20,000 views later.
A strange thing has happened. I came to Medium because I wanted to promote my podcast by getting to the first page of Google for the search term “Scottish Podcasts.” I managed, more or less, and that article has been viewed a few thousand times.
Little did I know that Medium is an awesome place to write online, full of ridiculously cool, inspiring people like you.
So I stuck around.
I’ve been writing semi-regularly, and recently, something cool happened. An article I wrote earned me $2,000 in total earnings, $1,700 from the Medium partner program, and $500 from affiliate sales. Let’s break it down so you can learn how it happened.
I got boosted
This is the main reason the article did so well. It did not get 3X the views of my next most viewed article, but earned 3x as much. Thanks to the editors at Better Marketing, I was able to get some feedback that tweaked the headline and allowed me to get boosted.
Even though it’s happened a few times, I don’t have the secret sauce figured out, which is fine. It’s been much more exciting to get an email that I got boosted when I didn’t expect it rather than chasing it from the start and getting disappointed when it doesn’t happen.
I’ve put together a free editing checklist to maximize your chance of being boosted.
I wrote about a trendy topic
AI was, and still is, on people’s minds. How does it work? How can I use it? I got stuck in and did a cool experiment, using AI to grow my podcasting blog and reported on my success.
I don’t tend to chase trends or even notice when they’re happening, but this time, my interests and a new trend coincided, so I could add to the conversation. Finding trends is exhausting; writing about your own experiences is better than trying to chase a trend to comment on.
A little before AI was the in thing, quiet quitting was all anyone was talking about. But I didn’t know what it was or have anything to say. So, if I’d tried to write an article, it would have been boring and derivative of what everyone else was saying. Only write about trends you are interested in.
I wrote from experience
All my best-performing articles have had one thing in common: They have all been based on my own experience of mistakes I’ve made or cool projects I’ve worked on. Whenever I try to give advice directly, it falls flat because people don’t like being lectured at; they like being told stories and coming along for the ride.
I tried something new and ran an SEO experiment. That allowed me to have a unique take that people were interested in. The evidence is in how many views I get from non-members of Medium. I’m sitting at a 70:30 split from members to non-members. The article has traveled through the SEO community and through Medium itself.
You have unique views and experiences that only you can share. You have a story that no one else can tell. That’s what you need to write about.
I promoted a software product I love with a healthy commission
The software I used to run the experiment had an affiliate program, so I joined it. It was a healthy 30% recurring commission on paid subscriptions, and a few readers paid for annual subscriptions, making me a tidy profit.
But I didn’t start at the affiliate program and work backwards. I was running the experiment anyway and noticed an affiliate program. I would still have written the article anyway; it was just a happy coincidence that I was able to capitalize on recommending the software, too.
It also has a horrible conversion rate: 5 paying customers from 20,000 views, a 0.025% conversion rate. But because the commission was reasonable, it was worth it.
I keep ruining my momentum
Twice now, I have given up in frustration and left Medium, only for an article to take off the following month. It happened in December, and it happened again in March. And it’s because I keep chasing the money. If you come here to write for the money, you shoot yourself in the foot.
Instead of building with the momentum of a popular article and being in people’s minds, I keep stopping and having to start again. It’s stupid.
That’s why I’m going through a mindset shift. I’m moving away from quick wins, and the advice of Mr. Get Rich Quick and onto a slower pace dedicated to craft, quality, and long-term projects. I have opened the waitlist for the Slow Writers Club, a paid community of writers, podcasters, and solopreneurs fed up with the hustle who want to chase mastery instead.
I’m unsure if this was a fluke or a combination of all that’s come before it. Regardless, I am now back on Medium for the long haul and excited to be back amongst all you fabulous writers.
Click here for a free copy of the Medium Editing Checklist I use to maximize my chances of getting boosted.
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