Medium has some revolutionary ideas.
For instance, on its dashboard and elsewhere, it does not refer to writing as blog posts or content. You’re not merely a content writer, you’re a creator of stories.
Medium calls your work stories, as in Medium wants your stories.
The platform makes it possible for students, entrepreneurs, moguls and nomads to get their feet wet in the world of journalism, storytelling, or editorializing. The site’s algorithms are built to reward the best stories for their quality rather than for the popularity or pedigree of the author.
Just when it didn’t seem possible for freelance writing to expand with more possibilities, Medium came along to nudge the boundary line.
Here are top 3 ways Medium is changing freelance writing.
1. It’s making us all into freelance writers
Anyone could be a writer before Medium, but the platform is making it possible for anyone to gain an audience.
No fiddling with your own blog’s settings to gain loyal readers. Medium does all the heavy lifting with a backbone that is beautiful on a design and user experience level.
Contributors don’t need a Masters in journalism either, and Medium doesn’t care how old you are, where your from and what you believe in.
It’s an open platform where content is king and kings are made by happy readers, not snooty magazine editors.
2. It’s making freelance writing more collaborative
Medium’s mantra is “People create better things together.”
Another idyllic notion that speaks to their guiding principles of collaboration and crowdsourcing. Collaboration starts in the editing phase where Medium encourage writers to share drafts of their stories with others users before publishing.
Notes are used to exchange feedback with other users. Published stories can then be submitted in Medium’s collections, or groups of relevant stories that are organized by their category or theme.
Each collection is a collaborative body of work by many writers.
3. It’s a free education in content writing
Medium gives feedback to writers through 30-day snapshots of their posts and their views, reads, and recommendations.
- Views: How many people saw the story
- Reads: How many people took the time to read the story
- Read ratio: How many people merely saw the story to how many read the story
- Recommendations: How many people recommended the story
Medium comes with a broad built-in audience. All writers need to do is deliver great writing.
The good content rises to the top, stirs up conversation in the comments section and gets shared far and wide.
Writing that contains good research and exhibits a thirst for knowledge is immediately recognizable.
Take what you learned from writing your best content and apply it to the next piece.
Have you used Medium? Let me know in the comments section below.
