The Reason Why You Haven’t Hit a Viral Story Yet
There is no one simple trick for this one
You’ve been publishing stories regularly on Medium for a few months. You’ve been accepted into and published by the top publications. You’re doing everything you’re supposed to be doing, but this viral story that seems to be happening to everyone else hasn’t happened for you.
It’s not like you don’t know what you’re doing. You’ve been writing for years. These stories did well elsewhere. Why is Medium different from the other online publishing sites? Why aren’t your stories going viral?
What is viral?
Everyone has their own definition. Your first 100 views in a day is a milestone, but not viral. YouTube viral is 100k views in a day. I consider a viral story on Medium to be one that gets over a thousand views in a day.
The old definition of Viral was when something spread from one website to go everywhere and become part of the zeitgeist. My Bloodninja texts is an example of something that went viral.
The only stories on Medium that really go viral are the ones written by celebrities. Like Crissy Teigen (who’s blocked me) apologizing for something stupid she says every other month or attacking someone for attacking her when she attacked them first. My personal favorite celebrity story was Jeff Bezos writing about The National Enquirer trying to extort him.
Your stories are low effort and half assed
Writers think they deserve distribution on every five hundred word brain fart they publish. Yes, some of my biggest hits I wrote in twenty minutes, but those were good unique concepts that hadn’t been done a million times.
What’s it going to be? Complaining about something again? Clapping, underlining, or the hustle porn hucksters? Let me guess, other writers are all doing this but you’re doing that. Why are you doing that exactly?
You threw shade at other writers and stated your opinion. You can do that but you need examples if you’re accusing someone of being unethical.
Nobody cares what you think. Cite sources and provide links. Write something entertaining that you have to do a couple of google searches to write your story.
Medium is not a book
Get to the point and go from there. Your title should tell me what the story is about. If your title is ambiguous tell me in the first paragraph. So many things I’ve read and a page down I’m still wondering what the hell this is supposed to be? On Medium you need to tell the best story you can in as few words possible.
They talk about a writer’s life being solitary. Not in this day and age. I’m interacting with thousands of people a day on social media sites. On all the social media sites. Writing and publishing stories on Medium is only half of what I do in a day.
This is different than anything you’ve done before. You need to pay the five bucks to see what everyone else is doing. Then you should read, absorb, and leave comments. See some real viral stories and not just stories that claim to be viral.
Medium isn’t the same as any other publishing/social media site online.
Every other site I’ve written on involved a topic or a subject or given a prompt. Here, we’re given a blank page and told go for it. There’s writers with MFA’s from Stanford that publish on Medium with 20 years of print experience.
Like Joel Stein for instance. He appeared in my feed a week ago. I’ve been reading Joel’s stories for years in the LA Times and Los Angeles Magazine. Great writer. One of my influences.
In the story I clicked on he’s doing naked humor. Humor from scratch. Not a satire. Conjuring something from nothing. Good story.
But the title sucks and the guy in his stock photo looks like he needs a nap and a hairbrush. It’s some of the smartest humor I’ve read. At one point he pulls off a situational triple entendre which I’ve never seen. Medium is a smart audience that lacks a sense of humor. Joel will be the humor guy on Medium if he sticks around. But, it’s proof of my point that no matter who you are it takes practice and time to adapt .
Your title is dull and your picture sucks
I was writing on the internet for 20 years before coming to Medium a year and a half ago. I thought I’d written titles before, but never like this. You get a title and a tiny thumbnail picture to sell your story to readers on mobile phones.
It doesn’t matter how good your story is if nobody clicks on it. High res pics with contrasting colors. Pictures of peoples faces that you can see even when it’s a tiny thumbnail.
I thought I had written titles before too. Never like this where getting to click on the story is almost all title. I thought I knew what a good title was. I didn’t know that rearranging a few words was the difference between a hit and a flop.
It’s not something you learn in school. Or anywhere besides writing on a site where your success relies on the title after years of experience. I’ve written about what it takes to write a good title and choose the right picture and provided a link below.
You can pay Grammarly 30 bucks a month to put commas everywhere and make you start second guessing every word you write if you want. But your writing isn’t the problem. It’s tone, it’s pacing. Format is one of the least important things.
Do you go off on tangents that lead nowhere? Stop it.
Why did you click on this story? Do you think I know? I’ve published over 500 stories and only five of those meet my definition of viral stories. Three only went viral for a day.
Maybe I’m lying. Who the hell knows?
All you have to do is get the reader to click. Then entertain and delight your audience. Write for a broad audience about topics in alignment with your readers demographics. That’s what makes stories go viral.
Get To the point
Have a point
Unique perspectives
Entertain the audience for the 4 minutes you have them.
Now go write a viral story! Right now! Go!
From the author
Joel Stein
Jeff Bezos
Chrissy Teigen
