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#6 — Publish 66 articles in one month
I’ve been writing on Medium for close to three years now. For the most part, I went with the flow and didn’t care much for understanding what works and what doesn’t. But for the month of September 2020, I decided that it would be fun to dig into the most popular articles for the year.
And boy did I find interesting things! In this article, I’ll share the fun facts that 100% won’t help you…but at least they might make you grin!
1. Have a Huge Following
I analyzed writers who showed up in some of the most popular tags on Medium and checked how many followers they have. It was quite conclusive. Unless your name is Amardeep Parmar, Sira M., or David O., you need a huge audience to make it big on Medium. Here’s how many followers each have:
Benjamin Hardy: 247,000
Thomas Oppong: 195,000
Darius Foroux: 174,000
Tim Denning: 126,000
Niklas Göke: 77,000
Ayodeji Awosika: 75,000
Todd Brison: 63,000
Nicolas Cole: 62,000
Nick Wignall: 56,000
Jessica Wildfire: 52,000
Michael Thompson: 35,000
Shaunta Grimes: 33,000
Barry Davret: 31,000
Shannon Ashley: 31,000
Sean Kernan: 24,000
Danny Forest: 23,000
Sinem Günel: 17,700
Matt Lillywhite: 14,200
David O: 8,600
Amardeep Parmar: 5,400
Sira M.: 4,800
Strategy: Write quality stuff consistently for three to five years in a row and you’ll be on that list.
2. Change Your Name to Tim Denning
Tim Denning is all over the list of hugely popular articles. He published 32 articles in 2020 that had over 7,000 claps. Check this out:
Strategy: Copying Tim Denning’s work and work ethics is too much effort. Change your name to Tim Denning and win big (joke)!
3. Become a Badass Clinical Psychologist Who Can Write
The top article of 2020 is by one of my favourite writers and friend, Nick Wignall. When you’re badass at your profession, know how to write, and your profession happens to be one of the most helpful ones there is in 2020, nothing can go wrong, right?
Joking aside, Nick’s content is killer and I frequently share it with friends and family in need. Nick accounts for 14 of the most popular articles of 2020. Check this out:
Strategy: Go for a Ph.D. in psychology, practice for 15 years, learn to write, and be damn empathic and smart.
4. Write for Better Marketing, but Mostly if Your Name Is Sean Kernan
Better Marketing is the second most popular publication this year, alongside Personal Growth. But here’s the thing about Better Marketing: It thrives mostly on two writers, Sean Kernan and Tim Denning (that Aussie guy again…). I’ve had articles do well on Better Marketing, but nothing close to what Sean does.
Check this out:
In my opinion, Sean is the most genuinely creative and versatile writer I know on Medium. He just happens to write for Better Marketing. It’s still a great publication, though!
Strategy: Refer to tip number two, you won’t regret it!
5. Tell Your Editor to Never Ever Publish on a Saturday
Check this chart out:
Day of the week the most popular articles were published on
You want to make it big on Medium? It’s simple — never ever publish on a Saturday. If your editor publishes your piece then, you know it was just to be polite; they clearly thought it was trash!
Strategy: With every submission to a publication, add a massive warning to tell them not to publish on a Saturday (most don’t publish on Saturdays anyway).
6. Publish 66 Articles in One Month
Here’s a frequent question newbies ask veterans all the time: How many articles should I publish every week (or month)? The answer varies depending on who you ask. Well, no need to ask anymore. Remember what you should change your name to? Well, Mr. Denning published 66 articles in the past month, with no signs of slowing down any time soon. The writer following him, Matt Lillywhite, “only” published 33 articles during the same timeframe.
Here are the top 10:
Tim Denning: 66
Matt Lillywhite: 33
Sean Kernan: 28
David O.: 28
Nicolas Cole: 24
Ayodeji Awosika: 24
Jessica Wildfire: 21
Todd Brison: 20
Shannon Ashley: 20
Shaunta Grimes: 18
Strategy: Write three articles a day, hit publish. Reward yourself with one or two weekends off. Simple!
7. Publish in Top Writer’s Personal Publications
Some of the most popular publications are actually only being used by the writer who created them. Check this chart out:
Publication distribution for most popular articles of 2020
Honestly Yours is Shannon Ashley’s publication
The Blog of Darius Foroux is, you guessed it, Darius Foroux’s publication
Kaizen Habits is Thomas Oppong’s publication
So, if you publish in all three publications, plus self-publish, you can get up to 10.5% of the pie!
Strategy: Reach out to Shannon, Darius, Thomas, and ask them if they’d kindly publish your piece (joke). Pitch to Mind Cafe just for kicks.
Conclusion
OK, that wasn’t very serious, was it? I mean, aren’t you tired of reading articles telling you what you should do to become popular with no real evidence to back it up?
I’m working on that evidence, but while I’m compiling real results, I just wanted you to have a little fun with this one.
Hope you enjoyed it!
— Danny