What I Learned Writing My First 22 Articles on Medium

A break down of my best and worst-performing articles so far

Here’s what I know — writing is hard.

There’s also nothing else on the planet that I’d rather do for a living. While I am a full-time freelancer, I am new to Medium (joined in October 2020, wrote my first article at the very tail end of November 2020).

As you probably already know, there is a steep learning curve here. I’m not the first to say it, nor will I be the last. I’ve studied my butt off in these few weeks to ramp up my knowledge on what to do (and not to do) on this platform.

The jury is still out on whether or not I’m getting it right.

However, based on what I read from successful writers on Medium, my stats are on track. They are trending in the right direction. I’m doing everything I know to do so far to make my writing valuable and to earn a nice ROI.

One of the things that have helped me tremendously is articles like this one where writers break down their stats, strategies, and earnings.

So, let’s get to it.

My Best Performing Article

My best performing story so far is How I Make $15 Every Time I Write an Article on Medium.

This article is my top earner at $1.59 and counting. That’s not a lot of money but it’s still growing (as are all of my articles). But this is actually a good number for this time in the game.

Why it is successful

I believe this article is my most successful so far because it is about making money on Medium.

From other authors, I’ve heard articles about Medium usually do well. Not always, but generally. This seems to be the case for this article.

Now, I also think the title is catchy. It makes you curious. The content backs it up 100%, although probably not in the way most people might expect. My strategy in the article works.

I believe all of that matters.

The article is also:

• Educational (a How-to article)
• Formatted for easy reading
• Optimized with proper SEO
• Backed up by research that I cite in the article
• Supported by relevant quotes
• Published in a publication: Writer’s Blokke

How you can apply these strategies

Here’s how you can write an article to replicate my success:

• Write an article about Medium
• Craft a catchy title that is backed up with good content (not clickbait)
• Use SEO
• Cite relevant research (from multiple sources)
• Use relevant quotes
• Publish in Writer’s Blokke

My Runner Up Article

My second best performing article so far is called, I Spent 13 Years Teaching Dangerous Criminals: Here is What I Learned.

As of today, this article has earned $1.22. Again, that’s nothing spectacular, but it is decent. I wasn’t surprised to see this article do well (under my definitions), but I do find it interesting.

Why it is successful

This one is a very personal “human interest” story packed with emotion. It has a catchy title, proper SEO, good formatting, and it was published in a publication — Age of Awareness.

How you can apply these strategies

• Write a story from your personal experience that is unique and interesting
• Write in the first person (I, Me)
• Include emotion in your story (be raw, vulnerable, and honest)
• Craft a catchy title
• Use proper SEO
• Publish in Age of Awareness

My Worst Performing Article

My worst performing article technically was my piece on Nerdgasms: How to Write, Format & Submit to the Nerdgasms Publication. However, since that is a submissions guide and not a “normal” story, I’m not going to count it.

For the record, it has earned me a whopping $0.1 so far.

My second worst performing article that is a standard story is The Fastest Way to Learn Any New Skill.

This article has only made $.02 so far. I’m not sure exactly why it didn't do well, but I think it might be the title. It’s in a publication, so I’m hesitant to change the title now.

I believe I might be able to give it a bit of a boost by linking to it from other articles (like this one). I might also see a boost with crowdsourcing support from my growing number of followers and a few Medium-related Facebook Groups in which I participate.

Why it failed

• The title (I would change it to something different if I could go back in time, something like The Psychological Trick to Accelerate Learning).
• It was one of my very first stories so I did not have many followers.
• It may not be a very high-interest topic for the publication I chose (I don’t think the publication itself — Illumination — has anything to do with it).
• Maybe the content didn’t click with the intended audience.

Now, I have heard of articles that have initially not done well but then blew up later for a variety of reasons. We’ll see what happens!

Lessons I have learned from my first 22 articles

Here are my takeaways so far from writing my first 22 articles on Medium:

1. Writing daily does seem to help (I’m writing an average of 1+ articles per day). I plan to ramp up to 2–3 quality articles per day in the near future.
2. Engaging authentically with Facebook Medium groups seems to help.
3. Publishing in publications, even smaller ones, appears to help.
4. Titles matter a whole lot. I will likely spend more time crafting titles in the future.
5. Topics really matter. I plan to continue to write on a variety of topics to see which ones do better for me. I’ve noticed technology might do well so I will write a few articles on technology topics as an experiment.
6. SEO and proper tagging do seem to help. I didn’t mention tags earlier but I do add popular and relevant tags on all of my articles. I always use all 5 tags.
7. Formatting with short sentences, lots of white space, quotes, etcetera seems to help.
8. Just like I’ve heard from others, a few of my articles (two right now) are making more than most others combined.
9. Consistent quality seems to be the most important factor. Write insanely helpful articles over and over again.

In case you are wondering, my total so far after 18 days is currently $7.24 (and growing).

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