Turbo-Charge Your Medium Stories
The following is a collection of tips and tricks I've learned along the way writing on Medium.com for several months. Hope you'll find gems in there!
Getting More Views
Featured Story
Set the story you want to get the most views on as your featured story: https://youtu.be/xx2R9yV_vs0?t=13s
Tag People
Tag other relevant Medium writers to your stories: https://youtu.be/xx2R9yV_vs0?t=1m3s
Link To Previous Posts
Add links one or two relevant stories you previously wrote: https://youtu.be/xx2R9yV_vs0?t=3m37s
Use Top Tags
Find tags with at least 50k uses, and always use those: https://medium.com/@baditaflorin/inside-the-top-1000-tags-on-medium-com-part-1-a1ff96356639
Comment More
Provide insightful comments to top writer’s stories. They get tons of views and people read the comments they get. If you write something good, they may click on your profile. Also add tags to your insightful comments!
Write Every Day
The more you post, the more views you get, it’s as simple as that. The more views you get, the higher the ranks you move. The higher the rank, the higher visibility you get for publications, Medium and the daily and weekly digests.
Formatting Your Stories
Put your photo above the title
Use a subtitle
Photos of people or cute puppies work best
Photos of women work even better
Make photo full-width if and only if it takes less than a full page height (favour wide photos)
Don’t describe your cover photo, just put the reference
Limit number of links to outside things (unless absolutely needed)
Insert “horizontal bar” between each Title
Put photos sparingly. A single photo at the top is good for stories of 1-5 minutes. 5+ minutes may require another photo to catch the attention again.
Titles and Subtitles in Caps
Questions on separate lines, in italic
Short 2-4 lines paragraphs
Put in bold things you want your audience to highlight
Put in super quote what you want your audience to remember (and highlight)
Be conversational as much as possible
Be positive
Negativity can be used for humour
Keep sections to between 2-5 paragraphs (text below a Title or Subtitle)
Reference your other stories at the bottom, you don’t want them to leave without reading the current one. Give them a chance to clap and comment.
Have a conclusion
Pump readers to action near the end, give actionable items they can do to apply tips from story
Recall your story’s title in the conclusion
Have the same saying in each story at the very end of your conclusion (mine is: You can do this!)
Have a call to action at the bottom
Finding Ideas
The Content
Use power words in your headlines (at least one, preferably 2): https://ninjaoutreach.com/words-to-write-better-headlines/
Put powerful quotes from “famous” people
Ask relatable questions to your audience every 1-2 minutes of reading time (200 +/- 50 words). This brings everything back to them
Write as you would talk (with some minor editing to curses)
Write like you’re having a dialogue, not a monologue
Listicles work great
Quotes drive engagement (highlights and comments)
Pure stories with no “what’s in it for me” don’t do well
A good balance of “what’s in it for me” (You) and personal stories (Me) is powerful:
Me -> You -> Me -> You = Good (I tend to use this one because it’s easier to put people in context, but it’s not as effective)
You -> Me -> You = Better
Using your own personal drawings is powerful
Photos of yourself is great for Brand building (https://medium.com/misstiffanysun, https://medium.com/nicolascole)
Custom separators work great (https://melmagazine.com/the-rise-in-self-proclaimed-time-travelers-b29e800f1935)
Making Money
- Making money is as simple as publishing a story for the member program and getting a single clap from a Medium member
- The $5 a member pays goes directly to the people they clap for (Member stories only)
- On average, I seem to be getting about $1 per Fan (from Stats page)
- To get more claps, craft a great actionable and relatable conclusion. Drive engagement.
Other
2 minute articles will get you more reads, less fans
8 minute articles will get you less reads, more fans
If a reader highlights something, they're more likely to clap
Medium members are more generous with their claps
Medium members tend to fully read stories
Limit your writing time to 1 hour
Have a clear shot of your face. Stand out as much as you can
Be a Medium member, it adds credibility
Know who the top writers are, eg: https://medium.com/tag/travel/top-writers. Interact with them the most
Identify what makes top stories so good. If subject is a reason, write on the same subject
Have a website in your bio
Disclaimer: All the tips above cannot guarantee Medium success.