The benefits of commenting on other people’s work on Medium
Day 4/90 — Practicing gratitude on Medium
I’ve been investigating how to grow my audience on Medium. There seems to be a consensus that what it takes besides great content, is regular content (ideally publishing something every day, or at least several times a week) and some form of personal engagement. This isn’t Instagram or Facebook. A like (=clap) wont do. To get readers, you need to put in more effort.
This means commenting on people’s work. But not the usual, easy-to-replicate “Wow! Great piece! Loved it!”, but comments that reflect that you’ve actually read the piece, understood it, and are giving valuable feedback.
To be able to do this you need to
- find pieces that interest you
- read them
- take a moment to reflect on them
- come up with a response that is valuable to the author
I comment on 5–10 pieces every day.
I’ve made reading and commenting on other people’s work part of my daily routine. I commit to replying to 5–10 pieces a day, which takes me anything between 15 minutes and 1,5 hours, depending on the pieces I choose. Because that is a lot of time into something that pays of only very slowly when it comes to building an audience, I want to make sure that it benefits what I’m trying to achieve in more ways than one.
The benefits of commenting on people’s stories on medium
After committing to this practice, here are some other benefits I’ve identified:
I find things that help me improve my own work.
It could be anything. A specific word that I haven’t used before, a newsletter plugin, or the way they structure their paragraphs. By reading other people’s stories, I am exposed to different styles of writing that consciously and unconsciously influence how I write my next piece.
I practice gratitude.
This is my absolute favorite and most unexpected benefit. Giving someone valuable, honest feedback on their work is a great gratitude practice. In fact, once I’m done with my reading/commenting session for the day I often feel positive and motivated to move on with my own work. I’m assured that I’ve done something meaningful that makes someone else happy. Often I receive a thank you from the writer, which never fails to put a smile on my face.
Gratitude is awesome. Show more of it.
I learn about things I normally wouldn’t know about.
The only rule I have when it comes to commenting on people’s stories, is that the story has to be published recently. Other than that, I just scroll through the headlines until I find one that interests me. As we all know, headlines can be misleading, so I often end up reading about something unexpected. This has definitely expanded my knowledge.
I’m exposed to different perspectives.
I usually filter by newest stories and topic, which means that the pieces I read could be by anyone from anywhere. I read stories by African or Indian authors just as much as I read stories by European authors. The things I read elsewhere are usually colored by the culture I live in. On Medium, however, I’m exposed to perspectives from people from all around the world and with backgrounds so diverse, that they they often have completely different standpoints on familiar topics.
This can be extremely fascinating and eye-opening and has already inspired me to reconsider my opinions more than once.
Do you regularly reply to people’s stories on medium? What have you learned? And does giving feedback — even if online — also fulfil you with gratitude?
Want to contribute to shared and done?
Send in your submission via medium or email me.
This is day 4 of 90 days that I will be sharing something I’ve learned here in this publication. Don’t miss it.
