Some advice from a nobody to the newest writers of the platform
· 4 min read

Here you are. You are going to let others read your writing, and, after several experiments with WordPress, WIX, and others, you have arrived at Medium.
Look at its beautiful design, its cleanliness, the perfection of many pieces published here! This is by far the best place to publish your first stories. And I am not by any means trying to grab Ev Williams’ attention; It’s just that I have seen other places and I have compared them. Most suck and I am very vocal about it. However, there are some things that you need to learn.
As you discover the platform, you are going to notice one kind of article. The one that promises you to get rich and famous if you follow its advice.

Congratulations! You have found one of the many clickbait pieces that are published here. Because Medium being a great place to publish and read interesting pieces does not mean that you will not also find a ton of trash.
You will feel tempted to read them, and after reading them, you will start doing useless things like checking your headline millions of times because some moron promised to have found the secret headline formula that leads to curation every time.
Emphasis tricks, such as bold letters, should be used to emphasize something. Italics are for mentioning works like Harry Potter, and pictures should be related to your piece.
You must learn this quick, because nothing is more annoying than a piece full of useless effects.
Other writers will try to convince you of writing pieces using celebrity names on the headline. It not only doesn’t work, but it also will attract the type of reader that usually reads crap and moves on, and it will be more difficult for you to create a solid audience.
Also, this tactic is clickbait, and Medium has a strong anti-clickbait policy, so dismiss it if you aim towards curation unless you want to make fun of it.
Some authors will tell you to write only about certain topics where the number of reads is high. This is useful if you care about money, but have in mind that those fields are crowded with writers, and even if you excel at them, it will be almost impossible to thrive in them. There is a better chance of being read when you talk about what you know.
Writing about trending topics grabs some attention, but writing about your true interests gives you better engagement, because you will post content that will attract your target reader and will keep him interested in your work.
There will eventually come a day where you will read someone saying that you must publish every day, no matter what. Please don’t do that.
It is different writing every day from publishing every day. We don’t always have something to tell; And that’s okay. Our goal here is to communicate, to deliver something useful to our audience. If you publish crap, they will know you as the one who posts crap. And like crap, a poor reputation is hard to clean.
It is better if you write when you feel like it. The best creations come to live when you are in the middle of the creative flow, and to do that, you must feel like writing something. You must feel the creative spark. This is Medium, a place to learn and find your own style.
You won’t get rich. So, enjoy!
Some Extra Resources
Thank you for reaching the end of my article. Here I have selected some articles by more experienced writers than me that will help you. And one final advice. When you are going to add some cool extras, do not tell it at the beginning. It is also considered clickbait because it forces your readers to scroll to the bottom of the page.