Things I’ve Learned Being a Writer on Medium for Two Months
By: Katlyn Gallo
Tags: Passion, Advice, Writing, Medium Writers, Motivation

You can write whatever you want, there’s an audience out there that wants to read your writing, you just have to find them.

In my experience, getting your stories featured in publications caused my views to skyrocket and I earned many new followers this way. You may want to do things without help, but publications are there to help you reach as many people as possible.

image by author

I have my own publication, so I was weary about publishing content in other publications because I was supposed to be working on my own. But I was stuck at 10 followers for probably a month and a half and I had to reach an audience somehow. I’m now up to 27 publication followers, which is obviously still low, but those people likely found me through my profile after being published in Technology Hits & Illumination, or maybe after one of my articles got distributed. I’m still not 100% sure how the distribution works, but figuring that out is a task for another day.

It’s easy to get sucked into looking at your stats, especially after getting published, but try to avoid looking at them multiple times a day.

They aren’t going to change that much. Stick to looking at your stats once or twice a day if you can help it. It can be easy to fall into a habit of constantly checking your notifications for new followers, new readers, new claps. I won’t deny that it’s happened to me and it’s natural to do so after a story gets published. We all want our writing to be seen, but it will happen in time if it’s meant to happen.

Don’t try too hard.

Many people come to Medium to either read or write as a hobby, so don’t make it into a job. For me, this is something I do in my free time, I don’t want to ruin that by putting too much pressure on myself to write. I’ve found that letting myself be inspired by other stories has shown me just how much I have to write about and share.

A month ago I was struggling to find ideas, now I just write what comes to me. Some ideas sit and get stale in my drafts, but I’ve started to leave them there in case I decide to revisit them one day. Learn how to open up your mind and let your thoughts roam free, it shouldn’t require much effort on your part. If it is, re-evaluate why you’re here. What are your goals for being here? Are you writing about things you’re passionate about?

Find ways to connect with fellow writers, and support them.

And I don’t mean that follow for follow junk. Don’t beg for followers. People will follow you if they like you’re writing.

I’ve joined a few Facebook groups that bring Medium writers together. Its a place where people share their stories, but also find inspiration from other’s stories. Writers supporting writers. I find that I get a lot of inspiration from these Facebook groups and other writers go there for the same, so it’s really a win-win situation. A platform to share your stories, but also one to find ones that speak to you.

You don’t have to write every day to be successful.

I remember reading an article when I first started on Medium that said be consistent, publish a lot, blah blah blah. In my opinion, this is true to an extent. If you’re too focused on getting followers, it’s probably not going to happen.

I’m all for letting things fall into place and happen naturally. I found that when I was so focused on gaining followers, I was feeling added pressure of finding good ideas and publishing something multiple times a week. The reality is, if your article’s good and speaks to people, it will be found, it will be shared, it will be distributed. BUT that’s not to say you don’t have to put in a little work to get yourself there. Which leads me to…

There’s no right way to get noticed, but you have to experiment and find what works best for you.

A quick Google search on “how to get noticed on Medium” will yield many results. However, like many things in life, the same thing doesn’t work for everyone. I tried a few different methods, but joining these Medium Facebook groups has been the most successful method for me:

Medium Writers Lounge

Medium Writers and Bloggers

Medium Writers Support and Marketing

I personally like Medium Writers Lounge the best due to the fact that the admin of the group keeps it clean by only allowing writers to share their links in the comments of dedicated posts. It helps writers promote their stories and publications, while preventing the group from being spammed by hundreds of stories a day.

There’s many ways to put your work out in a modest way. Notice I said modest. I say this because I’ve seen some pretty annoyingly, self-centered writers on social media. This ties back to what I said about connecting with other writers. Give a little, take a little. Find articles that speak to you, respond to them, give them some claps, and follow the writer if you feel inclined to do so. Those actions will likely be reciprocated when you share your own piece.