Why You Should Write for The Natural World
Plus a little how-to info!
Do you create content that people like to read and share? Do you want to start reaching more people? Do you know of a story that should be in our publication? Reach out to us here or on Facebook to discuss being a part of the team!
If you know a story that really should be included in The Natural World, even if you didn’t write it and it is already published somewhere else, post a link in the comments below and we may be able to reach out to the author for inclusion here.
The Natural World is a science-based, interpretive publication that aims to increase people’s understanding of our natural heritage, important conservation concerns, and human-animal conflicts. Our intent is to provide answers to commonly asked questions and provide understandable explanations of frequently misunderstood topics regarding the environment and the organisms that share our world.
I chose Medium because it is a vibrant, ad-free platform with sixty million monthly users. Writing and importing stories are easy processes and Medium doesn’t mind if the content has been posted elsewhere. Users may read three stories a month for free or subscribe for $5/month for unlimited access. You can use a friend link anytime to share your stories and get people around the paywall if they hit their limit.
Personally, I go to bit.ly and paste the friend link to create an easy-to-remember shortlink. Then I link relevant articles in response to users’ questions on social media. This saves me a lot of typing and the memorable shortlink makes it more likely that other people (such as group admins) will also begin using it, generating more traffic for my stories and the publication.
Medium pays subscription fees out to the writers. This is based on what articles each user read and applauded that month. Starting out, this may only be a few dollars a month, but if you have quality content, this could turn into a worthwhile passive income stream. See About Medium’s distribution and earnings system.
Quality articles may get recommended by the site’s curators, causing it to appear in topics on the site and app. I’ve had several stories recommended already and placed in the Outdoors, Politics, Economy, and Environment sections.
At the time of this writing (the one month anniversary of the publication), The Natural World holds three of the four most popular slots in the Outdoor section. Publishing with us does not guarantee success or income, but you will be more likely to be discovered by the publication’s readers than if you go it alone.
I started The Natural World so that other talented writers could come over to Medium and have the benefit of an existing following. I would particularly like to have biologists, ecologists, herpetological educators, Master Naturalists, and medical professionals with experience treating outdoor-related injuries. Instead of having to start from scratch or each of us building a following on our own, having the umbrella of a publication will aggregate readers that we bring in for the benefit of all the writers. This does not affect your payouts- payment for your story engagements are independent of whether you are part of a publication.
The Natural World is coming strong right out of the gate. Our first month saw almost 52,000 visitors, which spent 3,000 hours reading the content here. I take this to mean that, with proper curation, editing, and direction, this could be a very useful tool for science communication. It is my firm opinion that, while much more than blog posts needs to happen to drive our species to a sustainable future, increasing the public’s perceived value of our natural heritage is a key component of this movement.
Read our mission statement here.
How to Begin
Writing on Medium is very easy. You can almost certainly figure it out on your own, but I am including some helpful links below. What it boils down to is sign up, flesh out your profile, and send me your username (you don’t need to subscribe to Medium to be a writer). I will add you as a writer to the publication. Then, create a new post (write it here or import an existing post from another platform), submit it to The Natural Word (click the ellipsis next to your avatar), and hit “Ready to Publish.”
Once submitted to the publication, I will be able to edit the post. I make minor changes to the formatting, if needed, and correct any typos. I will consult you if any substantial changes are needed. If you did not add photos, a subtitle, or tags, I will add those as well. I then publish it to The Natural World, create a shortlink, and we both start sharing the link on social media. That’s it!
Look through this information for answers to common questions:
- Sign in or sign up to Medium
- Using Medium
- Your drafts & posts
- Write a post
- Edit a post
- Format text
- Images
- Embeds
- Custom titles & subtitles
- About the Medium Partner Program
- Join the Partner Program
- Add a draft or post to publication
- Member Content Guidelines
- Best practices for journalism on Medium
One note about importing stories: the upsides to importing stories are that it’s quick and easy and that Medium provides a canonical link back to your existing site or blog. The downside is that Medium also imports the original date. If you import a story that you did not write recently, it will appear in the journal list as an old story, making it less likely to be seen. You may want to take a moment to copy your post here manually in these circumstances.
While we are on the subject of writing, here is an article with some free tools that help with editing and style and such.
Thanks for your interest in writing for The Natural World. I look forward to you being a part of the team!
~Micha
