Why You Should Use the Word “Cock” in Your Title
And a few other things I’ve learned about SUCCESSFUL sex writing on Medium.
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When I started writing here under this pen name in 2019 I did so quite specifically because I’d read a post by Tracey Folly about how much money she was making sex writing and I thought:
“I bet I can do that, too.”
Back then, besides Tracey, the only other sex writers on my radar who I consider Medium’s OG sex writers were Emma Austin and Yael Wolfe, and everyone since has sort of switched directions but for Emma who doubled down and is just fabulous.
About a year and a half ago now I wrote a post about whether one should become a sex writer here, but it was more of an existential thought piece, looking back:
Since then, I’ve seen HUNDREDS of mostly women and a few men flock here to try to cash in on the sex writing niche, and some I’ve talked to are doing well, and some are doing… not so well.
Although I haven’t written here much in the last year, my back catalog of over 500 pieces is still bringing in hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of dollars a month, and a recent-ish article of mine that has done well made me want to come here and talk about sex writing again, but actually give you some unsolicited advice this time:
Be more salacious than you think you should be.
Hands down the biggest mistake I see sex writers making is with their titles — the titles just aren’t salacious enough to draw in the people who will want to read them — they’re too cutesy or vague.
I think sex writers are afraid to get too salacious and sexy with their titles because they think that A.) Medium might not like that and the algorithm will hide their article, and/or B.) They don’t want to sound too much like outrageous click-baity ho’s like that girl Meaghan. Heh.
For instance, someone might choose to use a title like:
“Honey, would you like to taste my honey?”
But if you’re me, and you want to make money and get attention, you’d title it:
“Would You Suck the Cum Right Out of Me?”
Remember, if you’re writing sex here, you obviously want people to click on your articles, and I’ve found that the more salacious and to the point they are, the better they work.
“Why I Love Sucking Cocks” WILL perform better on this platform than a piece titled: “Pleasuring My Husband is My Pleasure”
Now, here’s a time when a click-baity salacious title made my month.
I wrote a story about the number of my sexual partners — not about the sex I had with them, the article itself wasn’t salacious at all, but I called it: “I’ve Had All the Cocks in the Land.” and this is how it’s doing so far:
Not only did this one article pay my phone and car insurance bills for the month, it was chosen for further distribution.
If it hadn’t had “Cock” in the title? If I had just called it something like: “What My Number of Sexual Partners Says About Me” — it probably would have made less than a third of that in income and gotten lost in the shuffle.
Hence why I say, be ye not afraid, sex writers, to be salacious with your titles.
It seems the Medium Gods are NOT fucking with your algorithm, they’re actually clicking on our smutty titles to give them a closer look now and then.
If you want to be a sex writer on Medium, don’t hold back with your titles.
Very few people will want to read:
“My Magical Journey into the Sacred Yoni.”
They want this:
Know your audience.
Trust me.
You can’t go wrong with a ‘first time’ story.
If you are just getting into sex writing, or if you have been doing it for a while and haven’t already done this yet — go back and cover the basics.
Everyone loves hearing about a first time story.
I think that it has something to do with the fact that a certain type of person out there loves to read about a girl’s loss of innocence.
Yeah, it sounds kind of pervy, but if you’re going to write sex on Medium, or anywhere for that matter, let me tell you — you’re going to encounter a whole lot of perverts who think stories about explicit underage sex are okay, but they’re not, they’re illegal, and I won’t write them.
I will, however, recount my own tales of when I was seventeen, marginally underage, and experiencing my own first times.
This is how it’s done for me:
“The First Time I Was Eaten Out” is one of my top performing stories EVER, and the thing of it is… those stories are the absolute easiest to tell.
Everyone’s first time is different, and everyone remembers and can recount, if they so choose, their first sexual experiences, and people will eat them up.
It’s so easy… You don’t even have to make anything up!
You just share a memory as best you can (Ahem, make it hot!), and let the dollars roll in.
Let me remind you to…actually focus on the sex.
Just like first time stories, my other best performing stories are the personal, but often (in my mind) quite banal erotic depictions of various sexcapades I’ve had throughout my life.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, in my experience, people aren’t coming so much to read HOW to do things, they aren’t coming for instructional material, how-tos, or sexual academia… they just want to read about people doing the things.
Yes, the more outrageous the better:
I will FOREVER be known on Medium for my one brief but memorable encounter with an actual micropenis, and I know this because I wrote that article in 2019 and I am still getting emails from men with micropenises thanking me for being kind to them.
You’re welcome.
Women writing about masturbating? Also a lucrative venture, as long as (in my experience, but I bet Yael would argue 😉), you are doing it to “turn on” not to inform.
To me, writing about having sex with yourself is even easier than writing about having sex with a partner, and this story above was another one that was likely just pulled out of my butt one day when I was wondering what to write.
You don’t have to teach anyone anything with your sex writing.
I’m here to tell you, more people will be thanking you just for making them feel less alone in their kinks and fetishes than will ever thank you for a good tip, so do them and yourself a favor and if you’re going to write about sex? Write about your sex.
And, what I’ve found, is that when you feel like you’ve written all of your first time stories, all of your manifestos, all of your (yeah) tips and tricks, all of the things that you thought you’ve come here to say… Well, then write about the sex you want to have.
I am in no way proposing that all sex writing endeavors and careers are created equal, and you must remember that I have over 560 articles published in the span of four years, but look at the numbers of views generated just on ruminations about sex.
Also, look at the titles.
Eh? You see what I’m saying about being salacious?
When in doubt? Write erotica.
Can you believe it took me about two years to jump on the erotica writing bandwagon? That was something I watched other people do here before I decided to throw my hat in the ring, but I’m absolutely glad I did because it generally does really well for me.
Here are some specific tips:
Keep your stories to between two to seven thousand words TOPS — people are not coming here to read books.
The ideal Reading Time that I’ve found for my erotica falls between six and ten minutes.
Any shorter and you’re not going to make much money, but anything longer is probably going to lose your reader’s attention unless it’s really, really hot or specific to your reader’s particular kink of choice.
With titles, keep it simple.
Keep it to the point.
Let your readers know exactly what they are going to get:
No frills, nothing fancy, just right to the sex.
Just as your erotica on Medium should be.
Don’t be like me. DON’T STOP.
If you want to make it as a sex writer on Medium… hell, if you want to make it on Medium at all these days it seems, you have to be consistent and work hard, and most importantly — don’t stop.
Yes, the numbers of my views, reads, and fans are pretty high.
But I wrote every day for a year to get to the “Okay, I can make a living doing this,” point.
I write about sex.
It’s sexy, it’s fun, it’s exciting, I get all the free sex toys I can ask for now, and yes, a lot of the time (for me) it’s really fucking easy to bang out an article about banging because I’m writing about something I enjoy and know well.
However.
And it’s a big however.
I’m still, after all, a writer.
I still, just like everyone else out there, have to make the choice to put my ass in the chair and come to the page EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. to make writing for a living work.
Lately, I haven’t been.
I lost my way. I lost my momentum.
Be ye not like me.
Yes, it’s a hamster wheel of churning content, but like I said above:
Fun.
Sexy.
Also can do from bed in pajama pants.
So what I’m saying is, why not do it, if you feel like doing it?
Well, THAT, my friends, is for another article another day.
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