What I learned from my first 30 days writing on Medium
So, I’ve been writing on Medium for about 30 days now, giving me my first batch of data to analyse.
Since starting, I’ve written articles on whatever I’ve felt like. I’m not overly strict or strategic with what I choose to write. But, the pieces I enjoy writing, fall under a couple of themes.
Generally, they can be categorised as support and advice for new writers, productivity tips, travel, or finding meaning and purpose.
For this first 30-day period, I set myself a target of writing three posts a week, publishing on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Since then, I’m happy to say that I stuck to this initial schedule, publishing 13 articles.
And in my more enthused moments, I wrote more articles, yet to be published, giving me a small backlog of content, should I ever need a bit of breathing room.
So, how many views did I get?
For any new writer thinking of starting on Medium, this is the golden question. It’s one I tried to avoid focusing on too much, as I expected progress to be slow, starting out.
As you can see below, I received 71 views across the 30 days.
Although 71 views won’t be much to a lot of you out there, I’m happy with it. I’ve started new websites which have no domain authority and received zero views.
But, even with Medium’s authority, I didn’t expect anyone to read my articles, this early on.
How many claps did I get?
I enjoyed varied success with my articles. Some weren’t read, and others received a decent amount of attention. Some even received claps, which is a nice boost.
‘Why I like content writing’ was my highest-performing article, with 125 views and two comments.
Quite why, some articles perform better than others, I’m not sure. But, the article in question, was about me, including a lot of my lived experiences. So, maybe, people related to that article the most, which gives me something to think about, moving forward.
How much money did I make?
Fortunately, I’m from one of the countries which is available for the Medium Partner Program.
So, to enact an added form of motivation, I signed up.
A few of my articles have earned pennies so far.
And while it’s nothing to write home about, it’s more than Google ad-sense would deliver, for the views.
Rather than paying based on views, Medium pay based on reading time.
So far, my articles have been between 500–700 words, giving them a reading time of three minutes.
And as Medium pay based on reading time, I might experiment with the length of my articles, in the future.
How many followers did I gain?
Since starting, I’ve gained nine followers and lost two of them. I don’t focus on my follower count too much, as it doesn’t guarantee engagement.
I don’t follow people back for the sake of it, I only follow people if I genuinely enjoy their work. If this is something that hinders my follower count early on, then so be it.
Here’s what I want to focus on moving forward:
Engaging more
Although my follower count doesn’t concern me, I know I need to engage more on Medium. Even though it’s not like Twitter, it’s still a social media platform, after all.
I want to build genuine connections on Medium. If someone comments on one of my articles, I always make sure to respond.
But, I can do more, when it comes to reading other people’s writing. Towards the beginning of the 30 days, I was making an effort to read and comment on other people’s work. And I noticed a spike in views around this time.
I know, the more you engage with others, the more eyeballs you get on your work.
But, it’s not all about the views.
Medium is a great platform to share ideas and gain clarity over certain topics, something which you can’t always do alone, from your unique, singular, perspective.
So, moving forward, I want to try and build meaningful connections with people on Medium, and even build somewhat of a writing community.
Using sub-headings
I couldn’t decide whether to refer to this part as, ‘sub-headings’, or ‘providing a set structure to my articles’.
Either way, providing structure guides readers through an article. And using sub-headings is a surefire way of doing this.
So far, I’ve operated by writing off the top of my head. It’s been a case of going with the flow or firing from the hip if you like. But, as time goes on, and I experiment with different lengths and styles of articles, I’ll implement more structure, to ensure each piece stays relevant and on-topic.
Conclusion
My first 30 days of writing on Medium have been a learning curve.
I’ll admit, it’s been slow going.
Some articles are complete duds.
But, then, I didn’t expect to get any views, claps or followers.
Perhaps, more importantly, I found a couple of niches I enjoy writing about. So, my articles usually fall under a few consistent themes.
And in that way, it’s exceeded my expectations.
Going forward, I want to experiment and try different ways of scaling this writing thing.
But, to keep this all attainable, for now, I’m going to focus on the points I’ve just mentioned, and stay consistent, and with time, it will all come together.
☕️️ If you feel my writing is worth it, you can buy me a coffee!
