Lessons Learned on Medium
I look at my written pieces on Medium, and I realize that it will soon have been one whole month since I posted a piece. I guess that is understandable, as February is a short month. Also, I have been busy tweaking some story drafts that will hopefully be ready for posting soon. These come to fruition on their own schedule. One other thing I realize is that in February it was the official one-year anniversary of my publishing content on this great platform. Before that, I had spent several months as a reader savoring the countless riches offered by numerous other writers. Maybe just to get something out there and to keep my submissions coming, I will share a few quick lessons learned about Medium writing.
Medium Is Its Own Thing
Sure, there are numerous forums and platforms out there for sharing content as a writer and savoring works as a reader. We all know about the classic Internet spaces like WordPress that make writing and content producing easily accessible. And all the time you see pieces produced with Substack or other platforms. These are all amazing platforms and systems, each claiming its own unique and distinct identity in the wild of cyberspace. And Medium is no different. With a very broad mission “to deepen people’s understanding of the world and spread ideas that matter,” Medium invites its millions of readers and writers into its sphere of groundbreaking publications, articles, and content that can get them beyond their regular modes of operation and understanding for a while. If you pay the $5 per month membership fee, you can have unlimited access to this extraordinary sphere to undoubtedly better expand your horizons. If you become a member of the Partner Program, you can contribute content to the Medium sphere and get a little financial incentive(or a lot) back (along with the priceless returns you can receive).
Medium Demands Much of Your Deeper Self
Medium is like so many other domains, hobbies, and past times. There is the level of use and then there is the level of full immersion. You can stick your toe in the Medium pool and get a little wet. Sure, you might want to just pay your $5 per month and come once in a blue moon to browse some self-help articles or read a high-quality book review. You might even post a few articles of your own and have some of your words out there for others to read. But if you want to really dive fully into the Medium pool, you really have to keep your legs kicking and arms outstretched to fully balance with the water. You have to follow others and engage with their words through claps, highlights, and comments. You have to get your name out to publications and find tags, themes, and styles that are going to capture the attention of new readers. Just like with countless other pursuits, if you want to fully grow on Medium you have to let the great platform become a part of you.
Fame and Fortune Are Not the Only Goals(Nor Are They the Most Important).
You can get on Medium and try to earn the big bucks(some have made tens and hundreds of thousands). Also, you can use this amazing platform as another stone to help boost you to the highest levels of fame. Perhaps there is a part of each of us that hopes to make it to some great hall of fame, and today’s digitally-advanced age brings no bounds to unique new ways of finding it. Among the Instagram models or Youtube celebrities, there are also the most esteemed Medium greats. One note on fame, there is no age that is too old to achieve this victory. At age 37, for instance, I still have 25 years before I could emulate J.R.R. Tolkein and produce the first installment to an international bestselling fiction series at the age of 62(granted, Tolkien had produced many works before that age as well but this still demonstrates one is never too old for such accomplishments).
But before you reach those wonderful thresholds of fame and fortune, you can more fully take part in your own immeasurably unique and rich personal story. Your unique story and life are unlike any other among tens of billions of others in the history of the world. How might Medium(among numerous other crafts or past-times) help you celebrate and share your amazing, unmatchable journey? Perhaps you can submit a story to a publication’s writing contest to provide yourself with a new challenge. What if Medium becomes the platform for you to finally memorialize some of the creative works you kept buried in a box or journal? Maybe just crafting an in-depth article on a familiar subject will serve as an engaging and even therapeutic activity for you. Before you have reached a few thousand views, you might have found immeasurable personal growth and made a lasting impact on a few readers out there. The unique personal milestones each of us reaches in our own personal journies(many of which can be reached on Medium) are in many ways more priceless than fame and fortune.
Medium Reciprocity
On Facebook, Instagram, or other social media platforms, you often field numerous friend requests from people you may not even know. On Medium, you will certainly get those requests but can be just as likely to create an account, post a few stories, and not get any views or reads. So, one main lesson I have learned on Medium: “you have to give in order to receive.” Often, you have to give a lot without necessarily receiving much in return. This involves the hard work of crafting, editing, and producing pieces to put out there. In addition to producing your own pieces, you should subscribe to numerous publications and tags that capture your attention and interest. This will help you expand your horizons, discover new facts and insights, and help you develop as a reader and writer.
In addition to subscriptions and avid reading, Medium almost demands that you follow and engage with other users. You are freer to follow others here than on other platforms. Showing genuine interest in others’ works and offering personal comments, feedback, and insights is generally well-received without raising eyebrows. Of course, any brand of feedback has its own etiquette, requiring you to be specific and assertive about the facts from your point of view. But as you show genuine interest, understanding, and consideration of others’ works while also staying frequently tuned in to their new publications, you are more likely to have others offer the same back to you. Even more so, if you add regular comments and feedback to others’ pieces then this increases your overall views and reads. Other readers see your comments, and can then add their own claps and replies.
A Cliche List? Perhaps
So, in exploring some of the lessons I have learned on Medium I find many of the items seem broad or perhaps used too often. So Medium is its own thing? So is every other online platform. So fame or stacks of cash are not the main goals one can have for Medium? Well, many readers may disagree on this one with examples of those who have made many stacks from their amazing works. But in listing these lessons, my main goal is not so much to come up with some unmatched wisdom as it is just to reflect on my overall experience. If my experience is profoundly similar to countless others, then does that not demonstrate Medium users consistently and collectively finding enrichment on the platform? Certainly, each person’s experience is unique but there are also always constants to which each of us can relate. I hope that others find an insatiable pleasure and enrichment from regular reading and writing on this platform as I have. Also, as I continue to read new articles almost daily and write on at least a semi-regular basis, I pray my words can have as positive an impact on some other readers as countless writers’ amazing words have had on me.
