What I've learned about writing a lot, and why you shouldn't do that - this is true for Medium, but most other long-form platforms too.

Forget what you’ve heard from all the pundits and get-rich-overnight gurus. They aren’t in the same league as the rest of us. They could publish a listicle on how to poop better and it would get a million of views. They already have their following.

They’ll tell you that when they were starting out they used to publish every day and that’s how they built that following. That was great advice… 3-5 years ago. The algorithm for most long-form blogging platforms has changed. If you publish too much today, you can actually turn off your readers and lose followers. The gurus don’t worry about this, because they get new followers as fast as they lose them with their poop listicle.

Unless you have a huge following too, you need to work smarter and not harder. Yeah, I know it’s a cliché, but when it comes to long-form writing this is true. There is simply too much junk out there for you to stand out from the crowd. So be selective about what you write and how often.

My Rocky Start on Medium

I started my Medium account about six months ago, right before X-mas. I put up a few articles and then lost interest. After the holidays I decided to take the bull by the horns, watched a bunch of videos on Medium and I even paid for an online course from one of the gurus. Then I really started writing consistently in March of 2023.

Yes, things improved dramatically. My follower numbers increased, comments started to trickle in, and I was able to publish into a growing number of publications (the gold standard according to the gurus). I even had a few subscribers use my sign-up link. Things were really starting to look up, income was growing, and I was even more energized to work harder.

So, I started working later and later into every night (the only time I could find free and quiet from the daily hustle & bustle). I write about history, so my writing requires research and references. I even have a couple of publication editors who will send stuff back when it’s not up to snuff, lol.

After a quarter decade of working in IT, my writing was no longer up to snuff. So, I also signed up for Grammarly and started re-reading my collection of history books. As the gurus recommended, I focussed earnestly on things I never paid enough attention to like SEO, hashtags, and social media marketing. I was going to take this project seriously!

While I was never able to get to the point of writing an article a day, I did get to 3-4 per week. To be honest, it was killing me. I was barely awake in the mornings and the rest of the day and night I was high on caffeine, sugar, and adrenaline. I was also bullish on encouraging others to join Medium and I still am, but I’ll get to that later…

Then My Wife Joined Medium as a Writer

One of the people who was intrigued by my new fervor for the platform was my wife. Now she’s a professional academic, so her writing is already impeccable. She also doesn’t write about history, so she has that going for her. However, she didn’t have the same freedom to write every day as I do, because you know, she teaches during the day.

I figured it would take her at least six months to get to the same level as me. Nope. Because she didn’t have the same freedom to write new articles she just started to re-publish old articles she had written several years ago that are still relevant today. Just a few here and there. I helped her learn the platform and she would then do batches of 2-3 articles at a time and then take a break.

She was publishing about 1/2 as much as I was and none of it was original or required much research. I admit, I was a bit jealous, but I was still glad that she was seeing the benefit of Medium. I had a kindred spirit in the home.

That was when she showed me her stats. Her followers were growing at least twice as fast as mine were in the same amount of time. She was generating more comments and claps too. What was that all about? She was working half as much, probably than me, and generating twice the growth. She wasn’t even paying attention to growing her audience, Social Media, or any of that other stuff.

I figured this must be a fluke. She’s writing about other topics than I was. It must be the curse of history. Like art, culture, and music writers, we must carry that Sisyphean burden into our all aspects of our professional lives.

But I wasn’t convinced…

Then Others Joined Medium as Writers

While not all of them used my referral link (don’t ask me why), other people I knew well started to join because I was telling them about all the wonders of Medium. I even convinced a good friend who is a war history buff to start writing. I was very happy for them and encouraged them to follow the tips of the gurus I had learned so much from: write well and often.

They didn’t. They wrote the occasional article here & there but didn’t do so consistently. I also can’t say that they were very good writers either - yes, Grammarly is free. One of them even started writing gripes about Medium, but guess what?

They were all growing their audiences faster than I had been when I was working myself to the bone. Granted I don’t have access to their stats, but I could clearly see that they were growing their follower lists faster than I did. They also reached the partner programs much faster, allowing them to start earning on their stories. What was going on?

That’s when it hit me

I was spending all my time writing, they were spending more time commenting. They were commenting back on my stories, and I didn’t even see it then. It wasn’t until one of them let me know that I wasn’t responding to his comment that I realized that I had this whole thing backward.

Here is the secret to Medium, folks:

Comment ten times as much as you write articles.

That’s right. For every article you write, read and comment on 10 articles. More is even better, but I think you get the point. Comments get you noticed and appreciated on Medium. I even think their algorithm rewards you for this more than writing.

If you are a new writer, it’s more important to comment than to write. How’s that for a platform that bills itself as “for writers”? I mean this is certainly not something that is mentioned when you sign onto Medium and start writing. This is a bit frustrating, to be honest.

Likewise, this is something no guru that I tried to learn from emphasized enough. Sure, they mentioned that you should comment and some even said to do this often. However, most of them just focus on how to produce good articles and how to “hack” the algorithm with those articles. They emphasized writing well and often instead.

Yes, it’s important to write well, but don’t work yourself to death to write an article a day. Spend some time researching it, editing it, and formatting it for better reach. Then spend the rest of your newly found free time commenting on other articles. That is where your growth will come from.

Final thoughts

I realize that the rules are different for those with large followings already. They can continue to write their daily poop listicles if they like. But for new users, publishing every day is a surefire way to burn out. It’s already so hard to get a decent following, so instead of doing that, spend the time networking instead.

As I mentioned at the top, this isn’t just about Medium. I am quite certain that if you publish on Substack, WordPress, HubPages, or even Blogger, you’ll find the same thing is true. You can work yourself to the bone to publish mediocre articles every day, even several times a day, but your following won’t grow that fast.

If instead, you spend the time reaching out to the other writers on those platforms, you will grow much faster on them. This is because they share your experiences; they understand that by supporting you, you can then better support them. They see the value in reciprocating communications.

As for Medium, I hope that they make this a tad more obvious when new users sign on. yes, it matters. If you don’t believe me, here’s a challenge that will prove it: create a new account, write a decent profile, and don’t even bother writing an article. Then just spend the rest of the time commenting on other articles. I guarantee that it will grow faster than if you spend the time writing articles.

Try it, and let me know what you think. Better yet, use my Medium referral link and we’ll both be better off for it.