6 Surefire Ways Using Medium Can Expand Your Audience and Gain More Traffic to Your Blog

In this guest post, our beloved guest blogger Frank McKinley explains how he increased Medium blog traffic from 10 to 10,000 visitors and how you can use Medium to drive traffic to your social channels and entire business.

Would you like to write your way to stardom?

Would you like to get more attention for your words by using your words?

Now there is a way you can without running ads, doing publicity stunts, or having to recruit your friends and family to sell for you.

There’s a big new frontier waiting for you to stake your claim. It’s a place where readers like the ones in your audience are already gathering. They’re looking for great stuff to read – and finding it. Why not join the party?

What is this new frontier?

Medium.

And no, you don’t have to be a fortune teller. Or an artist. But if you are, you’re welcome. In fact, you can write about anything at all – and the stage is yours.

Now let’s see how to get your spot.

Joining is Free and Success is Easy

You don’t need anything special to join Medium. The bare minimum requirement is an email address. You don’t even have to write anything.

Unless you want attention.

That’s why you’re here. You want to know the strategies that will make your writing stand out, drive free Medium blog traffic, and get attention for you and your message.

By reading this post, you’ll save yourself months of wasted time and effort trying to figure it out yourself. I’ll show you the exact strategies I tested and used to go from 10 views a month to over 10,000!

Let’s jump in.

Don’t cross post.

When I first started writing on Medium, I was told that I could use this platform to give my old blog posts a new life.

Well, that’s true. You have two options. You can import the post straight from the blog. Or you can copy and paste your blog post into Medium.

Unfortunately, neither of these are good strategies.

First, when you import from your blog, you also import the date you published there. So if it’s been a while, your post has absolutely no chance to show up as trending.

Second, when you copy and paste the exact same content, you’ve taken away all the reasons for people to visit your blog. I mean, who wants to click the link and see the exact same thing they just read?

Don’t use Medium as a mirror for your blog. Treat it like you would a guest post on a popular blog, and you’ll start to see how to get good healthy Medium blog traffic. When I started doing this, my posts did 10 to 50 times better.

Yes, you read that right. 10 to 50!

So if you want attention, don’t cross post anything on Medium – ever.

Find a publication that fits.

Some of the best advice I ever got was from my first blog interview. Anne Peterson told me, “If you want to get published, you need to find a publication that fits.”

What does she mean by that?

Make it easy for them to say yes. You do that by matching your message to their mission. Make sure you follow their guidelines to the letter. And make it so clean, the editor has little or nothing to do to make it work.

Use popular tags to gather Medium blog traffic.

Right before you publish, you have the opportunity to choose 5 tags.

So how should you do it?

Think of some words that describe what you just wrote. Test until you find some with high numbers. For example, words like “Marketing” and “Productivity” are in the tens of thousands.

The higher the number, the more readers there are. So aim high if you want your post to fly.

Interact with those who respond.

Growing your audience is all about relationships.

When people reach out to you, you have a golden opportunity to make a friend. Offer your best advice and people will look to you for answers.

They might even hire you.

Here are a few things that have happened to me:

• People have joined my Facebook group.

• Someone asked me to speak at his virtual summit.

• I’ve found people to interview on my YouTube Show.

It only takes a minute to answer a question, say thanks, or begin a conversation. If you only have 15 minutes a day on social media, spend it here.

Use the Upscribe box to collect email addresses from your Medium blog traffic.

Why is this better than just putting a subscription link in your post and asking people to join your list?

The Upscribe box is big and colorful. It stands out and practically demands people do something. You have a headline, a sub headline, and a place for people to enter their email. The subscribe button is orange and easy to spot.

All you have to do is go to Upscribe’s website and create a form. Once you’re done, you generate a link that you paste into your draft. Hit return and the box appears!

This one technique has allowed me to triple my email list in just three months!

Ask people to clap, comment, and share.

Medium is a little different than your average blog.

Readers show their approval like people who go to a concert – they clap.

The beauty of clapping is that you can do it up to 50 times. If enough people clap heartily, you’ll soon have 1,000 – or more!

When you invite people to clap, comment, and share, you create momentum. You create buzz – and that leads to your post going viral!

If the term “going viral” is unclear, here’s an illustration from real life.

I write a weekly inspirational email to my top client. On Wednesday, the company President loved the one I wrote about being “bloody good”. In the company-wide meeting, he drew attention to it by:

• Hosting a fill in the blank game complete with prizes

• Complimenting me in public for writing the post

• Giving a short motivational speech challenging everyone to be “bloody good”.

When an influencer picks up your work and shares it with his network, he ignites a spark that can quickly fan into a raging inferno of attention.

Don’t be afraid to share your work with anyone you believe will benefit from it. The better the fit, the more likely they’ll share, leading to a lot of medium blog traffic.

Now Go Dominate on Medium

You’ve just learned some power plays that will make a Medium superstar. I’ve tested every one of these, and I can assure you they work.

In the past three months alone, I’ve written 6 posts that have been viewed from 1 – 5,000 times. A few of these posts still get claps, comments, and shares weeks, even months later. All this has helped establish me as a high-caliber blogger and Medium expert.

You can do the same with these techniques.

Now go use what you learned to make a difference with your message that will make all the difference for you!

Frank McKinley
Published Author with over 26,000 books sold. Writing Coach. Founder of the Tribe Builder’s Network. The host of the Thriving Writers Show. Over 26,000 books sold.