I’ve been on Medium for almost 1.5 years now. This isn’t a long time by any means. Compared to my 14+ years of blogging experience, it’s nothing.
Yet, these last 1.5 years have been the most successful and fun times ever as an online writer. I went from 0 to full-time content creator while having a 9-to-5 job and a handful of kids at home. And yes, I was working from home.
You can do it!
What would I do if I started out in Medium today? Here you go!
#1 Medium+
Obviously, I’d still choose Medium as my main blogging platform. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than the rest. It’s also free and easy to use. No more paying hundreds a year for a WordPress blog with zero views.
Nope.
Here’s the first I would do differently
I’d start an email list (or a newsletter) right away.
Everyone’s been telling you that for a reason. Grow a platform-independent audience! That’s the reason.
I didn’t start with an email list till I was about 6 months in on my adventure. Too late.
Fun fact: Now, I have multiple email lists.
#2 Grow on Twitter
Create a Twitter account.
In this case, Twitter is a placeholder for any social media network you’d like. TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook. You do you.
Why would I do that?
Simple.
Repurpose your Medium posts into little chunks of knowledge for social media to gain an audience there. This will come in handy later, trust me.
Advice: Pick 1 or 2 socials max. Don’t overdo it. Invest some time in one (or two). Gain true fans, not inactive followers. Be you and engage with people. Social media isn’t magic. Learn from creators you follow.
#3 Create a landing page
This is optional for many writers. For those of us who’d like to sell or offer something now or in the future, it’s crucial, though.
Redirect your readers to a landing page for all your content and platforms. Don’t worry, you don’t need to pay for a website in the beginning. Just use Linktree or one of the countless alternatives. Or your newsletter platform if it offers landing pages like ConvertKit.
For future sake, however, you should ideally set up this landing page on a custom domain. This will drive traffic to something you own.
Upsides:
- Increasing your website’s domain authority score and, in turn
- Ranking higher on Google
- Building a personal brand
- Becoming more and more platform-independent
among other benefits.
#4 Develop a writing habit
The hardest part, for sure, but a consistent and sustainable writing schedule is the number 1 growth tip for online writers.
Write daily, every other day, twice a week. A sustainable schedule. And keep that up for a solid year.
#5 Be creative
Not in terms of writing. That’s a given.
Be creative in other ways. Like:
- Recycling your content, (Tim Denning does this all the time)
- Promoting your Medium stories within Medium with shortform content
- Utilizing Medium’s features to their full potential, like lists and tags
- Benefiting from external views by gaining referrals, redirecting traffic to other income streams like paid sites (Vocal, NewsBreak, Simily), YouTube, social media networks, digital products or services
- Utilizing a writing tool and system for managing, archiving, and analyzing your work
#6 Make friends
Medium is a social platform. Engagement has been the number 1 driver for my early success.
Comments, responses, discussion. That’s what it’s all about.
I’ve made friends on Medium. I communicate with people on a regular basis that I’ve met on this platform. They read my stories. I read theirs.
The same goes for the social network you created in step 2. Make friends.
If you create something later, true fans and friends will take a look at it. Follow-for-a-follow folks probably won’t.
The bottom line
In 1.5 years, I’ve become a Medium writer with 10K followers, 600 subscribers, 70 referrals, 360 stories, and a 4-figure monthly income.
And I didn’t do half of these 6 steps right in the beginning. There’s room for improvement. But if I were to start today, I’d try to nail these 6 steps because I know they work.
If not on Medium, they will lead to other opportunities. I’ve made money and created new income streams on other platforms with the help of my Medium growth.
These tips help. Not within a week or a month. But let’s talk after 1.5 years.
