My first story Hit almost 8.0k views and over 150 fans within one and a half months. Here’s what I learned…
Sharing My Experience…
I’m not bragging about the minute success of my first story on Medium. I just want to share some learnings from my first story. You can follow them as well if you wish, stay with me till the end to know the things I learned and things I kept in mind while writing.
Inspiration
I’ve been a Medium member for a long time now but unfortunately started writing lately. I’ve learned so many things by reading some of the great writers in my niche. Writing a story on Medium was a dream of mine. TBH I was confused about where to start.
I have got a tendency to do a little bit of research every time before I start something.
And as I collected all the energy to write my first story on medium, two questions came into my mind:
- Why did I want to write?
- What I will write?
I gave myself some satisfying answers. I was far from enrolling in the Medium partner program and start earning money from my first story itself as I was having 0 followers and the MPP program requires at least 100 followers.
Still, the answer for writing was that I want to give back something to medium members. I’ve learned so much and it’s now time to repay those knowledge debt with the knowledge and resources I know and have collected.
Secondly, I decided to write about my Niche i.e. UI/UX designing because that is was which excites me.
Initial Research
As of now, I’ve selected which topic to write about, the following questions were:
- What will be the content of my story?
- How I will provide value through it?
- And, How the readers will benefit from my story?
Earlier I had posted so much valuable content on my Instagram and LinkedIn handles. But this time I have to create a story, a story that has so much value with the least words.
That’s when my habit of documenting things came to the rescue. I’d collected a list of portfolios that inspired me. So I decided to write on that topic. I wanted to share things that have helped me and that I thought will help others.
Crafting my first Story
I had 0 experience in how to write a story/article so I did a little bit of research as I mentioned earlier. Lucky a story that came to save me was by J.J. Pryor, “How to Make Money Writing on Medium.com in 2023?”
Believe me, the story that I mentioned above teaches more than just about earning money from Medium. The most important thing which I thought was mentioned in the above-shared article is the medium guidelines which somehow J.J. Pryor didn’t follow(that's what he said) and fell into Medium’s Curation Jail ( a story by Casey Botticello)
I have got a good habit of not following people’s bad habits. — Deep Adalja
Following my habit I did what needed to be done i.e. reading the medium’s curation guidelines. Believe me, these guidelines will be a lifesaver. Thank me (also J.J. Pryor & Casey Botticello) later ;)
Writing and Publishing
Started writing my first story holding my nerves along with strictly following the guideline. You’ll not believe but I had seriously made notes of all the important points mentioned in that curation list. I didn’t want to fall into any kind of jail or so.
Started the story by sharing my experience and how those portfolios have helped me to create one of my own. At some point, I feel that It’s important to ask yourself and tell your readers that “Why you are writing this story?”
Initial success is a Myth(?)
I don’t even have to write about the above image. You can clearly see that it may take up to weeks or sometimes months for your story to pick up reach and the only thing you have to maintain is patience & determination to write your second story.
Advice: I know the following advice is probably not possible but try to forget about the story and start drafting your second one.
Reality: Every few hours after writing my first story, I checked whether is there any clap or follow. As you can see from the above image, there were very few views and reads in the earlier days. But I’ve made up my mind that I’ll not get success very fast, this is a long-term game and eventually posting regular and valuable content will bring you success.
Unexpected Success
It was my first story so I didn't have any publication where I can publish my story. So I decided to publish my story independently and see where it goes.
One day after publishing my story, I woke up and opened the Medium app, there was a highlight by Fabricio Teixeira, asking me to publish my story in Bootcamp Publication. I don’t know if this happens with everyone but I was very happy that some authors are finding my first story worth publishing.
Lessons Learned
Not gonna share the whole story here but I want to list down a few important points which I took care of and they might help you as well.
- Writing a catchy Title
I’ve surfed many articles on Medium, but the ones which I clicked were either having a catch title or hero image. I don’t know if my following advice helps in any way but I decided to use number/digit in my title. Using numbers catches attention(again my experience).
Writing a title that urges a sense of curiosity in the reader’s mind will have a great impact on your story.
2. Try to use a nice hero image( Which I think I didn’t did in the first time)
Images attract our eyes faster than words. Having a nice and beautiful image leads to more reads. As I’ve mentioned in the above point, a good title and image leads to more clicks.
3. Crediting the Owner/Author
If you read the medium guidelines, one of the most important points in that list is crediting the author.
Whether you use images, quotes or any kind of stuff which not created by you should be credited. This is highly recommended(if you don’t wanna fall into the curation jail).
If you see my story, I’ve even provided the links where the readers can find those people whom I’m mentioning in the story.
4. Use clear Images
Using clear images will enhance and boost the reach of your story and it creates a sense of good impression in the mind of the reader.
5. Writing in a proper hierarchy
Aligning and documenting things properly creates a great flow and even the reader finds it easy to get a gist out of it.
6. Try to write more in points than long texts
This advice is very old, you must have heard this in your school days, teachers advise you to write more in points than in long paragraphs.
Try to encompass that advice in your writing. These small things will create a great impact.
7. Have a nice conclusion
Thanking your readers for their time is a great way to connect with them emotionally.
You may also provide links where they can find you and connect with you. Medium is a great way to connect with like-minded people.
Dealing with the Attention
Once the story started getting views, I was overwhelmed by the responses, the readers adding the story to their list. There were many highlights, many readers subscribed me to read my future stories. Many readers followed me.
The Journey Continues
All the things were so overwhelming and I was so happy but the second thought that filled my mind was that I need to maintain the momentum. This was just the starting point. I need to write more valuable content. I need to be transparent and share all the knowledge I have.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I want to tell you all the best for your first story. I wish you great success on Medium. Please read the guidelines, it’ll be very hard to come out of curation jail and which will eventually demotivate you.
Now that you have come so far, I assume that this story was helpful to you in some or the other way. The story I was mentioning the whole time is “12 Designers’ Portfolios that will make you jealous”, which really encouraged me to write more as I got some amazing responses from that.
A clap will make me smile while a follow will definitely motivate me to write more useful stuff.
You can find me on LinkedIn, Instagram & Twitter. I share Tips & Tricks, Useful Resources, and much more stuff related to UI/UX design.
Thank you for reading!!
See you soon on another story :)