Medium is one of the most respected blogging platforms in the world. If you want to develop an audience without having to build a website, Medium is the place to do it.
However, just because you can grow (and monetize) an audience on Medium doesn’t mean it’s easy. With that in mind, we want to share six ways you can help ensure your Medium posts get the attention they deserve.
1. Know Your Niche
If you stick with what you know, you’ll have a much easier time building an audience. Readers can sniff out faux-experts with ease, so you should try to stick to topics that you have a firm grip on.
For example, Maryland Attorney Alex Brown publishes content related to insurance law because that’s what he lives and breathes. His Medium readers can sense that expertise in his posts, and it pays off. If you try to build an audience posting about things you just Googled, it will be near-impossible to gain a decent following on Medium.
2. Keep a Finger on the Pulse
Medium readers aren’t looking for run-of-the-mill, low-effort content. That type of content is available just about everywhere else on the web. If you want to grow and maintain a strong audience on Medium, you need to offer something special.
No matter what niche or space you’re in, your Medium content has to contribute to the larger conversation. Don’t expect a rehash of someone else’s ideas to perform well.
Keep a finger on the pulse of your niche or industry, look out for developing trends, and bring fresh ideas to your space. Anyone can summarize what someone else has already written, but only a true expert can deliver something with the potential to go viral.
3. Start Strong…
The first three lines of any post are the most important. What is their purpose? Simply to get you to the next line, and then the next one, and then the next one.
Most of the time, titles and introductions are just an afterthought, a way to prime people for the content to come. Unfortunately, that approach is usually just a good way to make sure people get bored while reading the first paragraph.
If you want eyes on your pieces, make the first few lines you write the most compelling and enticing of all. Early in a piece, you’re pushing the ball uphill to try and win readers – by the time they get to the body of the piece, the ball is rolling downhill.
That means the bulk of your “attention-grabbing” efforts should be concentrated on the headline and introduction.
4. … And Don’t Stay Too Long
What’s the best way to kill a piece that starts with a great headline and a compelling introduction? Simply fill the rest of it with fluff.
The best articles, news stories, and even novels are the ones that say exactly what they need to say, and not a word more. As soon as you’ve fully covered a topic, you’re done with it.
It doesn’t matter if you have 14 great analogies to illustrate your point – your audience doesn’t need more than one or two to understand it.
Try to make your posts only as long as they need to be. If you overstay your welcome, you’ll find that readers won’t exactly be thrilled to keep reading.
5. Monitor and Learn
Medium, like other blogging platforms, gives you in-depth statistics and analysis about how your content performs over time. If you aren’t looking for patterns and trends in your content beyond simple audience figures, you should start now.
Try to group all of your posts by theme, tone, or subtopic. Which types of content seem to perform better than others? Which themes or tones seem to be missing the mark?
Studying the way your past content has been received gives you clues on what your audience does and doesn’t like. Are your opinion-based pieces towering over informational ones? Consider a change to your content calendar to capitalize on that.
6. Be Consistent
This is one of the oldest pieces of advice in the digital world: be consistent. If you have time for one post a month, post once a month. Don’t kid yourself into thinking you can craft two stellar pieces each week if you just don’t have the time. The more consistent you are, the higher your readership will be.
Why is that? It’s because of the way people use Medium, particularly Medium subscribers. People use the site a lot like they do YouTube, following their favorite authors/creators and periodically checking in for new content.
If you’re posting consistently, the people who follow your Medium feed will know when to expect a new post. That, in turn, will lead to a boost in readership. If you don’t have many followers, that boost will be small, but every set of eyes counts.
