YOUR AUDIENCE GETs GROWING
3 Reasons To Sign Up On Medium
Stop writing stories in your head — let ’em take off
Intro
Never being critical or deprecating the architecture of Medium as a social publishing platform, it’s just a matter of idle curiosity without giving it the benefit of the doubt. What is Medium’s place globally? Who are competitors? And what is the ratio between Medium active writers, members, and visitors? First off, here is the competitors’ circle chart since 2014.
It’s a simple datum. Among social publishing platforms, Reddit is Mr. First and Quora is Ms. Second famous, whereas Medium ranks third outpacing Substack (for professionals), and Vocal (for enthusiasts). As an option, Newsbreak is the US nation’s leading local news app. They are out of the circle chart because they are not fully tracked by tools of organic and paid searching campaigns yet to outline them proportionally. However, being tough competitors, they are breathing down Medium’s neck. Be aware.
Supposing there’s a person who believes in becoming a member and living life as a writer. There are several options but three of them are solid:
1. Quora has its Partner Program which is invite-only, and one must have at least 100,000 views to get invited to the platform. You can earn extra money there but, as a fresher, it’s a drop in the ocean to live off it.
2. Reddit is a constantly updating feed of news, memes, videos since 2005, and is meant mostly for niche communities. For example, one of the extravagant cases is when young ladies share their first-ever fellatio experience with the feed’s world or an opposite niche where geeks share subtle coding features in Python, etc. — it’s handsomely if you’re that type of personality.
3. Medium is a questionable case with its Partner Program. Be ready for changes that ramp up the Program eligibility standards to entry. Medium’s prospect members now need to have gathered anyhow 100 followers and have published at least a single story to be enrolled in the Partner Program. Publishing not less than one story every six months is mandatory to remain part of the Program whilst the members become rewarded based on the longevity of time a guest spent reading their stories. Moreover, another main eligible requirement is Stripe payment acceptance — your country should be Stripe enlisted.
Medium’s new prerequisites and enrollment restrictions could reduce the number of eligible writers in the already halving pool of active members enrolled. But don’t get upset, here’s simple math:
The overall number of clicks is above 70M whereas full-value visitors are over 26M.
Quantity of members — 730 000
Average monthly fee — $5
Average annual budget — $ 43,8M
730 000 x $5=$43,8M which is close to the CEO statement,
“Tens of thousands” of authors get paid through the program every month, Medium founder Ev Williams said.
Hey, I’m not here to count other people’s money. It’s statistics. Anyways, Medium is still a space rocket considering its member fee budget, you can definitely earn money here or be acknowledged as a professional free to hire — like one of the Medium members who has taken off by making his name in, and, in the long run, was invited to write for the crypto world. It’s a reason, huh?
Being on Medium some writers find it difficult while hoping to get paid from the Program, which means it’s scarcely possible to follow up one strategy or another — the algorithm or management of the platform decide it. But mostly focused people manage to find a solution to get themself in good standing.
Check it out, many a member receives Medium’s e-mail notice, “Your audience is growing”, even if you did nothing to write home about on Medium for a quarter. That’s a follow-to-follow train hack of members on how to get accumulated those 100 followers on Medium. Fellow writers help you anyways. Don’t be a jerk, be kind to follow them in return until your one-day famous profile hits 1M followers. Although the space is sometimes flooded with irrational content full of frame stories and sales offers in disguise to mislead unsophisticated people earning money by chance and gaining doubtful quick highs. It’s not decent, hah? This is none other than a Paradox of Practice. It’s a talk-talk strategy that breeds money, not a talk-walk one. You can check it out with websites and some YouTubers, for more details please yourself by reading “The Millionaire Fastlane” on page 91. This book is written by MJ DeMarco. It’s worth reading in terms of grabbing a momentous idea as to switch teams and turn to a real producer (artist, writer, designer, etc.) first, a thinking consumer second.
Here we’re coming up to the point that Medium platform is not a Vanity fair preaching a Paradox of Practice but a Workshop to turn anyone into a reliable producer full of valuable content as thick as blackberries.
First off, referring to the header’s subtitle “Don’t write stories in your head…” Don’t be that person who talks & talks in their mind, write down your thoughts and ideas any time because there’s an Italian proverb: “Se son rose, fioriranno.” — “If roses, they will bloom”.
Surely there’s plenty of hard work in the Medium garden. There’re few aspiring writers who stick to plans and schedules to deal with micro routines like not being afraid to get hands dirty while spreading manure around for one single goal to get a harvest one day anyway.
Medium could be a launching point if your sleeves rolled up you make a name in by providing values to other people through your own stories of experience and routines. The audience here is always picky, so one gotta be ready to share some quality stuff with those who are searching for a clue.
Here we go. There are at least three reasons to get on board Medium’s Ark
# 1 Medium’s reason: It helps upgrade writing and articulate skills
“You should write down what your think, if you want to make yourself articulate…If you can think and speak, and write, you’re absolutely deadly. No one can get in your way.” — Jordan Peterson, PsyD, YouTube influencer and author.
If you ever feel a lack of words, or you’re a foreigner like me, right in the mornings with a cup of coffee grab your gadget and get the Marriam-Webster App installed (no need to sign up, just go ahead). The MW is America’s most useful and respected dictionary. Pick a word of a day page, pronounce a word on the screen, watch sample sentences, and listen to its native voice acting. Voilà, your active vocabulary is growing at least 300 words per year, and you’re getting better anyways. Along the way, nobody’s canceled reading books yet.
The best piece of advice is to write down those words of a day by making up sample sentences on your own. Learn them by heart. Sounds ridiculous, as it’s obvious to fluent native speakers because they learn their language on autopilot, though things change once natives get scheduled to study and write an essay in Spanish or Pǔtōnghuà. So, the writing process is a must. Making writing a habit is a huge advantage.
“Practice makes perfect” — Ernest Hemingway / “Islands In The Stream”
Absolutely, Medium platform is one of the distinguished places to start honing your abilities in vocabulary, structure, and presentation but the first step is to get a writing skill and expand vocabulary. You don’t want to screw it up with your story in public, you will be a good kind at first to check a word and a structure 10 times in a row before it runs like clockwork.
Section summary:
- To make thoughts clear, get pen and paper to write them down
- Try on a word of day technique
- Don’t write stories in your head — get yourself out of it and hit publish
# 2nd Medium’s reason:
Sales skill is a must of your content
However, I’d rephrase it, “Fair sales skill is a killing dope must in this world of content”.
In general, it doesn’t matter what writing output is commercial or mundane. One big reason is to pick one fair topic and surf it up without pitfalls, misleading, or judging whosoever. Find a problem — and suggest a decision.
“When there is a problem, there is an opportunity disguised as a solution”. — Ishita Kapoor, an Indian entrepreneur
Don’t worry, here’s the original one by John Adams, the 2nd President of the US, — “Every problem is an opportunity in disguise.”
For instance, I’m not a native speaker but I know it’s an opportunity to get better at communicability, sales, and trust with Medium’s stuff. In the future, even though my country’s out of Stripe list for Medium stories so far, I’m sure I’ll find a way of deploying my values and skills that I’ve been honing through days-months-years while supporting fellow members on Medium.
Briefly, before brushing up on sales techniques, I’ve found that the true leitmotif of any shifts in life is struggling for Double F (Finance and Freedom). Freedom fighting is such a pain in the butt, you know what I mean. So, don’t waste another year or two drifting on with sails flat. If you experience constant failures it doesn’t mean you failed. Remember, it’s for the best. After quitting my corporate day job three years ago, my goals were to become a writer, a trader, and an entrepreneur — all got failed. I had to change tactics for a while. C’est la vie.
“I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet
A pawn and a king
— Frank Sinatra, “That’s life”
The best-chosen approach was never holding grudges against whosoever or whatsoever because the first one who gets angry will lose.
Taking it under control, analyzing from the very beginning, my major mistakes were a lack of focus, communicability, writing, and sales skills.
What helped me the most that time was reading stories by Ayodeji Awosika(his article hooked me on first), Jessica Lynn, Isaiah McCall, Anthony J. Yeung, and many others.
I’d been picking their articles, highlighting structures and techniques being amazed how easily they convey their feelings and their personal experiences to get to reader’s minds. Alas, I could not go on contemplating and practicing it since I’d come close to a zero income curve without being able to pay my bills and loans. I challenged myself to drive a taxi for two months before the first pandemic lockdown happened, joined entrepreneurship, launched a medical agency startup partnership, and traded Forex CFD with as little as 800USD borrowed deposit, blew it all... got down flat in despair for a week. But got myself up again.
I didn’t give up setting up an eBay account for selling winter socks — it sucked; designed an account on RedBubble —it didn’t take off. I kept on finding the keys, taking a sales agent position in real estate for a year. That year wasn’t as fruitful as expected. It’s a tough business but I’m still kicking my backside in the game to learn more sales techniques to get them installed in my brainware for everyday life and business purposes. The reason for my experienced mishaps must have been a value absence. Surely it all works like an old prophecy — give value and you shall receive. Hit (influence) a million people and you’re a 1M subs blogger. It’s all simple maths again.
I’ve found better ways with value delivery while making cold calling or new meetings for the real estate business. Such techniques can be nifty. Though there are several restrictions for some subjects in sales. But first, here’s one technique on how to deliver values to an audience.
The value algorithm is called FBC
F stands for Facts, B stands for Benefits, C is for Closing questions or calls to action, persuading to make a decision:
✅Fact is the current case one has at the moment (an issue to be solved or position one takes)
✅Benefit is what your value looks like (your idea, product, device, speech, and writing);
✅Closing is the result of the above stages such as questioning prospects or calling them to action)
Example: “Our teamwork getting featured in Google, Y Combinator, etc. reported by the WSJ (Fact). There’re plenty of IT dev issues that can be solved for your purposes (Benefit), would it be of interest to you (Closing Q)?”
In general, the above technique has much in common with a PAS (Problem-Agitation-Solution) where a negotiator summons facts of a current problem, then piles up each of new arguments by agitating and convincing the other party to take any action with certain steps of the scheduled plan leading to a solution.
Back to those extremely touchy subjects that overlap with sales, there are three of them — get them out:
Three “Never” Subjects
❌never try to cram it all or sell in one story/speech/meeting. In real estate sales, it’s called to cram it in unsellable — no one wants to make a deal with such sales.
❌never touch a topic of someone’s health or intimacy, omit Covid-19 discussions, known cases, and names — it’s privacy.
❌never flaunt your swell financial status or its opposite in public (a meeting or a phone call). Bragging or exposed vulnerability may cause miscommunication, misunderstanding, and losing rapport, a lead, or a prospect.
Section Summary:
- Sales skills help make a breakthrough in business and social life
- Pick F.B.C. technique and practice
- Structure your speeches or writings with Facts, Benefits, and Closing questions
- Remember to comply with those above 3 “Never” subjects in sales
#3rd Medium’s reason:
This is a space where authors can support fellow members if in trouble
My bio says I’m a cosmopolitan, a work ethic geek. Is it that obvious I want to be a part of the tribe? Nay. Not at all. However, any human being is social, always searching for acknowledgment followed by a neurotransmitter serotonin reaction mediated satisfaction, happiness, and optimism. Especially, being a successful person. But sometimes as ill-luck would have it and life turns from happiness to disturbances.
Some months ago, Jessica Lynn, a gifted Medium writer I’ve mentioned above, made an urgent post:
“Hello Medium Community, A Fellow Medium Writer Needs our help” as a small ask for a fellow member, Shannon Ashley, who is one of the most genuine, kind-hearted fellow writers in the Medium community. She is suffering from a serious disease of inflamed fat cells that affects primarily women. It causes burning pain and abnormal sensations in the tissues of the legs, hips, and buttocks. Jessica’s post was a request of help for Shannon, being also a single mother raising her 7 y.o. daughter, Sophie.
To date, with help of Medium’s community, a sufficient amount of money was timely collected, and Shannon is waiting for surgeries scheduled for January 18, February 22, and March 24th.
There was a trashing mess kicked up by some jelly monsters about fundraising w/o Medium supervision and moderation but it’s all well settled down. Shannon will be okay.
That’s how life goes on — the famous song by Frank Sinatra. But we’re all here to forgive, learn, teach, serve and support each other.
Hope it doesn’t look like I’m delivering the eulogy for Medium or anyone else out there. Being an unenrollee member of Medium I’ve been participating here to support fellow writers and share my life stories and ideas with the world or let it remember me.
Closure
Medium is a balanced universe where anyone at first is a giver who over time turns to a blessed and grateful kind.
To write is not easy, to get feedback on your writing is 10x harder. If you are persistent and focused you will reach those highs of wordy grounds.
There’s one thing for your consideration — your life and your story. Unless you live as an anchoret or rationalize being a victim, it might be a single f*cking reason for not having any story of yours. Even an isolated life matters — this life is waiting for your bold intentions, keep doing, or keep writing and hit publish that green button. Do it for yourself because from now on you’re building your name with your own words in history — this is your timeless genuine legacy.
Consider becoming a Medium member hence you can directly support many writers here and gain access to the entire Medium database. Sign up here. (nonaffiliate- I don’t get paid for it)
Happy membering!
Recommended book references:
The book that changed my mindset 10X faster than watching motivation videos or listening to podcasts:
“The Millionaire Fastlane” /MJ DeMarco (an Amazon affiliate link). If you pick to purchase this recommended book, you help support me at no added cost to you.
“The Millionaire Fastlane” /MJ DeMarco (nonaffiliate link)
Roman Kley is a newbie writer and adventurous person, originally from Oymyakon, Yakutia, the former Soviet republic, but has always been feeling a global citizen.
