Episode 90: 5 Quick Tips to Get Started Writing on Medium.com

Speaker 1 (00:00):

You are listening to episode number 90 of inspire your success podcast. In today’s episode, I’m going to give you five quick and easy tips to get started writing on medium.com so you can finally launch your writing business coming up.

Speaker 2 (00:19):

Hi, I’m Michael Leonard and I built a full time online writing business that offers me the freedom to never go back to a cubicle and a nine to five if you’re like most people, you want to make more money to pay off debt, have more freedom, travel, and actually enjoy your life. Whether you want to earn $500 per month as a side hustle or scale writing business to five figures per month and quit your job. Making money as a writer has never been easier in this podcast. I want to inspire your success as a freelancer and show you how I 10 X my income in one year and made $20,000 in one month as a freelance writer. If I can do it, I know you can too. Thanks so much for being here.

Speaker 1 (01:04):

All right, everyone. Welcome back to the show again. This is Michael Leonard and as always, thank you for being here and tuning in today. So, um, this will be coming out, I guess probably mid may is I’m filming or recording this on the ninth. So by then I sure hope some stuff is opening up. I don’t know about you guys, but the uh, the pandemic is definitely wearing thin over here. I’m ready to eat at the restaurants and the restaurants by that I guess, I mean all the restaurants and uh, I’m ready to go to the gym. Oh my gosh. Missing that a lot. Um, currently my gym situation now is working out with the Bowflex, um, dumbbells that I bought about four years ago down in our garage, which is about a hundred degrees cause we’re in Arizona. Um, and our dog likes to go down there and just kind of hang out with us.

Speaker 1 (01:50):

And so she terrorizes other dogs and neighbors, um, as they walk by. So needless to say, not the best gym set up right now, but munchie is surely enjoying herself. Um, but yeah, so hopefully you guys are hanging in there. Uh, again, I still hard to believe it’s been going on for this long. Um, but again, what I want to do with this show and this brand is to help you build a pandemic proof business. As we talked about back with episode number 87, um, where I interviewed Kayla, um, who is just crushing it as a writer. And that’s what we really talked about is, uh, that there’s so many opportunities to still make money writing even though a worldwide shutdown is happening. And so right now is the time guys to, to start planting some seeds and to start getting your message out there and, uh, just, you know, learn the craft.

Speaker 1 (02:37):

Look, when, when I got started writing, I was terrible. Like I had so much information in my head that I wanted to share that I just like word vomited on every blog post. I mean, I was not a good writer when I started. So if you’re listening to this and you’re like, well, I have all this stuff I want to share but I’m worried, or I have some imposter syndrome or I’m not very good, please know that you don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start so you can be great. And I believe that was Zig Ziglar who said that, and that’s the quote you have to live by. So if you really want to do something, whether it’s writing, learning a new sport, getting in shape for the first time, you have to be willing to suck a little bit at the beginning.

Speaker 1 (03:13):

And so that’s, that’s part of it. But man, things can change so quickly. I mean, you can land one client from freelance writing or get one article on medium to go viral and literally your business side hustle, whatever it is, can change seemingly overnight. So that’s what I want to help you do today though, is to just get started because that’s, that’s really the biggest thing that I see so many people struggling with. So we’re going to dive in today to five quick and easy ways to get started on medium. But before that I do have to share a random fact as always. And today these are fun because I’ve been doing this for probably 25 30 episodes now. So I’ve had to really start to think about all these random facts about myself that I would share with my audience. And so this one was pretty funny today, so I was thinking, um, one thing, if you’ve ever hung out with me, there’s a good chance I’ve either talked Boston or had some sort of Boston accent and you might’ve even asked me like, Hey, are you from Boston?

Speaker 1 (04:12):

I’m not. I’m from Oregon, but I love Boston movies so much that me and my family have mastered the Boston accent and we’re wicked smack. So there’s a little snippet of it right there. So again, if you ever run into me and we meet up and you’re from Boston and then please let me know so we can just talk Boston all day. When we went to Boston a few years ago with my family, we were the only people that seemingly had the Boston accent. So that’s a random fact for me. Love Batman and love Boston accents. So let’s dive into getting started on medium though, because again, now’s the time guys. I mean, there’s never, ever, ever been a better time to build an online business and to just start writing. Um, you know, that that’s really all it takes is just that first step.

Speaker 1 (04:55):

And so that’s really step number one to getting started is to just create content. Um, and to me it’s really pumping out content. You can’t just post once and then expect miracles to happen. Um, which is what I did back in the past. Uh, and one of my mentors, Benjamin Hardy, who’s going to be on the podcast, I think next week, uh, which was such a good interview, you guys are gonna love and he talks about how quality or excuse me, a quantity will create quality. So the more you do of anything, whether it’s filming these podcasts episodes or uh, you know, writing content, the more you do it, the better you’re going to get. And so that’s the thing is I see so many writers just not get in it enough and then they wonder why they’re not good or they’re not getting a huge response or they’re still, you know, it takes them a long time to write articles or whatever it is.

Speaker 1 (05:41):

It’s because they’re not doing it enough. And so if you really want to make some money, whether it’s 500 bucks a month or it’s 5,000 a month writing, you need to get in it and stay consistent. You got to just pump out content. And so, um, you know, recently I had a even bought a book, an ebook from Tim dEnning who is a big, big medium writer. I’ve been following him for a long time. Um, one of my favorite writers out there, just a stand up guy. And, uh, inside the book he said, you really have to get those first hundred articles out. And, uh, you know, that’s might seem like a lot to you right now and I don’t want you to feel like you have to write a hundred this month. Um, but that’s what he’s saying is you just got to figure it out.

Speaker 1 (06:20):

You got to get your voice, your style. Um, you got to learn how to type faster. You gotta learn how to get in the flow state. Um, you know, writing is its own kind of skill. It’s its own craft and so you can’t just like, just decide to do it one day when you’re writing or watching TV and then just, you know, start writing. I mean, a lot of times it takes them, you know, a song to get you, um, in, in the groove or you have a certain routine or maybe you’re reading and then you jump to writing, whatever it is. Like you have to kind of figure all that stuff out. And so pump out content. I really like Tim’s rule, like work on those first hundred. If that feels overwhelming to you with like any big goal, just chunk it down. So think about, okay, I need to do 10, uh, 10 sets of articles, you know, and so just start today, start to see if you can do one or see if you can write one article a day or see if you can do five a weekend or whatever goal you set.

Speaker 1 (07:06):

I don’t know how your schedule works and time and stuff, but that’s what you really need to do is to just get in the habit of writing and that will help create your style and really help, uh, your audience. Start to know how you can help them. So that’s the first thing. Second thing, like I talked about in the last episode, 88 was about getting in publications. The only reason I was able to really blow up and make over a thousand bucks from medium partner program and my third month kind of back at it is cause I was publishing in better marketing. I was publishing in the startup and I was publishing in these publications that just have a built in audience. So, um, again, that’s, I’m going to say it a lot, but that’s why you should love medium is because they have hundreds of millions of people that go to the site every month.

Speaker 1 (07:51):

So you don’t have to worry about all the social media promotions and stuff is that you just need to get your, uh, your pieces, your stories in front of those publications where people go to every single day. Um, and you will be amazed at what can happen. So again, try to submit every story to a publication, even if it’s a small one, you just never know. Um, but yeah, I mean there’s obviously some bigger ones out there that you want to shoot for, but you know, there’s a lot in the middle of the ground, um, that are still going to be really, really helpful. Um, you know, when I got started with better marketing, uh, I knew they had a pretty good following, but I can’t believe how much success I’ve had with it. And, uh, they’re only a year old. So again, guys find publications in your niche so that way you can have your work read, you can impact people and of course you can earn more money from it.

Speaker 1 (08:37):

So that’s tip number two. Tip number three is to get your stories curated. And if you don’t know what that is, I want to actually kind of give you the medium definition. So here’s what medium had to say. They said thousands of stories are published every day on medium. Our goal is to share the best of these stories with medium readers. And we do this with the help of our curation team who reviews recently published stories and selects those that meet a high editorial standard for curation. Needless to say, they’re looking for the best of the best. And so if you create really Epic stuff, not only will you get in publications, but medium who, um, will basically look through those and they will find those and then they will share. So medium will share it on their social media or Twitter or newsletter, things like that.

Speaker 1 (09:20):

And that’s what happened for me with a couple of my posts is that they got not only curated but medium. Um, I think send them out in a newsletter and that helps me make like five, 600 bucks on one article. So that’s a really, really big thing. And so you’re going to want to make sure to take a look at the curation guidelines. Um, there’s a lot of things in there. We’ll probably have an entire episode on it because that’s, that’s a huge, huge part of it. And there’s like 50 things you need to not do and do. Um, I don’t want to overwhelm you, but I’ll, I’ll link to it in the show notes because it will help. Uh, but that’s a really, really big part of having success on media because again, it’s just going to get more eyes on your story and you can see what’s working and what’s not.

Speaker 1 (09:59):

But again, in the quick and easy way to think about curation is that more people are going to see it, but it’s only a small selection of articles that are gonna make it. So not every story you publish will get curated, most likely. But again, you’re going to want to follow those guidelines because that’s going to really, really help you out. Also, I did want to mention one of the students, I’m inside my program, freelancer 5k cat has just been crushing it on medium and she said, um, like 70% of her articles get curated, which is really helping her blow up her writing business on medium. So I’m super excited about that. So again, that just shows you that that’s a huge part of it. I’ve probably had 60 to 70% of mine as well. Um, so again, if you can get those articles curated, you are going to have way, way more success.

Speaker 1 (10:45):

So make sure to click the link in the show notes so that we can learn a little bit more about that. Um, before we get to tips four and five guys, I’m not sure if you tuned into last, uh, last week’s episode, but I do have a free resource to help you publish on medium. So again, you’re going to want to download that. So that way you can have a checklist to kind of make sure every article is passing a task. So I went through and created this checklist of about 10 points that you should always think about before hitting publish or submitting it to a publication. So download that over. It’s a hundred percent free. Download it [email protected], forward slash medium, or you can just click the link in the show notes and go straight to it. Again, you’re going to want to download that though, and then just print it out.

Speaker 1 (11:27):

And that way you can, um, have it next to you next to your desk. And then as you’re editing articles and getting them submitted, you can kind of make sure each one has that because those guidelines will help you get more, uh, medium articles curated because that’s kind of based on their stuff and it’s based on the things I’ve done to find success. So again, download [email protected], forward slash. Medium. All right, well, tip number four here is to think about the reader. Um, this is a big one and I sucked at it for over a year. So please listen to me on this one. Um, if you think about the best content you’ve read, the books you’ve read, the articles, um, anything like that, it’s always because that information had an impact on you. It’s not usually because you were just reading someone’s biography and that inspired you.

Speaker 1 (12:17):

And not to say that that doesn’t happen, but in general, people have an attitude of what’s in it for me. And I get that. That’s, that’s totally fair. So it’s, it’s your job as a writer on medium to solve someone’s problem, to help someone ease their pain, to help them figure out a solution, whatever it is that you’re writing about, you need to help them. It need to make it all about the reader. Now you should interject your own stories anecdotally what you’ve done, things like that. But at the end of the day, don’t just talk about you the entire time because again, they want a piece of content that can help them out. So again, that’s why on this podcast, same thing, I’m not just here talking all about me, me, me, I’m talking about some of the stories I’ve used and strategies. But at the end of the day, this is all to help you find success.

Speaker 1 (13:01):

And the same thing goes with medium. So again, always think about your reader. Use the word you a lot, don’t use the word we. Um, usually you just kind of connects on a more of an emotional level. Um, and you’ll just find that people will kind of resonate longer. And again, the medium partner earnings is based partly not just on claps but the overall engagement. So if people stay on medium stories longer, then you’re going to get paid more. So again, you want to use you and you want to use these kinds of stories and things to draw people in and keep them on your page because again, that will help with the overall payout and of course still, you know, provide a useful resource for them and just a good way for them to spend their time. So tip number four is again to focus on the reader.

Speaker 1 (13:48):

And then tip number five, I’m going to just keep it really casual on this one guys, is you got to have fun. Um, if writing becomes a pain and it’s something you dread, you’re not gonna want to do it. You’re not going to create good content if you do do it. And it just takes the fun out of it. And I’ve, I’ve had several times in my three years of, uh, you know, writing content online or four years I guess, but three years full time, uh, where I just burned out and I wasn’t creating it. I was resenting clients. They didn’t want to write on medium. I just had a, had a bad attitude. And so make sure you’re having fun. Uh, again, you don’t feel like you have to post every day. I don’t feel like you have to post every week, even if you don’t want.

Speaker 1 (14:27):

But I do think in the beginning, if you can create that momentum, it’ll make you more likely to keep posting because again, more and more people will read it, which is really fun when you wake up and you see all these notifications and people clicked on it and you’re making money and people are like emailing you or joining your list or just commenting on the article, letting you know, wow, this really helped me. I mean that is, that’s better than any amount of money you can make because then it just gives you so much more to know. People are reading your stuff and they’re waiting for your next one. And so not to put any pressure on you in that sense, but you just gotta have fun. Again, if you’re, if you’re not in a good space, it’s not going to translate in the good articles.

Speaker 1 (15:02):

And so, you know, definitely want to, uh, kind of Teeter the line there with quality versus quantity. But in the beginning, I would say if you can churn out more content, definitely. Um, and then as you get the hang of it again, focus on creating really, really Epic content and just have fun with it. I mean, this is getting paid to write. I mean, I never thought I’d be able to make money writing online. I always want to do, but I never really thought it was possible. I didn’t know people could really do it. And you know, here am um, you know, three plus years later doing it, all kinds of students inside freelance a five K are doing it. I mean, there’s thousands of writers on medium doing it. I mean, it’s so, so cool. So have fun with it. Let’s not take this too serious.

Speaker 1 (15:42):

Um, because again, adding that extra pressure rarely if ever helps. So, um, just a quick recap of those five tips to get you started on medium. Uh, number one is to pump out content like Tim dinning, a top writer on medium talks about is to get those first hundred articles. If that feels overwhelming, break it down and do you know, five a week or 10 a week or whatever you feel is comfortable. Don’t overwhelm yourself, but try and get out as much content as you can to really find your style. Number two is to get into publications, which we talked about a lot in the last episode, which I highly recommend you check out number 88. Um, the third thing is to get curated. So take a look at the show notes for the curation guidelines. If you have any questions on that, because that’s going to be huge.

Speaker 1 (16:24):

Um, tip number four is to always think about the reader because again, guys, they are there to help them and not necessarily to learn all about you. So interject your own personality and stories, but at the end of the day, make sure your story is helping them. And finally, tip number five, just to have fun. I mean, that’s, that’s just the whole part of being an entrepreneur, being a freelancer. Um, it’s easy to just put so much pressure on yourself and stress. I mean, guys have been there and it just doesn’t help. Uh, so again, you know, recharge when you need, get some extra sleep, self care, all that stuff. Um, but yeah, I mean at the end of the day you got to just have fun and enjoy it and just be fortunate that we live in a time where even though a global pandemic has shut down the world, that you can open up your laptop, create a medium account, and start making money from it without leaving your house.

Speaker 1 (17:12):

I mean, we’re pretty fortunate if you really think about it, um, you know, five, five, 10 years ago this stuff didn’t exist 2030 years ago. The internet wasn’t even around. So at the end of the day, have fun, be grateful for all that we have out there as writers, as digital entrepreneurs because there’s never been a better time. And so if I can do it, I know you can too. So again, make sure you’re downloading that free checklist though, so that way once you get launched and start writing on medium, you can have my checklist printed out. I got that thing made on Fiverr. It looks good guys. You’re not gonna want to miss it. There’s 10 or 12 tips on there that will literally show you exactly what you need to do to publish your content on medium and make sure it gets a lot of eyes on it.

Speaker 1 (17:53):

So print that out. You go to inspire your success.com forward slash medium so, um, hopefully that was helpful. Again, look forward to the next episode. Uh, we’re going to have Benjamin Hardy, the number one writer on medium. Um, he is a mentor to me. He helped me launch my business in 2018 he taught me so much stuff about personal development. Um, he’s a seven figure entrepreneur and just someone you are not going to want to miss and he has a new book coming out and that’s why we were able to collaborate, get them on, inspire your success and that is coming next. So episode 91, uh, next one, do not miss out on that. So if you have any questions, again guys always let me know. [email protected] Um, but if not, thank you again for listening. Tune in to Ben on number 91 you’re not to want to miss it. It’s so, so good and thanks again for listening. So stay safe and as always, I hope you have an Epic day.

Speaker 2 (18:56):

Thanks for listening to this episode of inspire your success podcast. If you’re the kind of person who likes to help others, please leave a positive review on iTunes so more people can learn about the show. Also, if you have any questions about freelancing, I’m here to assist. Please email [email protected] and may even use your question for a future episode topic. And if you want more inspiration and freelance writing tips to build your business, follow me on Instagram. My username is at, I am Michael Leonard. Finally, if you’re ready to learn how to make your first thousand dollars as a freelance writer, check out my free seven day [email protected] forward slash. [inaudible]. Thanks again for listening.