What You Should Focus on For Long-Term Success on Medium
Hint: It’s not about Medium.
What is your single, most important piece of advice for succeeding on Medium for the long haul?
I’ve been writing on Medium since early 2017 — so more than three years. I started before writers were paid to write here. I realized, almost instantly, that using Medium as my blog was a better idea that writing on my own website for one reason.
There’s an audience here. When I wrote on Medium and when I did it with consistency — my posts were read. I could reach out to my own audience, and while doing that, reach a new audience.
From the beginning, I knew that Medium was a good tool. Getting paid directly for my work was a nice added feature. But I was already being paid, because I captured the audience Medium helped me reach and built my business around those people.
The most important advice isn’t about how you write.
There are things that are really important, if you want to succeed on Medium (if we’re going to count success as earning a decent amount of income and/or having a solid following.)
Here’s a non-exhaustive list:
- Headlines
- Photos (and making sure they’re cited)
- Making sure your post’s format matches Medium’s aesthetic.
- Consistency
- Building up a good backlog of stories
- Patience
Those things are all very, very important. But they’re all mechanics. Get those under control and you’ll be writing in a way that aligns with Medium. It’s not much different from learning what any other publication wants and then providing that to them.
When I think about all of the people who I talk to about being frustrated that Medium isn’t having the impact they want — and it’s a lot of people — there is one thing that stands out to me.
They let Medium own their audience.
My single most important piece of advice for success at Medium over the long haul is to start working, right from the beginning, on building your own audience. Don’t count on Medium to do that for you.
Look. This is your business. Medium has its own business and it’s different from yours. They align in some ways. They’re symbiotic. But their business is to bring lots of writers together to create a reading experience to millions of humans. Your business is to do that writing — for your own readers.
Have a way of capturing the readers who really enjoy your work, so that you can let them know when you’ve written and about other projects that come up for you.
An email list is your best friend. Truly. You should also have a publication on Medium where you can collect your work and readers can follow you. You should know who your ideal reader is so that you know you’re speaking to them when you write.
Because Medium can be relatively volatile as far as income sources for writers go. Their algorithm changes or they switch up how they structure their pay system — and it all screws up with your best laid plans.
Advice number one: Make building an email list, and learning how to use it, a top priority.
If you have your own audience, then you’re in control.
My second most important piece of advice for success at Medium over the long haul, by the way, is to consider Medium a tool and not the sole source of your writing career. It’s a stream, not the whole ocean, you know?
If you have your own audience, then you can use Medium as a tool for reaching the goals you set for yourself. And if Medium ever stops being the best tool for that job, you’ll be able to pivot relatively easily because your audience is yours.
And if you think about Medium as just one tool in your long-haul writing-career box, then you’ll be using others as well. Like self-publishing or writing on your own website or coaching or teaching or freelance writing or . . .
You get the idea.
Advice number two (because I’m all about over-delivering!): Consider Medium an income stream, not the whole of your business.
Do you have a writing question I can answer for you? Send it to [email protected] with ASK SHAUNTA in the subject line.
Are you taking the Blog-Your-Own-Book Challenge?
Shaunta Grimes is a writer and teacher. She is an out-of-place Nevadan living in Northwestern PA with her husband, three superstar kids, two dementia patients, a good friend, Alfred the cat, and a yellow rescue dog named Maybelline Scout. She’s on Twitter @shauntagrimes and is the author of Viral Nation, Rebel Nation, The Astonishing Maybe, and Center of Gravity. She is the original Ninja Writer.