74 Articles Later: The 5 Mistakes That Kept Me From Growing on Medium

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After publishing 74 articles on Medium, I expected momentum.

More views.

More followers.

Maybe even consistent income.

Instead, what I got was… inconsistency.

Some posts did okay.

Most didn’t.

Growth felt random.

It took me a while to realize something uncomfortable:

The problem wasn’t Medium.

It was how I was using it.

Here are the five mistakes that slowed my growth more than anything else.

1. I Treated Every Article Like It Didn’t Matter

I used to think volume alone would fix everything.

So I wrote quickly.

Published fast.

Moved on.

But the truth is

On Medium, each article is a long-term asset.

A weak article doesn’t just “fail”—it disappears.

And a strong one doesn’t just perform—it compounds.

Once I started treating every post like it could represent my work for months or years, my approach changed:

Better hooks

Clearer structure

Stronger ideas

2. I Ignored Titles More Than I Should Have

I underestimated how important titles are.

I focused heavily on content…

…but didn’t spend enough time on the entry point.

And on Medium, the title decides.

Whether someone clicks

Whether your article even gets a chance

A good article with a weak title stays invisible.

A strong title doesn’t guarantee success—but without it, failure is almost certain.

3. I Wrote Without Understanding Distribution

For a long time, I believed the following:

“If it’s good, people will find it.”

That’s not how Medium works.

Distribution comes from:

Tags

Publications

Internal engagement

Reader behavior

I wasn’t thinking about:

Where my article would appear

Who would see it

How it would spread

Once I started paying attention to distribution mechanics, results became less random.

4. I Focused Too Much on Writing, Not Enough on Positioning

I was writing about:

Different topics

Different audiences

Different tones

There was no clear identity.

So readers had no reason to follow.

Medium rewards familiarity.

When people know what to expect from you, they come back.

Without that, every article feels like a one-time interaction.

5. I Expected Too Much, Too Early

This was probably the biggest issue.

I compared myself to:

Writers earning hundreds per month

Viral posts with thousands of claps

But I ignored one thing:

Most of them had:

Years of experience

Hundreds of articles

Established audiences

At 74 articles, I was still early.

Once I adjusted my expectations, things became clearer:

Slow growth is normal

Small wins matter

Progress is incremental

What Actually Started Working

After recognizing these mistakes, I changed a few things:

I spent more time on ideas before writing

I improved how I structure articles

I focused on specific topics instead of random ones

I treated Medium as a long-term system, not a quick-result platform

Nothing exploded overnight.

But things became more predictable.

Final Thought

Writing 74 articles didn’t make me successful.

But it exposed the gaps in my approach.

If you’re stuck on Medium, it’s worth asking:

Are you really struggling with the platform…

Or just repeating the same mistakes?

Because once you fix the approach,

The platform starts to make more sense.

What became clear to me over time is that Medium isn’t a platform where effort alone converts into results.

It’s a system that quietly rewards writers who understand how to combine clarity, consistency, and positioning.

Writing more articles without improving how you write or what you write about doesn’t move you forward—it just keeps you busy.

I also realized that progress on Medium is often invisible in the beginning. You don’t always see immediate returns in views or income, but something is still happening in the background.

You’re refining your voice, understanding reader behavior, and learning what resonates and what doesn’t.

Those small, unnoticed improvements are what eventually separate stagnant writers from those who start gaining traction.

Another shift was learning to think long-term. Instead of asking, “Will this article perform?” I started asking, “Will this still be relevant weeks or months from now?”

That one question changed how I approached topics, structure, and even the effort I put into each piece.

Because in the end, Medium is not just about publishing articles—it’s about building a body of work that compounds over time.

And once you start thinking that way,

Every article begins to matter a little more.