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My Biggest Lesson From Writing 500 Articles
You can teach an old dog new tricks!
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Last week, I wrote my 500th article here on Medium. In that time, I’ve learned a lot, and thankfully, my writing has improved.
I’ve been writing daily, Monday through Friday, for almost two years. It’s not a chore, it’s now a habit, it comes as naturally as putting my shoes on each morning.
Over those years, I’ve noticed that the best performing content tends to have the same format.
Quite often, I can tell in advance which articles will do well and which will sink without a trace.
This isn’t about algorithms or hacks, it’s not because Medium prefers articles like that. It’s about how readers naturally connect with ideas.
Looking at my spreadsheet (yes, I’m a nerd!), it seems that my best-performing content almost always includes three key ingredients.
If you are curious, here is my best-performing article, with almost 8000 reads…