MEDIUM | LEARNING | PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
Medium Showed me the Middle Finger
And it felt really good, actually!
On 30th October, my stats saw a sudden spike. The article I wrote on a designer’s true rival got so many views in a single day that this article’s views pushed the others down and hence the middle finger.
- Get all booked
- The title is vital, like salt is for fries!
- Give it some spaceWhile refreshing my stats page for the 500th time, I got the idea for this article. Eureka!
Now before you start pounding the keyboard like
Oh! This is just a spike of 120 views, so what?
Yeah! I heard you! Mr. ilovemyself007 :D
It is all about celebrating small wins and sharing the insights with the community.
So, here are the 3 things I learned after writing consistently on Medium for a month.
Get all booked
Do you know what’s the worst advice I have ever heard when it comes to writing?
Just write every single day!
Exactly, my heart also broke, and it was painful!
No, it doesn’t work like that. I agree that consistency is the key … blah blah ... I mean, you do need practice and you do need to write and post regularly.
But writing every single day without improving yourself is going to do nothing. You might ask what gives me the right to say that.
So here it comes, Mr. I love chips not fries! I have tested this myself first for my writing every single day. The only result was the frustration of writing approximately 2000 words per day without any positive outcome.
After I realized my mistake, I
- stopped writing every day.
- stopped obsessing over hitting the publish button.
- started reading other people’s articles.
- researched what was working for others and what was not.
These steps helped me improve my writing tenfold.
As Joseph Addison puts it:
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
The title is vital, like salt is for fries!
Ok, I am going to contradict here because this is what has worked for me.
It’s okay if your title is a little clickbait-y.
Before you click off and say I’m giving useless advice, hear me out. I’m not saying writing one thing in the title and a completely different thing in the actual body is a good thing.
Not at all.
I’m just saying that keeping a little bit of suspense by using indirect titles is what hooks the readers.
Here’s an example.
I wrote “a designer’s true rival” as the title of my most successful article because I talk about why beating your own portfolio each time you have a new project gives you exponential growth.
Which makes a designer’s own portfolio his true rival, right?
See how the two are related.
But if I had written “a designer’s true rival” in the title but then given advice on client relationships, that would have been clickbait.
Give it some space
During the time I was reading other people’s articles, I found out that I tended to click off of articles that were crammed and had really long introductions.
Meaning they didn’t have much white space.
I also realized that I was making the same mistake in my articles.
Even though I didn’t let my paragraph exceed 3 lines, I wasn’t using much of the formatting pool Medium has provided.
Here’s what I did after realizing this:
- I started using italics.
- I started using the comment feature by not only putting my own words in comments but also researching other people’s quotes related to my topic.
- I also started using lists and bullet points.
- Table of contents is a must when it comes to user experience. I’m surprised I didn’t add it before, what with being a designer and all.
- I made the headings catchy.
- I applied the art of storytelling for introductions.
- I also started trying to avoid the passive voice, but this needs more practice.
These small exercises make it easy on the readers’ eyes and make them want to stay for more.
Totally off-topic, but what’s up with this whole “don’t check your stats” thing?
I don’t agree with that!
After all, it was checking my stats that made realize what I was doing wrong and helped me grow my views.
How can one expect to succeed and improve without stressing over what is working and what is not?
I think I’m going to write a blog about this next because
One: This article will exceed 20 minutes if I start ranting on it now.
And two: I don’t want to bore you by stretching it.
What do you say? Should I write on the “don’t check your stats” hurricane next?
My name is Muhammad Usman, and I am the founder & creative director of a brand experience design agency. My aim is to help not only the creatives but also the businesses that want to become design-driven and escalate their sales. If you have any questions, I’ll be happy to help out in the comment section. :)
