Why post on Medium — What my 90 day blogging challenge taught me
In late November of 2017, I started a challenge inspired by Miles Beckler. The goal was to write a blog post on medium.com every day for 90 days.
Let me tell you, it was no easy feat. It took a lot of hard work, dedication, and inspiration. I almost failed a few times by nearly forgetting to post. But I did finish it and the rewards far outweigh how difficult the challenge was.
It not only taught me a lot, but I’m still leveraging that challenge today. So with this post, I would like to give you some reasons for why you should do your own 90 challenge of posting on Medium, or just start posting on medium in general.
1. It is the easiest way to get started, there are no technical skills required
It seems like everyone today wants to start some type of blog, but they often are caught up in all the technical details and that prevents them from even getting started.
Then they tell me about “Oh, you should write on your own blog (website) for SEO purposes.” I don’t disagree with that, but the reality is there is a bunch of technical skills required to get your own blog up and running.
You have to buy a domain name, find hosting, setup wordpress, etc, etc. But with a medium.com account and a keyboard; you just create an account, start writing, and then post. That’s it.
Now sure there are more advanced features to Medium including publications; and sure you are going to want to drive that traffic to your own website at some point. But with medium, you can make your own blog post today without having to worry about anything else. Just make an account, start a writing a story, and POST.
2. It gets you writing
Now that Medium has made it easy for you to post, you can start writing. I recognize that writing is not super easy for everyone, it certainly wasn’t for me when I started the challenge.
But it is like anything, the more you do it, the better you get at it. Have you heard of the 10,000 hour rule? It takes about 10,000 hours perfecting your craft to become an expert at something. And how do you become an expert at writing? Well you have to start writing!
When I started this challenge it took me at least 4 hours of writing to create a blog post. Near the end of the 90 days, I was able to create blog posts that I thought were useful and well written in about an hour.
Of course it varied based on length and the depth of the content, but I could feel that it was much easier to get the words out of my brain and into the keyboard. So by going through the process of the 90 challenge, I was able grow my writing skills.
3. It is the YouTube of writing (it’s a search engine)
Medium will help you get discovered and you can be searched based on tags. When you post on medium, just before you hit “Publish” you can add up to 5 tags that will help your article get discovered.
For instance, if you type “drone” in the search box up at the top of this page, my article about flying drones and photography is one of the top results. There are some tricks here which I can discuss in a future post; but by posting on medium, you are leveraging the power of their platform.
4. It is an easy way to leverage other peoples content.
During my 90 challenge, I often wrote articles about other people’s content. Medium makes this super easy because you can share links, upload photos, and include YouTube videos with just a simple click.
There are many reasons why you would want to write about other peoples content. The first of which is that it gives you something to write about.
Ever feel like you are stuck and don’t know what you should write about today? Well just go to YouTube, find an interesting video, and then write an article about it.
One example was when I was having a conversation about Hoda Kotb when I was out at a bar one night with a fellow Virginia Tech alumni. We got to talking about Hoda and how much I loved her 2008 commencement speech at Virginia Tech. So the next day, I wrote an article about it which you can read here.
5. It is a building block towards creating your own brand and your own blog.
This goes back to the first point where I said medium makes it easy to get started. The great thing about this platform is that we can use it as a stepping stone for building our own blogs on our own websites.
But until I get enough time together to actually put up www.thegingernomad.com (which I do now own!), I will continue to post here. I can use medium as a way to grow my writing skills, my audience and my brand while I wait to have enough time (or money) to get my own website going.
Through medium, you can also grow your audience through other people’s publications, claps and comments, and tag searches. Therefore, for me, I’m growing my brand without having to worry about all of the technical details of having a personal website up and running, yet.
You can hear more about this in Brittany Krystle’s podcoast with Tom Kuegler which you can find on the link below. It’s episode #23.
6. You can use it to make money!
I’ve already started to see the power of medium as I grow my own business. I recently organized a sailing retreat in Croatia with my friend Marcella and her company Active Workation.
Three people that came on our sailing retreat came from this blog and my 90 day challenge, which resulted in actual money and selling out our first ever entrepreneur retreat. If you are reading this, thank you for coming Robi, Janice, and Margo!
So don’t underestimate how powerful this platform is and how important it is to create your own content. You can definitely build a business around it and it just starts with posting here on medium.
Here is a quick video about the fun aspects of our recent adventure in Croatia. Thanks to Ian Robinson from www.freedompodcasting.com for putting this together.
7. You are helping others.
I write for me, but I also write for you! I write to share my knowledge and my ideas. Medium has given me a platform to get my ideas out in a simple way. And through that I have grown a community, grown my skills, and grown into a better entrepreneur.
So don’t forget about this platform and use it to get started! It might just change your life.
