the worst in terms of Marketing on Medium.

Clap-for-Clap Requests

If you’re not in Medium groups on Facebook, you’re not missing much. I’ve recently stepped foot into the Medium world off the platform. My first experience has been excellent. Sinem Günel has a Medium Mastermind group. I’m recommending this place with all my heart.

But, I naively joined ten other places, and my morale has pungled. My inbox has witnessed more clap-for-clap requests than ever before. “Hey you clap for me, I clap for you, we earn money. Am I right, or am I right?”

I don’t care. I want to learn, write, and connect with people on Medium. Money is fantastic, and I’m a liar if I claim I don’t think about the money. But, Medium is a place for creative souls. Clap-for-clap is not a thing that is making any of us richer. Such tactics are a waste of time.

People are going to remember you as a clap-request dude, and you’re going to have a hard time earning the respect of other writers. You’re spending time better by writing than stuffing a random person’s inbox. In the end, a random dude clapping on your stuff is not making you money. They’re probably not even reading the damn article.

Follow 125 People Each Day

Medium has a limit on your follow button. You can actively follow up to 125 people in the next 24 hours. This tactic is in the gray zone. Unfortunately, I’ve done it. I even wrote about it. I encouraged others to kick-start their Medium journey with it.

The method works. You’re getting more followers. Sometimes, 20 or 30 people are following you back. Some even read your stuff. Your profile looks more reliable with more followers. But — and there is a big BUT in this argument — hardly any of those people are your fans.

You’re suffocating your profile with another 10,000 content creators that you can’t even stomach. Soon, your Medium front page is not relevant. Soon, nothing makes sense here anymore. “Why is marital sex advice dominating the front page. What is Medium anymore?”

At one point — after following almost 10,000— sex stuff dominated my front page. I’m not a fan. I don’t need a 45-year-old bed dynamic advice. I don’t want to know about your libido. I don’t need how-to-take-your-man-in-your-mouth advice. I don’t care about how you think sperm is gross. I don’t like reading how you’re leaving your husband because he sneezes too loud.

Now that I’ve got it off my chest; I believe sex advice is necessary. The dialogue is essential. But I don’t want to read about it. I have other interests. Following a gazillion random people doesn’t bode well with the Medium algorithm.

Read-Half-Now-Half-Later Posts

Guilty as charged. I’ve done it, I’ve told others to do it too, I’ve published articles about it, and I’ve got minor success with it. The equivalent of Snake-oil salesmen in Medium terms are read-half-later troopers.

I’ve been that guy on Quora and Reddit. I’ve written a bunch of half-witted answers with links to behind-a-pay-wall posts. Read half now, the other half is in the bottom link.

Don’t do it. You can employ a thousand other marketing tactics. Better Marketing has unlimited advice on reasonable strategies and tactics.

The Takeaway

You don’t need to follow any of the above. Your time is better served elsewhere. Medium itself can give you a thousand sound marketing tactics. Publications like Better Marketing take it up a notch. A world of knowledge is at your fingertips.

Don’ts:

• Clap-for-clap.
• Follow/unfollow.
• Read salesmen.

Dos:

• Follow good marketing publications.
• Read about sound marketing tactics.
• Test ideas that sound interesting.

Nobody can guarantee success, but your best bet is to learn and try. Something has to work, eventually.