If I count optimistically, I have 30 (semi-)viral posts on this platform. Out of these 30, 5 came from the publications I’m going to tell you about here. And another 5 came from a second one I will mention at the end.
Let’s explore!
Virality
In essence, everyone is chasing virality on this platform, don’t you think?
Going viral means getting a ton of views, reads, followers, subscribers, and maybe even referrals. It also kickstarts your growth and it will increase views on your other posts as well.
Essentially, it means you’re being read. Quite important for a writer.
It might give you false hope too because it can end as quickly as it began. But that’s not the topic of this post.
The best publication to go viral
To be honest, I rarely use the word “best” in this scenario as going viral is still pretty much independent from publications, distribution, article length, topics, and other factors. Sometimes, it just happens.
That being said, in my one-year experience on this platform, I’ve been fortunate enough to have had 30 (semi-)viral posts. In the intro, I said optimistically counted because there’s no real measuring basis for virality.
Is it 1000 views or 10,000 or 100,000? It’s up to you to decide.
I’m taking into account anything above 1000 views for this calculation here. With that, I have 30 viral posts.
Of these 30, 5 have come from one particular publication.
This is more than any other publication except for one I’m going to mention later.
What’s the pub?
Here it is: Better Marketing.
Better Marketing is one of the largest Medium publications. And one of my favorite. I’ve published many times with them. In fact, a couple of my first stories were published in Better Marketing which kickstarted my whole Medium process a year ago.
Of these 5 stories in Better Marketing, the top-performing one is currently trending and has hit over 90K views so far. Next in line is a story with over 6K views.
Judging from my experience, Better Marketing is the place to publish if you want to go viral on Medium.
Here’s the caveat though: In my opinion, it would be even better to go viral with a self-published post. Because in that case, each and every benefit truly goes to you and your profile.
The second place
There’s one other publication that has given me amazing results. My second highest viewed story with over 30K views was published there.
This is particularly awesome for me because I’m actually an editor of this publication. It’s The Shortform.
Like with Better Marketing, 5 out of my 30 viral posts have been published with The Shortform.
So, why is it only second place? For a couple of reasons:
- The Shortform is all about short content, 150 words or under. That means member reading time is usually lower than on longer posts. That in turn means, earnings are lower. The long Better Marketing posts have earned more money.
- Stories about Medium. Most of my The Shortform content is about Medium. This isn’t bad at all, but these posts usually die down quicker (in terms of views) than other topics. My Better Marketing posts stand the test of time.
The bottom line
There’s no secret to going viral. You can’t hack your way up. At least, I don’t know how you would.
This post only shows you my experience with publications and virality. And here, Better Marketing and The Shortform are the clear winners.
What’s your experience?
