How to Write for Medium
Lessons from Medium’s top-performing stories
Writing on Medium is not like writing for other platforms.
If you learned how to write amazing posts that get you ranked for top keywords, that strategy will not work on Medium.
If you learned how to write in-depth how-to posts that get great engagement from communities like GrowthHackers and Inbound.org, that strategy will not work for Medium.
I don’t have this “formula” figured out yet, Medium still regularly surprises me. But I’ve picked up on a few things.
Tell stories, not “how-to’s”
On July 9, 2016 Mandela Schumacher-Hodge published this story:
Since then it’s been recommended over 4k times, received close to 400 comments, and been republished on The Huffington Post. Look close, and you’ll see it’s a how-to guide for white people in the workplace. But it starts out just being one women’s story about her boss.
People on Medium are not searching for information on a specific topic, they are browsing. Because of this, stories always outperform.
elizabeth tobey wrote an amazing piece on how to disguise “how-to” posts on Medium. Her advice, and it’s spot on, boils down to this:
Remove the second-person; replace it with the first-person.
🙌 Yes! 🙌 Yes! 🙌 Yes! Do that!
Here are 3 more examples of story-based “how-to’s”:
- How We Changed the Facebook Friends Icon by Facebook design manager, Caitlin Winner
- The Risk Not Taken by Bonobos CEO, Andy Dunn
- Confessions of a Google Spammer by Jeff Deutsch
Make a bold statement
I don’t know why Medium readers love to be told what they shouldn’t do, but they do. “Stop” is actually the most-shared topic on Medium:
You’ll find this tactic employed by other top writers on Medium as well. See Jon Westenberg’s Stop feeling guilty about your morning routine and Stop Trying To Be Somebody.
But using “stop” is just one tactic in a much bigger theme — Medium readers love articles that make bold statements.
And the sooner you make that bold statement, the better…seriously…put it in the title. One of Kurt Vonnegut’s famous pieces of writing advice was this:
Start as close to the end as possible.
Making a bold statement in your title cuts out a whole lot of rambling introduction. And the best writers on Medium do this:
- I Don’t Really Believe in “Work-Life Balance” by Danielle Morrill
- Multitasking is Killing Your Brain by Larry Kim
- Here is Why Your Life Still Sucks by CamMi Pham
Get personal
Medium has mastered the confessional post. People love it. It’s the place for being real, and raw. The great news for writers is that means you can turn off your professional, “I’ve got all the answers!” voice and get real.
Take this excerpt from The Risk Not Taken:
I knew that I was running thin, but someone else possibly discovering this financial fact moved my balance sheet from a mostly private matter to semi-public shame.
I felt like a fraud.
This is notably different from what you see on other platforms.
For example, Dr. Nicole Lipkin is one of our contributors over at ReadThink. She writes amazing articles, like this one that went viral on LinkedIn:
Check out those stats!
But on Medium? Not so much. It did ok, over 100 recommends which is pretty good, but nothing close to the performance on LinkedIn.
Medium readers want to learn by hearing about your dirt.
(Stay tuned, Nicole is writing another version of this piece that includes her own bad boss stories...should be interesting :)
Write about your experiences
All 3 of the guidelines I’ve covered so far lead up to this one — write about your experiences. Write about what you know personally.
Medium readers want to learn from the life experiences of experts.
Diana Smith from the Segment team says there are five moments to look for that indicate you might have a good story on your hand:
- when you finish a project
- when you look for a good resource and find nothing helpful
- when you learn something new
- when you develop strong opinions
- when you create order out of chaos
Because emotional, personal stories do so well on Medium, I would add to this list:
- when you fail
- when you experience something that changes your perspective
When you encounter these inflection points in your life, pause, reflect, and ask yourself if anyone could benefit from what you’ve just experienced.
A few quick tips
Ok, that’s the big stuff. In closing, I’ll leave you with a few quick tips that will help boost the visibility of your post:
1. Frame your story around well-known companies and people
The UX Launchpad piece below is based on a 1997 video of Steve Job’s handling an incredibly awkward moment on camera. The author could have just wrote “7 tips for handling insults” but by framing the advice around Steve Jobs, the author taps into a much larger audience.
Here’s a piece I wrote recently that uses a similar tactic, this time I’m tapping into the brand power of Tesla Motors.
If you’re not an expert yourself, find someone who is and leverage their brand power.
2. Pay attention to formatting
Formatting for readability isn’t unique to Medium, it’s really just good writing for the web practices, but it’s worth repeating:
- Use clear headings
- Use short paragraphs
- Don’t be shy about using one sentence paragraphs
Scroll through this post by Benji Hyam, notice the liberal use of short paragraphs. It makes for an incredibly breezy reading experience.
Feel free to abandon any classic writing rules that don’t serve the goal of making the reading experience as pleasant as possible for your reader.
3. Use images
Big header images will have a positive impact on engagement, use them.
But don’t stop there:
- Add some humor to your piece with a Giphy or two.
- Trying to explain a complex idea? Sketch it out, snap a picture, drop it in.
A little extra work to include a few visuals will go far in extending the reach of your work.
Now get to work.
Be real. Be transparent. Write about what you know about.
And if you have a story idea, let me know (jlantz@hubspot.com). I’m the editor here at ReadThink and am always on the hunt for good stories 😎
