How to start in a clean way
Medium is the mountain that overwhelmed me with the comforting belief that I had succeeded as a writer, that I found my place in the vast ocean of the internet, and that my published words would reach the audience they deserved. Medium has become a tool for many writers because of its ease of use and built-in audience. But, like any mountain, Medium is not devoid of cliffs and pitfalls.
As a Making Light example shows, the platform is unforgiving of mere mistakes, and displays few errors — that’s why it can learn from them and improve. As someone who’s made hundreds of mistakes (I don’t know where else I’d find “hundreds of mistakes to learn from and avoid”, and they’re certainly helping me straighten out), I’d better address some of Medium’s most common mistakes, and tell you how you can avoid them.
Catchy Title
A lot of writers who don’t get many clicks do this. Your title is the most important part of your article, It is the one thing that if you don’t get right, you won’t have much of a chance to get them to do anything, which is read your article. So if you write a mediocre title, and I mean that your title sucks if it doesn’t do one of these things: I grab attention that way it is very curious. I survive or promise you will survive if you think you have written a great title that does one of these things then you have your first powerful step to getting people to read your article.
For example, I wrote 2 articles. It was extremely satisfying to write them myself, and I was delighted to revisit both. But one became widely read, and the other did not. And I think it’s in part because of the titles. bypassing the Editing Step:
bypassing the Editing Step
When you are excited to share your ideas, it is tempting to grab the first keyboard and start hammering away. But saving even one proofread is like saving a pine. Your sentences will undoubtedly have typos, grammatical errors, or poor sentence structure. This affects both the quality of your writing and the readiness of your audience to return for more. If you shortchange your readers, they will punish you by not returning — this includes even potential employers. You don’t want them to turn away from your employment-seeking website. Probably one of our most invaluable lessons — invaluable because it was terrifying for me — was to edit thoroughly. Spend time or invest money to get a friend or editor to help. Proofread carefully. Never post anything with mistakes, and never think you don’t need it. You do.
Oversight
None of this matters if your writing gets trapped in a bubble and no one reads it. Medium is as much a community as it is a publishing site. Make sure you take time to connect with readers and fellow writers, as per the eyes graphic. Ignore the community, and you may as well not have joined the site at all. Get out there and seed your work in other articles, particularly in the publications that have covered your topic before. Join as many writer-specific Medium groups as you can. Write about what you know. Another important aspect of Medium is its comment system. Don’t overlook it.
Overlooking visuals:
Now that we live in an extraordinarily visual web that is image- and video-heavy, it’s incredibly important to recognize the value of visuals. Don’t ignore your medium! When you write an article for Medium, give an extra thought to what you might use as a header image. And maybe find a way to embed something: a video, a graphic, a gif.
Not marketing your work: Writing a winning article is only half the battle. You now need to ensure that it reaches its audience. it is recommended to put your article in front of audiences, across your social media channels, email newsletter, and online communities. Don’t shy away from asking your friends, family, and colleagues to share your work. The goal again is to get as many eyes as possible on your content.
Publications
Using periodicals to publish your articles is a terrific way to get in front of new readers and extend the reach of your writing. One way to increase exposure for your work is to publish in a variety of periodicals. This can help both enlarge your audience and increase the visibility and impact of your writing.
Ultimately, there’s a lot of trial and error (and failure) involved for anyone hoping to make it on Medium. Don’t let bad writing days and slings and arrows deter you. Failure is a necessary part of the process — and resilience may help you develop better writing habits, hone your craft, and build authority and influence on Medium. The best thing an artist or writer can do is adopt a ‘try, fail, try again’ mindset. That said, let’s get tried and failed already: dare to write on Medium, dare to suck, and dare to learn. Why? Because that’s how you better your writing on Medium.