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These writers are killing it, with good reason
Have you ever wondered who’s killing it in 2020? Who’s writing the popular articles you should read? Look no further! Check this chart out:
For this table, “popular articles” refers to articles with over 7,000 claps
Pretty interesting, right?
The obvious bets are on the top of the list, but you’d be missing things you cannot tell from the table.
For most of the writers who have about the same hits in 2020 than all-time, it’s mostly because they started writing in 2020 or close to the end of 2019.
Top 3 newcomers to watch for
Sean Kernan
Top writer in Technology, Humor, History, Life, Life Lessons, Business, Self Improvement, Relationships, and Love.
A “secret” to his fame was that he was already insanely popular in Quora. But discrediting his skills would be a mistake. Sean is one of the fastest rising writer on Medium and with reason. He’s versatile, funny, and relentless.
Out of all the writers I’ve analyzed, he’s the one who comes up with the most novel topics on Medium.
Sinem Günel
Top writer in Future, Self Improvement, Inspiration, Advice, and Life Lessons.
Sinem is doing everything right on Medium. She recently admitted to me that when she started, she read a bunch of my articles on how to make it on Medium, and here she is! Truth be told, she’s here not because of what she studied, but for everything she has applied.
You’ll love Sinem for us authenticity and easy-to-read, quality articles on self-improvement.
Alan Trapulionis
Top writer in Business, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, and Psychology.
Alan is sharp! Check out his articles in Entrepreneur Handbook and you’ll see what I mean. He’s new to the platform but keeps cranking some of the most popular articles about entrepreneurship on the web.
Alan has a knack for identifying patterns, formulating lessons, and making them readable for everyone.
Top 3 old-timers to watch for
Tim Denning
Top writer in Life Lessons, Productivity, Social Media, Creativity, and Education.
You only need to spend 10 minutes on Medium to come across Tim Denning’s work. In addition to cranking 66 articles a month these days, he’s a relentless worker, a great writer, and a damn good soul.
Tim hasn’t reached the top as accidentally as he thinks he has. He honed his skills over the past 6 years and mastered the art of a good Medium post. He’s approachable, authentic, and sometimes even funny.
Jessica Wildfire
Top writer in Humor, Books, Relationships, Culture, and Satire.
I first came across Jessica’s work probably 3–4 years ago and never looked back. If you have not read her stories, do so right now, I wouldn’t even be mad. Jessica is entertaining, funny, authentic, and really just incredibly fun to read. I wish I had a teacher like her growing up.
Nick Wignall
Top writer in Inspiration, Mental Health, Life Lessons, Psychology, Productivity, Life, and Relationships.
Nick is the writer I’ve read the most overall. He’s a badass clinical psychologist and an excellent writer. He’s also one of the smartest people I know. When I asked him what he loved most about life, he told me: “good ideas and good people.” I love this. His articles are full of good ideas and stories about good people.
Top 3 to watch for but can’t tell from this table
Everyone in this list is here for the same reason: they’ve recently made a vow to become insanely deliberate in their writing. While all three were already pretty serious, things will get real soon enough!
Niklas Göke
Top writer in Books, Productivity, Self Improvement, Creativity, and Writing.
Many people call Nik a genius, and with reason. Nik is impossibly smart for his age. My mentor even calls him the next Seth Godin. The thing is, we’ve only seen the surface of what he can do. Nik was all over the place, with no clear focus. That is about to change.
Expect great things from Nik in the coming months!
Danny Forest
Top writer in Education, Inspiration, Life Lessons, Productivity, and Self Improvement.
Okay, that’s a shameless plug since I’m Danny Forest. :)
Here’s the thing: until now, I’ve only been dabbling in writing and never accepted to call myself a writer. I’ve been writing for almost three years now, but rarely more than one hour per day.
Things are about to change as I decided to finally take this seriously. Starting next month, I’ve decided to become a full-time writer on Medium. Expect more frequent quality pieces from me in the coming months!
Amardeep Parmar
Top writer in Life, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Leadership, and Life Lessons.
Amardeep and I have many things in common and I’m glad we’ve connected a few months ago. What I love about Amardeep is that he’s not afraid to go deep in his articles and yet able to present them in a format that’s truly engaging. And when I see deep, I mean on many fronts: custom images, researched pieces, carefully thought out formatting, etc. He leaves nothing to chance.
He’s going to rock the rest of 2020 and beyond!
(Amardeep, now that’s I’ve said that you can’t underdeliver. No pressure.)
It was hard to come up with such a short list when the talent pool is so big. I want to give an honorable mention to everyone in the table above and some of my friends, including Stephen Moore, Nate Miller, Jordan Gross, Nicole Akers, and George J. Ziogas, just to name a few on top of my head.
Happy reading, my friend!
— Danny
Bonus: Top 3 who slowed down (on Medium) but still rock hard
Benjamin Hardy, PhD
Top writer in Startup, Productivity, Life, Life Lessons, and Self Improvement.
There was a time when if you talked about Medium, you’d think about Benjamin Hardy right away. He’s a bright soul and a hard worker. Some of his best articles are damn good and remain the top articles ever written on Medium. And when I analyzed all the top writers on the platform, I realized only he can pull off long-form articles consistently (I have only two very successful long-form articles).
Todd Brison
Top writer in Social Media, Culture, Creativity, Productivity, and Writing.
Todd has a bunch of bestseller books on Amazon. He’s a very successful self-published author and a damn good person. Every time I’ve spoken to him, he was upbeat, positive, smiling, funny, etc. He’s always there to lend a hand. And now he’s lending a hand to Tim Denning. This is a killer duo.
Like me, Todd only had one big hit this year, but that’s about to change!
Oh, and he has a killer ‘stache currently, so don’t miss that while it lasts.
Darius Foroux
Top writer in Productivity, Psychology, Inspiration, Business, and Life.
I consider Darius a mentor for me. He is what I strive to become in writing and in business. To the regular reader, it may seem like his articles might be overly simplistic, but that’s exactly why he’s so good. He makes complex ideas a breeze to understand. I don’t know many people who can do that.
Check his stuff out and join his Sounding Board group!