Should You Self Publish, or Use a Publication on Medium in 2022?
Do this if you’re not getting views in Medium publications anymore.
I got a great email in response to my newsletter last week about an important issue for Medium writers. Here’s what Sandra P. wrote:
“I notice it's harder to get traction with articles even when they're in publications. I wonder if this is a message to us to start writing on our own profiles instead of publications? I have 3K followers but not sure follower numbers matter in this regard.”
It’s not a secret anymore that many publications are dying. If you’ve been on the platform for some time, you know that PS I Love You, one of the largest and oldest publications, shut its doors last year. And sadly, more publications have followed since then. I even made a video about it:
But what does that mean for YOU as a writer?
To answer that question, let's understand why Medium publications matter in the first place.
Why Medium publications matter and how to make them work for you
Publications are like magazines inside of Medium. They’re run by regular people (often voluntarily) and built around a specific theme. But most importantly, publications have their own following of readers, which makes them super attractive for beginners on the platform.
For example, even if you’re new to Medium, you could submit to an enormous publication like The Startup with 760K followers. If they accept your story, you can piggyback off their massive pool of readers rather than writing to the handful of people following you. (If you need a complete guide for publications, you might find my course helpful!)
Unfortunately, there’s a small caveat: A large following doesn’t guarantee you thousands of views, even if your story is the best thing since sliced bread. You need a publication with an engaged audience.
(AKA, it’s not all about the size! It’s how you use it 😉)
Here’s how you can find one:
Find beginner-friendly publications if you’re new on Medium. You can check out the full process for finding the best beginner publications in this video.
Check the ratio of followers and engagement. Go to a publication’s latest section by putting a “/latest” behind the publication’s URL. For example, the URL of The Startup is “www.medium.com/swlh”, so the latest section would be “www.medium.com/swlh/latest”. There you’ll see the most recent stories of that publication and its number of followers on the right. Take your time to scroll down and explore the average claps and comments on stories. If a publication has 100K followers, but most stories get less than 100 claps and 0 comments, that’s generally a sign of low engagement. By contrast, you might find a publication with 10K followers that receives hundreds of claps and several comments on each story. That’s a hidden gem!
Understand a publication’s audience. Most publications clearly state who their audience is and what theme they’re exploring. But usually, that theme is pretty broad, which leaves lots of room for niches within that theme. To find these niches, return to the latest section and look for patterns among the stories with the highest engagement. Do they share the same topic? Style? Emotion? Really try to pinpoint the typical reader of this publication. (Remember to also check the author of a high-performing story. If it was a top writer with 50K followers, the success is probably due to their following. This makes them an unreliable data point.) Once you’ve identified a publication’s audience, you gain A LOT of control over who’ll read your story. And that means more views for you!
Okay, so engaged publications are key to growing on Medium. But this brings us back to the initial question: What should you do once you’ve built YOUR OWN following? Stay loyal to publications? Or banish them and start self-publishing?
I wish I could give you an easy solution, like, “Publish ALL your stories in [insert random publication], and your views will triple overnight!” But honestly? Finding your publishing style can take some intense experimentation. So, to take some weight off your shoulders, here’s a five-step guide to discovering the right path for YOU!
A strategy to discover your publishing style
Here are five steps you can take whenever you’re not getting traction in publications or you’re dying to find out if self-publishing is worth it:
Pick a topic that has worked well for you in the past. (If you struggle with finding money-making topics, check out this post.)
Aim to publish around ten similar stories on that topic (the more, the better!). This will provide you with reliable data points.
Submit half of these stories to an engaged publication of your choice. Self-publish the other half on your own profile.
Compare the stats of your self-published stories to the ones in publications. To keep it simple, look at views, read ratio, and comments.
Interpret the data. What can you see? Did one style perform better than the other? Can you identify trends in your engagement?
More views aren’t always better. If your views from self-publishing are slightly lower than those from publications, you can still call that a win. This is because self-publishing gives you complete control over when and what you publish. Plus, your favorite publication might shut down at some point, while self-publishing will most likely remain as long as Medium is around.
These benefits of self-publishing might be worth sacrificing the extra views you get in publications.
Keep experimenting
This post has largely been about data, which can be annoying, I know! But collecting data is a CRUCIAL part of writing online.
So if you only take one thing away from this, it’s that there’s no “get more views” button. It's not like publishing in a pub is approved or disapproved of by Medium. It's not a box to tick in the algo. The only bullet-proof way to get more traction will always be trial and error.
So dare to experiment and keep experimenting. And most importantly, try to make it fun! There’s no point in doing all this research if every step of the way is pure torture.
