A Newbie’s Information to Writing, Publishing & Selling on the Platform

Medium is a platform for writers. In the event you’re not a author, that sounds fairly easy. However for those who write, you perceive simply how large that assertion is.

Is it a running a blog platform? Social media or an search engine optimisation useful resource? A web based neighborhood or a option to earn cash writing? Sure. All the above.

You might be a poet publishing on The Coil, a brand new UX designer studying your craft, or a enterprise proprietor sharing tales about early challenges and triumphs. Irrespective of who you’re and what you wish to write about, there’s a spot for you on this platform.

I have been writing about advertising since 2017, I’ve used many alternative platforms for publishing and selling content material. Now, I will inform you how I take advantage of Medium, and how one can too.

What’s Medium?

Medium is a social publishing platform that’s open to all and residential to a various array of tales, concepts, and views. Anybody can write for the platform, so it is nice for learners.

Common subjects on Medium vary from psychological well being to social media, from world affairs and trending information to productiveness hacks. This makes it a strong alternative for anybody who needs to start out running a blog.

As Medium founder (and Blogger creator/Twitter co-founder) Ev Williams wrote when he launched the platform in 2012:

“Medium just isn’t about who you’re or whom you understand, however about what you need to say.”

How does Medium work?

The very first thing you will discover on the Medium web site is its web site design. As former HubSpot Senior Content material Strategist Erik Devaney says, “It is minimalistic, that includes plenty of white house and restricted formatting choices. Wish to change the header typeface to Comedian Sans? You’ll be able to’t. Medium will not permit for such atrocities of design.”

This resolution makes nice writing the main focus. However that is simply considered one of many nuances of Medium.

Medium is for 2 kinds of individuals: writers and readers, by on-line content material publishing. After I began my profession in content material writing and technique, I wasn’t certain what that meant. I found Medium as a result of I used to be making an attempt to determine the place to construct my writing portfolio. I would heard Medium was a good selection, however the first time I signed up I wasn’t certain methods to use it.

In the event you’re simply getting began on the platform, there is a truthful quantity to study earlier than you hit publish. Let’s get into it.

High quality results in discovery.

Many writers go for years with out sharing their writing. However when you determine to grow to be a author, whether or not you are ending a primary novel or writing content material for manufacturers, you should discover a option to share your abilities.

Medium is nice for writers who make investments time and power of their work. It rewards in-depth, well-researched, and helpful articles, not simply reputation or model consciousness.

Platform-enabled reader engagement.

Feedback and likes are fashionable in on-line media. However once you’re new to writing, it is useful to know precisely what persons are responding to and why. To satisfy this want, Medium offers readers an opportunity to spotlight and remark immediately throughout the textual content of every article. This course of is like the way in which skilled editors interact with writers.

Curation and publications.

Medium has curators who evaluate articles for high quality. If a curator chooses your article for wider distribution, it offers you an opportunity to introduce your content material to extra readers. This would possibly embody highlighting your article on the platform, displaying your submit to readers they assume will wish to learn it, or including it to subscriber emails.

Most curators are publication editors. A few of the most fashionable publications on Medium in 2023 embody:

• The Startup
• In direction of Knowledge Science
• Private Progress
• UX Collective
• The Writing Cooperative

Medium’s curation and publication fashions aren’t simply nice for writers. Additionally they give avid readers and followers an opportunity to assist their favourite writers.

Paid alternatives.

Medium additionally offers writers the prospect to earn cash with their tales. As a member of the Accomplice Program, you possibly can put tales behind a paywall to earn revenue.

On this program, you possibly can enhance earnings with repeat readers, engagement alerts, and extra.

Writing for Medium

Anybody who has a Medium account can write for Medium — there is not any different vetting course of concerned.

To get began, merely join a free Medium account (or improve to a $5/month membership for limitless entry), and also you’re prepared to start out writing from there.

However articles should adhere to Medium’s content material pointers and guidelines. For example, as a author I am unable to promote controversial or excessive content material on my Medium account. I am unable to do third-party promoting. And there is a separate set of insurance policies if I wish to write about cryptocurrencies.

Online marketing hyperlinks are allowed, however writers should inform their viewers that they are together with these hyperlinks. For the complete checklist of guidelines for content material, check out this submit on Medium Guidelines.

As a marketer, Medium presents a possibility so that you can attain a brand new viewers together with your content material. The platform is open, so some subjects lean towards sharing longer-form, extra well-thought-out content material whereas others are brief and topic-focused.

On this manner, Medium is like advertising on many different channels, as a result of success in writing for Medium is not nearly nice writing. It takes some analysis into audiences and publications in a selected space of curiosity. So, what makes Medium a terrific channel for writers?

Within the subsequent part, I’m going to get into the subject above, and discuss how I selected between Medium and WordPress.

Medium vs. WordPress

This submit gives an distinctive breakdown of WordPress vs. Medium for pricing, running a blog, and search engine optimisation from a enterprise perspective. So, I wish to use this house to share my private expertise with the 2 platforms.

How I’ve Used WordPress as a Content material Author

I labored with a designer to construct my private web site on WordPress and constructed a separate facet challenge by myself with Elementor. I’ve additionally used WordPress professionally as a content material supervisor and freelance author. Altogether I have been utilizing the platform for six+ years to create and promote content material.

WordPress is a wonderful platform for sharing content material on-line inexpensively. It additionally makes it simple so as to add plugins, options, and instruments to attach my websites to different related channels, like social media feeds or fee gateways.

I like WordPress as a content material author as a result of it lets me run unbiased websites on-line that I can use to check concepts earlier than extensively broadcasting them.

That mentioned, it took years of studying about SEO (search engine optimisation) to start producing site visitors on my private websites. With the fast current modifications in search engine optimisation, I have been investing extra time in researching social channels for advertising and promotion.

How I’ve Used Medium as a Content material Author

As you possibly can see above, I selected to go along with WordPress for my portfolio. However I began utilizing Medium once I was managing content material for a small ecommerce startup.

I used to be searching for efficient methods to advertise content material for our weblog. I wished a channel that would assist develop the affect of the superb writers on my staff. So, we began with Medium.

I requested writers on my three-person staff to jot down an authentic piece for Medium as soon as a month along with their scheduled weblog assignments.

Whereas some posts sat on our model’s Medium web page with out a lot traction, just a few grabbed invaluable consideration. Particularly, we had essentially the most success with posts that we submitted to fashionable publications on the positioning.

For instance, I submitted this submit about Ecommerce Easter Eggs to the Advertising and Entrepreneurship publication curated by Larry Kim, and Bryce Patterson submitted this piece on the content material writing course of to the publication “The Writing Cooperative.”

These publications have devoted audiences, which helped us present our writing to extra individuals and construct followers for our branded Medium account.

WordPress vs. Medium — which is best for you?

Whereas these are each glorious platforms to showcase writing, they’re fairly totally different. I take advantage of each platforms, however I spend extra time on WordPress due to my targets as a creator. However many writers will discover that Medium is the perfect platform for them due to its deal with author discovery, monetization, and community-building.

At this level, it’s possible you’ll be able to attempt utilizing Medium. Let’s take step one.

Getting Began With Medium

1. Create an account.

Anybody can view free Medium content material. However to publish and work together with of us on the platform, you should have an account and log in.

So, step one is creating an account. Signing up was tremendous simple for me. I headed to Medium.com and clicked the “Get began” button on the high of the web page. From there I had three totally different sign-up choices to select from: Google, Fb, or e-mail.

I used my Gmail account to create an account first, which was tremendous quick and easy. They even made including my title to my profile simple, as a result of it auto-filled primarily based on my e-mail.

I additionally arrange a separate account, this time signing up with e-mail. All I wanted to do was click on a hyperlink in my e-mail to finish setup, and the method was in any other case the identical.

Throughout signup, it helped to do not forget that Medium is a component social media. It isn’t only a platform to jot down blogs, it is a house to share, remark, and curate content material inside a neighborhood.

So, I felt like some components of the signup, like selecting subjects, felt extra like signing up for Twitter (X) or Pinterest than creating an account on a running a blog platform.

I like conserving my running a blog and social media accounts separate, however Erik Devaney recommends signing up for Medium utilizing Fb. He says, “That manner your whole current connections from Fb who’re on Medium will robotically be following your account as soon as it is created. This protects you the difficulty of getting to construct up a brand new viewers solely from scratch.”

No matter what you go along with to start out, you possibly can at all times hyperlink your Twitter (X), Mastodon, or Fb to your Medium account later within the “Safety and apps” tab within the Settings menu.

The Settings menu can be the place you possibly can replace your username, profile web page URL, profile design, and extra. You may as well management what e-mail notifications you obtain from Medium on this menu.

To finish my profile, I added a photograph and wrote up a brief (160-character max) bio for my Medium profile web page. I take advantage of the identical bio throughout my social media accounts, so I simply copied and pasted this from my Instagram account, emojis and all.

2. Observe individuals, publications, & subjects.

In a Medium feed, the content material that is surfaced comes not solely from the accounts of the individuals and organizations you observe, but in addition from publications and tags. What’s extra, when trying to find content material on Medium, individuals, publications, and subjects all present up within the outcomes.

Folks

First, determine who you wish to observe. Whose writing do you wish to learn? Who’s making content material you possibly can study from as you start your new writing journey?

There’s all kinds of writers on the platform, and I am excited about a little bit little bit of all the pieces, so this step was fast to finish. Whether or not you are excited about politics or people-watching, pc science or world journey, you are prone to discover some writers you wish to observe too.

Publications

Medium publications are collections of tales primarily based round a typical theme. Anybody can create them — your self included — and the way in which they work is pretty easy.

Because the creator of a publication, you are an editor by default. This implies you may have the flexibility to:

• Add writers to your publication
• Edit and publish the tales submitted by your writers
• Overview the metrics for all of the tales which might be a part of your publication

Because the publication’s creator, you will even have the flexibility to nominate new editors (to allow them to do all that stuff I simply talked about).

Making a publication is simple to do. First, I wanted to submit fee to grow to be a Medium member. Then, I clicked on my profile picture within the high proper, and scrolled right down to “Handle publications.” A pop-up appeared, and I clicked “Create a brand new publication.”

This led to a brand new web page the place I wanted to enter data on the title, description, social accounts, and matter for my publication. I additionally wanted photographs prepared so as to add an avatar and brand.

The avatar picture seems on featured pages round Medium, whereas the brand picture seems on the homepage of the publication. You’ll be able to find out about picture sizes for these necessities and extra in this Medium submit.

As soon as I completed getting into this data, I had an opportunity to create a customized design for the house web page of my new publication.

This publication will give me an opportunity to not solely share my very own writing, but in addition join with different writers on the subjects I care about.

Matters

As soon as known as “Tags,” Matters are the hashtags of the Medium ecosystem. If you publish a narrative on Medium, you get the choice so as to add as much as 5 subjects, which seem on the backside of your story.

So, once I click on a subject it brings me to a web page the place I can see extra tales with the identical matter. It additionally offers me solutions for different subjects I could be excited about.

As an alternative of surfacing content material primarily based solely on the social graph (for instance, the individuals/publications you observe), Medium makes use of subjects to floor content material that is primarily based on particular pursuits.

For instance, this text from Beth Dunn, a current Advertising Fellow at HubSpot, contains 5 subjects:

• Consumer Expertise
• UX Writing
• UX Design
• Inclusive Design
• Content material Technique

Following subjects like these will help personalize my Medium expertise and make it simpler for my readers to seek out extra of my content material.

Now that I’ve arrange an account, began following some accounts, constructed a publication, and adopted some subjects, let’s begin participating with content material.

How you can Work together With Medium Content material

3. Advocate, share, and bookmark content material.

Clapping arms are the “Like” of the Medium world. It is a option to present that you just assist and admire the content material that somebody has shared.

When studying a narrative on Medium, you possibly can assist it at each the highest and the underside of the particular story, the place you see the clapping hand image.

In both case, I simply click on on the clapping hand icon to assist a narrative. As soon as clicked, the arms will change from an overview to strong black. The primary time I supported a narrative, I by chance clicked the quantity beside the clapping arms icon. This was a contented accident as a result of it let me see the complete checklist of people that really helpful that story.

Word: You’ll be able to clap as much as 50 instances per submit, and you may clap for as many posts as you need.

If you suggest a narrative, the author, by default, will obtain an e-mail notification. (However that is one thing you possibly can management in Settings). The extra assist a narrative receives, the extra probably it’s to be shared across the Medium community. Tales that obtain essentially the most likes inside a given time interval get featured on Medium’s house web page.

In the identical two places the place you possibly can suggest a narrative, you too can save, hearken to, or share that story. To save lots of a narrative I wished to spend extra time studying, I clicked the bookmark icon and it saved the story to my studying checklist. I may also create particular studying lists on this a part of the platform.

To hear, I simply clicked the play icon, however if you wish to use this characteristic, it is good to know that it is for members solely. Lastly, I shared the story by copying the hyperlink or sharing it on LinkedIn, Twitter (X), or Fb.

If you bookmark a narrative, it is going to seem in your studying checklist, which you’ll be able to entry out of your Medium profile web page or from the Medium homepage on the backside of the right-hand sidebar.

4. Spotlight particular phrases.

Now that I understand how to assist, share, and bookmark Medium tales, it is time to unlock a second stage of interplay. I do that by choosing sections of textual content with my cursor.

As soon as I spotlight some textual content, a pop-up menu will seem that provides me 4 choices:

Spotlight

Clicking the highlighter icon (highlighter image) places a inexperienced spotlight across the textual content I chosen. That is seen to my Medium followers. By default, a narrative’s author will get a notification when anybody highlights a piece of their tales.

Response

Clicking the speech bubble icon lets me write a response to the story I am studying. The part of textual content I’ve highlighted seems on the high of my response. (Extra on responses in a second.)

Textual content Shot

Clicking the Twitter icon generates a “Textual content Shot,” which is a tweet that robotically pulls within the textual content I highlighted as a screenshot.

Personal Word

Some tales will even present a lock icon in a speech bubble. Clicking this icon lets me ship the author a non-public observe. In the event you do not see this icon, it is as a result of the creator has turned off non-public notes.

You’ll be able to select this on or off in your settings, however I selected to go away it on as a result of I learn that editors typically use non-public notes to supply suggestions to writers earlier than publishing.

5. Write responses.

Not like conventional weblog feedback, Medium responses are handled as particular person tales. Apart from showing on the backside of the tales I reply to, I may also publish my responses to my profile web page.

That is useful for me as a result of it lets me interact with individuals on the platform with out having to decide to writing a full-blown story. It additionally helps me provide you with concepts for tales.

Medium’s strategy to responses offers feedback the potential to take off and get circulated similar to conventional tales.

A fast observe: Responses are engagement alerts on the Medium platform. And, responding is a tip that reveals up in lots of articles about methods to promote your writing on Medium.

For me, this makes it essential to reply genuinely. Whereas responses are a option to enhance my visibility on the platform, I work to be considerate within the methods I assist and have interaction with the writers I reply to.

How you can Write and Publish on Medium

6. Format textual content in your posts.

Prepared to start out writing my first Medium submit, I click on “Write” on the high right-hand nook of the Medium house web page. I may also get there by clicking on my profile icon on the top-right of the Medium web page, after which scrolling to “Tales.” I can create a brand new story by clicking the inexperienced “Write a narrative” button. That motion pulls up a display screen that is prepared for my content material that appears like this:

As Erik Devaney says, “Writing in Medium’s editor is very intuitive and — from a stylistic perspective — practically unimaginable to screw up.”

As normal, it’s the writing that’s robust, however a instrument will help with the small print. After I write, I typically use a template, like considered one of these free weblog templates.

Then, I copy and paste my writing into my chosen publishing platform. Medium makes this step simple. It retains hyperlinks and different formatting from pasted textual content.

If I wish to make a change to the textual content, All I’ve to do is spotlight a piece to disclose a number of primary format decisions reminiscent of daring, italics, or hyperlinking. It additionally lets me designate textual content as an H1 or as an H2 utilizing the large T or little t:

And I can select between two totally different types of block quotes —

Choice A:

Or Choice B:

If I actually wish to get fancy, I take advantage of Medium’s drop caps perform.

Know these enlarged, stylized letters you typically see firstly of sentences? These are drop caps. In accordance with the Medium staff, they’re helpful for “pacing, beginning a brand new chapter, or just a bit typographical delight.”

Another choice for creating some separation between totally different sections of a narrative in Medium is to make use of a separator. To insert one, I click on the little plus icon that seems on an empty line of a narrative:

Clicking that plus icon will open up a menu with six choices. The one on the far proper — the icon with the 2 little traces — is the separator.

This is what it seems to be like on the web page:

Take a look at this story for extra formatting how-tos, reminiscent of including inline code, mentions, or emojis.

7. Add photographs and media.

Including photographs, movies, and embeds to a Medium story might be so simple as copying and pasting URLs into Medium’s editor. The editor, generally, can robotically acknowledge the media’s format and render it accordingly.

For instance, I wish to add a pair movies to my in-progress submit. For the primary video, I simply copied and pasted the YouTube URL, after which clicked “Enter.” Then I added a TikTok video by clicking the video icon that reveals up after clicking the plus icon. The ultimate outcome was the identical irrespective of which steps I adopted.

You’ll be able to add a spread of media to your Medium story together with:

• Importing a picture out of your pc
• Including inventory images with Unsplash
• Inserting a video with a URL
• Inserting an embed code for permitted media

There are additionally totally different dimension and orientation choices for displaying media.

For instance, the choices under appeared in a pop-up menu after I inserted my YouTube video. There are three decisions for sizing a YouTube video on Medium:

8. Share drafts and publish posts.

After I completed my story and was pleased with how all the pieces seemed, I headed as much as the highest navigation to decide on between two choices: “Publish” and an icon with three dots. The three dots spotlight a spread of decisions for writers. These embody sending a draft hyperlink, checking the looks of the submit, unlisted publishing, and extra.

For instance, “Share draft hyperlink” generates a hyperlink to the draft of my story, which I can share with anybody — even when they do not have a Medium account. And the individuals I share the draft with may also go away me notes.

Clicking the “Publish” button, in the meantime, opens a menu the place I can select as much as 5 subjects for my story. It is a type of pre-publishing dashboard, with reminders so as to add a featured picture and a hyperlink to study extra about what occurs after publishing. I like that it additionally gives an opportunity to schedule my submit if I wish to share it later.

It is also the place I hit the “Publish” button to share my story with the world. 

How you can Get Paid on Medium

Now that I’ve gone by methods to use Medium, I am serious about methods to profit from it. I’ve executed some analysis and located just a few methods writers monetize with this platform.

First off, there’s the Accomplice Program. If you wish to earn cash together with your tales, that is an thrilling option to receives a commission on Medium.

The Medium Accomplice Program pays writers immediately every month. To receives a commission on Medium I first have to grow to be a paid Medium member. Then, it’s time to use for the Accomplice Program. The necessities for this are easy. I have to:

• Have revealed at the least one Medium story
• Be 18 years or older
• Reside in an eligible nation

This course of additionally contains signing up for Stripe, to gather funds, and Tipalti, for tax functions. As soon as I am a part of the Accomplice Program, I can put new and already-published tales behind a paywall for premium members. When somebody reads my story, I am going to earn a proportion of their membership charge.

That is the bottom elevate alternative, as a result of it is monetizing one thing I am already doing — writing tales for the platform. It additionally makes use of engagement metrics to determine how a lot I receives a commission for every story, connecting what readers like to what I make from the platform as a author.

Whereas I will be making an attempt the Accomplice Program to earn on Medium, I am additionally interested by different choices. For instance, I arrange tipping by going to “Settings,” then “Publishing” and updating the settings beneath “Handle tipping in your tales.” I can add a fee hyperlink and I am going to be capable of obtain suggestions from readers. There are alternatives to make use of Patreon, PayPal, and different fashionable platforms.

One other option to monetize is utilizing my tales on Medium to advertise a enterprise or model. The brand new audiences I introduce to my tales on the platform can drive new curiosity to my enterprise. This strategy is like what I discussed above once I talked about my previous expertise utilizing Medium.

9. Measure your outcomes.

I revealed my first Medium story and I’m set to earn cash on the platform, however the influence I could make with Medium will rely on how my tales carry out. To see metrics for my Medium content material, I clicked my profile icon within the high right-hand nook of the Medium homepage and scrolled right down to “Stats.”

After I arrived on the “Stats” web page I did not see a lot (but). However quickly, I am going to see the mixture variety of views and claps my tales and responses have obtained over the previous 30 days.

There’s additionally a graph that gives day-by-day granularity, with particulars on follower counts and highlights.

Picture Supply

As I scrolled down the web page, I has the choice to click on on particular tales to view particular person stats. The Medium staff can be making modifications to the Stats pages. It seems to be like most of those modifications are for monitoring fee metrics or serving to writers tie fee to efficiency.

This is a fast rundown on what metrics Medium presently tracks:

• Claps: The variety of claps a narrative receives.
• Responses: The variety of responses a narrative receives.
• Lifetime earnings: The full quantity a narrative has earned.
• Views: The quantity of people that visited a narrative’s web page.
• Reads: Tracks when somebody views a narrative for 30 seconds or extra. Scrolling to the underside of the story was required, however is not anymore. Views and reads for particular person tales reside on story element pages.
• Member learn ratio: This stat tracks member reads divided by member views.

Fast observe: Member-only and non-member exercise is tracked individually in Stats.

The Medium App

I journey continuously, so consuming and interacting with content material on the go is finest for me. For this, I am utilizing the Medium app. The app contains the identical tales and content material I can discover on my laptop computer, with the added bonus of a mobile-first interface.

On the app, I can floor content material associated to my pursuits. These curated lists rely on the tags, publications, or authors I observe. I additionally use the app’s Discover characteristic to seek out new, fascinating content material and to have interaction with fellow readers, becoming a member of conversations as they’re taking place. I hoped I may begin drafts within the app, however no. That mentioned, I can verify story stats wherever I’m, which is useful.

Use Medium for Writing and Sharing Your Finest Tales

Medium is a strong platform for writers and content material creators to share concepts, interact with readers, and even earn cash. By following the steps I shared on this article, you possibly can unlock the complete potential of Medium. So, begin writing and exploring the probabilities. Your viewers is ready.

Editor’s observe: This submit was initially revealed in August 2021 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.