Proven Approaches for Writing Viral Articles on Medium
I have tested and confirmed these nine tips
You have probably heard or seen unicorn stories of how a writer publishes a post on Medium, and overnight, it explodes to tens of thousands of views. Their article won the lottery of going viral.
But after months of posting on Medium with minimal growth, you feel viral content relies purely on luck.
After cracking the Medium algorithm lately with two or three viral posts in one month, I am here to debunk that myth.
Writing viral articles is far from random chance. There is a mechanism to it.
Follow these proven strategies I have validated through recent viral articles of my own:
1. Study Your Niche’s Viral Content
Examine your category sorting by popularity all-time. Study recurring themes and hook formulas in the most viewed posts.
Notice what first grabs you in the titles and openings. This trains your intuition to recognize high-potential ideas in the wild.
2. Study and Know What Your Audience Wants
Review your analytics to see which articles and themes perform best and which category of readers makes up the highest percentage of your audience. This shows what your existing readers crave more of from you specifically.
Study the articles that go viral on your competitors’ pages. See what broad trends and topics resonate across your target audience generally. Merge these insights to predict and deliver what your readers want.
3. Pay Attention to Trends
Viral posts often ride waves of hot trends and news hooks. But do not just copycat. Add your spin and commentary.
For example, many 2022 viral posts incorporated themes around Quiet Quitting, Great Resignation, burnout culture, etc. But they put a fresh angle on these established trends.
A common trend on Medium for now is articles predicting things to happen in 2024. Jump in — write an article around 2024 that your audience can relate to.
4. Tell Personal, Authentic Stories
My viral articles draw from my real-life experiences in an honest, vulnerable way. People connect with stories - especially the ups and downs they can relate to from experience.
Use a format like "How I Overcame [Your Struggle]" rather than detached "How To" posts. Sprinkle personal stories throughout pieces, not just introductions.
5. Optimize Titles Using Emotional Triggers
The most viral headlines spark immediate interest and intrigue at a gut level. They tap into emotional triggers like shock, laughter, hope, fear, urgency, certainty, and curiosity.
For example, use the proven “Why [Surprising Reason]” hook:
Why Most Remote Workers Are Struggling With Burnout”
Or tap curiosity by asking,
“Are You Making This Common [X] Mistake?”
Test permutations like:
The Common Remote Work Mistake Ruining Your Productivity
Why Remote Workers Are Secretly More Stressed Today
Are You Making These 3 Work-From-Home Productivity Mistakes?
Observe which article variants attract the most early clicks and shares based on the titles. This helps you determine the highest potential versions to amplify.
Keep iterating to build intuition for headline hooks that spark viral sharing.
Study reactions and soak up insights over time. Soon, you master the art of irresistible titles specifically for your niche and audience interests.
Further reading: “How to Write Headlines So Good People Can’t Look Away”
6. Structure Content to Hook the Audience Early Enough and Add a CTA
Frontload value-dense sections readers cannot resist sharing on social media. Quotes, stats, personal stories, etc., make compelling teasers.
Similarly, end your article with a compelling call to action driving shares and engagement. Convince through social proof: “If you enjoyed this, help spread the word!”
For example, you will find the below CTA at the end of all my articles.
7. Target High-Traffic Topics and Keywords
Medium as a platform allows the use of five predefined topics to classify your article. Strategically select five topics with a high follower base. This will double your potential reach.
Similarly, do keyword research to work high-volume search terms naturally into content. This amplification places articles in front of those most interested.
8. Optimize for SEO Beyond Medium
Medium has an SEO settings feature that allows optimization for Google discoverability.
Then, you can tweak titles, meta descriptions, and subheads using keywords driving external searches.
Now beyond Medium, pieces rank well organically in Google results, multiplying impact and exposing new waves of readers to your viral articles!
These two articles of mine are currently ranking on the first page of Google SERP. The first for “Freelance Writing Niches 2024” and the second for “Layoffs in 2024.”
9. Commit to Consistent Writing
Only writing sometimes means less chance of going viral. But writing more articles increases the chances of one blowing up.
For example, assuming one out of ten articles you write could go viral using these tricks. To get two viral posts, you will need to write 20 good articles.
To have four articles that might go viral, you should have 40 solid posts out there.
Viral writing is a bit of a numbers game.
The more articles you churn out while using these ideas, the better chance for some of them to take off.
Most posts will still only get okay views. But writing regularly increases your chances of seeing a big win.
So, keep pumping out posts using these viral ideas as much as possible. Remember, the more you write, the more chances a career-changing viral smash could happen!
Wrapping Up
There, you have proven optimization strategies enabling my recent article virality.
The days of guessing aimlessly at viral ideas are behind you. You now have a model generating contagious headlines and content deliberately.
Pretty soon, you receive those notifications informing you another high-performer is taking off!
While uncertainty always exists, you increase the odds of going viral by planning around these principles.
Experiment with one or more optimization strategies per piece and observe the impact.
Consistency compounds over time.
Before you know it, you publish viral posts regularly, bringing recognition and Medium $.
I hope this helps you. If it did, be sure to clap me a thousand times (joking, a few tens would do), leave me a comment (it will encourage me a lot — smiles), and share this with someone you know needs it (they say sharing is caring).
You can also check out my latest ebook, “The Writer’s Compass,” on Amazon to learn how to improve your writing and build a decent career making money from your writing skills.
