What I Learned From Writing on Medium Every Day for 60 Days

In short: It’s fun, and headlines are important

In the past two months, the number of hours I spent writing and the rewards I reaped both increased tremendously.

I published my very first piece on Medium on July 20, 2018, and ever since, I read and wrote posts on Medium. However, I was not particularly consistent in my writing until mid-December 2019.

In 2018, I wrote around 100 pieces in five months, and in 2019, I wrote 100 articles during the entire year.

However, in 2019 I also published my first book. Even though my book is in German, some lessons apply to both writing on Medium and self-publishing a book, regardless of the language.

I know that a 60-day strike of writing is not particularly much. Some top Medium writers probably write for hundreds of days in a row, but for me, it’s an important milestone.

At the end of December, I did my yearly reflection, and I realized I should’ve paid more attention to Medium in 2019.

Admittedly, I didn’t have much fun while writing my book. It was a massive project, and I didn’t have a clear idea in mind of why I was writing it, which made the whole process quite annoying.

However, I have loved writing every piece I’ve published on Medium so far. I don’t know why that’s the case, but I assume it’s because I like finishing projects.

A book is a huge project. And a book of more than 400 pages, as in my case, is a gigantic project. On Medium, however, every single piece is a project on its own. On average, I publish one post per day. By doing so, I have a sense of accomplishment every day.

I don’t precisely care about the views or the success of the piece; what matters is that I hit the Submit button daily. Each time I publish, I feel relieved and empowered.

That’s why I decided to invest significantly more time and energy into Medium, starting on January 1, 2020.

I could actually call it a New Year’s resolution. However, there are two differences between that decision and typical resolutions: I stuck to it, and it paid off very quickly.

In the first two months of 2020, I made exactly $9,478.31 from the Medium Partner Program.

Saying that my efforts were worth it would be an understatement. I knew how much potential Medium bears for those who can write and who write continuously, but I am still thrilled by my results.

For me, $9,478.31 in two months is a terrific bunch of money, and considering I spent around 2.5 hours every day to achieve this amount of extra income, I can say it was totally worth it, despite the amount of tax and social insurance I need to pay (which is incredibly high here in Austria).

In fact, my resolution to write on Medium every day was probably one of the best decisions I made in some while.

Here’s why.

1. It’s Fun

I wrote 50 articles in 2018 and 100 articles plus a book in 2019, but admittedly, I wasn’t aware of how much I actually enjoy writing.

In 2018, my writing sucked — first, because English is not my first language.

My family is from Turkey, so I grew up learning Turkish, but I’d been born in Austria, so the first language I learned in kindergarten was German. Then at school, I learned English, along with Spanish, French, and Latin.

So, yes, learning languages has always been one of my strengths, but language-wise, there’s still a lot I can improve, compared to the top writers who are natives.

Yet, even though my articles from 2018 are terrible, I kept typing. Looking back, it was definitely necessary to write some crap in order to write good stuff later.

I love progress and growth. That’s why I love writing on Medium so much.

Every day, I can learn something new, improve my skills, and produce articles that are a bit better than yesterday’s. I love experiencing that process.

I also enjoy focusing on one thing instead of doing ten things at a time. That’s probably one more reason why I like Medium so much.

Yes, it makes sense to connect with other writers, to engage in writers groups, to build your email list and so on. But let’s be honest: If Medium is a side hustle that you can’t dedicate more than one or two hours per day to, focusing on writing instead of on all the other stuff around is probably the best decision.

And seriously, is there anything more comfortable than sitting down and typing words? I don’t think so, provided, of course, you actually like writing and have something to say.

Long story short: I just love the process of writing and learning how to become a better writer every day.

I wouldn’t actually consider myself a writer per se. Instead, I prefer calling myself an entrepreneur. I guess I wouldn’t be entirely happy if writing was the only thing I did, but for now, I genuinely enjoy the time I invest in writing and learning how to write better.

2. You Can Make Quick Progress

Excellence in any field takes time.

You won’t make it to the top of Medium quickly. You probably also won’t make $9,000 after two months on Medium. At least, I don’t think that’s usual.

Yes, I experienced a sudden growth starting on January 1, but I already knew about all the basics.

If you are totally new on Medium, it will take you some time to find your way through the platform and understand how it works. You’ll need some time to figure out the dos and don’ts. We all go through that journey.

However, compared to other business models or writing opportunities, you can make quick progress.

Here’s why:

• Most successful writers on Medium share their journey and their lessons openly. They communicate which tactics they use and are open to help newbies. That’s gorgeous! You can learn from the best practices of the best. However, you can also learn from them by reading their articles on any other topic. You can analyze their headlines, their story structure, their voice, and anything else. Make use of that power.
• For me, every article is a little project. And compared to massive projects (like writing a book), a Medium article is finished and published quite quickly. That allows me to get feedback and learn a lot rapidly. Through every piece you post, you see what works and what doesn’t. Thus you can easily improve your next story. The ability to write and publish as much as you want allows you to make quick progress and reach many people in a short time.
• In my experience, curation plays a considerable role. Some of my articles went quite viral, that’s basically how I made almost $10,000 in two months without much prior success here. And here’s the good news: Even as a new writer on Medium, you can get curated. That’s a fantastic opportunity, as it will help you build a following much more quickly than you could do on your own.

3. Headlines, Structure, and Clarity

These three things probably make up 80 % of your story’s success.

Your writing needs to be good.

That’s indisputable. If you struggle to put together proper sentences, you will have a hard time. But given that your writing skills are at a good level, your headlines, the structure of your story, and the clarity of your messages will define your success on Medium.

Your headlines are critical. According to these, readers decide whether they click on your story or not. If your headline is crap, a good story won’t matter because nobody will even open it.

Your structure is also essential. If a reader opens a post and gets faced with one big block of text, he’ll skip. He’ll close the tab and jump to the next, adequately structured story. We are visual learners. We love beautiful-looking things. Even if it’s the information we’re after, we want it to look good. Most people first skim your text before reading it. If you make that skimming experience comfortable, the chances of them actually reading your piece increase.

Last but not least: clarity. Medium readers want juice. They want knowledge they can instantly apply, stories that go under the skin, or information they wouldn’t find anywhere else. They are not here to skim the surface. They want to dig deep, but they want it quickly. If your message is clear, they’ll keep reading. If they don’t get your point, they’ll skip.

Again, good news: You can quickly improve all of these.

You can learn how to write fantastic headlines, how to structure your posts correctly, and how to write so that your readers get the point.

All three are skills you can quickly improve. You can find tons of fantastic articles on Medium that will tell you how to improve headlines, structure, and clarity — make use of them! Analyze how the most successful writers are doing it and model their success.

Want to succeed on Medium? Join my free 5-Day Medium Writing Course.