I recently wrote a quick post on “Why you should be writing on Medium right now (2021)”. It was quite well-received and I got a lot of questions on that topic. In this post, I want to go over a few things any new writer on Medium should do.

#1 Apply for the Medium Partner Program

Don’t worry too much about designing your profile or writing the perfect “about you” bio in the beginning. You’ve got plenty of time for that. What you should be doing right away: Applying to the Medium Partner Program. This sounds way more complicated than it is basically. The set-up consists of a few steps to register, fill out tax information, and connecting a Stripe account. But only after doing that will you earn money on Medium.

#2 Write great stuff

Now that you’re enrolled in the Medium Partner Program your main concern should be… well, writing great stuff. “Great” in this case can mean a lot. Medium has quite a big audience. There’s a place for almost any topic. You’ll find publications for all types of stories. So write what you’re interested in, what you like to write, and what you’re proud of.

If you want to get a little more technical: Medium has a trending section. You’ll find a glimpse of that on your Medium homepage. Maybe these headlines and stories will give you a good idea to write something similar. Following trends could be a real boost to your views.

#3 Choose tags wisely

One very important technical aspect of writing on Medium is choosing the best tags for your stories. This is true for any kind of blogging. On Medium, readers can follow certain tags or topics, much like you can follow a hashtag on a social media network. If your stories have fitting tags, they might get more views. Again, there are also trending topics and tags. The 21 most popular tags on Medium in 2021 can be found here. If you post several articles with similar tags and they do well, you might become a Top Writer (Medium calls it that) in those areas. A wonderful achievement. It’s always a good idea to include one or two highly popular tags.

#4 Get into publications

This is one of the most important steps on Medium: Get your stories into great publications. Pubs are like little magazines or blogs within Medium. Everyone has their own niche and audience which means fitting topics will find a good viewership there. How to submit your stories to publications is a little more complicated: They all have their own ways to apply. With some, you send your draft via e-mail, others offer a form to fill out. Take a look at different publications to get a feel for that. It’s not rocket science, just not too straightforward either. Some of my favorite publications are: Start it up(the biggest on Medium), the Ascent, OneZero, Elemental, Better Marketing, Age Of Awareness, Modern Parent, Mac O’Clock, Curious, Geek Culture, Post-Grad Survival Guide, ILLUMINATION, and Future Human.

#5 Engage

Last but not least: Medium is a community. For writers, bloggers, poets. It’s also a social platform. So engagement is important. I firmly believe that Medium favors (however slightly) authors that engage with their peers regularly. Meaning leaving and replying to comments, clapping for other stories, highlighting passages, and more.

Closing words

These are my 5 important things to do when starting on Medium. I’m still figuring out all the details just like any other new Medium member. If you have tips, do tell! I’m excited to learn more about the platform and to hear tips and tricks to better the experience on Medium. Drop your Medium profiles down below! I’d love to take a look. Here’s mine!