What I Learned Writing On Medium Every Day For 6 Months

It’s so much more than you might think

First things first: I didn’t start writing on Medium six months ago. I published my first post here in July 2018. Yet, I haven’t been consistent until half a year ago when I decided to write every single day.

During my yearly reflection in December 2019, I realized writing on Medium was one of the few things I genuinely enjoyed with all its ups and downs. Even though I didn’t know where it’d led me, I decided to invest more time and energy into my writing and built a daily writing routine.

Fast forward, six months later, thousands of people are reading my pieces every single day, I’m making a bunch of money through my writing and even supporting new writers on their Medium journey.

Yet, that’s by far not everything. The past six months have been full of massive growth, tons of learnings, and incredible opportunities that might not have been possible without my work on Medium:

I got featured on some fantastic platforms, my work got published by major publications, I received tons of requests for collaborations and started writing for some amazing companies, my email list is growing by 50 new subscribers per day through Medium alone, and most importantly: I connected with some of the most amazing writers of this platform, such as Michael Thompson who’s not only patiently responding to all my questions (thanks, Mike!) but also giving me insights into the world of online writing that I probably wouldn’t have figured out on my own.

Long story short: My resolution to write on Medium daily was by far the best decision I made for a long time.

If Medium disappeared tomorrow, I wouldn’t regret a second I spent here. I learned so much along the journey that will benefit my entrepreneurial voyage forever. Yet, of course, I hope this unique opportunity of writing, connecting with millions of like-minded people, and being rewarded for your efforts will stay for many more years. And as long as that’s the case, I’ll keep sharing what I learned along the way. So here we go:

A passionate writer will never run out of writing ideas

When I first heard about Medium, I was incredibly excited. I signed up and published my first piece within a few hours. I couldn’t believe real people were seeing and reading my work. I had like 10 views, but hey — that’s more than zero, right?!

Shortly after my first post, I published the second one and felt like nothing could stop me. But I was wrong: Quite soon I didn’t know what to write and desperately experienced my first “writer’s block”.

Yet, what I learned over the past months is the opposite: A passionate writer will never run out of writing ideas.

When I tell people that I’m writing and publishing almost every day, the most common question is: How do you come up with so much stuff to write about?!

The answer is that I have more ideas than I’ll ever be able to turn into articles.

I’m managing my ideas and published articles in Trello, which is a simple project management tool and free to use. Right now, I have around 500 article ideas, titles, and potential posts waiting to be written. And the list is growing every single day.

If you take writing seriously, and if your desire to write is big enough, you’ll never run out of writing ideas. Instead, you’ll need to strengthen your decision-making muscle so that you don’t waste too much time deciding what to write next.

Just make sure to find an idea management system that works well for you and stick to it no matter how good or bad an idea seems to be.

Screw being “a real writer”, just write

As a new writer on Medium, you’ll likely read tons of “How to succeed on Medium” posts by successful writers. While that’s a good approach to borrow their brains and improve your writing, you’ll also come across discouraging words.

Some, for instance, will try to convince you that you’re not a real writer if you’re writing for the money. I say you don’t need to be a “real writer” to write on Medium successfully.

Who defines what a “real writer” is?

And who cares if someone calls you a “real writer” or not?

Know what you’re after, learn from those who’re ahead of you, and keep going until you achieve your desired results.

Screw “being something”. Instead, do the work, improve your skills, and reap the rewards.

Don’t make writing too hard

Instead, enjoy your journey.

So many people believe that writing is creative work and that great writers only write when they’re inspired or kissed by the muse.

That’s bullshit.

Great writers are great because they write, no matter if they feel inspired or not.

Writing is a job just like any other work, and if you want to succeed as a writer, you’ll need to write a lot. Particularly if you want to succeed on Medium.

So instead of waiting for inspiration, make sure you enjoy doing the actual work. Reward yourself for little accomplishments and find ways to bring more joy into your writing routine.

For instance, you could take care of your workplace and make some little adjustments so that doing the work becomes more fun. What I recently started doing is having a diffuser with some essential oils and fresh flowers next to my workplace. This barely costs money but lifts my mood and helps me stay focused and motivated.

Trust in the universe (and the algorithm)

Most writers on Medium will never make money here. According to official statistics, 95% of all writers here make less than $100 per month.

Others, however, will be lucky to hit a viral post soon after joining the platform.

You might be writing for many months without significant growth, or you might hit tens of thousands of views without knowing why.

And while there are tons of strategies and rules you need to apply in order to succeed here, you also need to let go of the tension and trust in the process. After all strategies and techniques, it’s a mysterious algorithm that decides about the success or failure of each post.

You might spend tens of hours writing a fantastic piece, and it might still flop. And you might write a quick, random article which gets lots of views.

For me, being exposed to an algorithm is fun. I have articles that got hundreds of thousands of views here on Medium. These numbers wouldn’t be possible anywhere else. Of course, I also have pieces barely hitting a few hundred views, but I’m okay with that.

Instead of trying to figure out how the algorithm precisely works, I enjoy writing good content and trusting in the universe.

Writing daily will change your life in many ways

Through writing, I get a clear head. It helps me to practice mindfulness and even is meditative. Being in the flow and writing inspiring, motivational content also helps me to stay inspired.

Establishing a daily writing routine and the discipline of typing thousands of words every single day changed my life in various ways.

For example, it helped me to make quicker decisions because I want to have more time for my writing. I have a sharp priority: writing every day. By keeping that resolution in mind, I quickly validate what I spend time on and what I rather skip and avoid.

For example, saying no to situations that wouldn’t bring me closer to my (writing) goals is much easier. I can decline appointments and inquiries easily because I know I have something more important to do: Writing.

But it also helped me to communicate more clearly with my fellows. Since I started writing every day, I realized how not only my writing but also my talking changed.

For non-fiction writers like me, being precise is important. Readers want to get the point quickly. And what I realized during the past months is that also my in-person communication became more effective.

I don’t want blah-blah anymore. I want concise answers, and I also deliver them myself.

The Pareto Principle massively applies to Medium

This is something most (unsuccessful) Medium don’t understand, but it’s so critical: Success on Medium almost always comes down to viral pieces.

You can look at the profiles of all prominent writers here, and you’ll realize that nobody has massive amounts of claps all the time. The majority of their work has okay-ish claps, and some of their pieces have tens of thousands of claps. These pieces lead to most of the money they make and to new readers.

Not all your pieces here will perform well. But if you keep going, you’ll hit viral articles every now and then, and these will help you to grow your audience and income exponentially.

Don’t spend too much time in Facebook groups

Facebook groups for Medium writers are not bad per se, but many new writers make these groups a horrible place.

The majority of the content shared is negative and pessimistic. People complain about not being curated, not being accepted to publications, not making good money through their writing, etc. And I bet most of these people would have better results if they stopped complaining and would actually spend more time writing.

Sometimes, I ask myself why these folks don’t seem to understand that Medium won’t pay them for complaining about how lousy Medium is.

Neither Medium nor any publication owes you anything. You either play to their rules and accept the fact that they have the power or you stop writing on Medium. (Or you keep writing bad posts just to keep complaining in Facebook groups.)

And the second mistake is that so many new writers spend more time posting their links to useless clap-for-clap threads instead of just writing great shit.

You won’t ever succeed on Medium by sharing your links in these Facebook groups.

Every member of these groups has the same goal: Being a more successful writer on Medium. None of these people is interested in reading your pieces.

Seriously: Stop copy-pasting your links to ten groups and start writing great stuff that people are genuinely interested in.

Again: Facebook groups for writers are not bad per se, but the majority is using them poorly. I also have a group where I answer questions and help new writers, but I won’t allow any negativity or clap-for-clap threads there, it’s just a place where I offer my expertise, and others are welcome to contribute.

Don’t listen to the advice of people who aren’t ahead of you

If everybody would know how to succeed on Medium, more people would actually be achieving great results.

According to Medium, only less than 5% of all active writers are making more than $100 per month:

There’s a good reason why so many people here fail.

If you keep getting advice from those who don’t create great results themselves, how can you wonder about not succeeding yourself?

Would you ever ask an overweight person how to get into shape? Or a broke person how to make money?

You wouldn’t.

So why would you ask those for advice about Medium who are failing themselves?

There’s, of course, a difference in the advice you’ll get from those making 4 or even 5 figures per month compared to the 95% that are making less than $100.

Work with Medium, not against it

First, the bad news: Medium is continuously changing. And it will always be changing.

By writing on Medium, you are dependent on Medium. You can’t do anything about their changes. From one day to the other, you might suddenly make zero dollars here, and there’s nothing you can do because they don’t owe you anything.

However, it’s here right now. And it holds incredible potential for writers and entrepreneurs who are willing to invest time and energy into creating valuable content.

You can not succeed on Medium by complaining about it. You either accept the rules and play the game accordingly, or you fail.

Gary Vee once said:

“We have to start looking at these platforms like shows, not like channels.”

Look at Medium as a show. Make it your show. Use it as long as it is here, and instead of being worried about changes, sit down and write great stuff.

Headlines, Structure, and Clarity

Last but not least: Headlines, structure, and clarity are responsible for the majority of your story’s success.

Your writing needs to be good. That’s indisputable. But given that your writing skills are good enough, your headlines, the structure of your story, and the clarity of your messages will define your success on Medium.

Based on your headlines, readers decide whether they click on your story or not. If your headline is crap, a good story won’t matter because nobody will click on it in the first place.

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.

But here’s the 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 teach how to improve headlines, structure, and clarity — make use of them. Analyze how the most successful writers are doing it and model their success.

Final thoughts

You won’t succeed on Medium if you don’t like or even love writing. You’ll give up too quickly if you don’t enjoy the process.

Yet, if you take your writing journey seriously, improve your skills, and play to the rules of the platform, there’s still a lot you can gain here.

I’m 23 years old, I’m not a native English speaker, and I’ve never written professionally before writing on Medium. So if I managed to succeed here, why wouldn’t you be able to see the same results?

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