How to increase claps and reads on Medium

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Every Medium author aspires to captivate a wider audience and foster engagement with their narratives. Despite investing ample time and honing our writing skills, achieving the desired level of engagement can prove elusive. That's where I step in to share insights I wish I had known when I embarked on my Medium writing journey. Prepare to grasp a repertoire of techniques for garnering applause, reads, and followers. Continue delving into this guide to unveil the strategies.

Harness the Power of Facebook Communities

One key revelation that could have transformed my early writing experience is tapping into Facebook's vibrant community of writers and readers. These groups harbor genuine enthusiasm for exploring your compositions. Naturally, it's a two-way street; reciprocate by engaging with their content through reads and applause. This symbiotic interaction can fuel a surge in reads, followers, and applause for your own pieces. Plus, immersing yourself in others' works not only facilitates learning but might also kindle the spark for your next creation. Don't hesitate to join these groups, and make sure to share your articles across all of them to maximize your reach and engagement levels.

Some of the groups I like the most on Facebook are:Medium Writers and Genuine Readers — by far the best group out there. The writers are very nice and they actually read your story. They will usually place a link to their story in your comment section and expect you to return the favor. Be a nice guy and do that!

• Medium and Vocal Media Writers — a great group for Medium and Vocal Media writers, as the title says :).
• Medium Article Advertising — This is a group I started for the same purpose. Here we post and read each other’s articles and engage. Hope you will join us!
• Content Writers Network — a general content writing group. It has 35 000 members which is much more than any of the above groups. The downside is that they are not focused on Medium publications but on general writing. You can give it a try though!
• Writers and Authors Promotions — this group is huge! It has over 100 000 members and it can reach a lot of people. However, It is not focused on Medium writers — so don’t exaggerate by spamming your articles!

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Always add your article to a publication!

Publications are a must. Every story you write should be placed in a publication. There is absolutely no exception to this! Write to as many publications as possible and try to get them to make you a writer for them.

Be sure to choose the right publications. You wouldn’t want to write erotic stories in data science publications or vice-versa. Yes, there is a publication for absolutely everything here on Medium so go ahead and get in touch with them!

At first, you may not be accepted by big publications, but don’t worry about it. As a rule of thumb, I recommend that you first submit your story to a big publication and if it isn’t accepted, add it to a smaller publication.

But always add your story to a publication!

Some of my favorites are The Startup, Towards Data Science, Data-Driven Investor, and MLearning.ai among others. But do find your own publications based on what you are writing about!

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Use fun and humor when possible

We all like to laugh and feel good. Some people say a good laugh is better than sex. So do try to be fun in your writing, when the topic permits. Plain writing tends to make people give up on continuing to read your article.

Of course, when writing about something sad or serious maybe you can pass on this rule. But even then, it may help to not leave the audience too depressed by adding a joke or fun remark as part of your story. Be witty and fun but don’t exaggerate.


The more engaged the reader feels, the more readers you will get.

Choose the right tags and e-mail your articles

Choosing the wrong tags can be a deal-breaker for your story. That’s why it is important to choose the right ones.

But don’t be fooled into choosing the absolutely 100% right tag if it has fewer followers than another tag that is tangential to the focus of your story. Always choose the tags with the most followers! Of course, as long as it has at least some relation to your story.

The way I usually do this is by choosing the number 1 tag that is exactly what the story is all about. For example, if I write an article about Artificial Intelligence, I will choose the first tag exactly that: Artificial Intelligence.

But after that, I choose the other tags based on how many followers that tag has. Because where there are more, there will be more engagements.

Of course, you also should always choose the option to e-mail the story to your followers! In the beginning, when you have 1 or 2 followers you may think that is useless. But it certainly isn’t. We all start small, but if you are focused on writing and keep at it, those 2 followers will soon be 200 and then 2000. And when you will have 2000, you surely won’t think it is useless to e-mail your story, right? So always do it, even in the beginning!

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Write every day

This is by far the most important thing you must do! Write every single day! When you get a bit of free time, write write write!

You need to make writing a habit if you want to be successful at it. writing a bit now and a bit in one week will not make writing a habit for you. You must be adamant about writing whenever you get the chance.

As with any habit-building, it will be hard in the beginning. But you need to have the discipline and will to write daily. There is no shortcut or any other way.

After a month or 3, you will find it will actually become relaxing to put your thoughts on paper and will help you unwind.

So keep up the good work, stay disciplined, and write every day!

I hope the tips I gave you in this article will help you on your way to becoming a top writer. Good luck and happy writing!