Copywriting For Medium Tutorial
How To Format Your Article To Make Medium Happy
Julie Rane has become a go-to specialist in copywriting tips for Medium.
Here is a good starter tutorial for article writing on Medium with the proper formatting.
UPDATED FOR 2021: How to Write a Story in Medium
15,554 viewsDec 29, 2020
15.1K subscribers
Timestamps: 00:13 The focus for this video 00:36 The first step – hit “write”! 00:50 Best practices for titles and subtitles 1:45 Best practices for images 4:34 Best practices for the body of the story 6:32 How to cite sources – and why you should 7:22 Formatting like numbered lists, bullet lists, bold, italicize, underline, and quotes 9:27 How to add spacers 10:13 How to add a table of contents 11:08 How to share a draft link 11:32 How to add to a publication 11:48 How to change the display title 12:06 The step to canonize if you’re importing from a blog 12:28 What to do about tags 13:39 How to schedule for later This has actually been one of my MOST requested videos: an updated version of how to use the Medium editor. If you want to write a story on Medium, this video will walk you through: – the basics – the advanceds – the random tips and tricks you didn’t know but should – essentially everything, from the title to how to submit to a publication and schedule You should always keep in mind what Medium wants from you, which is a focus on the substance, not the style. Subscribe to my channel to get videos and live events on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. I love answering questions and helping you out – let me know in the comments what you thought! Want to book me for consulting or editing services? Check out my shop: https://www.zuliewrites.com/consultat…. Want to hear from me in written format, too? Here’s my newsletter! https://zulierane-gmail-com.ck.page/a… My banner and Medium profile logo were designed by Jada Dreyfus. If you like what you see, feel free to get in touch with her at dreyfusjada at gmail dot com.
Copywriting For Medium Tutorial
FULL VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
00:00let’s talk about the medium editor it’s00:01been a hot minute since i made this00:03video i made00:03the previous video to this like a year00:05and a half ago so i’m excited to jump in00:08and show you00:09the very best practices for using the00:10medium editor now00:12the focus on this is to create a story00:15and publish it on medium with their best00:16practices00:17there is a lot you can do in the editor00:19but we’re going to keep it simple here00:21because00:22ultimately that’s what medium wants they00:24want you to be able to write something00:25that is easy that is fun that is00:27straightforward and that doesn’t take00:29like you’re focusing on the writing part00:31not the formatting part00:32so let’s keep that in mind as we go00:34through this video00:35so the first step is to hit right that’s00:39it00:39this takes you to the medium editor and00:41where all of the action is about to00:43happen00:44they make it easy for you you can see00:45where your title should go and then they00:47say where your story should go00:48so let’s put in a good title let’s say00:50that we want to write about cats00:52why cats are the00:56best i want to make it clear that00:59medium sorry medium medium prefers title01:02case which means that every word01:03um is capitalized unless it’s a01:05preposition now if you wanted to do a01:07subtitle01:09a subtitle about lovely01:12and fun cats that they prefer that to be01:16in sentence case and the way that you01:17can do this is just make it like a01:18sentence and add punctuation at the end01:22to turn this into a subtitle i i want to01:24show you actually that this01:26will if you just hit publish it already01:28knows that that’s your subtitle01:30because you you have it in the right01:31spot but from a format perspective it01:33helps if you actually turn it into a01:35subtitle by pressing the little t01:37and then now medium recognizes it title01:39and subtitle01:41the next thing is an image i personally01:45like to do my image when i finish the01:46story but01:48in terms of like order of the the01:50physical story01:51it’s we’re coming to it next so there01:54are two ways to do this01:55first you can search using unsplash this01:58is what i recommend for people who just02:00want to get their first story out the02:01door they don’t have time or the energy02:03to scroll through thousands of pictures02:05on the internet02:06that’s fine media makes it easy for you02:08so you just hit your search term02:10press enter and they’ve partnered with02:11unsplash which means that you can just02:13search02:14a ton of pictures that come up i love02:16this one how cute is that02:18medium likes photos that are02:19horizontally02:21so like they’re long on the top and02:23bottom and short on the sides02:25um instead of for example let’s see02:31instead of a long one like this this02:35you have to scroll to get to the story02:36and remember medium is the focus is on02:38your readers02:39so um i always go for a02:44horizontal one rather than a vertical02:45one you also have a couple02:48options for size i go for this as the02:50default um02:51sometimes this if i really like the02:52picture i’ve seen a very few people do02:55this but02:56it has to be a really good picture to02:58warrant that02:59you should always add alt text this03:01helps people who have visual impairments03:03if they’re using a screen reader03:05this means that they’ll still be able to03:06sort of know what the picture is without03:08actually seeing the picture so cat03:12looks at camera with03:15tongue out cute save it and there you go03:20the nice thing about this is it03:21automatically imports the accreditation03:24i can’t stress this enough always always03:26always credit your images and this is03:28going to become more important03:29as i’m about to show you because i don’t03:32like using unsplash03:33to find my pictures why because if it’s03:36unsplash and especially if it’s on the03:38first couple pages of results of03:40unsplash03:41it’s super likely that this picture03:43exists on medium03:45a thousand times already and if you’re03:48you want to stand out a little bit so03:50what i tend to do03:51is i go to pixels instead pixels has a03:54lot of photos03:55it’s a lot easier to sort so for example03:58i only ever look at horizontal ones04:00and they upload them with more frequency04:03they have better04:04in my opinion uh higher quality images04:06that’s just me04:07um like i love this one how cute is this04:10so you download it04:12and you’ll have to manually copy this04:14but that’s okay04:16and then i normally just drag like that04:19and there it is04:20and again paste your caption in add the04:24alt text04:25orange cat snuggling in blanket04:29and you have an image so let’s talk04:32about the story04:37what i want to focus on is what the04:38structure should look like04:41obviously this will depend based on your04:42story if you’re doing a long personal04:44essay04:45you won’t need headers or anything like04:46that but i find most of the stories i04:48write and most of the stories that tend04:50to do very well on medium04:51have some kind of a structure so whether04:54that’s a listicle04:55whether that’s section by section04:57whether it has a table of contents04:59a structure just helps your story sort05:02of organize itself and it helps readers05:04understand what they’re going to get05:05from your story05:07so this is an introduction05:12you know it’s a silly little thing but05:13whatever you want so let’s go into our05:15section05:15now if i were talking about why i love05:17cats you know why cats are the best05:19um they05:23really love you too05:26and this is going to be the title of a05:29whole section that i’m putting in here05:31it’s the exact same as the title up here05:33you just pick05:34big t and i go in here and i can say05:38there are so many reasons05:41cats show their love05:44they do slow blinks06:02but let’s say that you wanted to break06:03up this section even further which i06:05really recommend if it’s a long section06:08so for example here we could do slow06:10blinking06:11highlight this and it’ll turn the whole06:14sentence into a subsection just like06:18that06:20one of the cool things that i don’t see06:21a lot of people doing on medium is06:22actually embedding things so you can06:24embed pretty much anything on medium an06:26instagram post a tweet06:27an article anything you want um so what06:30i like to do06:32ncbi cat06:35slow blink oh slow blink not bling06:42uh see what’s in06:47this article just as an example all06:49right go to a new line that part’s06:51important06:52paste your link and then hit enter06:55it takes a second but medium turns it06:57into a really nice little06:58embed you can do this with any article07:00and it just automatically07:02does it it’s really neat um some people07:04don’t like to do this because they feel07:05it sort of detracts from the story like07:07it breaks it up so if you prefer07:09you can always hyperlink you press that07:12with the hyperlink button paste your07:13link and there you go07:16to get rid of this you just highlight07:17the text and you know backspace07:21you might also want to include a07:23numbered list or a bulleted list07:25so media makes it super easy to do this07:27you just type one07:28full stop and then a space07:31reason number one and then hit enter and07:34it automatically populate with the07:36number two07:37again you can do the same thing with07:38just a dash hit07:40dash and then space and it turns it into07:42a bullet07:43if you’re doing this if you wanted to07:44turn this into a listicle medium doesn’t07:46like that so07:47it would get rid of the one you’d have07:48to manually add it back in again but07:51um that’s not important you can also07:54bold and italicize07:55your words on here people do this for07:58emphasis07:59i recommend doing it as infrequently as08:01you can sprinkle them in when you really08:02want your words to pack a punch08:04but less is more when it comes to medium08:06again you don’t want the format to be08:08the standout star of your story you want08:10the writing to be the standout star08:12but in case you need to know you can08:13bold it you can italicize it08:16you can bowl down italic size you cannot08:18underline08:19because underlining is only for08:20hyperlinks08:22so in case you wanted to know08:27another thing is you can add quotes so08:29for example if i wanted to say what a08:31slow blank is08:33you could copy that08:38write the authors08:42you can do two types of quotes you can08:44do that or you can do08:46that i typically see these08:49when you want to break up like a long08:51section with or you want to pull a quote08:54out to sort of emphasize it and make it08:56seem more important08:57um you can do that i tend again not too09:00much of this because you want the focus09:02to be on your writing so i09:04only ever do one max 209:07in a story at any given time you can09:09always do a quote in line so just like09:11that09:11without any problems but formatically09:14speaking i would only use one or two09:15quotes09:16quotes like this max per story09:22another thing that’s good to know is how09:24to do spacers i find these really09:26visually attractive09:27and i use them a lot when i’m coming to09:29my conclusion so i’ve got my09:30section my subsection and i come to my09:32conclusion and i just put little three09:34dots in09:35and then i just start writing i love09:37cats so much09:42if i want to make it more obvious that09:43it’s a conclusion or just otherwise sort09:45of formatively make it stand out09:46um medium lets you do like a little09:48storybook big letter here so09:50you can just go like that and it sort of09:52wraps around the text to make it a09:54really big eye09:55i think this looks nice but again don’t09:58do this for every paragraph because it09:59looks a little silly like if you do10:01like to here and a begged to hear and10:04suddenly you’re like oh my god what is10:05happening to the story10:06you might want to know as well how to10:09add a table of contents if your story is10:10long if there’s a lot of sections and10:12you just want your readers to be able to10:14save it and navigate and always come10:16back to it and know what’s happening10:17that’s important you’ll want to add a10:19table of contents uh you can do this two10:21ways10:21i’m not even going to talk about the10:23second way because it’s it’s faffy and10:24you don’t need to10:26just use chrome and download the table10:28of contents extension10:31what this lets you do is here your very10:34furthest10:35section as you can see these correspond10:38to these10:42i like to sort of differentiate this10:44because i mean that just looks like10:45underlined text10:46so i normally make it a code block and10:48the way you do this is you just do three10:50backticks and it puts it into a code10:51block so what we have here10:53is a story on medium there are a couple10:56other things that will be useful when it10:58comes to11:01when it comes to sort of polishing it11:04off and hitting the publish button11:06first if you want to share a draft link11:07you can’t just copy this url this won’t11:09send anybody anywhere you have to click11:11share draft link and this gives you a11:12special link11:13that you can share with your friends11:14your family your frenemies whoever you11:16want11:17and this will let them read your story11:18even when it’s in draft format11:21the second thing you want to know is if11:23you want to share it to twitter11:24you can just click yes and then if11:26you’ve connected your twitter account to11:27your medium11:28account it will just ship it off when11:29you hit publish that’s great stuff11:31and of course you can also add to11:32publication um you know pick the one11:34that you11:35find the best for this story and then11:38you can submit it to them so like if i11:39were to11:40hit this one just as an example that11:42would change to submit there are a11:44couple other things in there that’s11:45good to know like you can change the11:47display title and this means that when11:49it’s11:49a story on medium’s feed they’ll see11:52what you put here11:53in the title and subtitle rather than11:54what you’ve put here11:56um not a lot of people use this12:00and if you’re trying to canonize this so12:02for example if you are12:03importing this from your blog you can go12:05to advanced settings12:08and say it was published elsewhere and12:10import and you know use the link that it12:11originally appeared on12:13to help google sort of avoid duplicate12:15content which is really great12:20but the last thing to do is to hit12:23publish12:24i would not recommend stressing out too12:25much about the tags i12:27i normally say like try to pick tags12:29that overlap with the topic pages if you12:31go to medium.com12:32topics it’ll give you a list topics are12:35what medium curates into so12:37if you go to the comics for example12:39everything in here has been curated by12:41medium curator into the comics12:43section um tags are only manual12:49so for example this shows us everything12:51that a reader a writer has manually12:53tagged as a hashtag cat story12:55um and it’s not i mean i know some12:58people like to use this to read but i12:59don’t know very many who do13:01most people just you know read whatever13:02medium sends them13:05you can also email a link to your13:06subscribers medium13:08literally recently very recently changed13:10this so if you go to13:11your settings scroll down to your13:14followers13:15you can display a message to promote13:17email subscription so what this means is13:19somebody gets to the bottom of your13:20story and it says13:21subscribe to zully for more stories from13:23zulie13:24um you can do this if you want i don’t13:26because i already have a newsletter13:28so i don’t but if you were to do that13:32and you were to hit publish and it would13:34email a link to your subscribers when13:35you hit publish you can also schedule13:37for later13:38um you can do this like years out in13:41advance i typically do this a few weeks13:42out in advance when i’m going on holiday13:44and i just want to be able to enjoy my13:46time off13:46without logging onto medium.com every13:48single day13:50and then you just hit publish and that’s13:52it that’s the whole editor that’s13:54that’s everything that you need to know13:56again just focus on writing the best13:57story you can13:58this there’s a lot of other random stuff14:00you can do in the editor14:02i don’t want to talk about that though14:03because in my experience14:05less is more when it comes to the editor14:07focusing on14:08your story your content your links your14:11backup links your structure your flow14:14that’s14:14way more important than knowing how to14:16bold stuff that’s it14:18that’s my medium editor update video i14:19know a lot of people were asking for14:21this so hopefully you enjoyed it14:22if you like this video give it a like14:24you can always subscribe to my channel14:25i’m nearly 28 000 followers very14:27exciting14:28and if you have any questions leave a14:30comment i try to get to my comments uh14:32once a week on mondays14:34so look out for my answer then and14:37other than that i hope everyone’s14:38enjoying the kind of weird dead days14:40between14:41christmas and new year’s and that you14:43have a wonderful wonderful wonderful14:452021 up ahead of you all right14:46happy writing everyone bye English (auto-generated)