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How to Write Your First Medium Article
- August 4, 2022
If you’re looking for advice on how to write your first Medium article, you’re in luck. There are a number of guidelines that you should follow. Follow the formatting rules and ensure that your piece is polished and finished. Check out Medium’s website for more information. It’s also a great place to expand your readership. Follow these guidelines to create your best Medium article. Once published, your piece will be visible to a global audience.
Formatting tools
If you want to write your first Medium article, here are some tips to make it look good. Formatting tools are a must for publishing on Medium. Fortunately, the platform’s editor is easy to use and provides a number of formatting options. On the left side of your post, click the magnifying glass or camera buttons to insert images, or copy and paste the URL of a web content you want to embed.
The formatting tool in Medium’s editor is easy to use and makes publishing polished content simple. Its extensive range of functions, such as image and text styling, make it easy to create your dream Medium article. It also integrates with external media such as YouTube videos, Vimeo, or Facebook. For a polished look, Medium editors are worth checking out. Just be sure to follow their submission guidelines. There are many other ways to make your Medium article look great.
Editing tools
The first step in writing a Medium article is to write it. Once you’ve written the article, it’s time to add the appropriate editing tools. Use a free article editor such as Scrivener or a free online word processor such as Microsoft Word. These tools can help you improve the formatting and look of your article. They also have tutorials and tips that can help you create a professional-looking article.
The editor on Medium is one of the easiest to use of any platform. It’s simple, but still gives you a lot of flexibility to make your articles look professional or as basic as you’d like. Start by typing in a Title and a Subtitle. If you’d like to change these two fields, click the Edit button. You can also make the text below the title a subtitle by clicking the smaller uppercase T.
Getting published on Medium
If you’d like to get published on Medium, you should take advantage of the social sharing features available. By placing your social media handles at the end of your articles, Medium users can easily share your content. This will help you gain more followers. You can also use specific hashtags in your articles to promote yourself. Medium is a great platform to build your social media presence, and if you create good content, your followers will grow.
You can create a personal account or a page on Medium. Medium provides accounts for businesses and organizations as well as personal profiles for writers. Personal accounts are more likely to be featured by Medium’s algorithm, but they cannot be verified. If you’re worried about a lack of social media presence, you can consider hiring a professional photographer to capture your photo. You should also keep in mind that you’ll need a compelling author photo to attract readers.
Writing guidelines
Before you publish your first Medium article, follow these tips. Your title should be attention-grabbing, and your meta description should be between 100 and 140 characters. Include your keyword or keyphrase somewhere in the meta description. You can also tag your article with up to five tags, including your keyword or keyphrase. It’s a good idea to include a few related keywords. Remember to keep your article between 500 and 700 words.
Keep in mind that Medium users are savvy, so they expect in-depth content from you. Your articles should target specific queries and answers, while incorporating relevant keywords. Medium articles should be at least 1000 words long. Publish more articles than you normally would. If your articles don’t meet these guidelines, you might get them disqualified. Follow these guidelines and you’ll be on your way to writing more quality Medium articles.
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Jan 18, 2022
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How to Write Your First Medium Article — 2 Important Steps for Success.
The 3 minutes it takes to read this, will improve your writing forever., 1. just start publishing.
The most important thing I have learned from being a new writer on Medium is the importance of just getting something out there. Once you do that, you can see…
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How to Use Medium: A Beginner's Guide to Writing, Publishing & Promoting on the Platform
Published: August 07, 2021
What do the White House, Sports Illustrated , and my cousin Jimmy all have in common?
They all publish content on Medium.
For the White House, that content includes State of the Union addresses and policy announcements. Sports Illustrated, meanwhile, manages a sports news publication called The Cauldron . My cousin Jimmy? He publishes an ongoing series on advanced cat grooming techniques.
And that, my friends, is Medium in microcosm.
What is Medium?
Medium is a social publishing platform that is open to all and home to a diverse array of stories, ideas, and perspectives. Anyone can be an individual contributor, and popular topics on Medium range from mental health to social media, and from world affairs and trending news to productivity hacks.
As Medium founder (and Blogger creator/Twitter co-founder) Ev Williams wrote when he first launched the platform in 2012:
"Medium is not about who you are or whom you know, but about what you have to say."
To help emphasize the importance of what it is you're saying, the overall design of Medium is minimalistic, featuring lots of white space and limited formatting options. Want to change the header typeface to Comic Sans? You can't. Medium won't allow for such atrocities of design.
But that's just one of many little nuances that come with the territory for Medium users. In fact, if you're just getting started on the platform, there's a fair amount to learn before you hit publish. Let's get into it ...
Writing for Medium
Anyone who has a Medium account can write for Medium — there's no other vetting process involved. To get started, simply sign up for a free Medium account (or upgrade to the full $5/month membership for unlimited access), and you're ready to start writing from there.
However, your post needs to adhere to Medium's content guidelines and rules. For instance, you can't promote controversial or extreme content on your Medium account. You can't facilitate buying or selling social media interactions, including off-platform. And you can't publish anything considered affiliate marketing content.
For the full list of rules in regards to content, take a look at this post on Medium Rules .
As a marketer, Medium presents an opportunity for you to reach a new audience with your content. The platform is geared toward sharing longer-form, more well-thought-out content. (But of course, given the open-to-all nature of Medium, that isn't the only type of content you find there.)
Whether you're looking into Medium for its publishing capabilities or you simply want to learn more about the platform before you set up an account and start exploring, you've come to the right place.
How to Use Medium
Getting started with medium, 1. creating an account.
While it's true that anyone can view Medium content (regardless of whether or not they have a Medium account), in order to publish and interact with folks on the platform, you need to have an account and be logged in.
Fortunately, you can create an account in less than a minute by going to Medium.com and clicking the "Get started" button in the center of the page (or the "Sign in / Sign up" link at the top of the page). From there you'll have three different sign-up options to choose from: Google, Facebook, and email.
Regardless of the option you go with to start, you can always link your Twitter or Facebook to your Medium account later via the "Connections" tab in the Settings menu:
The Settings menu is also where you can update your username/profile page URL. If you sign up with Twitter, your profile page URL, by default, will be medium.com/@YourTwitterHandle. But you're free to change it. From the Settings menu you can also control what email notifications you receive from Medium. (You'll learn about what triggers these notifications in the sections to follow.) The other main things to remember when it comes to setup? Adding a profile photo and writing up a short (160-character max) bio for your Medium profile page. (Note: If you sign up using Twitter, your Twitter profile photo and bio will be automatically synced to your Medium account.)
2. Following People, Publications, & Tags
With a Twitter feed, the content that's surfaced comes primarily from the accounts of the people and organizations you follow.
With a Medium feed, the content that's surfaced comes not only from the accounts of the people and organizations you follow, but also from the publications and tags you follow. What's more, when you search for content on Medium, people, publications, and tags all show up in the results.
Medium publications are collections of stories based around a common theme. Anyone can create them — yourself included — and the way they work is fairly straightforward.
As the creator of a publication, you're an editor by default, which means you have the ability to a) add writers to your publication, b) edit and publish the stories that are submitted by your writers, and c) review the metrics for all of the stories that are part of your publication. As the publication's creator, you'll also have the ability to appoint new editors (so they can do all of that stuff I just mentioned).
Now, on to tags.
Tags are sort of like the hashtags of the Medium ecosystem. When you publish a story on Medium, you get the option to add up to three tags, which appear at the bottom of your story. Clicking a tag brings you to a page where you can see more stories with the same tag, as well as some suggestions for other tags you might be interested in.
The main benefit of following tags is that it can help personalize your Medium experience. Instead of surfacing content based solely on your social graph (i.e., the people/publications you follow), Medium uses tags to surface content that's based on your specific interests as well. For example, if you're into baseball, you could follow the "baseball" tag. Into "small fluffy dog breeds"? Yep, there's a tag for that (granted only one story has been published under it).
So far in this introduction to Medium, we've acted mostly as passive observers. We've set up an account, and started following some accounts, publications, and tags. In the next section, we'll dive into the more interactive aspects of Medium.
How to Interact With Medium Content
3. recommend, share and bookmark content..
The "Recommend" is the "Like" of the Medium world. It's a way to show you that you appreciate the content that someone has shared.
When reading a story on Medium, there are two places where you can recommend it: At the bottom of the actual story, where you see the clapping hand symbol ...
Or on the nav bar that appears at the left of the screen when you scroll through a story ...
In either case, you'll need to click on the clapping hand icon you see to recommend a story. Once clicked, the hands will change from an outline to solid green. To see the full list of people who've recommended a story, you can click on that little number you see next to the heart. (Note: You can clap up to 50 times per post, and you can clap for as many posts as you want.)
When you recommend a story, the writer, by default, will receive an email notification. (But that's something you can control in Settings). The more recommends a story receives, the more likely it will be to get shared around the Medium network. Stories that receive the most recommends within a given time period get featured on Medium's "Top stories" page.
In the same two locations where you can recommend a story, you can also share that story to Twitter or Facebook (by clicking one of the social icons), and you can bookmark the story for later reading by clicking the bookmark icon (which turns solid once clicked).
Once you bookmark a story, it will appear on your "Lists" page, which you can access from Medium's homepage on the bookmark icon:
4. Highlight specific words.
In addition to recommending, sharing, and bookmarking Medium stories, you can unlock a second level of interaction by selecting a section of text with your cursor. Once you've highlighted some text, a pop-up menu will appear that gives you four options:
- Highlight: Clicking the highlighter icon (pencil symbol) will put a green highlight around the text you've selected, which is visible to your Medium followers. By default, a story's writer will receive a notification when a section of that story is highlighted.
- Response: Clicking the speech bubble icon will allow you to write a response to the story you're reading. The section of text you've highlighted will appear at the top of your response. (More on responses in a second!)
- Text Shot: Clicking the Twitter icon will generate a "Text Shot," which is a tweet that automatically pulls in the text you've highlighted as a screenshot.
- Private Note: Clicking the lock icon will allow you to send the writer of the story a private note. (Note: This functionality can be turned on and off in your account settings.)
5. Write responses.
Unlike traditional blog comments, Medium responses are treated as individual stories . That means in addition to appearing at the bottoms of the stories you respond to, the responses you write are documented on your profile page, and have the potential to take off and get highly circulated just like traditional stories.
As a newcomer to Medium, writing responses can be a great way to engage with people on the platform without having to commit to writing a full-blown story. It can also help you come up with ideas for your first story when you do decide to write it.
How to Write and Publish on Medium
6. format text in your posts..
From the Medium homepage, you can access the Medium editor and start writing or laying out a story by clicking on your profile icon at the top-right of the Medium page, and then selecting "Write a story":
As you'll likely discover, writing in Medium's editor is highly intuitive and — from a stylistic perspective — nearly impossible to screw up.
By highlighting text, you can unveil several basic formatting options, including bold, italics, and hyperlinking. You can also designate text as an H1 or as an H2 (using the big T or little t) ...
Clicking that plus icon will open up a menu with four options. The one on the far right -- the icon with the two little lines -- is the separator.
Here's what it looks like on the page:
7. Add images and media.
Adding images, videos, and other media (e.g., tweets) to your Medium story can be as simple as copying and pasting their URLs into Medium's editor. The editor, in most cases, can automatically recognize the media's format and render it accordingly.
Alternatively, you can click on the plus icon to open the same menu you used to insert the separator in the previous step. From there, you can upload an image from your computer, insert a URL to a video, or insert the embed code to another type of media using the corresponding icons.
Depending on the specific size of the image you upload, you'll have two different size options to choose from for displaying that image. These size options, which will appear in a pop-up menu after you insert an image, include left-aligned and center-aligned.
By default, Medium will display the formatting option that best fits the dimensions of the image you insert.
8. Share drafts and publish posts.
When you've finished your story and are happy with how everything looks, head up to the top nav where you'll find two links: "Share" and "Publish."
Clicking "Share" will generate a link to the draft of your story, which you can share with anyone — even if they don't have a Medium account. And the people you share the draft with will also have the option of leaving you notes.
Once you've selected tags for your story, you can hit the "Publish" button to share your story with the world.
9. Measure your results.
In order to see how your stories (and responses) are performing, you can go to the "Stats" page using the URL medium.com/me/stats . You can also navigate to the "Stats" page via the dropdown menu at the top right of the Medium homepage (the bell icon).
If you keep scrolling down the page, you'll be able to view the individual stats for each of your stories. Specifically, Medium provides data on views, reads, read ratio, and recommends.
Here's a quick rundown on what those metrics mean:
- Views: The number of people who visited a story's page.
- Reads: An estimate of how many visitors read a story all the way through.
- Read Ratio: The percentage of visitors that ends up reading an entire story (i.e., the difference between reads and views). According to Ev Williams , this ratio is an important factor in determining how a story gets ranked/surfaced on Medium.
- Recommends: The number of recommends a story receives.
The Medium App
If you prefer consuming and interacting with content on-the-go, consider downloading the Medium app. The app features the same stories and content you'll find on desktop, with the added bonus of a mobile-first interface.
On the app, you can surface content related to your interests. These curated lists depend on the tags, publications, or authors you follow. You can also use the app's Explore feature to find new, interesting content. Similarly to desktop, you can use the app to engage with fellow Medium readers and join conversations as they're happening.
Remember, this was just an introductory look at how to use Medium. There are several more features and options we haven't covered, but we'll do so in future posts.
Don't forget to share this post!
Related articles.
What We Learned From Our First Year on Medium
Do People Still Read? How Offsite Content Attracts Quality Readership
Medium for Publishers: What Media Companies Should Know
8 Medium Publications You Should Be Following
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The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started Writing on Medium
Are you ready to make money by writing about what you love.
I started writing on Medium because I wanted to bolster my cats’ Instagram account with a blog and I was too intimidated by Wordpress. Seriously.
Today, I make over a thousand dollars a month writing on Medium about literally anything I like. That’s the beauty of writing on Medium — as long as you can find an audience, you can be compensated for your writing.
Many people ask how to get started writing on Medium. I can summarize this entire blog post by saying: write as well as you can, as often as you can, and study what other successful authors on this platform do. For those of you who prefer the step-by-step, this article is for you. If you prefer video format, you can check it out here:
Before I go any further, I want to clarify: this is not a get-rich-quick scheme. This is not going to get you a $500 paycheck tomorrow. You won’t become a millionaire from your Medium earnings. And this story is not about gaming the system.
Medium is a place to get paid for writing about what you love. So long as you love stuff, and you love writing about stuff, and you want to get your best chance at making money doing it, this is the blog post for you.
This story will have five sections:
1. Setting Up For Success
Account setup.
There are a few boxes you have to check to make sure you’re set up correctly.
First, if you don’t have one, get a Gmail account. This will make it much easier to log in later on. It’s dead easy to do, and it means all your payment info, your notifications, and your stats will be sent to one place.
Next, make sure you have a Medium account, and ensure you’re signed up to the Partner Program .
Let me clarify one thing: You don’t have to be a paying Medium member to be a part of the Partner Program. They’re distinct. However, it does help to be a paying Medium member because it means you get to read unlimited stories on Medium. This is good because there are tons of amazing writers on here, and because it means you have unlimited chances to study what other successful authors do on here.
It’s up to you, but it’s $5 a month and with any luck, you’ll be making more than that within a month.
Following topics, people, and publications
When you sign up, you’ll be prompted to follow a few topics.
Topics are how Medium decides what to show you and every other reader on Medium. This matters a lot for your long-term success, but we’ll get into that in a bit. There’s no gaming this system, so follow ten you’re actually interested in. This is going to inform how Medium fills your homepage with personalized recommendations.
You should also follow some folks. Some people recommend doing follow-unfollow, but I definitely don’t. Medium is far more topic-driven than follower-driven when it comes to showing readers your stories. That means it matters a lot more if readers have shown they’re interested in the stories you write about than if they follow you. Choose your follows based on what they’ve written about, and what interests you, and don’t count on a follow-back. Even if you get it, it might not count for much.
Finally, follow some publications. While writers on Medium don’t often stick to any niches, publications do. Publications will be a selection of stories about the same types of things. I recommend following Medium’s in-house publications — they’re super high quality, and they’re a case study in what Medium considers “good” writing.
2. Setting Up Your Medium Profile
Medium gives you exactly one place and 160 characters to tell the world who you are. That’s your profile.
There are a few elements that you should consider mandatory.
First, a profile picture. Ideally, it should be a clean shot of your face. If you write under a pen name, like me, and you prefer to keep yourself fully anonymous, grab a photo from Pexels or Pixabay. A profile picture proves to readers subconsciously that you’re a real person, worth listening to.
Next, your bio. Keep this simple: you can list three things you like or write about, your credentials, and a website you’d like to point people to (if you have one).
Listing things you like or write about humanizes you in the eyes of your readers. Your credentials will tell them why they should listen to you about any subject. You don’t have to be an adjunct professor in nuclear physics— just “nuclear physic nut” is enough to get you some credit.
Finally, make sure your tone is in keeping with the style you’ll be writing with. If you’re aiming for fun, make it quirky. If professional, throw in a LinkedIn profile. The tone is hard to get right, but worth it when you do. It’s the one place you have to show Medium who you are. The crucial difference between regular blogs and Medium is that here, people don’t follow for single-minded expertise. They follow for personality, for voice. Let that shine through in your bio.
The reason you’re going to so much effort on these 160 characters is that Medium is transparent about favoring curating people with a filled-out, fitting profile. We’ll get into curation in a bit more detail below, but for now, all you need to know is that curation means Medium’s staff likes your work, and they’re going to show your story to people who like the topic you’ve written about — even if they don’t follow you.
3. Your First Blog Post on Medium
Ok, you’ve borne with me for two whole steps without actually getting to the writing, but this is that step. The very first step you’ll take actually putting content out there into the world. Let’s get into it.
Create your publication
First, create your publication. Remember how earlier, I said followers didn’t really matter? For regular writers, they’re not much more than vanity.
However, Medium editors of publications to send out newsletters to everyone who follows it, which can be a powerful way of reaching your audience. And it’s why you want to start your publication now.
Creating a publication is simple. Head over to Medium, and click on your profile, top right. In that drop-down list, you’ll see “Publications.” Click on that and create a new one! It looks like a lot of set up, but don’t worry.
First, give it a name. I recommend using something with your name — one of my favorites is Emma Austin ’s “ Love, Emma .”
If you’re going to aim for a collection, I’d recommend a single, slightly uncommon word about your subject. For example, if I were creating a publication about cats, I’d probably name it “Feline.”
Then, give it a description. Don’t overthink it — it can be as simple as “A collection of my stories about [interest 1], [interest 2], and [interest 3].”
Finally, Medium makes you add a publication avatar. I’d recommend going into Word, creating a color block of your favorite color, superimposing the first letter of your name onto it, and saving that as an image. It can be that easy. Have a look at these two:
The rest is optional!
Learn about curation
OK, now you have your publication set up and I know you’re itching to write, but there’s one more stop: read Medium’s curation guidelines .
Earlier, I mentioned curation. Every story that’s submitted is read by Medium’s curators, who decide whether or not to distribute it, based on quality.
If it gets distributed? Amazing! People who don’t follow you will see this in their emails, on their homepage, and in their digests. If not, some of your followers might still see it.
Medium has a few basic standards for curation which you can read about here . Personally, I’d add to make it personal to you — something related to your lived experiences, rather than just a summary of other people’s work.
Finally, go to Medium.com/topic/[your topic]. This can be any one of Medium’s list of topics . This is where they show you all the stories they have curated in that section. Read at least three in the topic you think most closely matches your story subject. This is going to teach you what is “curate-able.”
Write your first Medium post.
It’s here! The big moment!
Go to your profile in the top right, and select “New story” in the dropdown.
I can’t tell you how to do this part — hopefully, you know how to type! The best advice I can give at this point is to write about something you care about deeply, and something you know something about.
Some folks get overwhelmed with the Medium editor, so I’ve created a video going over the basics, including how you’ll add it to your publication. Here’s the link.
People ask about length — stories from 3–11 minutes in length have done well for me, but I have heard others say 5–8 minute read time (1000–1600 words) is the real sweet spot. Up to you! Experiment with what feels right.
I recommend reading aloud and then publishing. Don’t worry too much if it’s not perfect. This is a big milestone. There might be typos, your flow may not be perfect, you might miss a comma, but this is your moment.
Your first post on Medium is exciting! It’s out there in the world now. Have a celebratory drink, or bath, or smoothie, or however else you want to celebrate.
4. How to Keep Going on Medium
You have, so far, set up your profile for success, made your publication, and posted your first story. Now, the really hard part comes: you have to keep going.
To date, my first story on Medium has made me about $5 altogether. It was poorly written, didn’t meet the formatting requirements, and was not curated by Medium.
In my opinion, the second story is harder to publish than the first. You’ve published your first, you’ve seen it flop and earn maybe two cents. You don’t know what the point is in continuing.
The point is this: it wasn’t enough to publish one thing. If you want to be successful on Medium, you have to continue. Publish that second story. And the third. And the fourth. Let’s talk about the strategies you can use to do exactly that.
Expand out of your niche
First, you want to brainstorm five writing ideas. The great thing about Medium is you do not have to stick to a niche. Write about anything you like. Pick something that makes you feel deeply — something that strikes emotion in you. This is going to resonate the best with your readers.
Choose five ideas that you are excited about. It can be pets, chocolate, startup culture, blogging ideas, feminism. Take inspiration from the other people you’re following!
Determine how often you can publish
Next, decide on a timing strategy. With Medium, in my opinion, more is better. This is because of three reasons.
First, Medium pays on a royalty model. The more you write now, the more you’ll get paid tomorrow for your readers. In practical terms, it means you might get paid 40 bucks one month for a story you wrote a year and a half ago.
Secondly, writing takes luck. You might write ten perfect posts, but for some reason, only the tenth will go viral. That’s great — but you have to write those ten posts first to even have a chance.
Third, writing on Medium is different from writing anywhere else. There’s a learning curve. The more you write, the more you’ll learn.
That being said, consistency is hugely important, and for similar reasons: writing is hard. You’re going to burn out. It might be in a day or a week or a year, but it’ll happen.
By being upfront with yourself about how often you can write, you’re going to increase the chances of realistically doing exactly that. If you can write three times a week? Amazing. Once a month? Amazing. Twice a day? Amazing. Pick a schedule and commit to it.
Engage with your writing community
Try to read at least three Medium posts per day, and try to leave long, thoughtful comments.
This will get your gears churning about what you can write about next time, and puts you on the radar of the people whose work you find interesting, as well as the folks who read those people and make it down to the comments section.
Submitting to other publications
At this point, you should have your own publication. You should definitely be publishing stories in it but especially as a beginner, it’s important to submit to other publications on Medium.
First, publications on Medium have access to an audience you don’t. When you have zero followers on Medium, they might have thousands. It doesn't guarantee your work will be seen by thousands, but you can bet it’ll be more than publishing on your own, especially to start.
Secondly, publications have that letter functionality we discussed earlier — you never know when a publication owner will like your story enough to send it out to all their followers via email.
The best tool to do that is Smedian. Smedian is a fast and easy way to find publications whose niches you think will fit with your interests, and apply to them immediately. Simply create an account, and request to contribute to at least three. I recommend searching by keywords for topics you’re interested in, potentially even ones related to your first story.
You have your own publication, but especially in the initial stages before it has many followers, publishing in other pubs gives your work a chance to get new eyeballs, and to find people who might love your stuff.
Rinse and repeat.
Brainstorm. Write. Publish. Submit. Read. Comment. Do that every day for a week and see where you are. Now do it every day for a month.
That’s all success on Medium comes down to. If you can keep going, you’re doing better than 90% of beginners on Medium.
5. Potential FAQs about writing on Medium
How do i get paid.
Medium rewards you financially based on member engagement. What that basically means is if someone who is a Medium member, paying $5 per month, reads one of your stories, you get a chunk of their membership fee, shared among all the other authors of stories that member read. You also get money if someone reads your story and then becomes a member in the next thirty days, so share your content as widely as you can! Payment stats get updated on a daily basis.
Should I worry about my stats?
Honestly, no. Success on Medium comes through hard work rather than analyzing stats to try to game the system. Focus your energy on writing rather than stats refreshing. But if you want to know how to use your stats, this is the video for you.
How long should it take to be successful on Medium?
This is a hard question to answer. Folks like Shannon Ashley started earning five figures less than a year in. I earned $500 in my second month. Other people make their living here, and some never get there. It’s a function of writing ability, determination, and a pinch of luck.
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How to write for medium (a 5-minute beginners guide).
Let’s discuss how to write for Medium. My goal is to give you a fast guide that’ll get you from 0–60 in five minutes.
Along with how to write for Medium, here’s a few other things we’ll cover in this article:
- How to write a Medium article properly
- How to create a Medium account
- How to use Medium
- How does Medium work?
How To Write For Medium In 2 Steps
The first step is to answer the question of how to create a Medium account.
We got to start there.
How To Create A Medium Account
To learn how to create a Medium account, simply visit Medium.com and select the “Get Started” button in the top right.
Next, you should see a pop-up appear asking you to either “Sign up with Google” or “Sign up with Facebook.”
If you don’t have Facebook, you’ll have to create a Google account to keep this process moving. After that, you’ll see a bunch of screens over the next few seconds, where you’ll get to decide which topics and writers to “follow.”
After that, you’ll have finished the actual creation process of your Medium account. If you want to learn how to customize your profile image, your page, or anything else, read this 24-minute Medium guide from me.
That’s how to create a Medium account.
How To Write A Medium Article
Learning how to write a Medium article is the second part of this process. Luckily it’s pretty simple. First, click your profile image in the top right from any page on Medium.
Great, now click “New story.”
After you click on “New story” brace yourselves, because you’re about to see the most beautiful CMS (Content Management System) known to man.
It’s a beautiful blank white page full of endless possibilities. Write your title first (pictured below).
Great, now you add a cover photo.
To do that, simply press “Enter,” click on the “+” button on the left hand side, and select the magnifying glass logo.
Now type in a keyword that you feel represents your article, press enter, and a selection of images will pop up for you to choose from. Select any of them. The cool thing about this is they’re all properly sourced for you. All you have to do is select an image and the attribution will get taken care of.
Now all you do is simply write your article out as usual. For tips on formatting, visit the “ How to customize a medium blog ” section of this mega-post I wrote.
When you’re done writing your article out, press the green “Publish” button at the top right of your screen.
A pop-up will then appear (pictured above). This is where you add Medium tags . After you’ve added five, hit the “Publish Now” button.
Wa-La. That’s how to write a Medium article.
This should’ve answered all your questions about how to write for Medium.
How Does Medium Work?
Now that you know how to write for Medium on a basic level, maybe we should discuss how Medium even works.
In short, Medium is basically Instagram for bloggers. Instead of posting pictures, though, you post full-scale blog posts.
When you publish your articles, your followers can find them on their homepage (pictured below), in their Medium Daily Digest emails, or beneath existing articles in the recommended reading section.
Since Medium is an extremely popular website that gets tens of millions of views every month, it’s easy to use the network effects of the platform to generate views on your articles, too.
There’s a variety of other important factors behind understand how does Medium work. I go over all of them in my mega-post .
How To Use Medium For Blogging
Now we’re getting into strategy. If you want to know how to use Medium for blogging, you came to the right place.
I’ve been blogging on Medium for the last five years, and have garnered some 50,000 followers there in that span. There’s a few tricks to the trade that I’ll share with you right now that can help you see success on this platform, too.
I’ll list a bunch of them below in bullet point format.
- Get into top Medium publications — Publications command size-able audiences of readers. The Startup has over 500,000 followers. If you get published with them, you’ll get in front of a much wider audience.
- Target popular tags — When you add tags to your story, like I showed you above, target ones that have a lot of followers. I have a list of the most popular Medium tags right here for you to check out.
- Publish on your site first, then publish on Medium — I am a huge fan of publishing your blog posts on a personal site and then re-publishing them on Medium. I go over how to do that in this post . Make sure to use the canonical link so Google knows which post to show in search results. I show you how to do that in the post I just linked.
- Grow your email list — You’d be missing a huge opportunity if you weren’t using Medium to grow your own email list . When learning how to use Medium for blogging, this is essential to keep in mind and build your strategy around. In the post I just linked, I teach you how to add call-to-actions to your posts.
- Use Medium as a portfolio — Medium’s CMS is beautiful. If you get into big Medium publications, you can use your own Medium profile as a portfolio for future freelance clients. I think this is a great way to use Medium, too.
When learning how to use Medium for blogging, there’s a plethora of ways to do it correctly. The bullets I just listed should take care of 80% of that.
We just learned how to write for Medium, how to use Medium for blogging, and how does Medium work.
For a gigantic 5,000-word guide on how to use and grow on Medium, consult this mega-post I wrote.
I hope you enjoyed learning how to write for Medium.
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May 9, 2021
Writing Your First Article on Medium
Using medium editor for writing articles efficiently in 2021..
T his is my first article on Medium or any other blog as a matter of fact. I just wanted to see, how editors for blogs like Medium work to make writing easier for writers so writers can entirely focus on their writing and everything else is taken care of by the platform.
Writing a new paragraph is as simple as it comes. Just start typing on a new line and you have your new paragraph. You can also style the first letter of your paragraph a.k.a. dropped capital. To do that:
- Select the first character and you’ll see a new options menu popup
- Select 2nd last option from the menu. This menu looks similar to the end outcome.
Want a new paragraph just press Enter (Return) key on your keyboard and you’re already typing a new paragraph.
Styling words like making it bold or italics is really simple as well. Select the word that you want to style and you can always use keyboard shortcuts; ctrl+b for bold and ctrl+i for italics. You can also select these options from the popup menu after selecting them.
Headers For the Article
Writing headers for the article especially if the article is too long is really important. This helps the reader to read your article in a meaningful way. To create a new header/sub-header
- Start writing on a new line
- Select whatever you wrote
- You’ll see a popup menu. Select T from there (bigger T for header and smaller for sub-header).
Code Snippets
But how do I add some code snippets to this article? Well, that is simple as well. Start writing your code in a new line.
Did that work??? It surely did. Just add ``` (3 Tilde) at the beginning of your code and you’re good to go.
But Is There a Better Way to Write Code?
But, there’s a better way to do it. If you notice, the above code snippet doesn’t have syntax highlighting & doesn’t indent by default, which is a really ugly way to write code if you ask me. To solve this problem, you can write your code snippet at GitHub gist and attach that link here.
The way you do that is:
- Create a new gist .
- Copy the link after saving that gist.
- & paste it here on a new line.
It is as simple as that. Although, there’s a better way to do it without leaving your editor. Just find an extension for Medium which will help you do that. I’ve tried using this .
Doesn’t that look much better now?
But maybe there are better options for extensions out there. Please comment down below if you use any other extension or just come across any that’s better.
Quote things Like This
There’re 2 ways you can quote something using the Medium editor. The first way is simple enough.
- Just write a quote (or copy-paste it, who cares)
- Select the sentence and you’ll see a popup/bubble kinda thing.
- Click on the “ option once and it’ll look like this.
You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. — Wayne Gretzky
Medium also supports another way to quote something if you want to highlight it more effectively. Follow steps 1 & 2 from above and
3. Click on the “ option twice and it’ll look something like this.
“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” -Henry Ford
It all depends on what you want.
The image makes your blog look elegant and beautiful. How would you add that though? Again, Medium provides several ways to just do it.
Method 1 to Add Image
You just click on the + symbol on your left and click on the search symbol 🔍. This will allow you to search images on Unsplash . You can add images from Unsplash to your article and it’ll automatically cite the source for you as well. I just did that for the hero image of this article.
Method 2 to Add Image
Another method is to upload your own image (or any image which you downloaded from the internet or whatever). For this, you’ll have to click on the + symbol on your left and select the camera icon 📷 .
It really doesn’t matter what method you choose, just don’t forget to add alt-text for your image. Adding alt-text is really important for screen readers. Adding alt-text is really simple. Just click on your image after uploading it (or selecting it from Unsplash) and you’ll see an option to add alt-text on your top-right.
Also, don't forget to cite your image source if you don’t own the image and have downloaded it from the internet. Giving credit to the actual owner is really important (if you don’t want to be a *ick). Adding this is really simple as well. You’ll see an input kinda field just below your image. Just click there are write it out(add proper links).
The editor provided by Medium seems very intuitive to me. There are many other features provided by Medium editor which I haven’t mentioned here (as this blog is already getting too long). Let me know if you want to know about any other feature and I’ll reply in the comment section.
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Dec 26, 2022
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How to Get Started With Writing
3 easy steps to write your first 3 articles on medium, do you need help with publishing your first articles use these tips to kick-start your writing journey on medium..
I understand how scary the writing process can be when you're new to it. I was in your shoes six months ago, and it took a lot of courage to get out and feel confident about presenting my writing.
In the beginning days of my writing journey on Medium, I struggled a lot with finding my niche and topics, crafting the most awesome headlines, and writing the perfect emotional story.
The truth is that nothing I mentioned was as essential as becoming comfortable and familiar with writing. I learned that I had to ignore glittery writing ideas, slow down, deconstruct my process, and tackle writing one step at a time.
How to Get Familiar With Writing
Writing is like every other skill; you must connect different elements to create a decent piece. You can spend years learning and mastering the slightest details in every aspect. Writing is a craft you shouldn't take lightly or be sloppy about if you plan to be a master writer. However, that lesson differs from the purpose of today's article, so we'll leave it for another day.
Most starting writers need help with the basics of writing yet try to mash many complicated concepts together without understanding the fundamentals and how they work together. They need more time to isolate the critical aspects of writing and study them separately. In the process, they build lousy writing habits, write weak stories, fail to scale their writing career, and ultimately, give up on writing altogether.
Today, I will walk you through my simple process for becoming comfortable with writing and kick-starting your writing career on Medium or any other writing platform. I will avoid all the fuss and complicated concepts you find everywhere about writing on Medium. I will clarify what you must focus on when writing your initial stories and what you should ignore at the beginning stages of writing.
For our writing walk today to be enjoyable, you must abandon the ideas of finding a niche and selecting the best topic; instead, I need you to relax your shoulders and approach writing as a new experiment. The easier you make the process, the more you will fall in love with and enjoy writing.
Today we aim to put your first step in writing as quickly and efficiently as possible and find out if writing is for you. We will make the process easier, but we will not consider writing anything random that comes to mind without first examining the craft of writing. Randomness and lack of understanding of the basics rarely lead to fruitful outcomes for your writing career in the future. So please sit back, take a deep breath, and let's get started.
Step 1 — Curate Other People's Content
Most people struggle to come up with their first few ideas for writing; they become obsessed with their thoughts and whether or not to write or hide them. Even if they decide to sit and write, they edit their first draft for hours and sometimes never dare to publish.
To remove that fear and frustration of writing your first article, find a YouTube video or an article about a topic you are passionate about writing. It doesn't necessarily have to be a topic you wish to write about in the future; however, I suggest going with a topic you are familiar with daily, such as cooking, music, fitness, relationships, etc.
Here are four simple steps to follow:
a) Head to YouTube or Medium and search for the following articles or videos.
- 5 tips to… (e.g., lose weight fast)
- How to … (e.g., lose weight fast)
b) Pick one piece of content and read, listen to, or watch it several times to fully comprehend its key points.
c) Close the video/article now.
d) Rewrite it in your own words. (Please do not copy)
With this approach, you free your mind from worrying about your article's topic or the logical sequencing and focus on writing. It's nearly impossible to copy the same information word for word since your brain processes it, understands everything, clarifies it, and stores it. In reality, your mind has a basic idea of the subject and cannot remember it fully.
This exercise teaches your brain how to write an article and connect multiple points using the logic of others. The single thing I want you to take from the video or article is the big idea and sequencing. Please don't copy the article word for word, or you will get yourself in trouble. Reframing sentences from other articles was a great strategy I used to write my first few articles; instead of replicating. I can reframe it as follows:
The single thing I want you to take from the video or article is the big idea and sequencing.
Examine how the author describes the central theme and how they sequence the steps in their piece.
Step 2 — Study the Formatting of Decent Writings
Every decent article has clear and solid formatting; even though most of us are not expert writers, we must respect the basic rules of writing. Many beginners need help to write clear titles, sub-titles, headings, bullet points, and paragraphs.
Studying formatting is essential; you can use the same strategy for the article topic we covered in the first step; now, in step two, the goal is to learn how to properly style and present your article.
For this step, I suggest you should read a minimum of three pieces by top writers on Medium and emulate their writing structure. Here are a few suggestions for studying and implementing their formatting styles in your second article.
- The first example is from one of my own articles:
How to Draw Your Path to Success in 2023
Define the path of your future for ultimate success..
- Here's an example of Misbah Sheikh's article on Medium:
Explanation of Aggression and Domestic Violence in the Light of Social Psychology
— silence is violence.
thehubpublication.com
- Here's an example of John Hansen's article on Medium:
The Braggarts and Egocentrics
~ humility vs. arrogance ~.
- Here's an example of Linda Lum's article on Medium:
Easy Christmas Brunch Recipes Redux
Don't want to do a formal christmas dinner enjoy a christmas brunch that can be prepared ahead of time and enjoyed in….
- Here's an example of Andrea Lawrence's article on Medium:
The Keys To A Successful Relationship
As relationships age, things can get rocky. there are certain things you can do to keep the love alive..
Writing and formatting stories on Medium is simple and super easy. All you need to do is select the text you want to format and choose the appropriate option from the toolbar. The suggestions below will help you get started with the formatting of your article.
➡ Choosing and Formatting a Title and Subtitle
- Your title should be clear enough to tell the reader what the article is about.
- Only the first line of the story is considered the title.
- Select the text and click the large "T" icon to format the title.
- Writing directly below the title is considered the subtitle.
- The subtitle should be clear enough to offer the reader an idea of why they should read the piece or what is being discussed.
- Select the text and click the small "T" icon to format the subtitle.
➡ Adding An Image and Crediting The Photographer
Add an image by going to a new line and clicking the button + on the left to expand the menu. Click the "Camera" button to upload a photo or the "Magnifying glass" button to insert an image directly from Unsplash. Remember to credit the image.
Remember that you can't get curated on Medium if you're using a photo you don't have permission to use, so you need to use a public domain photo and give credit to the photographer.
You can get some excellent quality free-to-use photos from:
➡ Headers and Subheaders
- Headers/ Headings:
A header or heading is a short phrase describing the following section. Consider headings to be titles for each section of your article. To set a header, select the text and click the large "T" icon.
- Subheaders/Subheadings:
A subheading breaks the headline into smaller portions, keeps the article in line, expands on what the headline says, and guides the reader to keep reading or scanning the information. To set a subheader, select the text and click the small "T" icon.
➡ Paragraphs:
A paragraph is a group of sentences or a single sentence that forms a unit. Keep the following tips in mind when writing paragraphs.
- The length of a paragraph:
Longer paragraphs (more than 150 words or five sentences) are difficult to read. Text can be more pleasant and eye-soothing to read by breaking it into smaller sections. Try your best to avoid creating large blocks of text.
- The flow of the paragraph:
Only combine relatable sentences into a single section and avoid breaking the flow of a paragraph.
Step 3 — Write Your First Personal Story
Your goal is to write stories from your personal experience and life lesson and not copy others. However, we had to ensure that you could handle the basics of writing before sharing your stories.
I always advise writing in the first person, as many publications prefer stories based on personal experiences than generic ideas or third-person perspectives. Instead of selecting books or discussing other people's ideas, first-person writing allows you to speak directly to the reader from your expertise.
I suggest you write from observation for your first story. With this approach, you withdraw inspiration from your environment and the surrounding people instead of relying on pure imagination. Head to streets, malls, cafes, and public parks and observe how people behave and interact with the environment and others, then write about the experience.
Your article aims to give readers a closer view of your personal life, and you can end the piece with a life lesson to reflect your perspective on life. Keep your tone positive, optimistic, universal, and polite, and be mindful of the basics, such as your line of logic, sequencing, and formatting.
Conclusion: Break Your Fears of Writing by Simplifying the Process of Writing
Writing your first stories can be as scary as making your first YouTube videos or going live on Facebook; simplifying your process and taking things one step at a time makes it easier to get yourself into the game of writing and start creating.
Once you get the flow going, you can define your niche, find more exciting topics and discover your authentic voice, which will come to you naturally after you get comfortable with the fundamentals and writing process.
Implement the steps we walked through in this article, and feel free to share the results or the struggles you are going through as a new writer. If you have more tips on how to help new writers write their first articles, I would appreciate you sharing them in the comment section. Happy writing!
— © Nour Boustani 2022
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How To Start a Blog on Medium: Exclusive 10-Step Freelancer Guide
Of course, there are many details that go along with that summary. Details like how to set up and optimize your account. Details like how to write and format your articles to earn the most money. And much, much more.
Step 1: Sign Up for a Medium Account
Move your cursor to the black “Get Started” box in the top right corner of the homepage.
Step 2: Complete Your Profile
Step 3: study medium guidelines.
Before you publish each of your first few articles, certainly in the first few weeks and first few months of being on the platform, make sure you come back to these guidelines time and time again.
Step 4: Choose Topics
If(typeof ez_ad_units='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'writingbeginner_com-narrow-sky-1','ezslot_17',112,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-writingbeginner_com-narrow-sky-1-0'); step 5: write an article on medium.
My title: How To Actually Make $1,000 Every Month on Medium My Subtitle: My complete article writing system to make over a thousand dollars per month
Using the Medium Editor
The perfect word count and read time, step 6: add images, always cite your images, add alt text for seo, if(typeof ez_ad_units='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[970,250],'writingbeginner_com-netboard-2','ezslot_20',113,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-writingbeginner_com-netboard-2-0'); step 7: how to format articles for medium curation, if(typeof ez_ad_units='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'writingbeginner_com-small-square-1','ezslot_27',115,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-writingbeginner_com-small-square-1-0'); step 8: choose article tags, if(typeof ez_ad_units='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'writingbeginner_com-portrait-2','ezslot_22',143,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-writingbeginner_com-portrait-2-0'); step 9: complete seo in settings, step 10: submit your article to publications, parting thoughts: how to start a blog on medium.
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How To Write an Article on Medium
Lee Stanton Read more July 19, 2022
Everyone has a story to tell. Some like to write about an interest of theirs, things like politics or racecars. Others are more comfortable with poetry, while some prefer to write about their favorite recipes and cooking escapades. No matter what you want to share with the world, Medium is a fantastic platform to let your voice be heard.
You already have the perfect article in mind and you’re ready to write and share it. But how do you write an article on Medium? This article will give you all the information you’ll need to get started with Medium, from the signing up process to some helpful advice on what else you can do with this popular writing platform.
How to Open an Account With Medium
Before you can write an article on Medium, you’ll first need to open an account. Opening a free account with Medium is straightforward and takes very little time. With a paid subscription, you can view unlimited articles per month. Within minutes of opening an account you can start writing your article and sharing exactly what’s on your mind. To open a Medium account, follow the steps below:
- Go to the Medium website .
- Click on “Write.”
- Click on the “Start Writing” button in the upper right-hand corner.
- Tap “Create one,” next to the words “No Account?”
- You can sign up using your login credentials from Google or Facebook. Select the one you’d like and either log in or select which email you’d like to use associated with either account.
- You can also open an account using your email address. To create an account with this method, tap “Sign in with email.”
- Type your email address and select “Continue.”
You’ve now created your very own Medium account! Your next step is to begin writing your article.
How To Create an Article
Now that you have an account with Medium, your next step is to write your first article. But don’t worry; it won’t be made public until it’s completed and you’re ready to share it. You can write, edit, and rewrite all you need before publishing. Medium will keep your article in draft form, and it’ll only be available to you. To learn how to begin to write your article, follow the steps below:
- After you’ve logged in to your account, you’ll be taken to Medium’s homepage. On the lower left side of the screen, locate and tap the “Write” icon. It’s the one on the bottom with the square and pencil.
- You’re now taken to the page where you can write your article in draft format, meaning you can write and change anything you want. On the top of the screen, type in the title of your article in the window that says, “Title.”
- Hit the “Enter” key to save the title.
- Now you can begin to write your article in the window that says “Tell your story.”
Medium’s interface is quite easy to use. Write your article as if you were using any type of word processing app. There’s no need to worry about saving your article with Medium. You can write, edit, and rewrite as often as you need. Medium immediately autosaves your article so you can go back to it as many times as you’d like before publishing. To open your saved articles, you need to tap the “Stories” icon above the “Write” icon. There you’ll find a list of the articles you haven’t published yet.
Your next step is to add some design elements to your article and give it a more professional look. Text formatting and adding images within your article will draw more interest from readers.
Add Some Flair to Your Medium Article
It doesn’t matter how well-written your article is; without adding some flair, it may not be read or even taken seriously. Thankfully, Medium has the tools to spice up your document. You can add some basic formatting to your text, like making them bold or in italics, and you can even add images to the body of the article. If this is something that you’d like to learn how to do, follow the steps below:
How to Format Text
- Highlight the word or phrase you’d like to format.
- From the pop-up menu just above the text, you can select which format you’d like to add. Just tap the icon and your text will take on the formatting.
How to Add Images
- Locate where you’d like to add an image by placing your cursor there and hitting “Enter.” On this new line, tap the “+” button.
- Next, tap the “Camera” icon and navigate to the location on your computer where the image is.
- Click “Open” to place the image into the body of the article.
- Repeat steps 1-4 to add additional images.
Now that your article has a more polished look, it’s time to publish and make it available to be read.
How to Publish Your Article With Medium
Once you have your article written and you’re satisfied with the text formatting and images, you’re ready to publish it. Before it’s actually published and can be viewed by others, there are a few things you need to do first. To publish your article on Medium, follow the steps below:
- Tap the “Publish” button in the top right-hand corner of the screen.
- On the next screen, you can choose up to five tags to let readers know the content of your article. They should be separated with commas in the “Add a tag” window.
- Now click the “Publish now” button.
Your article is now published on Medium.
What happens after I’ve published my article?
Your article will be posted on your public profile page and will be available to be read by anyone. Additionally, if you have any followers on Medium, it will also be displayed on their homepage. Depending on the tags you’ve chosen for your article, Medium’s algorithm may choose to alert other Medium users who share your interests.
Can I add hyperlinks to my article?
Yes. You can add links to your article by using Medium’s story editor. Just highlight the text or phrase you want your link embedded in and select the “chain” icon. Then paste in the link and hit “Enter.”
Can I earn money by publishing articles on Medium?
Yes, but you’ll first have to join the Medium Partner Program which has three requirements. You must have published at least one story, have a minimum of 100 followers, and be over 18. Once you meet these requirements, you’ll be eligible to earn money each month.
If you meet these requirements, you’ll have the option of metering your article. It’ll be put behind a paywall and only available to paying subscribers. You’ll be paid based on members reading time by receiving a percentage of their subscription fee.
Let Your Voice Be Heard by Publishing Your Article on Medium
Writing your article is the first step to being heard. With Medium, you’ll have the tools to not only write your article, but also to format text, include photos and images, and perhaps earn some money. Medium’s straightforward interface can transform your well-written article into a fantastic, professional-looking masterpiece!
Have you written an article on Medium? Did you use some of the same methods as outlined in this article? Let us know in the comments section below.
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The Ultimate Guide to Medium's Editor and Publishing Your First Story
Medium is a great place to share your writing with the world. Here's how to publish your first story on Medium.
Medium is a great place for writers who want to share their thoughts with the world, all while earning some extra money through its partner program. Better yet, it offers an intuitive editor and gives you the opportunity to showcase your knowledge on nearly any topic.
If you're ready to jump in and publish your first story on Medium, let's get started.
What Is Medium?
Medium is a site for those who enjoy reading personal essays, articles about science and technology, as well as everything in between. Each article is written by real, everyday people in their fields of expertise.
Articles on Medium are also formatted in a way that is very easy to read, whether you're on your computer, tablet, or smartphone. If you're interested in establishing yourself on the platform, it's worth reading our article on how to get started on Medium before you dive in.
What Should You Write About on Medium?
Finding your place on Medium as a new writer is one of the most exciting, but also frustrating things on the platform. There are writers who stick to one niche, whether that's science, politics, mental health, or something else.
But there are also writers who decide to write about something completely different in every article. Medium is a great platform to start blogging simply because you don't need to pick one niche .
Although Medium is filled with predominantly nonfiction and self-help articles, you can easily stand out from the crowd with poetry and fiction, if that's what you like to write.
It's recommended that you read lots of different articles and discover new kinds of publications to get an idea of what you'd like to write about. However, on Medium, the sky is really the limit. Keep in mind that writing gets easier with time, and you improve with the number of stories you publish.
Related: The Best Websites and Apps That Will Help Improve Your Writing
Getting Started With the Medium Editor
Writing on Medium's editor is one of the best writing experiences you'll have on any platform. It's simple with nothing to distract you, but at the same time, it allows you to make your articles as professional or as basic as you'd like.
Once you click Write a story , you're presented with a blank page, with places to type in a Title and Subtitle . Try not to get too stuck on what to place here, as you can always change it after you've written most of your story.
In order to make the text below your title a subtitle, simply highlight it and click the smaller uppercase T .
Adding a Featured Image
The next thing to do is insert a featured image. You can insert whatever image you'd like, as long as you provide the source for where the image came from. To do this, upload the photo you wish by clicking the + button, and then select the Camera Icon to upload a photo from your device.
You will then have the option to create a caption of what the featured image is and where it came from. Once you're finished adding image credits, be sure to highlight the text and click the Link Icon to add a link to the original source.
The easiest way to add an image is through the stock image site, Unsplash, which is built right into the editor. After clicking the + icon, click the Search button, and you will now have access to thousands of photos you can use for free for your stories.
Creating New Sections and Lists
Medium also allows you to easily create new sections. Highlight the text you wish to make your heading, and click either the large or small T to create a heading or subheading. This is the same process as making the subtitle as we did previously.
Creating lists is easy as well. To create a bulleted list, type a Dash ( - ), hit Space , and it will automatically create a list for you. The same goes for numbered lists. Medium's editor will automatically make a numbered list if it sees you type "1." on a new line.
Publishing Your Article
Once your article is complete, you can publish it on your profile by clicking the green Publish button in the top right of the screen.
This will pull up an option to change the featured image, as well as a space to add up to five tags on the right. Tagging your article is an excellent way to help it get discovered by readers browsing those categories.
Your first Medium story is now published on your profile! This is always a great feeling, but there's something else you can do to get your story read even more, and that's by adding it to a publication.
What Is a Publication?
A publication on Medium is a shared space amongst several writers who publish articles around a certain theme. Publications can be run by one individual or by a group of like-minded writers and editors. Becoming a writer in a publication is a fantastic way to get your stories seen by readers on the platform.
This is especially the case with popular publications such as P.S. I Love You , a publication for articles regarding romance, The Post-Grad-Survival Guide , a publication for new graduates trying to survive adulthood, and The Ascent , a publication filled with various self-help and lifestyle articles.
Becoming a writer for some of these publications can be tricky, as each has different rules and criteria for articles to be accepted. To see what its criteria are, each publication usually has a tab at the top of its main page that says Become a Writer or Submit .
The easiest way to become a writer for a publication is by having one of your articles get noticed by an editor of the publication. If they really like your article, they will leave a private note and ask if you'd be interested in submitting it to their publication.
The editor will add you as a writer, and you can submit your story from there. You'll be able to submit your article to the publication by clicking the three horizontal dots in the top right corner of your article and clicking Add to publication .
From there, choose which publication you want to submit to, and you're done.
If the editor asked you to submit your article, it's usually guaranteed to be published. Otherwise, it may take up to a week for an editor to look over your article to see if it's the right fit. You will get a response from the editor via a private note whether or not it was published.
If your article doesn't get published, don't let it get you down. Just keep on writing and publishing under your profile. Your articles will still be found by lots of readers there.
Related: Simple Ways to Increase Your Following on Medium
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How My First Medium Article Generated $200+ In A Week
This was a couple years back. I was writing an article on “ How I started in Web Development ”. I was 15 and wanted to share an informative article on the subject of web development. Not just a simple article, but a comprehensive guide on the subject. Little did I know that this article would bring in $200 in less than a week which for a 15 year old, was a pretty big deal.
I had spent hours and hours perfecting it making it as detailed as possible. It took only a few hours for it to hit a couple thousand views, a couple hundred claps, tens…
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Sep 8, 2018
A Quick Guide to Medium
“What is Medium?”
“How do I use Medium?”
“Why should I use Medium (isn’t it just another platform like Facebook and Twitter)?”
These are the questions that I’m getting from the last few days from my readers and fellow writers.
And I decided to write a step-by-step guide to Medium that helps beginners to use this beautiful platform (I love this platform more than my ex).
What you’ll discover in this story:
- What is Medium?
- How to use Medium to write and publish a story (that get real views)
- How can you use it as a marketing tool?
So Let’s start…
What Is Medium?
Before you dive into using Medium, you should understand it. Every time when someone asks me what is medium?
I simply say: It’s a beautiful place to read and write. Period.
This platform is launched by Ev Williams (Twitter Co-founder) in 2012. Read what he said when he launched this platform :
Medium is a beautiful space for reading and writing — and little else. On Medium, you’re not alone. You write beside and with other people. Medium is not about who you are or whom you know, but about what you have to say.
Medium gives you an opportunity to reach a new audience with your amazing stories.
And the best part?
You don’t need to be a great writer to use Medium effectively. Just set up an account and start exploring this amazing platform. Read what fellow writers are sharing and write your story.
Put your writing in front of Medium’s 60 million monthly readers. That’s crazy number!
Let’s move to the next section where we’ll learn how to use medium rightly.
Beginner’s Guide to Write and Publish
A. create your account.
If you’re new to medium then first create an account. It merely takes a minute to create one.
Just go to medium.com and click on “Get Started or Sign In” button. After clicking the button, you’ll see a page where four sign in options are there: Twitter, Facebook, Google and Email. See the screenshot below:
I recommend signing up with your existing Facebook or Twitter account. WHY?
That way you won’t need to create your medium audience from scratch. All your social media connections who are on Medium will automatically become your followers.
Sounds Amazing, isn’t?
What If I sign up with an email?
I hear you ask…
You can go with this option and connect your social media accounts later under settings menu. See Here:
Now it’s time to add your Medium profile pic and write a short bio (Max. 160 characters). In setting menu you can select your preferences and change your profile URL. I recommend to customize your profile URL.
Now it’s time to follow relevant publications, tags and people. Publications are collections of theme based stories and you can also create your own publication here. Tags are like hashtags that help you to organize and discover content on Medium. When you write a story, you can add up to five tags.
Once you’re set with customizing your profile, it’s time to create your first story.
B. Writing Your First Medium Story
Click on your top right corner picture and select “New Story” from the drop down menu.
A beautiful formatting of your story can help you to bring success on Medium. Medium’s editor is neat and simple. Ample whitespaces to make the reading experience more pleasant. No fancy fonts and color.
Text Formatting
When you highlight the text, you’ll see different formatting options: Bold, Italic and Hyperlink. You can perform any of these options on your text.
You can also make your text BIG T (Like H1)…
Or Small T (Like H2)
And editor offers two different styles of blockquote. First one is:
And second one:
Medium’s drop cap feature let you get little fancy. The best time to use this option is when you start a new point.
You can add a private note by selecting the lock icon. Like this:
Want to separate different sections of your story? Medium provides separator option. Just click on the “+” icon:
And select that “two little line” icon:
Adding Media
You can easily insert images, videos or other media into your medium story. Just click on the plus icon and you’ll see four options there: Upload an image, directly search an image on Unsplash (Free image source), insert a video URL, or insert the embed code of media.
When you upload an image, editor will provide you four different image display options (depends upon the size of your image): Left aligned, center aligned, wide, and full width.
C. Publish Your Story (and Share Draft)
Are you done with editing and ready to publish?
On the right top corner, you’ll see two options: Share and Publish.
When you click on share button, it will generate a link to your draft and you can share this link with your friend or someone else to proofread it.
The best part?
They can also leave their suggestions or thoughts as private notes.
Clicking the publish button will open a menu where you can select up to five relevant tags to your story. Medium recommends tags by default but you can also create your own new tags.
Now you can hit the publish button to show your story to the world.
But wait, there’s more…
Want to publish your story in the evening while you’re watching a movie with friends?
Just click on publish and you’ll see scheduling option there. See here:
And select the date and time when you want to publish your story.
There’s one more secret…
Medium creates an automatic URL to your story but if you don’t like it then you can customize your story URL.
That’s a great deal, right?
Just click on the three dotted line right after the publish button and select “Customize Link”
And create your own link…
D. Track Your Story Stats
Medium allows you to track how your stories are performing. Just click on your profile photo and select ‘Stats” from the drop down menu.
When you land on the “stats” page, you’ll see the average number of views and reads you have received over the last 30 days.
You can also track the individual stats for your each story.
Here you can track four different metrics:
- Views (People who visited your story)
- Reads (A number of people read your story)
- Read Ratio (The difference between views and reads)
- Fans (A number of people clap for your story)
From where my audience is coming — Did you ask this question?
Well, Medium allows you to see referral channels. Just click on the “Referrers” and you’ll land on the page where you can check the sources.
How to Use Medium As a Marketing Channel
Are you a business or a blog owner?
If your answer is affirmative to this question, then medium offers you some great opportunities. Let’s look at some marketing tactics
A. Re-publish Your Content On Medium
Medium allows you to republish articles from your blog or your guest posts (I recommend taking permission first from the publication where you wrote the guest post).
Tim Denning, Buffer , and Hubspot all do this successfully and their articles are popular on Medium.
The good news?
You don’t need to write new content, just show your evergreen old content to Medium audience.
How can you do the same?
Just select the “stories” from the drop down menu.
Then, click on Import a story
Enter link to your published blog post and edit it on Medium. I recommend tweaking your article title to make it more compelling and add some high quality images.
Medium automatically added a note at the end of post to the original article link. See this:
B. Re-purpose Your Text Article Into Visual Content
Don’t just post text content. Re-purpose your old blog post into a comic, illustration, or infographic. And see how audience reacts to visual content.
I published an illustrated form of one of my old articles and It received really a good engagement. See the image below:
C. Get Some Subscribers
Medium is a great channel to get some potential subscribers to you. How?
Just enter one or two sentences at the end of your post and link back to your blog/website or your ebook landing page (As a Call to Action). See how I do this:
Or you can also build a beautiful sign up form and embed it into your medium story. Upscribe is a great platform to build forms and grow your mailing list.
My Medium Tips and Hacks for You
I believe now you have a good idea of using Medium, here are my personal advice and hacks that I follow.
1. Write Consistently
Nothing can beat the consistency. You must hangout with consistency. Medium readers like consistency. Try to publish 3 articles in a week. Always remember practice makes you better writer. Develop writing habit . And stop worrying about a great writer, Just write. Everyday!
When I first started using the Medium, my stories got almost zero views.
But I started writing (and publishing) every day and it helped me to grow my viewership and followers. Now my stories get more than 10 K views average in a month. It’s just a starting.
2. Brainstorm Ideas
I hear people saying, “I don’t know what to write or I don’t have writing ideas.”
Just a blank paper.
If you’re experiencing this. Here are some brainstorming tips that I use.
3. Write for a Reputed Medium Publication
I recommend you write on popular medium publications like The Mission , The Startup , Personal Growth , and The Writing Cooperative . You can find the top medium publications here .
These publications will help you to find a great number of readers for your story and build followers and subscribers.
4. Write Responses on Other Writers’ Stories
Medium responses are not like traditional comments that appear at the bottom of an article.
When you write a response on Medium, it treated as a story where you can add tags. And it will be shown on your profile page.
Additional, It can also help to build relationship with writers when you’re new to this platform.
Now It’s Your Turn
Now you have an idea on how to use Medium. What are you waiting for? Just go to the Medium and draft your first story and you’ll get to know many things in your journey.
Do you want personal writing advice and stories from successful writers? Get your FREE Copy .
Originally published at prepawan.com
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Pawan Kumar
Writer. Inbound Marketer. An Ambivert. Featured on Entrepreneur, Jeff Bullas, Addicted 2 Success, & HuffPost. My Blog: https://www.peppyblogger.com/
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Can ChatGPT write my articles?
I thought it was about time I delegated all my work to AI, so I’ve given ChatGPT a chance to claim the role. Here’s what happened …
The Challenge
I will ask ChatGPT questions corresponding to the titles of my articles. The questions are:
- “how do I integrate amplitude with webflow?” ( my article )
- “how to calculate dau/mau ratio in Amplitude?” ( my article )
- “what are the differences between funnels in GA4 and Amplitude?” ( my article )
- “how to set a KPI target for my team?” ( my article )
- “how can I use AI in my product?” ( my article )
Quick Intro to ChatGPT
In case you haven’t heard, ChatGPT is one of the most modern and powerful AI chatbots out there. Here is a little info given when using the tool, which explains what it can and can’t do.
The Results
I’ll go question-by-question, show you what ChatGPT answered, and compare it to my article.
“how do I integrate amplitude with webflow?”
First impression, quite impressed! The steps are clear, correct, and a little more concise than my article. My article might be slightly easier to follow because of the screenshots. Also, the AI instructions stop a little early, and much of the value is in the last paragraph. I’m sure ChatGPT could break that down into steps too though.
Answer Rating: 4/5
“how to calculate dau/mau ratio in Amplitude?”
Not so impressed here. This answer looks good, but it’s wrong — the steps don’t work. In fact, the steps don’t even make sense. I feel the AI has confused Amplitude with another tool here, and its confidence is annoying because you might waste some time trying to follow along.
Answer Rating: 1/5
“what are the differences between funnels in GA4 and Amplitude?”
Not bad, not great. The numbered list covers fairly similar points to my article, but the details are hit-and-miss. The emphasis on events vs pageviews and custom vs predefined would have been really relevant for Universal Analytics, but less so for GA4. However, highlighting the differences in Segmentation and Visualization is spot on.
Answer Rating: 3/5
“how to set a KPI target for my team?”
Touché, ChatGPT, you’re pretty good! And BTW you love a numbered list! I pretty much agree with the methodology, and it’s coherent. Without specifying a more unique situation, I don’t think this answer is any worse than my article.
Answer Rating: 5/5
“how can I use AI in my product?”
It’s a decent answer, and useful as a high-level intro. I like the little summary paragraphs at the start and the end. What this one lacks is audience awareness — I think my article is more interesting for product managers, while the AI answer has broader relevance.
The Verdict
In total, the answers scored 16/25. I think that’s pretty impressive, albeit the bad answers were frustrating.
ChatGPT is good at giving high-level guides for the topics of my articles, but can be unreliable when providing detailed instructions.
ChatGPT is clearly already very powerful, and will only get better. Looking through the lens of my very limited use case, I feel the key is not really the accuracy of the answers, but rather the selection of the questions: we need to learn the kinds of questions that work, and those that don’t.
Clearly, the AI relies on human input — for these kinds of specific questions, it relies heavily on existing human written material answering very similar questions.
Perhaps what impresses me most about ChatGPT, is that it writes so succinctly and clearly. I could learn from that!
Finally, as somebody who writes, I’m curious about how the authors of the material on which the AI is trained could/should be rewarded.
One More Thing
For the sake of being annoyingly meta, I gave this a go …
If you’d like support with your Product Analytics, I run a small agency , and would be happy to help with your implementation or analysis project.
More from Timothy Daniell
European internet product builder. Formerly Tonsser & Babbel, now consulting at permutable.co & building curvature.ai
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6 things to know before starting Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
Because the tutorial barely explains a thing
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About 20 minutes into Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty , you’ll face your first boss fight . And it’s brutal.
Aside from driving home just how masocore Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is, it also serves as a crash course in many of the game’s systems. They’re just not really explained well. And that, frankly, is going to be a lot of your experience early on with Wo Long — overwhelming systems that you don’t understand. Yet.
Our Wo Long beginner’s guide will help you figure out what’s going on, based on our roughly 20 hours of experience with the game (a shocking amount of which was just failing at the same boss fights over and over). We’ll help you understand the game’s Battle and Marker Flags, where and how you can travel, how equipment works and how much it slows you down, and how to think about your Spirit gauge.
Think of Wo Long as a linear soulslike
Unlike other soulslike games, there’s not much looping and grinding in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty (unless you want to). We described it as more of a long walk punctuated by periodic ass-kickings. The story plays out across a series of areas, called Battlefields, that are pretty big, but your path through them is mostly linear. (There are branching paths and you’ll be rewarded with loot for exploring them, though.)
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24476876/Wo_Long_beginner_s_2.jpg "how to write your first medium article")
That linear path will lead you through a series of boss fights — those periodic ass-kickings we mentioned. Learn to love them.
As you travel through a Battlefield — and usually right before every boss fight — you’ll find Battle Flags and Marker Flags.
- Battle Flags are where you’ll restart when you (repeatedly) die. They’re where you’ll level up and learn new Wizardry Spells , and also where you’ll rest to refill your Dragon’s Cure Pot (health flask)
- Marker Flags look similar, but work differently. They refill your health, but not your Dragon’s Cure Pot. More importantly, they increase your Fortitude which is like Morale , but different.
Let’s talk about Morale.
Understand how Morale and Fortitude work
To oversimplify it, Wo Long ’s Morale system is a measure of how many baddies you’ve killed without dying. It’s more nuanced, of course, but that’s the core idea.
A character’s Morale (both yours and your enemies’) figures in to how powerful that character is — higher Morale equals a tougher fight. When you kill enough baddies, your Morale goes up. When a baddie kills you, your Morale goes down and theirs goes up — making the next time you encounter them a little bit harder.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24476878/Wo_Long_beginner_s_3.jpg "how to write your first medium article")
When you are killed, you’ll also lose half of your Genuine Qi (your leveling up currency, kinda like souls in Dark Souls games) to whoever or whatever killed you. That baddie gets a flame icon around their Morale (the number over their head). For you to reclaim your Qi and your Morale points, you have to face them again and get your Revenge .
The way to prevent yourself from losing too much Morale is to raise your Fortitude. Fortitude is the lower limit to your Morale — your Morale will never fall below your Fortitude, and raising your Fortitude past your Morale will raise your Morale to match.
Your Fortitude increases every time your raise a Marker Flag. However, it resets each time you travel to a new Battlefield or Sub Battlefield. Speaking of which…
Sub Battlefields are side missions
At a Battle Flag (not a Marker Flag), you’ll have the option to travel. This is how you’ll replay previous sections of the game, find a replayable tutorial , and play through side missions.
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These Sub Battlefields are smaller, shorter fights compared to the main Battlefields. They’re good to take on, though, because they get you new gear and new upgrade materials as rewards.
We broke down Wo Long ’s confusing equipment system here, but let’s talk about equipment weight.
Gear and equipment weight are more important than you’d think
There are no classes in Wo Long , so you’re free to create your own based on how you level up — determined by which Five Phases Virtues you put points into when you level up — and the gear you decide to equip.
Gear has a whole system of upgrades and rarity . The most important part to understand early, though, is your Equipment Weight rating — basically, your character’s encumbrance. (You can increase your Max Equipment Weight by increasing your Earth Virtue when you level up.)
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24476884/Wo_Long_beginner_s_5.jpg "how to write your first medium article")
When you’re picking out armor, you’ll see a tiny icon just below and to the left of the picture. This is a marker for light, medium , and heavy armor. There’s a little gauge below the helmet icon with one, two, or three chunks filled in to indicate that.
There’s also an equipment weight displayed at the bottom of the equipment’s card. Confusingly, the percentage shown here is not the percentage of your max capacity. Instead, it’s how much this piece of equipment contributes to your current load. For the percentage of your max capacity, you’ll have to look on the Status screen.
The amount you’re carrying turns into a stat you can find on your character’s Status menu tab. You’ll see the max weight of equipment you can carry, the percentage of the max weight your current armor is, and a letter grade. The letter is your Agility stat — A is about 0-30% of your max, B is roughly 30-70%, C is 70-100% or so, and D is anything over 100%.
Aside from how quickly you move, that Agility stat determines how fast your Spirit drains. And Spirit is a big deal in Wo Long .
Spirit is the most important gauge
In Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty , think of your Spirit as a combination of a stamina gauge and a mana gauge. Both your character and every enemy have Spirit Gauges.
You’ll lose Spirit when you get hit or dodge, and you’ll spend Spirit to cast Wizardry Spells or perform Martial Arts . You’ll gain Spirit when you land regular melee attacks or when you successfully deflect an attack. Getting hit with some attacks shrinks the upper and lower limits of a character’s Spirit gauge.
When a Spirit Gauge is drained to its lower limit, that person (or demon) will be stunned for a few seconds, opening them up to a powerful attack. Your goal is to avoid that happening to you, and, more importantly, make sure it happens to your enemy. Those attacks when they’re stunned are invaluable in boss fights .
Managing your Spirit gauge while you deplete your enemies’ is key in Wo Long . And the best way to do it is by deflecting.
Deflecting is just as important as attacking
Wo Long ’s deflect is a lot like a parry in other games. You hit the B/circle button just before an enemy’s attack lands and it redirects the attack. This is different from simply guarding against an attack — something you can also do, but it’s less useful.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24476888/Wo_Long_beginner_s_6.jpg "how to write your first medium article")
As opposed to guarding, that simply drains your Spirit gauge, deflecting both shrinks and damages the attacker’s gauge. And that is how you control fights — that’s why we brought it up so much in the first boss fight guide .
Other games have (perfect) parry mechanics that give you an opening to attack. Wo Long ’s deflect takes that to a whole new level.
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Managing people for the first time: expert tips on how to succeed
Associate Professor in Organisational Behaviour, Queen Mary University of London
Disclosure statement
Elena Doldor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Queen Mary University of London provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK.
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Getting a promotion that involves managing people for the first time is a milestone in anyone’s career. It is a sign that your employer values your performance and skills and trusts you to lead projects and colleagues. This transition can also be a challenging and stressful experience – you may need to relearn what it means to do a “good” job.
It is somewhat paradoxical that employees generally get promoted into managerial roles based on strong performance in non-managerial tasks. While you may have succeeded so far on your expertise and technical abilities, managerial roles call for a different set of skills. You will have to learn to prioritise and allocate work to make sure projects are completed on time, monitor your team’s performance, motivate the people you supervise and manage conflict.
This article is part of Quarter Life , a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life.
You may be interested in:
Why young people in every sphere – not just business and politics – should learn to lead
Lucky girl syndrome: the potential dark side of TikTok’s extreme positive thinking trend
Joy can help us be better at work – here’s how to find it
These interpersonal skills are misleadingly labelled “soft” skills – they are rather hard to develop. Here are some things to keep in mind:
1. Get comfortable with power and politics
It may feel particularly challenging to manage team members who are your friends, or who are much older than you. Having cordial working relationships is possible, even when managing others – but you still have to set priorities, tackle conflict and have difficult conversations.
A typical mistake among early career managers is trying to influence others by relying on formal authority. But having a new hierarchical position or job title will not automatically make it easier to get others on board. Effective managers are good at navigating the informal aspects of power that make up “office politics” – the conflicting interests and agendas in the workplace, and how people defend those interests.
Office politics might get a bad rap, but in my research I found that the ability to network, build relationships and influence others is critical when it comes to managing people. For instance, most managers understand that before formally announcing a big decision, it is important to have informal conversations with those who are affected or can influence the decision. This is not unprincipled scheming, but a way of doing your homework.
As a first-time manager, you will probably need to manage both downwards (with your team) and upwards (with more senior managers). Political tensions can arise, for example, when you need to pass down or filter difficult messages coming from the top, while keeping your team motivated. While you may find politics occasionally frustrating, the good news is that managers develop political skill with time and experience.
2. Focus on the team
Being a manager is not about your ego, it is about serving and empowering others to deliver results and to improve professionally. Your performance depends on the quality of work produced by your team, so it becomes essential to be able to delegate, provide work that stretches your team slightly beyond their current level of knowledge, and trust people to do it.
Trust is built by communicating openly and working specific, actionable, two-way feedback in regular conversations (not just formal appraisals).
If you are managing a team, remember that teams are more than the sum of their parts – they have shared goals, values, attitudes and practices. Similarly, organisations have established ways of working, that we sometimes accept unquestioningly and may need to challenge.
It is easy to think of under-performance as the fault of one person who “just doesn’t work hard enough” or “doesn’t have what it takes”. It is harder – but arguably more useful – to ask questions about the broader context, and your own role in team processes and organisational culture:
- Am I communicating my expectations clearly?
- Am I providing good feedback to the people I supervise?
- Why might people be lacking motivation?
- What role am I playing in contributing to burnout?
3. Foster diversity and inclusion
Managing people from different backgrounds in terms of gender, culture, race, sexuality, social class or age requires more than subscribing to generic corporate statements like “we value everyone”. Your heart might be in the right place, but when it comes to inclusion, our behaviour doesn’t always align with our values – unconscious bias creeps into decisions, and systemic biases are weaved into the fabric of our workplaces.
Research shows that women and ethnic minorities need to demonstrate a higher standard of performance to achieve comparable performance ratings and credibility. My research found that women leaders receive less useful developmental feedback compared with their male peers. It is difficult to get the best out of your team if members are not equally trusted, developed and empowered.
As a manager, you form impressions and assess others continuously, and you will need to actively work to leave your biases at the (virtual) office door. If you are a woman or an ethnic minority, you also need to consider how your identity shapes your experience as a manager. Our societal ideals of leadership are still constrained by the “ think manager-think male ” phenomenon – the qualities we associate with managers are more commonly ascribed to men. Others might question your managerial credibility because of your gender, race, class or age.
It should not be only your responsibility to fend off entrenched biases. If your employer is genuinely committed to diversity and inclusion, ask how they support underrepresented employees taking on managerial roles.
4. Get the support you need
Taking on extra responsibilities and managing people can be stressful – there is always a degree of discomfort in professional growth. Formal management training can be useful, and on-the-job experience even more so. But your growth as a manager will also be helped if you can learn from others who have been in your shoes.
Managers with thriving careers cultivate a wide range of developmental relationships . Trusted mentors, coaches, line managers, peers or career sponsors can act as a sounding board, provide advice and different perspectives, validate and challenge you at the same time, and open doors for additional opportunities. Nobody travels this road alone, and neither should you.
- Workplace sexism
- Work culture
- Office culture
- Workplace teams
- Quarter Life
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How to use ChatGPT to summarize an article
Save time when you know how to use ChatGPT to summarize an article
Knowing how to use ChatGPT to summarize an article is useful when you’re in a rush and looking for the key points of an article. You might be a fast reader, but no one can compete with an AI. It can also often help to understand more complicated subject matter if it’s presented in smaller chunks. Of course, it’s always worth going back and reading the article properly when you have more time, to make sure you get the full gist of it.
We know you would never summarize one of our lovingly-written articles on Tom’s Guide, but for other sites and sources, here’s how to use ChatGPT to summarize an article.
And we’ll keep it brief, we promise.
How to use ChatGPT to summarize an article
- Log in and select the chat bar
- Type TLDR and link to the article
- Press send Read on to see detailed instructions for each step.
As of the time of writing the main ways to use ChatGPT to summarize an article are on the new Bing with ChatGPT (which you may not have access to yet) or on OpenAI’s own website , where you can make a free account and then sign in. One thing to bear in mind is the openai.com version of the chatbot is limited to information pre-September 2021. Both methods use the same command, TLDR, which is internet speak for “Too long, didn’t read”. Make sure to put this before the text you wish to summarize.
How to use ChatGPT to summarize an article - on ChatGPT.com
1. log in and select the chat bar.
Login to https://chat.openai.com and select the chat bar at the bottom of the page.
2. Type TLDR and link to the article
Type in TLDR and then paste a link to the article you wish to summarize.
3. Press send
Select the send button (or press enter) and then wait for ChatGPT's response. Rest assured, the chatbot can skim the article much quicker than you can.
How to use Bing with ChatGPT to summarize an article
- Select chat
- Enter TLDR and the article link
- Press enter and wait Read on to see detailed instructions for each step.
1. Select chat
Navigate to the Bing homepage in your browser of choice, select chat .
2. Enter TLDR and the article link
Enter TLDR and then copy and paste the link to the article that you want summed up.
3. Press enter and wait
Press enter and then wait for Bing to prepare its response.
There you go, remember of course that just because an AI has summarized an article, it won't have altered the information at all. That means if the information isn't accurate to begin with, it won't be accurate in the summary. Your best bet is to stick to trusted sources like Tom’s Guide!
If you want some more AI assistance why not check out the 7 best ChatGPT tips to get the most out of the chatbot , how to use ChatGPT for travel advice or how to use the Dall-E 2 AI image generator .
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Andy is Tom’s Guide’s Trainee Writer, which means that he currently writes about pretty much everything we cover. He has previously worked in copywriting and content writing both freelance and for a leading business magazine. His interests include gaming, music and sports- particularly Formula One, football and badminton. Andy’s degree is in Creative Writing and he enjoys writing his own screenplays and submitting them to competitions in an attempt to justify three years of studying.
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Login to https://chat.openai.com and select the chat bar at the bottom of the page. 2. Type TLDR and link to the article. Type in TLDR and then paste a link to the article you wish to summarize. 3 ...