First, if you’re looking for a shortcut, you’ve come to the wrong place. There is no magical way to cut the line and skip straight to the front.
It’s not easy. But it is relatively simple.
Writing is a game of patience, consistency, and dedication.
But of course you already know that. You’ve put in the work. Toiled over your craft and pounded on the keyboard until your fingers turned purple.
Still, no matter what you try, you just can’t seem to gain traction on Medium.
Your stories get a handful of views (mostly from friends and families) along with the sort of pity filled applause best reserved for Jeb Bush.
You’re a good writer. You have a unique perspective on the world worth sharing. You have a base of knowledge in some field that could genuinely help the masses.
So what exactly separates you from a Medium Top Writer?
To be honest?
It’s probably not skill.
That’s good. It means there’s hope.
It means you can do what I did.
Here’s how.
The Advice Everybody Has Heard a Million Times
Let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way.
If you want to make it big on Medium you have to master three tactics.
A great title and cover photo are mandatory
You have a fraction of a second to catch somebody’s attention as they peruse their feed. To do that, you must have a compelling title mixed with an eye-catching photo.
Lacking either of those two things almost guarantees your story will wallow in obscurity.
Many great articles already exist out there in the world to walk you through the nuts and bolts of creating a great title. Go find one and start honing your craft.
Keywords are…key
Medium allows you to tag your article with (5–6?) keywords. This will place your words in the appropriate category. My advice here is to stay within your sbject, but don’t go too specific.
Find a Publication in your niche
Publications on Medium are a great resource for reaching a whole new plethora of readers.
Here’s a handy site for finding the top ranked publications:https://toppub.xyz/
Find a publication within your niche, follow their submission guidelines to the letter, and do whatever it takes to get each of your new stories into a publication.
Master these three steps and you’ll be light-years ahead of the pack.
Will they magically transform you into a Medium Top Writer?
Maybe.
Maybe not.
But don’t stress, ’cause we haven’t even gotten to the good stuff, yet.
Here are four keys to success you probably didn’t already know.
The 4 Lesser Known Steps to Become a Medium Top Writer
1) Know your audience
Before writing that article, create a very clear picture in your head of the type of reader you’re hoping to attract.
Whether it’s a middle-aged businessman looking to improve his productivity, or a fresh out of college, 20-something looking for some reassurance that it isokay to chase their dreams, defining your audience before you even sit down at the keyboard guarantees you are more likely to write an article that resonates.
Listen… your article — no matter how amazing the word-smithery — will not appeal to everybody.
That’s okay.
That’s expected.
Garner the sort of amazing success that leads to the top of the Medium charts by finding your tribe of readers.
Write for them.
Think of it this way: You wouldn’t struggle to have a meaningful conversation with a friend or loved one. As a consequence of the time and energy you’ve put into that relationship, you understand how they think and what they value. Equipped with this knowledge, you can have conversations with these people that are simply impossible to have with a stranger.
Now, writing for Medium is a strange thing because in a very real way, your audience is comprised of absolute strangers. But that’s okay, because you’ve already created an avatar for your ideal reader in your mind.
Write for that person and when they find you, your words will resonate in ways they wouldn’t have if you’d just written for the masses.
2) Know your topic
If you’re taking the time to write on a topic, it’s assumed you are either extremely knowledgeable or extremely passionate about said subject matter.
Ideally you’re both, but you’d be surprised how an abundance of gusto can compensate for technical ignorance.
To that point, it’s important that whenever you sit down to write for Medium, you do so with confidence.
Nobody has time to read articles from a person who comes off as unsure of their own advice/words.
Write with authority, even when you feel like a fraud.
Assuming you actually know what you’re talking about, that feeling of being an impostor is totally natural. Don’t believe me? Check out this article on The Impostor Syndrome, I think it might help.
Now, word of caution here:
You don’t have to be an expert on a topic to write about it, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.
If you want to write something capable of standing the test of time and scrutiny of thousands of readers, you owe it to yourself and your audience to research and understand your subject matter in a way that is worthy of your reader’s time and energy.
As a general rule, it takes me about an hour to write a 2,000 word article. But, each article will take about 3 hours of research. Which is to say nothing of the fact that I am writing on topics that I’ve spent the better part of the past decade reading, researching, and generally obsessing over.
3) Know what to leave out
Okay, you’re an expert. You know your subject inside-and-out. But listen, you need to come down to our level.
Don’t spray us with jargon-laden prose. Ya know, unless the person sharing a similar aptitude is precisely the audience you’re writing for.
For the most part, however, that’s not who you’re writing for.
So with that in mind, don’t throw the kitchen sink at us. We’ve come to your article to learn something.
Don’t make learning a chore. Or confusing. Or abstract.
Keep your advice relatively simple and immediately actionable.
As a general rule, teach only 1–3 distinct things per article. Beyond that and your article becomes an unruly beast threatening to consume your reader.
To that point, here’s a general maxim I’ve stolen from public speaking that’s useful in the context of writing Medium articles.
It’s a three step process for getting your point across:
- Tell them what you’re going to tell them
- Tell them what you’re telling them
- Tell them what you told them
This seems simple, and it is, but it’s also immensely important.
Don’t blather incoherently at the beginning of your article without first telling us what it is you plan to tell us.
Then, get your booty into the body of the article with the quickness and tell us what it is you have to tell us.
Finally, because sometimes our articles can be somewhat intensive, having spanned multiple topics and examples, it is always useful to wrap up by retelling us what you told us.
Refresh our memories so we immediately recall what we’ve just learned.
4) Know what to put in
Presumably, if you’ve mastered step 3 (Know what to leave out) you will, by extension, have mastered this final step.
But I’ve put this step here in an attempt to encourage you to leave a very specific thing in your stories: You.
That’s right.
Readers on Medium come for the articles, sure, but we stay for the people behind the articles. The personalities that resonate with us feel familiar, like a friend.
We keep coming back because they say things that resonate with us. (Recall step one and this won’t seem strange at all.)
So it is that I encourage you to write words in the way that only you can write words. There are some general style guidelines we should all adhere to, but fight the urge to conform and corral your voice to appeal to the masses.
Remember, you are writing for a very specific audience. Of course it will take time to find them.
Nobody promised it would be quick.
And if they did, that person was a dirty filthy liar who deserves a swift kick to the kneecap.
The best way to put yourself into the story is by using your personal experiences to frame the context of the story. Tell us how you struggled with the problem you are now teaching us about.
Sure, you’re the expert now, but it wasn’t always so, right?
There must’ve been a time when you sucked, yes?
Tell us about that. It makes you relatable, and the topic under discussion not quite so daunting.
There is power and solidarity in the knowledge that you are not alone, struggling with some Sisyphean task.
To look over at the adjacent mountain and see a man standing at the peak can be inspiring, but knowing he fought the same battles you now fight can be downright encouraging.
It’s a long road, but you’re not alone.
The title of this article talks about how I became a Top Medium writer in only my first month, but that’s sort of misleading, because while I have only been writing for Medium for one month, I have been writing for much, much longer.
I’ve been where you are. I’ve taken my licks. I’ve written my stories and thrown them out into the digital abyss never to be heard from again.
I understand the weight of obscurity. It’s crushing.
Somedays I wake up and I’m still there.
But the only way out from under that weight is by continuing to write and continuing to publish. So don’t give up.
Double down into your craft. Write more. Publish more.
Follow the steps I’ve outlined above (Know your audience, Know your topic, Know what to leave out, and Know what to leave in) and in time you too will rise through the ranks to become a Medium Top Writer.
