The End of Generic Content: Here’s How to Write Articles That Keep Your Viewers Reading and You Earning

The new MPP culls not just bad content, but boring content as well.

I’d be lying if I said the new Medium Partner Program (MPP) rules haven’t changed the way I engage with content on Medium.

Under the old clap system, I had three ways I’d read content:

1. The articles that were interesting or useful I’d read all the way through and max clap for.
2. The articles that were okay I’d read quickly and clap 20 to 30 times
3. The articles that were completely dull, but they tried I’d skim and clap 10 times or less

I rarely came across actual bad articles, but when I did I just stopped reading altogether. With the changes to the MPP I spend very little time with artilces in group two, they get skimmed now, and I don’t bother with articles in group three anymore at all.

Unfortunately for many writers on Medium, much of their writing falls into categories two and three to their detriment under the new MPP.

I’ve read a lot of content I wouldn’t have otherwise since I’ve been actively writing on Medium and I can say that the biggest issue with most of it is that it's boring.

I wrote some about how the biggest sin a writer can commit is not being a bad writer but being a dull one. You can read that here:

I stand by that statement to this day. If you spend any time in the Medium Facebook Groups you’ll quickly see it’s not just the poets who are struggling. Many writers are struggling to gain traction to even earn the $20 to $50 they were regularly earning under the old system.

Having read enough articles on Medium and having peeked at some of the content of the writers who say the are struggling, I can say pretty confidently that their biggest issue is they are writing things either no one wants to read or writing about things everyone else writes about, but not in a new or interesting way.

To be blunt: the writing is often, dull, unoriginal and flat out boring.

Under the old clap system, you could build up a network of people or a group of friends who’d throw you a clap, hoping you’d do the same for them. It was very quid pro quo. It wouldn’t make you a lot of money, but it would make you some.

Except now that people have to read (really read) others work for them to make money, people aren’t so willing to do so. They may still skim and clap out of old habits, but that no longer translates into dollars and so many writers are struggling because of it.

So how do you write content that readers love and will give you the read time you need to make money under this new MPP?

1. Tie Personal Stories To Larger Narratives

I say this often but I’m going to say it again:

No one cares about your personal life. No one cares about your kids, your cat, your marriage or you. So writing about them alone won’t get you anywhere.

Only the very best storytellers can take the mundane and make it interesting. It’s why I also find it amusing when people consistently shit on sex writers.

Blow jobs aren’t revolutionary — but the person who can turn a story about giving a blow job into a page-turner will make all the money and rightfully so.

If you're going to go personal you need to tie it to larger issues that affect everyone. Your struggle to keep your kid off of YouTube isn’t interesting.

Tying your struggle to keep your kid off of YouTube to the wider narrative of screen time and whether social media is making our kids dumber and meaner is interesting and worth writing about.

A writer that does this well is Dena Standley she is very good about taking her life as a wife and mom and relating it to larger issues at hand, that we can all relate to. Here is an article she wrote about the time she and her husband changed roles in their marriage:

I’m not married (and don’t want to be) but I felt this article. It resonated with me and the lessons it taught work for everyone not just married couples.

2. Be Useful and Solve Readers’ Problems

I can’t stress this one enough, because it is the lane I choose to occupy.

You don’t have to be a great writer if you’re a useful one.

People want to know how to do things. Whether it’s how to make $100 a month on Medium or how to make coffee without a coffeemaker, if you can help people solve their problems they will always read your work.

There is a popular writer here on Medium that I think is a pretty pedestrian writer. They aren’t bad per se, but definitely elementary in their delivery.

However, what they are is insanely useful. They give actionable writing advice and tips that’s incredibly helpful to beginning writers. They’ve built a loyal following being the go-to person for how to be a better Medium writer.

Maybe you have all the cooking hacks or you know your way about Microsoft Office better than most or you’re an SEO wizard. Whatever it is, you want to be the person readers think of when they need answers to a particular problem.

And this isn’t surface-level problem solving either; really dig deep and offer actionable solutions to your readers’ problems. Not only will readers read your work to the end, but they will also keep coming back for more and share it with other people to boot.

3. Be Inspirational

No one likes a Negative Nelly.

I think relentless positivity is awful and useless, however, people regularly lap it up and SELF is one of the bigger topics on Medium so what do I know.

With that said, if you can genuinely inspire people to be better versions of themselves or get better at their craft, you’ll always have a rabid fan base ready to devour your articles.

I regularly joke that Brian Rowe is Medium’s resident cheerleader. If you’re feeling down and out and like you’re never going to make money on the platform you should go read him so you can find the motivation to keep writing.

While I’m only half-joking about Rowe, being able to motivate people to keep going or to be better at their craft is a skill that will help you keep readers engaged with your writing.

People want to feel good and believe their goals are possible. If you’re that person who can give your readers the motivation they need to keep going, you won’t have any problems getting people to read your work.

4. Be Controversial

Hate reading pays well.

If all else fails you can be the person who takes the opposite position on popular topics to get people to read whatever it is you’re writing. Now to be fair, this does take a certain amount of skill to pull off if you don’t actually believe the things you’re arguing.

However, if you know that you have different views than the majority of people on Medium (the site leans left after all) go ahead and stoke those flames.

I don’t do much hate reading anymore — I have better things to do with my time — but if someone writes a well-reasoned piece that differs greatly from something I believe (and it doesn’t have to be anything controversial) I will not only read it, but I’ll highlight it and comment too.

I recently did this with an article by J.J. Pryor.

He wrote that he didn’t really believe a niche was necessary to succeed in this new Medium landscape. I strongly disagree with that statement as I had just written an article that said the opposite. I read his article all the way through and then commented detailing why I disagree.

You can read both articles here:

J.J.’s

Mine

He took a different position than the commonly held one by many prolific Medium writes, staked his claim and made his point.

That is the type of article that is worth reading to the end.

Be a Resource

Leo Serafico has this lane fully occupied.

The fun thing about being a resource writer is that it doesn’t require much in the way of writing talent, you just have to be willing to do the work and put the information together in an easy to digest format.

Resource articles can often take hours to write which is why many people don’t want to write them. They also aren’t fun to write and often feel like writing a research paper.

Here’s an example of one of Leo’s resource articles:

Here’s an example of one of mine:

The thing about resource articles is that not only will people read them, but they will also bookmark them, share them and revisit them, often.

When it comes to easy wins, resource articles are the easiest if you’re willing to put in the work to get them done.

Most writers I’ve read on Medium are all very competent, they just aren’t interesting. And with so much content to consume, people don’t want to spend their time reading generic paint by numbers content.

I truly believe that Medium made this move to save money.

They saw that the clap system rewarded content that people might not have read otherwise through cliques and clap groups and changed things to a metric that was much harder to game.

Now that people have to really invest in your content you have to give them a reason to do so. You can “beat” the system but in the work and ultimately write about things people care about and can help them improve their lives.

So take a hard look at your content and see if you’re wither being insanely entertaining (think the best sex writers) or extremely useful (think Leo and her freelancing guides).

If you aren’t doing either of those things, then you know what you need to work on so you can have success under the new MPP.

This is How I Made $135 Dollars in My First 30 Days On Medium

Only seven to nine percent of writers make at least $100 each month on Medium. I did it in my first month. Here is what I did each week to achieve my goal, hopefully, you can use my journey to $100 a month to achieve yours.

If you enjoyed this case study check out my latest case study:

How to make $100 a week on Medium.