Cover Photo by Pixabay from Pexels
Top writers also have plenty of articles that don’t succeed
My one-word theme for 2020 is “remarkable.” At the start of the year, I vowed to myself that I would do my best to make everything I do this year. It doesn’t mean “better,” it means different from what ninety-nine percent of the people are doing.
As part of that thinking, I tried to write articles that stood out. I’ve had some success, but plenty of failures along the way. Aiming for remarkable is a time-consuming endeavor. I’ve spent more time per article than ever before, but that hasn’t stopped a lot of these articles for not succeeding.
In this article, I’ll mention one such article for me, and the other six are from other top writers who spent a lot of time and effort on one piece that ultimately ended up flopping.
The purpose is to inspire you and to give you hope. It’s to show you that no one succeeds all the time. It’s to show you that effort doesn’t necessarily equal success. But also that no one can fully predict what will work and what will not.
Before we get started, here are some observations based on the submissions I got from the other top writers:
All of the articles are great.
Most of the articles were curated (and in multiple categories).
External views are relatively high (over 33 percent for all of them).
Two of the failed articles were “complete guides” (see Danny Forest and Stephen Moore).
Articles were published in different publications, some with a partnership with Medium and some without.
With one exception, all articles were produced in over ten hours.
Three articles took more than 30 hours to produce.
The highest return on investment for the articles on this list is $8.48 / hour, followed by all others under $1.45 / hour.
For all of them, the “views” curve flattened almost immediately after the article was published.
The highest average reading time is 2 minutes 40 seconds, followed by all the others under 1 minute 20 seconds.
The number of followers seems to have no impact on any stats.
The lowest number of views is 335.
Danny Forest
Number of followers: 21K
Top writer in Education, Inspiration, Entrepreneurship, Productivity, Life Lessons, Self Improvement
Article: How to Be Adaptable — The Complete Guide
Motive behind putting so much effort on this piece
As I was looking at resources all over the internet about how to become more adaptable, nothing felt complete enough for me. If you truly wanted to become more self-aware, you had to scour tons of different resources everywhere. I wanted readers to have a single source of information where they could find everything they could ever need to learn how to become more adaptable, something I deemed extremely important given the worldwide pandemic.
Time spent
Researching: 20 hours
Writing: 15 hours
Editing: 5 hours
Total: 40 hours
Money spent
$6 (rights to use images from VectorStock.com)
Results
Return on investment: $27 — $6 / 40 hours = $0.48 / hour
Screenshot provided by Danny Forest
Potential explanation for the failure
Medium isn’t really made for 32-min read articles.
It was also published shortly after other long-form articles: 24-min, 10-min, and 20-min.
It wasn’t curated, (although similar articles that got curated have very similar results).
It was too early to publish after they announced the worldwide pandemic.
Amardeep Parmar
Number of followers: 2K
Top writer in Advice, Inspiration, Writing, Life, Self Improvement, Life Lessons
Article: How to Read Self-Help Effectively for True Growth
Motive behind putting so much effort on this piece
I know it’s common for people to read a lot of self-help but feel unsatisfied. From personal experience, I knew there was a time when I barely remembered anything I read. I believed this article would fix a widespread issue. I wanted to devise a system based on evidence to allow people to get more from what they read. I compiled everything I knew about learning then tested different methods. This took place over a period of months where I kept iterating until I had a system that worked. While the article didn’t take off, I still use this system myself so it’s not all bad.
Time spent
Researching: 20 hours
Writing: 8 hours
Editing : 4 hours
Total: 32 hours
Money spent
N/A
Results
Return on investment: $5 / 32 hours= $0.16 / hour
Screenshot provided by Amardeep Parmar
Screenshot provided by Amardeep Parmar
Potential explanation for the failure
It was too prescriptive
It was curated in Self but this is fairly common
The number of steps felt like too much for readers
Most views were external
Reed Rawlings
Number of followers: 1.1K
Article: Emotional Intelligence is the Key to Overcoming Procrastination
Motive behind putting so much effort on this piece
I’d been researching willpower, procrastination, and mental health for a few months and I kept running into the same underlying thread: procrastination is not about time management. Yet in most of my searching, it was a side note in a larger issue. I felt like that understanding deserved a larger post with actionable tools. It turned into this 20-minute behemoth.
Time spent
Researching: 15 hours
Writing: 10 hours
Editing: 2 hours
Total: 27 hours
Money spent
N/A
Results
Return on investment: $35 / 27 hours = $1.30 / hour
Screenshot provided by Reed Rawlings
Potential explanation for the failure
I don’t think Medium is a good place for long-form content. Also, my title could definitely be better.
Stephen Moore
Number of followers: 8.5K
Top writer in Startup, Entrepreneurship, Creativity, Life Lessons
Article: The Complete Guide To Networking For People Who Don’t Like It
Motive behind putting so much effort on this piece
Niklas Göke challenged me to turn a previous five minute read into a full-length how-to guide.
Time spent
Researching: 8 hours
Writing: 6 hours
Editing: 4 hours
Total: 18 hours
Money spent
N/A
Results
Return on investment: $26 / 18 hours = $1.44 / hour
Screenshot provided by Stephen Moore
Potential explanation for the failure
Too smart for the title
Tone/style
Too niche
Poor timing
Niklas Göke
Number of followers: 61K
Top writer in Books, Writing, Finance, Psychology, Business, Mental Health, Inspiration, Self Improvement, Creativity, Productivity, Life, Entrepreneurship, Life Lessons, Relationships, Social Media
Article: The World Needs You To Love Reading
Motive behind putting so much effort on this piece
I’d had a few successful articles on reading before, I love reading, and it’s one of the most important activities I think I can (and want to) promote. I believe in the message of the piece so much, that’s why seeing this one fall flat hurt a lot (and why I spent so much time on it trying to get it right).
Time spent
Between 30–40 hours
Money spent
N/A
Results
Return on investment: $297 / 35 hours (avg’ed) = $8.48 / hour
Potential explanation for the failure
May have been too long or trying to do too much. I combined an inspiring story with practical advice, but maybe I should have done just one or the other.
Barry Davret
Number of followers: 26K
Top writer in Love, Psychology, Relationships, Culture, Self Improvement, Life Lessons, Mental Health, Productivity, Inspiration, Life
Article: What If You’ve Already Produced Your Best Work?
Motive behind putting so much effort on this piece
I had been thinking a lot about a viral story I had written and then wondering if I would ever repeat that success. It was more about me trying to convince myself to keep writing even if I never produce another hit.
Time spent
Researching: 1 hour
Writing: 2 hours
Editing: 6 hours
Total: 9 hours
Money spent
N/A
Results
Return on investment: $12 / 9 hours = $1.33 / hour
Screenshot provided by Barry Davret
Potential explanation for the failure
Perhaps it was too “writer specific” or maybe the title just didn’t resonate.
Marta Brzosko
Number of followers: 5K
Top writer in Psychology, Self Improvement
Article: Kindness May Be Our Best Survival Mechanism
Motive behind putting so much effort on this piece
At the time, I got a hunch that maybe the idea of the “survival of the fittest” doesn’t explain how humans became such a dominant species on the planet. I wanted to explore the ideas that maybe it was kindness that allowed us to get where we are. But to do this, I felt like I needed to do loads of reading and research. But I believed it was worth it because it seemed like I would flip the common sense about the “survival of the fittest” and natural selection on its head.
Time spent
Researching: 7 hours
Writing: 5 hours
Editing & peers reviewing: 10 hours
Total: 22 hours
Money spent
N/A
Results
Return on investment: $7 / 22 hours = $0.32 / hour
Screenshot provided by Marta Brzosko
Screenshot provided by Marta Brzosko
Potential explanation for the failure
I think it didn’t do very well because the title isn’t great plus it’s a rather heavy thought piece, not very conversational. It was curated in Philosophy (niche tag, if you ask me), but not the first time around. I remember publishing and first, the piece didn’t get curated. Back then there were no explicit rules forbidding publishing the same content twice, so I deleted it and published it again. And then it got curated so I was happy at least that happened.
Conclusion
If your great article isn’t as successful as you’d hope it would be, you’re not alone in this. Even top writers have plenty of articles that don’t succeed. What makes any writer succeed is that they don’t give up and keep producing high-quality content, no matter the results they get.