The Game-Changing Surprise in Medium

It is a wonderful surprise

What was the surprise? It was making friends on Medium. I had never thought about having anything more than acquaintances on Medium, but I found more than that — friends who help you unselfishly.

How have my Medium friends been game-changing? I never expected to develop friendships here, and I never expected the friendships to be so open to helping beginners like me.

When I joined Medium to be a writer, I never dreamed I would have friends here. Even though I can’t see them, they are my friends. We converse via articles every day. That’s more than I talk to the friends I can see!

I can shout out several, but because Carl Jeffers made me cry in his article, I put him first.

https://readmedium.com/how-to-build-meaningful-relationships-on-medium-822f241f3423

The others include Bin Jiang, Phil in the Blanks (Phil Williams), Francisco Iglesias, Sam Krämer, J.R. HEIMBIGNER, Paula W. Thomas, Mike Sansone and Paul Walker.

These authors have helped me through their articles and conversing via responses to articles.

A first for me

I have had other friends online. However, their help was primarily related to problems I was having with my blog. Don’t get me wrong — they are all wonderful people.

Have you ever met someone and just clicked with them? Or, have you ever met someone and not clicked at all? I’ve done both, but my experience in Medium was a first for me.

I not only found friends, but I also found a platform I clicked with. I connected with the concepts and freedom to write on Medium. Some platforms have highly restrictive requirements, and that’s good. They should be able to set the limits they want, but I already have a limiting blog.

It’s limiting because most blogs fill a limited number of niches or topics, which is understandable because there are so many additional requirements. You must do things outside the blog if you want to succeed.

It’s the same on Medium, but the list to succeed is shorter.

What I’m learning

I’ve learned about persistence, formatting, things not to do, how to connect with my readers, and tips on how to succeed.

I’m learning to be free in my writing.

There’s no competition

There are thousands of writers on Medium. However, I’ve never felt I had to compete with anyone. Every writer has a particular style that sets them apart, even if they’re writing on the same topic.

Readers appreciate the variety. Carl Jeffers, who began writing in Medium this year, accumulated over a thousand followers in one month! There are plenty of other existing publications that write in the same niche. It’s not a problem because he’s just being himself and not competing.

New writers

Medium is a great place to start if you’re a new writer. If you don’t know how to do something, help is abundant. Medium itself has an extensive Help center, and they are also great at responding to questions.

Writers continually provide help in their writing. They freely give out their best tips for success. There’s a lot of ‘how I did it’ being produced, and you can take advantage of it.

I’m grateful for these friendships and planning on having more.

Thanks for reading and God bless!