It took me years to figure out what kind of articles to write on Medium.
After years of rambling, I have finally learned how to write articles that are beneficial to my readers and myself.
Medium articles are one of the most effective and valuable tools to build a following and generate material for your books/courses.
Both are necessary to build your online business.
Even when you don’t have a service or product to sell, you should be building a following in anticipation of having one in the future.
Your articles should either solve readers’ problems or entertain them, or both.
To effectively build a following on Medium, you should consider writing the four types of articles:
- Educate
- Entertain
- Solve a problem
- Make readers think
Let’s explore them one by one.
Educate
The easiest way to attract followers is to share your knowledge and expertise by teaching.
Articles that teach how to write, build an online business, or succeed on different platforms have been doing well on Medium for years and will continue to do so because everyone on the platform wants to learn these skills.
When teaching or educating, it pays to simplify things. Readers don’t have time to go through the fluff and decipher helpful information. Your ability to simplify things is proof that you’re a master of your domain.
Say less, convey more. Here are some of my articles that are short but carry helpful information.
Want To Write? Then Don’t Start A Blog
How To Write A Good Short Form Article
Entertain
Educating and teaching your audience is helpful, but if you hammer your audience with facts and teachings all the time, you risk boring them.
The bored audience tunes out. This is where entertainment comes in. Nothing is better than rolling education and entertainment into one. There is even a word for it, ‘edutainment.’
Here is one of my articles where I tried it.
Solve A Problem
Articles that solve a problem do well. Pick one of the problems your readers face and provide solutions to that. This shows your readers that you understand their issues and care enough to help them solve them.
While solving a problem, empathize with your readers. This is because you have been there and faced the same issues. Using examples from your struggles builds a bond with your readers, turning them from followers to fans.
Here are two of my posts on solving problems by nailing empathy.
Seven Habits of Highly Effective Mediocre Writers
Stop Obsessing With Productivity
Make Readers Think
Outside of teaching and education, there are types of content that we all love. It is called philosophical or thoughtful content.
This type of content may not teach or may not entertain, but it makes your readers stop and react, “wow, I’ve never thought of it like this before…” or “Woah, what a great way to describe that….”
The content writers who do this incredibly well are people like Naval and Sahil Lavingia.
Here is one of Sahil’s articles that made me stop and think:
No Meetings, No Deadlines, No Full-Time Employees
Takeaway
In other words, to build a following (and your online business), people should see you in all these four forms.
- This person teaches me.
- This person entertains me.
- This person solves my problems
- This person makes me think.
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