7 qualities your articles should have
By: Terry Andrew Dunn
Tags: Experience, Transparency, Storytelling, Accomplishments, Vulnerability

Qualities that attract readers and followers

Photo by James on Unsplash

Now I’ve been publishing regular articles on medium for a few months I did a little research. I wanted to know which articles attracted the most attention, readers, claps, and comments. As a techie, analysis comes easily to me. But I was surprised at what I found. The articles I thought would do well didn’t and the ones I thought might flop were the most popular.

Time to find out why. So I studied Medium writers like Benji Hyam, Ayodeji Awosika, and a few other success stories. And I read many articles that gave me lots of success tactics and compared them against the articles I wrote that did well. A match. Now I understood why.

The problem was I had no structure, strategy, or tactics. I just wrote from the top of my head. Sometimes I was lucky, often I wasn’t. A bit hit and miss! It’s like aiming a gun at a target you can’t see. After making copious notes I boiled it down to a checklist. Today I will talk about qualities.

Just what are these qualities and why are they important?

In no particular order, they are story, experience, accomplishments, vulnerability, transparency, emotions, and controversy. Let’s unpack them a little more and discuss why you need at least some of them.

We all love stories, don’t we? It fascinates me that fiction outsells nonfiction on Amazon kindle by 9 to 1. I tend to read nonfiction because I love learning. But it seems I’m in the minority and most people love a good story. The story can be short, long, personal, retold, or any variation. We are simply attracted to them. So if you can use a story in your article, it’s a great start.

There is nothing like retelling something you have personal experience of. Combined with a story it can be gripping. There is an authenticity to your words. Your experience will be unique because you’re unique. And if you describe your experience in the form of lessons learned, it’s even better. We can save time and money by learning from others.

What have you accomplished? When I ask people this question they look up as they try to recall what they’ve done that’s noteworthy and usually say ‘nothing of any value’. And I know that’s not true. Everyone has accomplishments. Everyone, no exceptions. But they don’t see them as anything special, yet they are. Sometimes their story is amazing. Tell us what it is.

We all connect with people who are vulnerable. It brings out the best in people, just like arrogance brings out the worst in people. We all make mistakes. We are human. We’ve all done stupid things in our life. Don’t be afraid of telling us something that for you is embarrassing.

This leads to the quality of transparency. Give us the whole story, all the details, what could go wrong, the downsides, or aspects that the ‘hype-merchants’ wouldn’t dream of writing about. We want a balanced view instead of looking at it through rose-tinted spectacles.

Good writing includes emotions. What are the fears and frustrations, hopes, and aspirations of your reader? My fear is writing myself into obscurity. I love writing, but if nobody reads it, what does that say about me? I don’t know about you, but how many articles have you read on Medium that assert you can achieve thousands of views, reads, followers, and earnings. Most don’t mention the time factor. Ahh, it takes time. Meanwhile, I am frustrated because it isn’t happening like they said it would.

What’s in the news right now? What topics are trending? Do you have an opposite view? You could write a controversial article and back up your views with opinions, facts, research, or simply a counter-argument.

The benefits of all of these qualities are they are attractive to readers. Psychologically, we are all the same, even though we are all unique human beings. If you can include several, or even all of these qualities in your writing, you will attract a lot more reads, claps, and comments.

What can you use right away in your writing?

Readers on Medium are curious, want to learn or be entertained, and are willing to spend their time exploring this platform. Writers have all these qualities and in addition are disciplined, knowledgable, and smart. Especially successful writers with a large number of followers.

But there is always more to learn. Humility the key. I never know all the answers however many years I might study and work with a specialist subject. I recommend creating a writing checklist and add these qualities.

Is that all I discovered with my analysis? No, there is much more, but I think it’s the subject of a separate article. There’s always more to learn.