Why Self-Publishing is Both Useful & Useless For New Medium Writers
In any endeavor, it’s critical to evaluate which strategy will give you results.
Especially when you’re new and quick to lose faith.
I still consider myself a new writer here. But my idea of what works for growing one’s account has changed drastically since I set my foot on Medium.
That’s why I’m going to share my thoughts and findings about whether you’re better off spending your time focusing on self-publishing, or submitting to publications.
Let’s explore self-publishing vs. publications.
Self-Publishing — Why Is It So Useless & Helpful At The Same Time?
The problem with self-publising onto your profile as a brand new account is that the algorithm is slow to pick up on you.
I committed to publishing 2 times a day for 14 days and saw a maximum of 10 views (not reads) on each story.
Now, of course it’ll take longer than 14 days to build any sort of momentum. But those results were abysmal.
That was when I started sprinkling in publication-posted stories.
That was when things changed.
Even now when I look at my stats, the most read and highest-earning stories are the ones I posted in publications.
So the answer should be easy, right? Just post to publications only and you’ll be golden.
There are a few main issues with this approach:
- Most pubs don’t accept you submitting multiple stories at once, thus making it a slow process
- Most pubs only accept very specific story niches
- Pubs are slow to publish, so unless you machine-gun submit to different ones, any momentum by posting often will be lost
- Some publications don’t even make a difference in your stats because they’re relatively inactive
- Self-promotion is usually strictly limited
The last one is bad because self-promotion is the meat and potatoes of making it on Medium.
And there’s another reason I want to talk to you about in particular.
Making significant income on Medium.
Publications Will Make You Less Money Than You Think
If you’re looking to make money on Medium, you need to consider something: membership fee distribution.
The way the Medium’s Partner Program payment model works is as follows:
Every subscribed members` $5 is split among the writers they spend the most time reading.What this means for you posting to a publication is getting a bad deal.
A reader browsing through a publication is likely to read more than just your article. And the tardy nature of a publication’s posting schedule means you’re 0.001% likely to have two or more of your stories next in close proximity.
To summarize: on the pub’s “latest” page alone you’re going to lose out on a lot of potential money.
You could argue that the extra eyeballs provided by the pub’s followers makes up for this. Sometimes it certainly does.
What I’m indirectly trying to get at is that the optimal strategy would be to build a readership more exclusive to you.
Do you realize why people start publications?
Semi-exclusive readership is exactly why. By organizing a popular pub, the owner is able to plaster their own stories all over the front pages. The writers of the pub also read and listen to the owner like gospel.
So if exclusive readership is your profile, semi-exclusive readership is owning a popular pub and promoting your stories through it.
It’s why I started Build Your E-Dream. There’s nothing shameful about it.
I don’t actually have great faith that it’s going to be a big pub one day (Medium might have died before that happens, ha!). But it’s a good idea for every writer to congregate their niche stories into an easily-accessed library. Posting to your pub is one way to do that.
Not everyone consumes a publication’s stories by navigating to its pages. I’d wager most people actually get them recommended in their feeds.
In my experience, the vast majority of homepage stories are from pubs:
I recommend you go to your homepage and check what the pub-to-self-publish ratio looks for you (and please comment your findings!).
This might be another argument in the favor of posting to a publication. But your mileage will vary. Medium has stated before that publications are supposed to play a lesser role in the algorithm promoting a story or not.
So, What Strategy Should You Execute?
Here’s my strategy and my philosophy behind it:
Strategy 1️⃣: Post stories about creative entrepreneurship, content creation & social media marketing onto Build Your E-Dream
- Reason: To lay the groundwork for a pub that can one day take in writers in a lucrative niche.
Strategy 2️⃣: Use BYED to slowly build exclusive readership.
- Reason: To get a bigger slice of the membership distribution pie in the long run.
Strategy 3️⃣: Regularly post to publications around niches related to BYED.
- Reason: This casts a wide net to reel in more eyeballs to my profile (and my pub). Readers might follow me or the pub when they realize I (usually) stay on topic.
I have more tactics in stock, but these are the main ones related to building readership.
A healthy blend of self-publishing and submitting to pubs is the best long-term strategy to both quickly and intelligently bolster your account.
If you’re enjoying Medium, sign up through my referral link. Thanks!
Want to learn everything you need to make a living as a creative solopreneur? Follow my publication Build Your E-Dream.
