Develop Medium Swagger that Compels Readers to Read
What Medium really wants writers to write about
As a writer on Medium, you’re probably trying to figure out what to write about.
You’re trying to decide if what you write will really knock the socks off your readers.
You’re trying to make head or tail of the fact that some pieces you write get little or no views.
The Swagger of Success
And what I’ve noticed is that most successful Medium stories have a certain swagger about them.
In other words, that swagger is apparent because the stories written address the goals, gifts, and experiences of readers.
Writers share wisdom, advice and a goldmine of guidance to educate and enlighten readers.
Writers, thus, speak words that activate guys and gals to eagerly read what you have written.
For that is what Medium is all about … getting readers to read, writers to write, and audiences to relate to one another. To bond, to connect, to form relationships.
And in order to do that, a writer has to make one important decision.
What is Your Goal?
Namely, a writer has to ask herself: what is my goal when I write this piece?
For according to Bob Bly, in his e-book Bob Bly’s Best Kept Copywriting Secrets, everything depends on what kind of writer you are. For Bly says journalists are taught to investigate, “to dig for dirt” and expose what has gone wrong.
Bly says fiction writers want to “express their innermost feelings” and write stories that are exciting and “move the audience.”
And magazine article writers have two goals: “entertainment and education.”
Why You’re Not Making Money
That is the job the writer has to do for the audience. But then a writer also has to have the goal of earning a living. In short, making money with her words. And that is what a copywriter does.
But Medium doesn’t allow writers to write straightforward copy that urges people to buy their products. Instead, they allow us to offer a freebie, or ‘lead magnet,’ when readers subscribe to our email list.
And most people know, the money is in the list.
For when people join your email list, you can offer them products that they will buy. And you can earn your grub as a writer.
The First Rule of Successful Copywriting
But in order to entice people to actually read the article that leads to joining your email list, to get the freebie, according to Bly, you must “put aside your mindset as a journalist and adopt the writing habits and techniques of a successful copywriter.”
And that means, you practice the first copywriting rule in everything you write. You “put the prospect first.” You don’t think merely about the product, or the article you’re writing. You “start with the prospect — her needs, desires, fears, concerns, problems, headaches, and dreams.”
Because readers are only interested in your article because of what it will do for them. How it will help them. What they will get.
In short, how they will benefit from reading what you write.
The 3 Levels
And as Bly also says, you have to reach readers on three different levels at the same time: the intellectual, the emotional, and the personal.
According to Bly, you do that with the BDF formula: Beliefs; Desires; and Feelings.
For every reader has certain beliefs, desires, and feelings about what you are writing about. And thus, she must be moved to believe what you say is true. Develop a desire to read. And experience the good feelings she gets by reading what you write.
Start With a BDF Statement
Bly advises “before writing copy, write out in narrative form the BDF of your target market.”
Figure out how your ideal reader feels about the topic that you are writing about. Write it down. And then address that attitude in your article.
In other words, make sure what you say in your article addresses your topic from the point of view of your audience.
A Heart-to-Heart Experience
Because before she can even consider your advice, she must get the feeling that she is understood and heard. For your reader will only relate to your words if what you have said first sparks the feeling that you really know how she feels. That you really care about how she feels.
For Medium is a platform that gets to the heart of what readers really feel.
In order to do that, a writer must write about heart-to-heart experiences audiences respond to.
The Personal Swagger
Bly sums up the Medium experience when he says, “the most powerfully you can reach people is on a personal level.”
In other words, you develop the swagger of a personal writer.
Be a writer who reaches out to your audience by speaking to their innermost thoughts and feelings and you will compel readers to read not only what you write today, but everything you write about that concerns them.
