Whether you are a newbie or a professional blogger, you should start a blog on Medium. If you are not familiar with Medium.com, it is a writing platform where anyone can sign up and write articles for free.
With a recent update, you can now create a personal blog on this platform. You do not need to spend money on a domain name or web hosting. It allows you to create a blog, write articles, and share them for free.
Medium is an excellent platform for writers to write and promote their work. Another exciting aspect of this website is that it pays you to write articles. However, it is not that easy. Firstly, you must join the Medium Partner Program, which has a lot of limitations. This program is only applicable to writers of specific countries. Furthermore, it uses Stripe as a payment gateway, which, again, is not available in all countries.
Secondly, even if you are lucky enough to join the partner program, you need a good engagement from the readers. In Medium, engagements are measured via claps.
Even though there are limitations to earning money, Medium can be beneficial to promote your work and achieve success as a writer/blogger.
Medium for Beginner Bloggers
If you are new to blogging, Medium is a great place to start. When you are just beginning, you seek a lot of help. You watch YouTube videos, read other people’s blogs, and try to figure out a lot of things on your own.
Beginners usually have a lot of learning to do. They need to know how to start a website, purchase a domain name and web hosting, install WordPress, design the website, create content, share content, and so forth.
Medium will make it a lot easier as you do not need a website of your own. You do not have to buy a domain or web hosting. You just have to sign up on Medium and start writing articles (stories).
So here’s what you have to do as a beginner.
- Join Medium.
- Write articles.
- Share.
That’s it.
You can even design your Medium profile as a personal blog—with personalized menus, colors, fonts, etc.
In the meantime, keep working on your blog/website. Once it is done, transform all your Medium articles to your website.
Medium for Intermediate and Professionals
While the newbies are just learning about blogging and making a website, the intermediate and professionals already have a blog. Their blogs might even be doing well in terms of traffic and income.
So if you are an already established blogger, why do you need to write on Medium?
The answer to this question is: to promote your work. It will be helpful for you to get backlinks and traffic to your website through Medium.
The great thing about Medium is that you can copy and paste your articles from your blog to this platform. Make sure to include on-page links on your Medium articles. These links should direct the readers to your original blog.
Find Inspiration on Medium
Besides writing, Medium has another benefit that is going to help you in your blogging journey. This platform is like a community for writers, who can write, share, and read each other’s work.
On this platform, you can find content on any topic. So you will be able to read the articles of other writers on the topic of your interest. It will be helpful for you in a lot of ways.
Here are three steps to find inspiration on Medium:
#Follow
You can follow writers and have direct access to their work. Whenever the writers post new stories, they will pop out on your home page.
You can even follow them on social media and their personal platforms. Most writers provide links to their blogs, books, courses, podcasts, and other exciting stuff. If they have personal blogs, follow them there too. Subscribe to their email list so that you will receive their work directly to your inbox.
#Learn
You will learn how to write good articles by reading other people’s work. On Medium, you can find all kinds of writers—beginners to professionals to best-selling authors. Reading their work will be a great source of inspiration for you to learn and write.
#Execute
Now, it’s your time to show your work. Whatever you have learned from these writers, use them, and create your own work. Steal their work if you have to. But, DO NOT copy and paste. Be inspired by them and make something of your own.
As Austin Kleon says in his book, “Steal Like An Artist,”
“What to copy is a little bit trickier. Don’t just steal the style, steal the thinking behind the style. You don’t want to look like your heroes, you want to see like your heroes.”
Takeaways
Medium is one of the best platforms for writers. But this website is not only for the writers. It is also for readers, learners, teachers, students, programmers, entrepreneurs, and everyone else.
Once you get the hang of it, you will understand that Medium is a sea of information where you can find content on any topic. Use this free platform to your benefit. There are many things you can learn from it and grow as a blogger.
For beginners, sign up to the platform, start writing, and share your work. But do not stop learning. You can learn from other websites or from Medium itself. You will learn a lot just by reading the work of others.
For intermediates and professionals, use this free platform to promote your work. Put on the extra work to re-publish your work on Medium and share it with your audience. If you already have a large audience, sign up for the partner program, and you will also be able to make some extra income from this platform.
