How To Start A Successful Blog In 2022
This article is a combination of all the advice that has graced my screen since I started my blogging journey on Medium in November 2021. I have compiled all the useful information that I would give a newbie beginning their platform in 2022. This is all of the information that has helped me start to grow my platform on Medium!
1. Tagging
Think Instagram tags… but crucial!
One of the most important tips to creating a successful personal blog on Medium in 2022 is tagging your content. Tagging your articles, which is done onscreen right before you have published your content, tells the platform where to send your work. This is a good way for potential readers to find you, and a good way to organize your work if you publish on multiple topics at a time. It is important to know that only some tags used on Medium can make you eligible for “Top Writer” status in a given category. I have linked a list of popular/eligible tags below, as well as a description of what being a “Top Writer” means for your blog. It is not necessarily something to skew your content entirely for, but it may help you organically produce more of an active following.
What Is A Top Writer? https://medium.com/jun-wu-blog/top-writer-status-on-medium-162ad0e1a3c1
Popular Tags That Are Eligible https://medium.com/online-writing-101/introducing-the-full-list-of-mediums-top-writer-tags-in-2021-9394b6da4cd1
2. Publications
I get it… you want to land on Medium and get your work in front of as many joyful eyes as possible, publications are a good tool for just that but they need to be used carefully for new writers.
A mistake I have seen many writers make, possibly me included (in the beginning) is thirsting for publications to notice and recruit them without any established body of work already on the platform. It is important that while you write under publications, you are also simultaneously writing work under your own page. This is the only way to effectively use publications as a tool, and community builder. Otherwise, we end up with highly saturated corners of Medium with many writers begging for a clap for clap, or view for view because they have not learned the importance of an individual active following. So in conclusion, by all means join and submit to publications that your work fits for, but make sure you are doing so with at least a couple articles under your belt. Secondly, don’t stop writing personally under your page simply because you have work being published by publications with a large following.
3. Social Media
It sucks but it works.
Share your articles to your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter using hashtags and tagging relevant parties. This will nurture what you started with, and possible help you grow audiences on other platforms as well. It is the only simplistic step on this list. Share your articles link and track the growth on your stats page in Medium. The stats page will teach you what social media is pulling in the most external readers, and from there if you are comfortable you can even promote the posts involving your articles to increase your audience. I would not recommend advertising your articles unless you are already somewhat established, meaning earning in some way from you articles on Medium or from your social media posts.
PS… When starting out with a small Medium following you can share your friends only link on social media to garner reads from those that may not have a paid account on the platform. Do this every now and then, and always plug the original link to your article so you aren’t hurting your SEO!
4. SEO
That’s right! Search engine optimization.
I thought I was done with SEO when I left my days of website building behind me, but here we are. SEO is entirely important if you want your work to be consumed by all corners of the internet and not just someone stumbling upon your article through Medium’s pages and pages of content. I am sure you want your article read by someone who naturally has an interest in the topic, right? SEO can help you
A crash course in SEO, or at least what I know that is applicable to a blog: Search engine optimization is like playing a game with the internet. You want to get your article as close to the top of a search tab as possible. Say a guy named Tommy is looking for baseballs and you’re selling the best baseballs in all of New Jersey, you’re gonna want to optimize your advertisement to include those keywords so Tommy sees you when he searches for the best baseballs to buy from his home in Newark. Apply this principle to blogging. A great tool for this would be the site Google Trends. The platform helps you by allowing you to search keywords and see how popular they are.
How do you implement a popular keyword? To give you an example, perhaps you want to write about the Kardashians. Now when searching the popularity of all Kardashians by name you may find that Kim Kardashian is not only the most searched, but has been searched multiple times today alone. So, in order to implement the best SEO practices you would give your article an SEO title and description by going to more settings at the top of your screen in the Medium editor and selecting the three dots. To improve the possibility that someone reads your article about the Kardashians when they search for Kim Kardashian, you would make an SEO title that uses the words Kim Kardashian and pluck out a piece of your article pertaining to her for your SEO description. REMINDER: SEO titles can be different than the title you display on your blog because they are cultivated specifically to be used for search engines.
PS… Another way Google Trends can help is when you may be having a hard time finding culture/news topics to cover. Checking daily realtime searches on Google Trends will give you an idea of what people want to hear about on a given day. This will only work if you have a daily turnaround.
5. Production
Unfortunately, Medium can act a lot like any other social medium platform, in that it is important to post articles often in order to garner readership. It seems that the more I post on the platform, the more attention my articles receive, because of this I have made it a personal rule of practice that I will post either everyday or every other day. Consistent content not only plays to Medium’s algorithm, but keeps your writing in front of your followers who may forget about your page if you haven’t posted in six months. So, if you are serious about starting your writing platform keep a consistent timeline.
6. Don’t Be Afraid to Get Personal
Don’t get lost in the trap of self improvement articles and 100 follower challenges.
If you are coming to the platform with the only intention of a following, you won’t do well. Many writers on the platform forget the real reason they started writing and become what people want to see. It is one thing to play to an audience’s interests by showing your own, any its another to abandon your interests for that of your “audience.” A reader can smell the difference, and while trends and interests fluctuate so will your readership. In order to create a genuinely active readership you need to stay true to yourself… no matter how sappy that sounds!
Are you an established blogger on Medium? Are you looking for tips to start your blog? I challenge everyone to meet in the comments of this article and start a conversation.
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