I’m on the same list with Tim Denning!
This morning,
With half of my eyes wide open, I was lazily browsing through my email inbox, starting to regain consciousness by doing thing that most professionals health guru wouldn’t recommend to start the day:
Yes. Checking your phone!
But I did it anyway.
Apart because I wanted to achieve small win in the morning by clearing all the rubbish from my inbox, including all the unnecessary online ads, job vacancy information that I’m not planning to apply anytime soon
Credit card promotion —
When there was one email caught my attention
“
Congratulation!
GREAT WORK
Wikan, you’re a top writer in the topic of Writing.”
It was from Medium!
But first before getting way over my head, I double checked again the email, the body message, the address
The meaning behind it
just to make sure this is legit.
Because you never know right.
This might be just one of those autoreply mechanism they got going on on the Medium headquarter. I mean, so much for being excited.
But after refreshing the page several times, rereading it, the meaning fortunately didn’t change:
“I’m officialy the Top Writer on Medium!”
Well, top writer in the writing category at least (before you start criticizing me further)
And please don’t quote me on this, but it appears that I’m on the same list with other top writers in this same category, from the like of Tim Denning, Eve Arnold
Zulie Rane
and a bunch of big names in the Medium ecosystem that got way, and way way more followers than me.
Seeing A-list name like Tim Denning in the same category with me certainly boosted my ego by 100%. Nice.
Not only, in my opinion, he is the best writer on Medium, but also because of him, I started writing and got motivated to kick off my journey in this platform, and start sharing my story.
Of course, by no means I’m saying I’m in the same level together with Tim Denning, or any other top writers out there. That would be a crime for sure.
I’m just a guy from Bali Island, with his native tongue, crappy English, and 3 figures followers — far cry from the level of Tim Denning and the other top dogs.
But boy. What a great personal achievement to have, considering I’m super newbie in this online-writing-world
And coming from non-native background.
From Non-native to Writing English
Like I said, I’m not a professional writer on Medium, nor I’m trying to be anyway.
Also, if you notice, my grammar is a bit weird (now you start noticing).
Since I never taken any English course, International English Language Test (IELTS), or any Toefl test before, it made my English and my writing look kinda awkward.
Some preposition, vocabs are definitely shouldn’t belong where I think it suppose to be.
But I don’t really care. And I don’t think you (the readers) really care either.
The truth is, I just learned everything on the internet, self-educate myself, and pretty much hit the ground running.
Essentially, I try to not overthink on the complexcity.
“Complexcity is the enemy of execution”
However, despite all of these limitations, I knew that I always wanted to write something in English.
Write something that will be available on the internet.
I knew that I had a love in writing, so long that it had nothing to do with writing academic paper or scientific journal or anything
— I’m on it.
Then I found out that I wanted to write a story.
No. Not a novel-ish type of story.
But story that is simple, concise, easy to read, and original like I’m talking to you in real life about my real experience!
Story that will improve your life, because it has improved mine.
That’s why, when I first started writing on Medium, I had no big agenda but only sharing the real experience of me to the world.
- Sharing personal problem and how I overcome it
- Sharing personal achievement and how I did it
- Sharing personal experience and what is the lesson learned from it
Everything is 100% personal. no gimmick!
Because honestly I have nothing more to offer to you but my personal experience. Me as a man from Bali Island. Me as a young man with visually impaired. And me as an upcoming writer who started terribly, but gradually progressing, progressing, learn from mistake, and improving along the way.
After a while, I was beginning to se result:
- From 0 views to getting hundred views per story
- From no one clapping on my stories, now several stories got 100+ fans
- From 0 followers, now reaching to 800 followers (still growing)
- From no email subscribers, now picking up average 2 subscribers per month
Obviously, no crazy stats here.
Just some average growth from an average blind writer who is always thinking long term about his content writing strategy.
No fancy trick up my sleeve either.
I followed basic advice what everybody is also doing: consistent, do a lot of reiterations, and double down on what works the best!
And that is pretty much the recipe of my growth on Medium!
Start with Something
There’s no intention of this article to brag or anything. Hell, I bet another hundred thousand other writers on Medium also have received the
top writer
category — like daily.
Having been given this predicate of a top writer in this niche category is just a cherry on top for what I’m passionately doing — which is to provide value to you, the readers!
The point is:
If I can do it, there is no way you can’t do it either.
If you have been meaning to start writing, do it now.
If you have been meaning to pick up that course, take that girl on a date, or really make money online (I don’t make any money online yet), then the best course of action is always to start with something.
Keep throwing sh*t out there to se what stick and what doesn’t.
Trial and error is always the best teacher in everything.
Keep on putting on those reps. And keep showing up! Eventually you will se result (whether good result or bad result).
Once you have this result, you then can analyze it anyway. Make necessary adjustment. Double down on what has worked the most. And be consistent in the process.
You know what they say:
Ready! Fire! And Aim!
P.S. now my Top Writer badge is in my profile!😁
