The Quest For The Medium Magic Formula

Your exclusive guide and review of the first 16 weeks writing on medium.com

• December 2019

I had already been on blogger.com for just over a year writing and creating content. After starting to construct a metaphorical sense of darkness, frustration and stupidity. I just looked forward and thought.

Even though I have the will to learn and embrace this virgin voyage of modern technology I didn’t have any skill or knowledge to do the fundamental things that are needed to just get started.

I proceeded to indulge myself in technology research and geeky business porn allegedly.

Even though I was a little frustrated and angry with myself for not being technical with devices. I thoroughly enjoyed every online course attained for my zero knowledge and experiences.

Through Microsoft and Google and also LinkedIn I had a little sense of accomplishment.

All aboard the blogger rocket ship into digital content creation and a little mission to explore an engaging and uncharted territory of modern life and technology.

• January 2020

I subscribed to medium.com, set myself some little personal goals which I have achieved in principle.

However, given the opportunity, I would aim to exceed expectations. Otherwise, I have just wasted 13 months of hard yards and graft in a digital setting which I love the majority of the time.

Just above is my first actual piece of original content on medium. I posted this on 26/01/2020. The initial mistake I had made was, posting and sharing content from my blog “The Real Life Of Brian” from blogger.com. To be clear you are not breaking any house rules.

However, by definition, it is not showing the potential audience members or medium subscribers, that you are bothered. I have learnt the hard way that its imperative to post new and original content on medium just to gain respect and exposure. We will explain in detail the expectations around submissions, publication & curation in the guides must do section in the last part of the post.

Below is the live statistics from my first piece of content. I am incredibly proud of them. You may find that amusing or unusual. Due to the low-end scores, but you quickly have to realise the idea of what goes into actually just coming this far.

Lifetime summary

Published on January 26, 2020

VIEWS 123, EARNINGS $0.11, AVERAGE READING TIME 58 sec.

Manners cost nothing

• February & March.

After a slow start and ironing out a little crease or three I built my writing toolbox. Using a laptop is the best way to edit and fine-tune your content, but whilst you’re thinking and writing having a good size notepad and a selection of pens, pencils & highlighters are the little cogs you need for your big content creating the wheel.

A little side note; having expensive & flashy equipment is an ignorant & thoughtless error because if you get them damaged or lost it is not cost-effective. Earning potential is a gradual progression of hard yards and writing. Watch a thousand“How to” youtube videos if you want, but the fundamental basics are unless you create content and put the miles on the clock writing, nothing will ever change.

So Q1 in January was tough, Q2&Q3 in February & March was the time to get my head down and game face on. I have enclosed my popular pieces of content with a stat attack of the views and average reading time. I can not emphasise this enough; You should try to read as much as possible on medium and engage with other writers. Leave a positive response always or clap and highlight some of their content. Because manners cost nothing. Using them is a priceless investment.

Story statistics are enclosed in the link above.

The content of this post is a real-life account. It has got more popular with readers as my profile as very gradually grown. I’m extremely proud of this post because I was a little deflated after 4 or 5 weeks on here and thought maybe I was just not good enough. But you should keep grafting because the feeling you get when you know it’s a good piece of content is better than any narcotic or mood-enhancing substance.

Progression & Publication.

• April.

Just like a final play in the SuperBowl, Q4 was my time to shine again. With a little recognition and fantastic support from everyone on medium and my family & friends, everything manoeuvred itself into position. I was all guns blazing as I had four submissions accepted in four separate publications in four weeks. I then had the bonus of being curated twice in three different topics. Ironically I was speechless but also bursting with pride and happiness.

For me, I am evolving constantly as a content creator and always openminded and ready to listen & learn as I move forward in my journey to become established in the awesome writing and content creating community.

The best is yet to come.

Your inside guide nuggets of knowledge.

• Always make sure you have saved or backed up your content & drafts.
• You can only place draft pieces of content in submissions for publications.
• Make sure you have a quality and relevant image at the top of your post.
• Titles/subtitles should follow before your quality image. Unsplash provides an excellent choice of free images for your posts.
• Engaging with your fellow medium writers and publications is imperative to connect and be positive about their work always.
• Ask for help if you feel that something is not resolvable.
• Contact publications editors and ask if you can be considered to write for them. It is good exposure & experience as each one has different little expectations for their specific page or topic.
• You have no divine right to have your content curated and published.
• Bad vibes & Bad attitudes will never help you because there is no positive outcome.
• No inappropriate content. Use Grammarly or Similar extensions for editing.
• Use the free statistic extension available on chrome it is very precise.

I am enclosing a short video that I created to show my first four months of writing on medium.

There is a free link to the video and I am going to enclose a “live now” image from the free medium extension on chrome.

Created in a positive and optimistic space.

By Brian Anthony Cumberlidge 30/04/2020.