Writing Advice

Why I Love Medium

I feel included

I’m gonna tell you right off the bat — I am not someone who makes a lot of money on Medium. I’m not going to show you my stats because first I don’t know how to, and second, they are laughable. I consider it a win if I just make enough money to cover my membership each month.

I’ve been writing for Medium since 2018 and admitted in the first year I hardly posted at all. I’ve posted a lot more in the last 18 months, but I still never had a “viral” article. There’s never been an article with a “k” after the number of reads.

But I’m not discouraged.

I love this platform, and I’m sticking with it.

In three years of writing for this platform, this is what I’ve learned.

Write about what you know.

I’m a decent writer. One reason I don’t make lots of money on Medium is that I write personal essays about my life. Other than Shannon Ashley and Tracey Folly — two of my favorites — I don’t know many people whose articles get a ton of reads from personal essays. Shannon and Tracey post a lot and are excellent writers, so it is possible. I’m just not as good as them.

But that’s OK with me. I write because I enjoy it. The few times I’ve tried to write “how-to” articles with “takeaways”, I’ve hated the process and lost my voice. And those stories got even fewer reads than my personal anecdotes.

You have heard advice on Medium before about writing what you know and what you’re interested in.

That’s good advice.

If you write with your statistics in mind, it’s not gonna be a fun process. You’ll be checking your stats all the time and letting your views or claps affect your mood. That’s one reason I’m no longer on Facebook — people being upset when I didn’t like their posts.

I’d rather just carry on with my life.

Medium is easy to use.

I am not a techno-savvy person.

For years, I resisted switching from iTunes to Spotify, because I had finally mastered the art of carefully crafting my iTunes playlists, and learning how to convert YouTube files into Mp3 and copy them, which was the pinnacle of technical sophistication for me.

When I first started writing on Medium, I didn’t even know how to insert photos. Luckily, there are tons of articles that teach you formatting.

This one talks about using photos. Here’s one on adding a kicker. This one helps you with titles. And here is a comprehensive formatting guide.

These articles have been super helpful to me. I’m not good at memorizing things, so I’ve saved them to my reading list, which is another great feature of Medium.

Now I need to look up how to show stats. In case I ever blow up and want to share.

I have a relationship with other writers.

I feel happy when people I follow get lots of views and claps for their articles. I’ve never read an article that I haven’t clapped for.

I figure if the title was enough for me to be interested in and click on — even if I don’t agree with or love the article — I’m still going to clap for it. It’s the least I can do. Author Natalie Goldberg says that having a relationship with other writers is one of the best parts of the writing process. In Writing Down the Bones, she says, “If someone writes something great, it’s just more clarity in the world for all of us.”

If someone writes a good article, I’m truly happy for them. If someone writes a stellar article, I will comment and compliment them.

If someone writes something ridiculous that I don’t agree with, I just shut up. There’s no reason to make negative comments. But I will still clap for them.

I know lots of people would say that negative comments are a sign of success, and I agree. I haven’t had any negative comments yet, so I will keep trying to annoy somebody.

In the meantime, I’ve had lots of positive comments and encouragement.

I clap for and usually respond to all the comments I receive. I recently wrote an article about music that got virtually no reads, but one of the nicest comments I’ve ever read. That made me happy.

If just one person read my article and enjoyed it and took the time to say so, it was worth the effort.

I’m sure there are other platforms I could use that would be more lucrative for me. However, I’m going to stick with Medium.

I love it here.

Thanks for reading!