The Magic Of Medium
I Don’t Dread The Algorithm Here
I have been a user of Medium for years. Mostly as a lurker. At a time when the whole internet seems to be suffering from the pandemic of digital marketing (read spam), Medium seems to be the oasis where we, the readers, get to read quality writing that doesn’t ask us to spend money on something, to buy something. And we don’t have to endure pointless drivel in the name of motivation.
As a digital marketer I was introduced to Medium as a “backlink website”. And man! I am ashamed to say that for one year I used it to try to rank my main website by linking back to it. It’s like a girl is ready to give her heart to you, but you are just fixated on her body.
Thankfully, the ghost of aggressive digital marketing has been exorcised out of my mind. For years I have seen writers pouring their hearts out on Medium. So I decided to take the leap of faith. For once, I tried to be a writer — instead of a content writer. And by God, I’m loving it!
The funny thing is, barely anyone claps my articles or engages with them. But with all due respect, I don’t care! I just want to write half as good as other writers write here. But above that, there’s this minimalist UI of Medium that encourages me to write. The white space, the clean fonts, the ample line-spacing, the appropriately sized H1 and H2s — everything is configured with great care. I can only imagine that designer of https://medium.com is a writer himself/herself. Otherwise, it couldn’t have been configured with almost God-like perfection.
Yes, I know, I am acting giddy as a teenager. But guess what I am proud of myself that I haven’t defiled this great place for long. Everything has its place. And Medium is just not for digital marketing. Yes, I will occasionally mention my website’s name and URL, but not in an obscene way.
The barrier to entry in the form of pay-walls makes sure that we are blessed with quality readers — readers who won’t compromise with quality. And I am scared of these writers. If, as a writer, I can please even 5 readers, I will consider myself successful. Medium is one of the few places where I write for the readers and myself — not the algorithm. Look at this article. It doesn’t have any H2 and I don’t care. I have left adequate space, the paragraphs are short. These things will take care of the readability.
It is Medium that unchained the writer within me that was buried under my alter-ego as a digital marketer. The quality of my writing is way below the established writers who write here. And I promise, I will not settle for mediocrity. It’s a great day to be a writer!
