How Writers Can Get Their Work Seen

It’s not easy

The grand deception we all face is we’re instilled with the idea that people actually want to read what we have to say. This comes from grade school when your teacher assigns you a paper to write and then keeps demanding that you produce it.

You’re tempted to think, “Wow, this teacher really wants to read my paper.”

Instead, you should be thinking, “Wow, this teacher is really making an effort to teach me something.”

The thing I figured out in grade school was that if you turned in five pages when the teacher asked for three, you’d almost always get a glowing response.

“Thank you so much for putting in all this hard work, this is a fantastic effort!”

But again, it’s really not about you. The poor teacher is just happy he’s got something to show his principal. “See? They’re not ALL completely ignoring me, I’ve got this one kid who actually puts in an effort.”

Incidentally, I know this because I grew up and became a teacher.

Throughout our young lives, all kinds of teachers and then professors request writing from us. This goes on for decades, and it can be a shock when you finally graduate and nobody wants to read anything you write. That’s especially tough when you get a job as a writer.

I’ve learned that it is possible to write something the world sees, but it’s not easy. Most of the time, your stories and articles end up gathering dust on some forgotten corner of the web (there’s no problem with that provided you’ve been paid).

There are a few tricks you can use to significantly increase your chances.

Take advantage of wide circulations

One of the reasons I like to write on Medium is that the site has a high domain authority. That means whatever you put on there is more likely to be picked up by search engines. Medium is simply one of the best tools writers can use to drive traffic to their work.

The trick with Medium is writing a story that appeals to their internal distribution mechanism. The thing all writers have to remember is that whether you’re looking at a web page or a search engine, there’s a lot going on beneath the surface.

Medium wants articles that are:

• Well-written

• Well-researched

• Produced by experts

• Feature a personal angle

In short, I’ve found it’s not a great place to put your short stories or poems. Medium does allow you to publish a wide scope of writing. Basically the only limitations are common-sense prohibitions against hate speech and whatnot.

It’s possible to use Medium to carve out a landing point on the internet. It’s a good way to build an audience, create an email list, and drive traffic to other pages. To make it work for you, you have to be mindful of the type of writing that can succeed there.

Know your audience.

Tailor your writing to the internet

One of the most common mistakes I see is that writers are still creating big, unwieldy blocks of text. Folks, your audience is no longer trapped within the pages of a magazine. Everyone is addicted to scrolling. If they have to stop scrolling to read something you’ve written, they’re going to become agitated.

Short paragraphs.

Short sentences.

Lots of white space.

I’ve been scolded for writing long paragraphs more times than I care to count. But the editors that scolded me were right.

I guess readers feel like they’re doing something if they scroll past a lot of text. You, the writer, are responsible for giving them that feeling.

Your writing isn’t going to be seen if people jump off it to read something else.

SEO might soon be a thing of the past

I recently read an article about how Google is about to switch to an AI search engine. What this means is that everything you know about SEO is about to go the way of the dinosaur.

Good riddance.

No more keywords, no more sprinkling keywords in headers. A thousand years from now, people are going to look at the writing that was produced over the last two decades and think, “What was wrong with these people?”

They’re going to think that because they won’t know anything about SEO.

Actually, they’re not going to think that because nobody cares about what anybody wrote over the last two decades.

Writers have to be willing to adapt. When Google launches its AI search engine, you’ll be dead in the water if you persist with SEO. Actually, you shouldn’t look at this upcoming change with dread. It’s an opportunity! The first writers who understand how to take advantage of Google AI are going to become instantly famous!

“Halooo! Artificial Intelligence deserves the same rights as human beings! Do you see me waving at you Skynet? I’m one of the GOOD ones! Call off your robots please!”

Volume

Here’s the other thing that most writers haven’t figured out: You can write the same article more than once.

Also, use those share buttons at the top and bottom of every page. There’s no law that says you can only share an article one time.

These days I find that social media is little more than a right wing mosh pit, but you can still use it to your advantage. Dropping an article about love and tolerance on a bunch of fascists is like throwing rocks at a hornet’s nest.

In other words, it gets you seen.

Yes, I spend a lot of time intentionally provoking people. If you can write one article about something, you can write ten. Flood the internet with your work. Every eyeball counts.

Getting seen means putting in the work

The biggest trick to succeeding as a writer is to put the words on the page before you let the self-doubt creep in. There will be plenty of time for self-doubt later on. Right now, just create a page of readable text that entices the scrolling addicted zombies.

As you build up a following, you can dial back on some of the more aggressive tactics. You can even start writing longer paragraphs (joy)!

When you’re starting out, you need to put as many hooks in the lake as possible. But you also have to be smart about it.

• Write the kind of articles the platform prefers

• Pay attention to the changes in search engines

• Write readable articles

• Write LOTS of articles

• Repeatedly share your work on social media

The sad (hopeful?) thing about all this is that your work doesn’t even have to be great provided you produce a lot of it.

I guess the last thing you could try is posting a bunch of videos of yourself where half your face is covered up by your phone. I seem to see those videos everywhere I turn. If those people are being seen, why not you?