How to Get Started With Writing on Medium?
How to Get Started With Writing on Medium?
Briefly describe the first year on medium as a writer
First of all, you need to build a habit. Otherwise, you will be easily discouraged by the initial no numbers. We had it anyway at the beginning our articles were hardly read by anyone and believe me it looks very demotivating. Since you are trying to do something and it has no response.
The fact that your articles have yet to respond could be due to a couple of factors, either you are writing about a topic that is not interesting to people, or the time is not right for the topic you are writing about.
Write about topics close to your heart, and ideally, it’s something that you enjoy, as this way, you won’t stop getting inspiration for more and more things to write about. And how do I know? I will soon be writing my first year of posts on Medium.
I’ve published over 380 articles then and couldn’t do that without enjoying writing. So let’s take a look at my motivation for writing.
Motivation
I started writing to improve my English, which, due to the nature of my work, I used but certainly not daily. So I decided to take the plunge and do something about it. The writing was a non-violent way to get started.
At the beginning of my “career” as a content creator, I had to find my path, but I’ll get to that later. When I tell you what else was my motivation for writing, I took it almost from the beginning as a serious project because if you do something regularly, you get better at it. If you do something long enough, someone will notice you.
And if you do something long enough and well enough, you will eventually reap some fruit/success. Writing as such, I just tried it at first with uncertain results. Unfortunately, I wasn’t completely successful at first, but I’m a persistent “marathoner”, and if I decide to do something, I don’t just give up.
The proof is that I’ve been programming for years, and the result is often a long journey through partial commits. Once you start having numbers in views/reads for your profile/articles, it becomes addictive because you suddenly have extra motivation and metrics to improve.
However, the biggest motivation for me has been my readers. If you’re good, then there’s a reward in the form of royalty fees, where you get some change from every time your article is read, and when it all comes together, it can be an interesting earner.
Perseverance
If you want to break through, you need to persevere and, ideally, release content regularly. The more often you release, the more likely you are to get noticed. However, this must not be at the expense of quality.
A significant milestone on Medium is the affiliate program because if you persevere until you can claim it, then believe you have endured more than many people before you. Don’t look for the easy way out and follow after following but instead forge a path through the rock. Slower growth will bring you a strong profile and bring you handsome profits.
Followers who give you a follow but don’t read your posts are like shooting yourself in the foot as they spoil how the platform promotes you. On the other hand, if you have a base of people who like to read your posts, you have a strong, healthy profile, and even with little, you can do a lot.
Publications
Publications are an important milestone that I must remember. It is thanks to them that I have grown a lot. But the thing is that for publications to help you, you have to hit what the audience wants to read. If you write articles that no one in the publication is interested in, it won’t help you in any way.
I want to thank the Mac O’Clock publication, where I have been accepted and my articles appear regularly. I thank the publication editors, including Nassos Michas and Mark Ellis, for their approval.
What has writing brought me?
This is a question I have asked myself and my colleagues from TechLife several times because when you devote your time to something, it is essential to know what it brings you. So let’s recap what a year of writing on the medium has brought me.
I learned to organise my thoughts better.
I learned to express myself better/more accurately.
I have confirmed that if I want to do something, I will continue at the first failure but will create until the end.
I’ve created a new habit — I spend an hour every day writing.
I hope I’ve improved my English.
In 2022, I was in the affiliate program for 5.5 months, and there, thanks to you, my readers, I earned a nice $5210, which, considering the 381 articles, equates to $13.67/article published. This is a nice result.
A few of you also decided to support me by creating a subscription on Medium through my referral link, earning me $55.9. Within the last year, I also tried a tip in an article where I received two coffees.
Still, after realizing how complicated the accounting is around and the minimal amount of these awards, I decided to return the contributions I received, hopefully not offending anyone, and discontinue this method of getting rewarded for my writing for the time being.
I ended 2022 with 718 followers. I’ll take that as a nice result. We’ll see where I get in 2023.