Writing
You Want To Go Viral? Listen To What My Research Says
Get your secret magic potion
Let’s start with some background information. About a week ago, I did a survey where I asked you guys a few questions about writing on Medium. Today, I want to share some information and highlight some of the thoughtful responses I got. Let’s begin!
Titles
The title is unquestionably the most important in an article and one of the differentiating factors between fame and obscurity.
In my first question, I asked which title is best to which 36% of you preferred:
What researchers found when they examined Albert Einstein’s brain
Why people chose this title mainly comes down to one point: it has credibility. Because this title included the word “researchers” it gave credibility to the article. The information in the article isn’t faulty.
Try to incorporate this into your own titles. Give a reason why your opinion is valid or why the information in the article is legitimate.
The “You will never believe” title got 20% of the votes but also received a lot of backlashes. It felt too clickbaity and therefore, people would immediately skip it. Don’t use clickbait.
Title 2
I wanted to find out if the punctuation colon actually makes a difference. Many successful writers use the colon, but I wonder if it really makes a difference.
The opinions were mixed. It was a 44/56 split.
Some people prefer the title without the punctuation colon because it’s a bit easier to read. Others favor the title with a colon due to the most interesting part being at the beginning.
So I guess there is no conclusion on whether the punctuation colon is good or bad. Let me know what you think.
Title 3
Does including a “you” in your title actually work.? Tim Denning and other writers recommend using “you” in your title. The reader wants to know something that will help them.
And Tim Denning’s advice is true.
But if you include the “you” at the end of the title, the effect will diminish. Even though “you will never believe” has the magical word in it, it sounds too clickbaity and therefore won’t work.
Title 4
The fourth title experiment I did was about changing the placement of the words. The sentences almost had the same exact words. It was just about the order in which they were.
As you can see, the best title was the second one. The first word was “my experience” which made it more personal. Even if you knew a thing or two about Peru, you might still want to click on the article because of the different viewpoints it might offer.
The title also included a reason why my opinion would be valid. I went on a vacation there.
Title 5
In the 5th title, I wanted to test if including the name of a famous person in a title, would perform better. The short answer: yes. These are the results:
The title mentioning Trump was preferred by the audience. I guess the second title made them wonder: If Trump is not the most hated man in America, then who is?
In order to go viral, you must stop the user from scrolling endlessly through articles. Something in the title must catch their attention and make them stop scrolling.
Titles
Jenn Leach, a famous writer on the platform advised putting big numbers in titles to catch people’s attention and make them stop scrolling. So I asked that question:
So I guess life isn’t black and white after all. Big numbers could catch people’s attention or not.
Subtitles
Do subtitles actually matter? Do people only click on an article because of the title and ignore the subtitle? Well, I wanted to find out.
I think the answer is pretty obvious. People look at your subtitles, so make them the best you can.
Images
Which images are the best? Everyone’s opinion is different and there is no rexact answer, but which images do the majority prefer?
As you can see, the opinions were really mixed. To truly know which types of images people prefer, you will need to make a selection of hundreds of images and ask people for their opinion. Filling in a long survey would be very time-consuming.
But I still did something fun, I went ahead and made a contest. Who’s article photos are best? Well here are the results:
- Series A = Mike Lewis = 38,5%
- Series B = Me = 15,4%
- Series C = Indigo = 7,7%
- Series D = Tim Denning = 30,8%
- Series E = Isaiah McCall = 7,7%
I guess Mike Lewis’ photos were the best. But in the end, it’s all subjective.
Btw, what do you think about the cat image at the top?
General
Length
What is the ideal length of an article?
People want to read 3, 4, or 5-minute long articles. Most of the articles on Medium are of this length, but this response is quite remarkable.
Almost no people selected the 1 to 2-minute category. The Shortform, which only accepts stories shorter than 150 words, is a wild success on Medium. They offer readers a short but juicy nugget of information while being on the go, for example.
And on the other side, Tim Denning mainly writes articles with a length of 6 to 9 minutes long.
So there might not be a definite answer.
Quality vs. Quantity
Many successful writers say that you just need to write. But what do you think about this strategy?
According to the survey, many people disagreed with the advice given by top writers.
Most of you had this opinion: writing quality content will build up a strong follower base over the long term and will make you remembered.
What most top writers try to say is that you should publish lots of quality articles. I think that is what they are trying to say.
Niches
Should you have 1 or multiple niches? There have been countless articles saying why one is better than the other. What do you guys think?
As you can see, the results are mixed, again.
However, when I asked if you had any remarks about the previous question, the responses did lean towards one side. Writers like to write about different niches because that’s how humans are.
Most of you out there aren’t interested in one thing, you are multipotentiality. This is just a fancy word for saying you have multiple interests.
Favorite writer
This was maybe one of the most important questions on the survey. Why do you like your favorite writer, what is special about them? Here are some interesting responses which were submitted:
“Their knowledge, how they make it easy to read, they put a little personality in… but not too much. They don’t feel like they’re selling to me. After reading I feel I’ve gained something.”
“Writes relevant content about topics I care about, provides unique insight, and has an easy-to-read tone of voice. ”
The general thought was is: they provide an interesting viewpoint on an interesting topic. Their articles are also easy to read and have a good flow.
So try implementing these things into your own articles, maybe you will do better.
Final Thoughts
I hope I gave you some juicy nuggets of information today. I also hope that applying some of this advice will help you succeed on your journey in writing on medium.
Readers who wanted to be tagged for the follow-up article:
KnowledgeCollective, Ilam Padmanabhan, Wendy Scott MPharm, Divyata Dewan, BichoDoMato, Thecreatorsangel, Gabby Gabs, Olivia Wendell, Jennifer Locklear, Lyra Blackwood, Sabrina Johnson, Andy Fraser, Robin Nemesszeghy, Diren - the storyteller, M&Z
Dammit, I overheated my Macbook again ;)
Some other articles. you might enjoy reading:
Special thanks to Lucas Dawn btw, go check him out.
