What I’ve Learned From Publishing 50 Stories On Medium

The good, the bad and the unexpected.

This is my 51st published story on this platform, and I can confidently say Medium is a reliable sole source of income for me.

Kidding! To my very slight chagrin, I am not one of those authors that began writing for Medium a few months ago and now reliably makes $1,000 or more a month because they cracked the code to going viral.

It’s very far from a source of income for me at all. I have enjoyed making some money from writing and engaging with other writers on a respected platform, as well as cheering on other writers in their own successes.

I’ve learned a lot from reading other author’s musings on their writing experiences and now I have some takeaways of my own about writing on Medium.

1. Consistency Is Key

Consistency is even consistently mentioned. It’s that important. I don’t believe that you have to write every day in order to be successful on a platform such as Medium, but I do think a routine is important.

Publishing on certain days-consistently-will continue to draw readers in. Don’t give up if your writing doesn’t get thousands of views- it takes time and continued writing to build an audience.

2. All Roads Lead Back To Rome

Lead your readers back to your work. Your audience may not love your most recent piece on “One Simple Way To Show Up For Yourself Today”, but if you can link in a piece or two of yours that relates to the topic throughout or at the bottom of the article(or both), you may be able to draw more views to your work that way.

Use Medium’s built in “Promotion” feature under “Followers” in the Settings tab at the top of your profile to give your readers the option to receive email updates whenever you publish a new story.

3. The Notes App Is The Most Underrated Feature Of the iPhone

If you’re anything like me, ideas strike at a moment’s notice. Maybe you’re out with friends or lying awake in bed at 2 am and your next great idea hits.

This is the article that will skyrocket you to fame. You can’t write it now, so what do you do?

Use the Notes application on your iPhone, a similar feature on another phone brand, or good old pen and paper you have handy to jot down your new idea.

Maybe it will make sense when you revisit it or maybe you’ll consider giving up writing altogether. Did I actually want to write a listicle on why breakfast is the best meal of the day?

Don’t give up-there are no bad ideas, just ideas we have to toss out to make room for better ideas.

4. Finding Your Niche Takes Time

I didn’t even know I had a niche when I started writing for Medium. As my bio says, I simply write about my life.

That can include anything from poetry to blogs about my love life, travel experiences or trauma, among other things.

Apparently travel stories sell with my readers, and so does the drama of despising the way my university is run like a business with no regard for the humanity of its’ students.

Read about it more here:

See what I did there?

I’ll be interested to see how the interests of my readers continue to evolve as I keep writing.

5. Lack of Attachment to Outcome

The story about your raw divorce with your husband of 10 years after you found out he had multiple affairs is something you would expect to bring in a lot of readers, right? I would read it.

Sometimes the stories we most expect to go viral or bring in lots of readers do just the opposite. It could be that your topic has already been written about a lot this week or in general. It could be that your audience simply isn’t interested right now.

Sometimes we need to rebrand our writing(i.e., rewriting the headline) or publish in a new outlet(Vocal, Newsbreak, etc.) to get the readership we want.

It can take a while for a good story to take off. Be patient, and combine your writing skills and persistence to see results, understanding that a writing career takes time to build and is something most people do because they love it.

6. Find What Works For You

In other words, take the advice of other writers as seriously or as lightly as you deem necessary. Some will swear up and down by curation; others will say it’s not necessary at all.

Some will say getting published in a big publication is the only way to build an audience; others will say that you can make big bucks self-publishing.

I’m still trying to figure out what works best for me. I’ve found publications to be valuable for making connections, but I don’t think self-publishing is the end of the world.

I think curation helps boost my reads, but I don’t think it’s the only reason I receive reader engagement.

Finding the conditions you need to grow is something you can only do through experience.

Key Takeaways:

• Be consistent with how often you put out content
• Find ways to draw readers back to your work(linking stories, adding the option to subscribe by email)
• Write down ideas as they come so you can expand on them later(this helps on days when you’re unable to generate ideas)
• Pay attention to what topics draw in the most readers
• Don’t get too attached to how many views or reads your stories are getting
• Find what works for you
• Be patient+ don’t stop writing. Building a consistent following takes time.

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