Medium is a Great Place to Learn and Improve, But Not Only From Others
Your own stats can teach you a lot!
I recently became one of the lucky contenders to win one of the five places on Kristina God’s Online Writing Kickstarter Bootcamp.
I actually felt a little guilty for accepting the place when I felt that there are many who are looking for more guidance here on the platform. However, I have also learned to be grateful for all the opportunities that come my way and to grab them by the horns.
So, that is what I am doing!
I also know that, with any journey, there is always more and more to learn. While Kristina herself has reached a certain level of success, even she is learning from those who had hit greater levels.
In fact, there is only one good reason to stop learning, and that is if you were to die. Otherwise, never stop.
“Intellectual growth should begin at birth and cease only at death.”
So said Albert Einstein.
This brings me to an interesting observation that I made yesterday, on Day One of Kristina’s bootcamp:
My stats revealed my most successful article so far is…
…about writing on Medium.
The first task that Kristina gave us was to evaluate our stats to see which are the most popular stories.
As you can see from the screenshot, I had two peaks in views during the month of October.
The first was when I published my story about the adoption of my dog Ginger. In the first few days, it garnered a lot of external views and was then chosen for further distribution, bringing in another flurry of views. I have no idea where the initial external views came from but I can only imagine that the story was shared by some angel, somewhere.
The second was when I published an article sharing four steps to take to get authentic and engaged followers.
Now, while the number of views on each article differs quite dramatically — the story about Ginger having had nearly three times the number of views as the second, non-distributed story — the other numbers are very significant:
204 views, 25 reads; a ratio of 12% view to read, and 7 fans.
Compared to:
79 views, 29 reads; a ratio of 37% reads to views, and 24 fans.
24 fans! Compared to 7.
Why?
Because, while people are here to read great stories, they are also here to learn.
And, let’s face it — people hanging out on Medium are also hungry to learn about being successful on Medium. Even the already pretty successful writers like Kristina.
But there is a question that remains about those 2 peaks in my stats
Why were they both equal when the number of views on the stories in question was still so different?
There’s two answers to that.
The first is that the second story, despite only attracting 79 views, compared with the 204 views of the first, was about my journey on Medium, targeted at other new — mostly newer — writers on Medium. That drew them to check out more of my stories, and so the views grew as they read other works of mine.
Secondly, in the nearly two weeks between publishing story number one and story number two, I had continued to pump out daily content, some of which was clearly quite mediocre, while others were more thought-provoking, and this found its own readership.
The story about followers grew my followers
The next notable fact about the second story — the one that was about writing on Medium — is that it brought me a lot of new followers.
Over the few days that followed, my number of followers increased rapidly and in just a week I went from around 300 followers to 369. That was the fastest increase I have seen so far in my two-and-a-half months here.
Again, if you are writing about things that people want to learn about, then people will follow you. And read your work.
Because they want to learn.
But what about earnings?
To be fair, being still only one-and-a-half months into my journey in the Partner Program, and having earned a total of less than $30 so far, I can’t claim much authority on this. However, because I am publishing an article per day on average, and many of those are on subject matters that are both important to me and relevant to an audience, I am seeing patterns in my topics, readers, and levels of engagement.
I haven’t stuck with any one niche, partly because I want to keep getting content out, and if I go too niche I would struggle to have enough to write in any one topic. I am also still experimenting, and I want to see what takes off and what doesn’t.
However, I am noticing that I get better quality views, with a high read-to-view ratio, when I write about topics that others have a deeper interest or opinion on. What I would term ‘thought-provoking’.
One such thought-provoking piece, while it didn’t have a particularly notable number of views, did turn into my fastest earner.
It was a story about my experience in the coaching world and an opinion on the questionable position that coaching has in the world today.
Somehow, it attracted a completely different group of readers. Some were very established writers in the Medium world, while others were more academic. Again, I have no idea how the story reached these eyes since it wasn’t chosen for further distribution (though I felt it absolutely was worthy of it), and can only put it down to the publication itself — SYNERGY.
Despite having neither the views nor the reads comparable with the two in October, nor with my two best performing pieces from September, which have gained 75 views and 80 views by remaining pinned in my profile, it became my second-highest earner in only a few days. My highest earner is my About Me story, which was written in September and has had most of the new visitors to my profile giving it a read, since it remains pinned to my profile.
My takeaways
This exercise has been a very valuable one, so thank you, Kristina, for giving me this task.
What I have taken away from this is that people are here on Medium to:
- Learn
- Be given real food for thought
- Be entertained
In order to see success as a relative newbie, focus on number 1 first. Give people actionable steps, and measurable facts that they can make use of and apply to their own lives.
Of course, while there are some writers who despise the amount of articles offering advice on writing on Medium, it is, nevertheless, a sought-after subject by the general readership of the platform. So, don’t be afraid to share valuable lessons, but keep it valuable, high quality and not spammy.
After that, focus on number 2. Write on the topics that you are personally driven to write on, with as much focus on the thought-provoking content as possible.
Number 3 is a whole new game. To do well with the entertainment side is another level of success, which I am personally a long way off.
There are some incredibly talented writers here who I love to read more for sensual pleasure, be it laughter or amazing imagery woven by words. If you possess that talent, then go for it, and get your talent seen.
And finally, check your own stats to see what is bringing you more views, followers, and earnings, so that you can learn from your own experience as well as from that of others.
“The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice.” — Brian Herbert
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