How You Can Be A More Successful Writer Than I Am
By: Jay Krasnow
Tags: Money, Success, Influencers, Writing, Marketing

How You Can Be A More Successful Writer Than I Am

A few tips on how you can make more money than I do — and why I’m not raking in the bucks, like you can.

Photo: Steve Halama / Medium / Irrevocable, nonexclusive copyright to use and distribute for free.

I’ve been writing on Medium long enough to get a sense of what draws clicks — and it’s not me or my writing.

To be sure, not all of my articles have been duds. My most-read pieces were two articles I wrote on race: one on what you should never do to a Black person (P.S., I’m white), and another on what I learned about race from dating a Black woman.

Despite these small wins I haven’t made the grand slams that would garner me 130K followers and millions of views. If you aspire to be a Medium influencer, don’t do what I do. This is what I do (and don’t do).

Writing about sex

Jed Diamond wrote a lovely article about the one thing that men want more than sex. The article got 91K claps. I don’t write about sex, especially if it has to do with me, because I find that way too personal. So I’m missing out on the views, claps and followers that go along with writing about your sex life, a topic that Medium writer Catherine Cohen delights in.

Writing political articles

Umair Haque wrote a piece on how Donald Trump could steal the next election that got 10.2K claps. But I don’t write political articles, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that doing so could get me fired.

Writing deeply personal essays

Sarah McBride wrote a deeply personal essay about losing her husband at 24, and earned 12.3K claps for it. I, on the other hand, am reticent to share such personal moments in my life with the world. It runs in the family. When my mom died of cancer, most of her friends didn’t even know she was sick. She had been undergoing treatment, and was responding — but her body gave out unexpectedly. I applaud Sarah for sharing her personal experiences of loss. Put in the same position as her, I couldn’t write about it, the same as she has.

Writing poetry

I do like to write poetry. For example, I wrote a poem about my car getting COVID-19. It got a respectable 14 reads. While I appreciate the 135 claps I got for my poem, I recognize writing poetry for Medium is always a losing strategy for anyone who wants to become a Medium influencer.

Writing about the future

Frank Lukacovic posted an article on October 17 predicting a Biden landslide. He was wrong, in his prediction — which is why I steadfastly avoid predicting the future. When you’re wrong it cuts into your credibility. Nevertheless, Lukacovic was rewarded for his article with 6.4K claps and 186 responses. I congratulate Lukacovic for his winning Medium strategy.

I’ve also seen a lot of people write articles about surefire ways to make money on Medium. But frankly, that’s so 2019. I really try to avoid advising people on how to get rich quickly, because the only way to get rich quickly, is to do a lot of hard work — and there’s nothing quick about working hard.

So what I’m really saying, is if you want to be successful on Medium, you should write deeply personal articles about the political sex you predict in not just your future, but in each and every American’s future — but don’t be poetic about it.