I Wrote 1,997 Medium Stories So You Don’t Have To
How I say the same thing 1,000 different ways and you can too
When you write on Medium you first should choose your purpose. Are you here to practice? Are you here to share? Are you here to look smart? Or are you here to build a list.
I’m here for the last reason.
As Medium writers, we are the product. We work for free. We get paid a penny per read thanks to the no-longer-existent partner program. So, it’s important we benefit from our hard work.
After writing almost 2,000 stories on Medium I’ve always kept the same strategy:
- Ignore the partner program
- Build my email list
I help solo creators scale their business in a healthy way, so they can operate from anywhere, with plenty of time left for the important things they want to do.
These 1,997 Medium stories all work hard for me, so I don’t have to do the list-building myself. Each story is an invitation to my list.
But you can’t just say, “join my list” and expect anyone to follow you.
Nope, every Medium story must target the people you wish to serve with your paid work, and encourage them to enroll in a free offer at the bottom of every story you write.
The free offer also targets the people you wish to serve (and repels the ones you don’t).
This makes it easy to create new Medium content frequently, because I’ve got so much to share with the people I serve. I get you. I’m one of you. And I’m able to operate my solo practice from my pocket, all thanks to 1,997 Medium stories and my email list.
Also, there’s a dirty, little secret your favorite social sites don’t want you to know…
If you want to build a commercial publishing business that you own and control, you’ve got to own your traffic. If you don’t own your traffic you don’t own a business. When you put all your customer’s valuable attention on someone else’s platform, your bank account is in their hands.
I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be in charge of my destiny.
An email list is your insurance policy. When you build a list you own access to your tribe — the people who matter most. These are the folks who love your work. With email, you’ve got a straight shot to the warm, gooey center of their attention. Any time you want it.
Grab a copy of my free book, the Big 100
It’s not for everyone. But it might be for you.
I’ll show you 100 ways to get your first (or your next) 1,000 email subscribers without spending a dime on ads.
Get your free list-building rocketship
Start growing your list before your boss asks to write another TPS report.
We’re waiting for you.
August Birch is blue-collar marketing mentor and author from Michigan, USA. As an email marketing expert for writers and creators with 25+ years experience, August runs an international publishing business, with customers in more than 110 different countries. He helps solo creators make work that sells and sell work they make. When he’s not writing or thinking about writing, August spends time with his beautiful wife and handsome son, builds stuff with his bare hands, carries a pocket knife, and shaves his head with a safety razor.
