The Kind Of Article That Goes Viral On Medium

And Why I Hate It

Photo by Darius Bashar on Unsplash

I have been seriously writing for about 3 months on Medium, and I have made a few observations.

One of them being, that people want to read ‘Here’s How’ and ‘Here’s Why’ articles more than anything else.

Although some write ups are exquisitely beautiful and mention genuine points, most are just the repeated version of ‘Write Every Day For 30 Days’.

The market of Medium has a high demand for articles which teach how to improve your writing, and it’s not surprising. Everybody wants to learn and grow in their skill but it becomes too much at times. Including, the focus on money.

“I Made $100,000 In A Month Without Lifting My Finger, Eating Food, Or Breathing Oxygen”

“Here’s How To Earn Big Bucks On Medium While You Are Already Dead. Use This Technique To Rise Up From The Coffin”

“Here’s Why I Poop In My Pants And Don’t Wipe Afterwards”

"Here’s This. There’s That. I Have A Cat Who Is Fat."

Now, I’m a beginner. I’m more beginner than a newborn. A single-celled ovum, more likely. While there lie giant adults churning out pieces at the whiff of a breath, I wriggle and writhe to squeeze out meagre views.

I like to write about History and Medicine, especially History of Medicine. Interesting tales about the past that somehow ring with the present, evoke goose-bumps in the remotest corners of my body.

But they don’t perform as well as the ‘Whys’ and the ‘Hows’, and no matter what, I just can’t switch to a genre of writing that I don’t like, solely based on the number of views.

It does get gloomy but I console myself. There there!

That being said, I do try to fit my articles in the favorite ‘How To’ format if it’s possible. However, I don’t shoe-horn my way to maximum viewership if the attempt looks far fetched.

Another favorite genre of the readers, including me, is ‘about the author’. That’s what I did with this article, if you see.

The kind of write up where the author mentions a personal anecdote, her life struggles or how her cat purrs when she caresses her….okay, I don’t fancy the last one, but, to each, their own.

If I take a look at my most performing articles, the following come into picture.

Why Writing Is Important To Me

Interacting with people? Nah thanks!

Fighting with the Monsters : Saga of an undiagnosed illness

Why I stopped being bothered about that which is not ideal

Here’s How I Read My Textbooks In The Fastest Manner

Six Hacks That Help Me Stay Confident In Every Situation

Notice that all of them belong to the two categories I described above.

And they aren’t as interesting as the other articles that I publish on a daily basis. Or maybe, to me.

As they say, “Different strokes for different folks”

The Unknown Doctor