How to Use Medium [Guide to Writing, Publishing & Promoting]

July 19, 2020January 19, 2023 Yukta Jaiswal 0 Comments

We all have a hidden writer inside us. And if you have writing as your passion and want to make some money from your writings or you want to publicize your talent Internet has a perfect place for you: Medium.

According to Wikipedia, Medium is an online publishing platform developed by Evan Williams. The platform is for the purpose of social journalism, having a hybrid collection of amateur and professional people and publications, or exclusive blogs or publishers on Medium, and is regularly regarded as a blog host.

Beginner’s Complete Guide to Writing, Publishing & Promoting on the Medium Platform:

1. Getting Started

The official website link: https://medium.com/

You can download the app from Playstore (for your android) and from the Appstore (for your iPhone).

This app is just 8.5MB in size.

To create your free account:-

Go to the website.
Click on the button “Get started” at the top right side of the screen
Continue with your preferred option.

2. Home Page

Whenever you open Medium you land on the home page. So, let’s see what is on your home page.

After you successfully create your account on the website you will see the landing page (home page) with a lot of articles. You may or may not like these articles as this is the first time you have signed in.

Over time the AI will handle everything. It will curate different articles and it will show you the articles of your interests on this page based on the articles that you view or hide.

Hide:

You can also dismiss a story, mute the author, or mute the publication on the home page. If you want to hide or you don’t like an article on the page, just click on the ellipses (three dots) near that article and choose the suitable option.

Starred Articles:

You might also see some articles with a star. These are the articles, you will have to pay for. To read these articles you will have to have a premium account.

If you have a free account then you will get only 5 articles a month.

Profile:

To edit your profile, click on the profile picture. Click “Profile” and then “Edit profile”. Enter an ideal type of description to attract more and more customers to your blog. You can also use ‘linktree’ in your description to showcase your portfolio links in a single link.

3. Stories

Now, let us know some things about stories on medium before we start writing on medium. You can search for stories on the home page by clicking on the search icon at the top of the screen.

You can also highlight, comment, tweet, and write a private note to the author in a story by selecting some lines and choosing a suitable option.

Bookmarks:

You can read stories, and if you want to continue later, you can add them to your bookmarks. The bookmark option is present on the top of the home page. Just click the “bookmark” icon to view all your bookmarks. In the bookmarks, you can see the archive, saved stories, and recently viewed stories in the bookmarks.

New story:

How to Write an Article (Story):

1) On the home page, click on the profile picture.

2) Click on “New Story”.

3) Type our title and write your story

4) Open the publication for which you want to write. Click on submit.

5) Make sure to read and match the guidelines of curation and the topic on which you are writing before publishing your story.

6) Scroll down and find the “JotForm”.

7) Go back to your draft.

8) Click on the ellipses (three dots).

9) Select “Share Draft link”. Copy the link.

10) Go back to the JotForm and paste your link there.

Note:- If you get approval within 36 hours your story is accepted. However, if you don’t get any reaction after 35 hours of submitting your story, this means that your story has not been approved.

If your story is accepted within three days:

Step 1) Go back to your stories draft.

Step 2) Click on the ellipses

Step 3) Select “Add to Publication)

Step 4) You will see the publication you requested, present there. Click on it.

Step 5) Click on “Select and continue”.

Step 6) Check the box to make your content as the gated content( article available exclusively for premium accounts).

Step 7) Click “Publish now

Stats:

Click on your profile picture then click on “stats” to show activities about your stories. You can see, views, reads, read ratio, and fans of your stories. You can also see all separate graphs(graphs different for fans, views, etc.) for all your stories separately.

4. Medium Partner Program

This is where you can earn money from through your write-ups on Medium based on the engagement of the Medium members. So, let’s see how you too can earn money using the medium Partnered program on Medium.

1) Link your “Medium” account with your bank account or debit card via Stripe.

2) Make your story is eligible to get beyond the metered paywall. You can also get the stories that you have published earlier beyond the paywall.

3) Make sure your stories are meeting the curation guidelines as your story is also being submitted to the curator. The curator will recommend your content to readers across the website and the app.

4) The Medium Partner Program writers will be paid every month based on how the Medium members engage with their stories. This is determined by the reading time or how long a member is taking to read the story.

Using the following steps, you can add your published post to Medium’s paywall:

1) Visit your post page and go to the edit mode by clicking the settings button in the top-right corner of the screen and choosing “Edit story”.

2) Click on the ellipses.

3) Select “Manage Distribution settings”.

4) Check the “Allow curators to recommend my story to interested readers” box and your work is done.

5) Click “Save” to make your content eligible for earning money.

Note:- You don’t have to pay or have a premium account for using the Medium Parterned account.

Friend link:

This is the link with the help of which you can make sure that your friends, fans, and family has free access to your story

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Yukta Jaiswal

An ambitious, studious work loving, person. At the age of 17, I started editing and designing books, and I have also worked as an editor in a publishing company.