Medium is a platform for writers. When you’re not a author, that sounds fairly simple. However in case you write, you perceive simply how enormous that assertion is.

Is it a running a blog platform? Social media or an web optimization useful resource? An internet group or a strategy to earn cash writing? Sure. The entire above.

You can 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. Regardless 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’ll let you know how I exploit 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 rookies.

Common matters 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 begin running a blog.

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

“Medium isn’t about who you’re or whom , however about what you must say.”

How does Medium work?

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

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

Medium is for 2 sorts of individuals: writers and readers, by means of 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 easy methods to use it.

When 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 develop into a author, whether or not you are ending a primary novel or writing content material for manufacturers, you should discover a strategy to share your expertise.

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

Platform-enabled reader engagement.

Feedback and likes are common in on-line media. However if you’re new to writing, it is useful to know precisely what individuals are responding to and why. To satisfy this want, Medium offers readers an opportunity to spotlight and remark immediately inside 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 assessment 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 may embrace highlighting your article on the platform, exhibiting your put up to readers they assume will wish to learn it, or including it to subscriber emails.

Most curators are publication editors. A number of the most popular publications on Medium in 2023 embrace:

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

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

Paid alternatives.

Medium additionally offers writers the possibility to earn cash with their tales. As a member of the Accomplice Program, you’ll be able to put tales behind a paywall to earn revenue.

On this program, you’ll be able to improve earnings with repeat readers, engagement alerts, and extra.

Writing for Medium

Anybody who has a Medium account can write for Medium — there is no different vetting course of concerned.

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

However articles should adhere to Medium’s content material tips and guidelines. As an 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.

Internet affiliate marketing hyperlinks are allowed, however writers should inform their viewers that they are together with these hyperlinks. For the total listing of guidelines for content material, check out this put up on Medium Rules.

As a marketer, Medium presents a possibility so that you can attain a brand new viewers along with your content material. The platform is open, so some matters lean towards sharing longer-form, extra well-thought-out content material whereas others are quick 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 an incredible channel for writers?

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

Medium vs. WordPress

This put up gives an exceptional breakdown of WordPress vs. Medium for pricing, running a blog, and web optimization 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 aspect mission alone 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 superb 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 impartial websites on-line that I can use to check concepts earlier than extensively broadcasting them.

That mentioned, it took years of studying about search engine marketing (SEO) to start producing visitors on my private websites. With the fast latest modifications in web optimization, 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’ll be able to 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 needed 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 write 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 priceless consideration. Particularly, we had probably the most success with posts that we submitted to common publications on the location.

For instance, I submitted this put up about Ecommerce Easter Eggs to the Marketing and Entrepreneurship publication curated by Larry Kim, and Bryce Patterson submitted this piece on the content writing process 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 completely different. I exploit each platforms, however I spend extra time on WordPress due to my targets as a creator. However many writers will discover that Medium is one of the best platform for them due to its give attention to author discovery, monetization, and community-building.

At this level, you could 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 people 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 prime of the web page. From there I had three completely 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 identify 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 write down blogs, it is a house to share, remark, and curate content material inside a group.

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

I like retaining 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 present connections from Fb who’re on Medium will routinely 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 begin, you’ll be able to 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’ll be able to replace your username, profile web page URL, profile design, and extra. You can even 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 exploit the identical bio throughout my social media accounts, so I simply copied and pasted this from my Instagram account, emojis and all.

2. Comply with individuals, publications, & matters.

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

Individuals

First, work out who you wish to comply with. Whose writing do you wish to learn? Who’s making content material you’ll be able to study from as you start your new writing journey?

There’s all kinds of writers on the platform, and I am focused on a bit of little bit of every thing, so this step was fast to finish. Whether or not you are focused on politics or people-watching, computer science or world travel, you are more likely to discover some writers you wish to comply with 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 simple.

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

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

Because the publication’s creator, you will even have the power 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 develop into a Medium member. Then, I clicked on my profile picture within the prime proper, and scrolled all the way 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 identify, description, social accounts, and matter for my publication. I additionally wanted pictures prepared so as to add an avatar and emblem.

The avatar picture seems on featured pages round Medium, whereas the emblem picture seems on the homepage of the publication. You may find out about picture sizes for these necessities and extra in this Medium post.

As soon as I completed coming 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 matters I care about.

Matters

As soon as known as “Tags,” Matters are the hashtags of the Medium ecosystem. Whenever you publish a narrative on Medium, you get the choice so as to add as much as 5 matters, 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 ideas for different matters I is likely to be focused on.

As a substitute of surfacing content material primarily based solely on the social graph (for instance, the individuals/publications you comply with), Medium makes use of matters to floor content material that is primarily based on particular pursuits.

For instance, this article from Beth Dunn, a latest Advertising and marketing Fellow at HubSpot, contains 5 matters:

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

Following matters like these might help personalize my Medium expertise and make it simpler for my readers to search out extra of my content material.

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

Work together With Medium Content material

3. Advocate, share, and bookmark content material.

Clapping fingers are the “Like” of the Medium world. It is a strategy to present that you just help and recognize the content material that somebody has shared.

When studying a narrative on Medium, you’ll be able to help 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 help a narrative. As soon as clicked, the fingers will change from an overview to strong black. The primary time I supported a narrative, I by chance clicked the quantity beside the clapping fingers icon. This was a contented accident as a result of it let me see the total listing of people that advisable that story.

Notice: You may clap as much as 50 instances per put up, and you’ll clap for as many posts as you need.

Whenever you advocate a narrative, the author, by default, will obtain an e-mail notification. (However that is one thing you’ll be able to management in Settings). The extra help a narrative receives, the extra doubtless it’s to be shared across the Medium community. Tales that obtain probably the most likes inside a given time interval get featured on Medium’s dwelling web page.

In the identical two places the place you’ll be able to advocate a narrative, you can too save, take heed to, or share that story. To save lots of a narrative I needed to spend extra time studying, I clicked the bookmark icon and it saved the story to my studying listing. I also can 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 function, 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.

Whenever you bookmark a narrative, it would seem in your studying listing, which you’ll 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 help, share, and bookmark Medium tales, it is time to unlock a second degree 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 bit 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 prime of my response. (Extra on responses in a second.)

Textual content Shot

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

Non-public Notice

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

You may select this on or off in your settings, however I selected to go away it on as a result of I learn that editors sometimes use private notes to offer feedback to writers earlier than publishing.

5. Write responses.

In contrast to conventional weblog feedback, Medium responses are treated as individual stories. Apart from showing on the backside of the tales I reply to, I also can 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 method to responses offers feedback the potential to take off and get circulated identical 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 easy methods to promote your writing on Medium.

For me, this makes it vital to reply genuinely. Whereas responses are a strategy to improve my visibility on the platform, I work to be considerate within the methods I help and have interaction with the writers I reply to.

Write and Publish on Medium

6. Format textual content in your posts.

Prepared to begin writing my first Medium put up, I click on “Write” on the prime right-hand nook of the Medium dwelling web page. I also can 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 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 ordinary, it’s the writing that’s powerful, however a device might help with the main points. After I write, I typically use a template, like certainly one of these free blog 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 bit 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 massive T or little t:

And I can select between two completely different kinds of block quotes —

Possibility A:

Or Possibility B:

 

If I actually wish to get fancy, I exploit Medium’s drop caps operate.

Know these enlarged, stylized letters you typically see at the start of sentences? These are drop caps. Based on the Medium team, they’re helpful for “pacing, beginning a brand new chapter, or just a bit typographical delight.”

Another choice for creating some separation between completely 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 strains — is the separator.

This is what it appears like on the web page:

Try this story for extra formatting how-tos, reminiscent of including inline code, mentions, or emojis.

7. Add pictures and media.

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

For instance, I wish to add a pair movies to my in-progress put up. 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 end result was the identical irrespective of which steps I adopted.

You may add a variety of media to your Medium story together with:

• Importing a picture out of your laptop
• Including inventory photographs with Unsplash
• Inserting a video with a URL
• Inserting an embed code for approved media

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

For instance, the choices beneath 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 every thing 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 variety of decisions for writers. These embrace sending a draft hyperlink, checking the looks of the put up, 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 also can go away me notes.

Clicking the “Publish” button, in the meantime, opens a menu the place I can select as much as 5 matters 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 put up if I wish to share it later.

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

Get Paid on Medium

Now that I’ve gone by means of easy methods to use Medium, I am fascinated with easy methods to profit from it. I’ve carried out 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 along with your tales, that is an thrilling strategy to receives a commission on Medium.

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

• Have printed a minimum of one Medium story
• Be 18 years or older
• Dwell 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 will earn a proportion of their membership price.

That is the bottom raise 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 in different choices. For instance, I arrange tipping by going to “Settings,” then “Publishing” and updating the settings underneath “Handle tipping in your tales.” I can add a fee hyperlink and I will be capable to obtain ideas from readers. There are alternatives to make use of Patreon, PayPal, and different common platforms.

One other strategy 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 method is like what I discussed above once I talked about my previous expertise utilizing Medium.

9. Measure your outcomes.

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

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

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

Image Source

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 changes to the Stats pages. It appears 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 at present tracks:

• Claps: The variety of claps a narrative receives.
• Responses: The variety of responses a narrative receives.
• Lifetime earnings: The whole 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 once required, however is not anymore. Views and reads for particular person tales dwell 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 regularly, so consuming and interacting with content material on the go is greatest 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 depend upon the tags, publications, or authors I comply with. I additionally use the app’s Discover function to search out new, attention-grabbing content material and to interact 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 test story stats wherever I’m, which is useful.

Use Medium for Writing and Sharing Your Greatest 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’ll be able to unlock the total potential of Medium. So, begin writing and exploring the probabilities. Your viewers is ready.

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