I must confess, I was frustrated with Medium, when I started a few months back.
I was like any other novice writer, filled with ideas, and having dazzling plans to make it big in Medium. I loved the clean, chiseled interface and the potpourri of posts that splashed their vibrant colors all over its interactive whiteboard.
I started with a bang. I wrote every day, left right and center. My every idea, found its way on to the publishing dashboard of Medium. I made it a mission in life, to at least publish one post every day. I embraced my new found writing dream with all the vigor, and Medium became my alma mater.
But dreams are meant to be broken. The results frustrated me!
During my first two months, I could only achieve the following-:
• I got 6 recommends in more than two months.
• No publication selected my stories, in spite of repeated trying.
• I lost the confidence in my ability, as a writer.
• I came to the conclusion; the platform is rigged. I need to try my luck somewhere else.
And then I stopped WRITING COMPLETELY.
However, I still could not resist getting back to Medium, to READ the great posts of fabulous writers. I became a silent observer, reading posts, commenting occasionally and trying to understand, WHAT IS IT, THAT IS NOT WORKING FOR ME? I knew, deep within my heart, I had the talent, but somehow, it is not enticing enough for the Medium readers to sit and take notice of me.
10 days into READING and Analyzing Medium user trends and habits, I got the answers to all my questions. I knew exactly, where I had gone wrong.
Here is How-:
What is your EXPERTISE.
In Medium, expertise is GOD and the readers out here, expect that expertise to ooze out of your work in every word. But there is a catch.
Merely writing about some subject, after reading some books will not get you any brownie points. What readers expect here, is the tagging of that expertise to your life. They want you to love, hate and cry in life and see your raw form. They want you to impart them life lessons, on how you overcomed hurdles in life and work using your expertise.
The more practically you showcase your expertise, the more the users relate to it and hence the more recommends you get. Always remember, everybody can GOOGLE and find information just like you; What is important is how you used that information in your daily life and came out strong.
Research your TOPIC
Research is one of the strong points of all great writers in Medium. You read any work of famous writers in Medium, and the only thing that comes out beautifully is the amount of time they would have invested in, to research that topic thoroughly; from reading books, to interviewing people, to getting the knowledge directly from the people who had experienced it firsthand.
Amaze the readers with the depth of your knowledge and with the bits of information, they cannot find anywhere. Surprise them with your clarity of thoughts such that, they continue to think of your post, long after reading it.
The more you research your topic, the more insights you can share with your reader and hence the more the readers will share your work.
Identify your AUDIENCE
All your research and expertise will go down the drain if you are not targeting the right audience. Only the right audience will have the capability to appreciate your writing, the wrong audience will simply ignore it as yet another “boring” topic written by “some” nondescript writer.
In Medium, the audience is grouped into silos, each of them are tagged to various publications. So we have an audience who is only following startups, we have an audience only following programming and we also have an audience only following personal growth and so on. Your work need to be clear and concise enough to target a particular audience. Do not use “one size fits all” approach in Medium. It will not work.
The more you write for an audience, the more the same audience will share your work and hence the more followers you get.
Think of the STRUCTURE
I know you may argue this point that, writing is food for the soul and should be free form, as our thoughts flow unabated. This is perfectly fine, only if you are only writing for yourself.
However, when you are writing for an audience, your soul food should be READABLE and fit for public consumption. Let us face the truth here; the ultimate aim of every writer is to be read, appreciated and commented. This can only happen when the reader is able to UNDERSTAND and RELATE to what you are trying to convey.
There can be many forms of writing, depending on the genre. The writing styles and structures can also change depending on the unique thinking process of the writer. However, the general guidelines can be the following:
• Identify and articulate the problem statement (can be the Plot, Character’s background)
• Give solution to the problem (can be the flow of the story, how the characters took the story forward).
• End the story with a bang (can be surprise, life lesson, suspense, motivation)
Needless to say, the more your story is READABLE, the more your audience increases and hence the more your visibility.
End with a BANG
Let us say, you have seen the “promos” of this very “exciting” movie and you decide “Hey, this movie is worth watching, let me book a ticket. “You enter the movie hall with great expectations and the movie does not disappoint you either. It has a great starting, fabulous story line and interesting characters. But the ending becomes a damp squib.
What is your reaction?
You come out of the hall, disappointed and even slightly cheated. The memories of the movie gradually fade away from your brain as you move to other “better” things in life.
Writing is just like a movie. You may have a great “promo” (read enticing headline), a tearful saga of struggle and experiences and amazing “twists” on the way to success, but all that will fall flat, if you do not GIVE BACK to the reader what you have LEARNED.
A reader should be able to TAKE BACK something from your writing. This can be a valuable life lesson, which he can implement in his life, words of motivation, that can help him to improve his life or it can also be a copy of your eBook which helps him to develop himself further. Remember a reader has invested 5–10 minutes of his valuable time, reading your post, and it is only fair that he gets back something worthwhile in return to think and ponder about.
Needless to say, the more your story gets embedded into the reader’s memory, the more it will force him to ACT on it, and hence the more he will share it with other readers.
The One Lesson I learned
Success as a writer, is a saga of persistence, perseverance and continuous improvement. As a writer, you should always be in the “learning mode”, in order to have a “sustainable” success which can finally dwell deep down into public memory. Always remember, writing without direction is like a ship abandoned on the high seas. Control your writing and shape your destiny.
So if you are motivated by this post, don’t wait any more. Start writing, commenting and improving now!!
Splash your colorful creative juices, all over the clean interface of Medium and get going now!