Ask This One Simple Question To Get Views And Go Viral on Medium
follow this tip to explode on Medium
What if I told you that you can go viral on Medium just by asking one simple question? I know it sounds cliché but just bear with me!
Let’s face it…
No one claps or drops a comment without finding value in your story. To clap and comment on your stories, the reader must find value in them.
And this is why writing and going viral on Medium is a psychology game.
Understand…
The algorithm doesn’t control people, But people control the algorithm. Based on the people’s actions and reactions your stories flop or go viral.
And this is also why we call “The content is king.”
The content is what decides your progress. If all you do is create crap, you won’t see any results. But if you publish great stories, you’ll see a drastic change in your Medium growth.
But the problem though is that writing “killer Medium” stories is damn hard. I do agree on this point because if it was easy, everyone would have 1000s of followers on Medium. Do they?
But what if I give you one simple formula that will increase the quality of your stories — so you can get maximum views and go viral on Medium?
Here’s the secret: You need to ask this question…
What emotion does your story evoke?
Yup. That’s the only recipe you need to use to make your stories go viral on Medium. I know the headline is important, the hook is important, the formatting is important, and all the nitty-gritty stuff matters in your story.
But this question matters MORE than anything else.
And there are two ways to think about this:
- First, before you write a single word in your story, ask this question: “What emotion do I want to evoke writing this story?” the answer should be clear before you write a single word.
- The second way to think about it is that the moment you finish writing your story ask this question: “What emotion does this story evoke?” If you can’t get the answer right —re-write the story until you do.
The untold truth…
The more emotional your stories are, the more views they get.
The below image illustrates this concept so well:
Do you see?
No one is going to clap or comment on your story if it doesn’t touch and evoke their emotions — doesn’t matter how long it takes you to write the story. The reader doesn’t care about it.
For the reader to clap and comment on your story (so you get more views & go viral) they have to feel something (emotion) while reading your story.
What did you learn?
If you can evoke people’s emotions through your story — you’ll get the views you want and go viral as many times as you want.
But you may wonder and think “How the hell do I write stories that evoke people’s emotions?” If so, let's go deep from here.
Understand. There are many types of emotions. But the major four are:
- Happy
- Anger
- Fearful
- Sadness
However, there are so many micro-emotions humans tend to feel. And since I’m talking about “Evoking people’s emotions through writing stories” So I’ll discuss those— you can call them “Micro-emotions.”
Those emotions are:
- NSFW: that’s crazy!
- LOL: that’s so funny
- OHHH: now I get it!
- WOW: that’s amazing!
- AWW: that’s sooo cute
- YAY: that’s great news!
- WTF: that pisses me off
- FINALLY: someone said it!
H/t: Shaan Puri.
If a reader reads your story and says any of them, good news: congrats! you’ve successfully evoked their emotion. And that’s the point.
So how do you write stories that evoke people’s emotions? First, remember not all types of stories evoke people’s emotions. There are only a few types of stories that 100% evoke the readers’ emotions.
I’d suggest you write only those types of stories — as much as you can!
You ask…So what type of stories should I write though? Great question. There are 3 types of stories you can write to evoke people’s emotions…
- Differential
- Inspirational
- Controversial
Let’s discuss each of them.
1. Differential
Differential stories are stories that seem different.
This type of story is either filled with novel ideas or the story has so many unique insights that people often miss when talking about the “Subject.” And as a result, when they read a story like this, they find it different.
So how you can incorporate this into your niche?
Think about what unique insights or novel ideas (not truly novel) you can give to your readers — that either they never think of or they miss the most important point — most of the time.
If you have any of these two elements in your story you will go viral. The point is to make your story different than the other people’s stories.
Some of the stories I’ve written in this format:
Even if your stories are slightly different than the other writer's stories — you’ll do pretty well than other writers.
And this is exactly what these stories do as a — differential.
2. Inspirational
This is my favorite one.
I love writing inspirational stories. Because I do think it’s a proven story type that always goes viral — only if you’ve done a good job writing the story and actually making the reader feel inspired reading your story.
So how you can write this type of story?
Write “How I did stories.” Don’t write “How to do X.” Write “How I Did X” And when you do it — it automatically becomes an inspiration for other people.
Because people want to learn from the person who has done the work, not from the person who’s writing “How to do x.”
Just take the example of this story. This is also an inspirational story. The moment you finish reading this story — you’re inspired to try something.
You may say any of them:
- This is valuable
- This is inspiring
- This is interesting
- I gotta give this a try…
And that’s the point!
Some of the stories I’ve written in this format:
3. Controversial
Want to get bombarded with notification junkies?
Write controversial topics. Don’t be a coward joining the same group of people who write the same boring stuff and teach nothing interesting.
You gotta have to stand out in this noisy world. And the way you do this is by showing a different POV or telling the hard truth most people ignore.
Find:
- False belief
- Misses pieces
- Unspoken truth
…About your “Niche” And write stories about them. But Make sure the point you make in your story is legit and actually tells the reality — otherwise be ready for the hate comments.
For example, my niche is “Medium Growth Writing.” I teach people how to write compelling Medium stories and grow on Medium. And certainly, there are a lot of myths, false beliefs, and missing pieces in my niche too.
The one, publications.
Most people think publications are the only way to grow on Medium, which is completely wrong, by the way. So whenever I talk about this topic — my stories tend to perform well.
The reason is simple: it’s controversial.
Some of the stories I’ve written in this format:
So find loopholes in your niche and write stories about them.
If you find this story helpful, insightful, or interesting — I’m pretty sure you may also find this below story valuable, please click and check it out.
Thank you so much for reading!
