2 Not-So-Cool Investments I Made Last Month To Improve My Writing on Medium
My secret strategies to get started on Medium
I have been vocal about why every 9–5 person should master writing online. I have been consistently writing for about 3 years now but mostly on LinkedIn.
While doing so, many people spent a couple of minutes a day reading my content and a few of them (to be precise 43,000 friends) decided to follow me on LinkedIn.
I don’t think I’ve anything special. Neither have I mastered the art of writing.
To be honest, my writing sucks and that’s why I constantly look to improve my writing.
A couple of months back I started writing on Twitter(now X) which I continue to do.
But if you look, LinkedIn and Twitter are there to create short forms of content. Sometimes well written and decently performed content starts there and ends there.
That’s why I decided to give it a try on the Medium.
To write fresh Medium stories and elaborated versions of my well-performed content from LinkedIn & Twitter.
Lots Of Over-Thinking
I’m also one of you who thinks a lot, unnecessarily, and waste my time.
When I decided to get started on Medium I reached out to a few of my friends who are doing great on Medium.
Literally, they were kind enough to patiently answer my stupid questions. Though I still believe in the theory of “there are no stupid questions”.
There is no stupid question; stupid people don’t ask questions.
The problem isn’t asking stupid questions, but over-thinking, waiting, doing nothing, and wasting time.
I can’t deny that I wasted lots of time before even writing articles on Medium. I was literally trying to cook a multi-bagger Medium strategy in my head.
My Two Investments
Luckily, I realized early that I’m wasting time. I immediately decided to make these tiny investments to become good at writing on Medium.
#1. First: Medium Guide
Back in the year 2014–15 being an Electronics and Telecommunication Engineer, I wasn’t aware of what DSA was, how to write a nested loop program, or even how to write multiple IF-ELSE statements.
I remember we had two subjects C & C++ in the first year. I have no idea how I managed to get passing marks.
The handwritten exam probably helped me, otherwise writing code on the computer, making it work in real life was beyond my horizon.
When I decided to teach myself programming, I started with documentation.
- When I started learning HTML, I read all the documentation available here.
- Then I started learning SQL and databases by reading this documentation.
- Then I started learning SAS by reading this documentation.
- Then I started learning Python by reading this documentation.
The point is I firmly believe that to learn something new, get started with the official documentation.
This is how I prefer to learn faster:
- Starts with official documentation/blog/book
- Apply and execute everything you learn, try out things
- Whenever stuck, go back and refer to the same material
Looks very traditional method but it works for me.
Naturally, I read all the Medium guides available on the internet but there is something missing.
I was looking for a practical guide. A story that someone has shared about their own “Writing On Medium” journey, everything they’ve tried and tested, written well in the concise guide.
I have been following Niharikaa Kaur Sodhi on LinkedIn & Twitter. She often talks about side hustle, and writing on Medium.
I came across her Medium Guide — The exact guide I was looking for.
In her ebook, she has shared everything to get started on Medium.
It’s more practical than theoretical, I felt. This is definitely not a paid or sponsored mention. Even if it does, who cares as long as you get exactly what you’re looking for?
#2. Second: Medium Membership
When you search anything on Google, you might end up visiting medium articles, and most of the time you see the message: “This is a member-only article”. At least I have experienced this multiple times.
Medium has a limit on how many articles you can read for free per month/week.
You can’t read more stories without Medium membership.
I came across some stunning writers who are pouring their hearts into writing articles on Medium.
Some of them write technical content, some of them write about lifestyle, and others write productivity, sport, health, and wealth.
The algorithm is also kind enough to introduce me to more good writers. I was surprised to see people write long, in-depth articles on programming, data science, analytics projects, and whatnot!
In fact, I write programming tutorials on my tech blog. I see Medium as a good opportunity to write on the same topics.
It’s a fair game of diversification of an online presence by re-purposing existing content.
I won’t copy-paste my article here but I can easily write alternate articles on the same topics using already published blog articles.
I’m still not clear how I’m going to do this but I’ll figure it out on the go.
When you surround yourself with like-minded people, observe how smart and successful people are doing, and learn from them.
The journey becomes easy.
That’s why I bought a one-year Medium subscription. I also did one more thing, dumped all my OTT subscriptions.
I never thought I would ever buy a subscription for a P-U-B-L-I-C-A-T-I-O-N platform.
But I did.
When I used to see paid subscriptions for any blog, news website, research papers, or case studies, my initial thought was: “It’s a waste of money”. I’m sure many of you are still thinking the same.
Why should you buy subscriptions for the information which is easily available on Google for free?
It’s just a matter of investing time to do a Google search, scan through the articles to get the information you want.
Trust me it isn’t that straightforward.
I’m fully convinced that the quality of articles written on Medium is pretty high. It doesn’t mean articles available on the internet are bad quality content.
There are tons of good blogs out there but you need to find them in the ocean of the Internet. That’s the reality and it’s hard.
On Medium all you need is to scroll through, list people who publish good quality articles on specific topics which you’re interested in, and follow them.
That’s all you need to do.
Every day you open Medium and read unlimited quality content on topics you’re interested in.
That is the exact reason why I made this second investment.
Click here to follow me on Twitter (Now X)
Medium has now adjusted membership pricing based on PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) index.
If you’re from India then check out this article to know how you can buy a Medium membership subscription with a 50% discounted price(by leveraging PPP).
