This year, out of the 150-odd stories I’ve written on Medium, I’ve had 6 go what I would consider “viral.” My criterion for this is just that it’s made at least $1,000 by the royalty method — that is, in the lifetime of the Medium post, enough people have read it that it’s earned a cumulative $1,000.

I wanted to dive into my six viral blog posts, analyzing the statistics, what I think made them go viral, and how I (and hopefully you) can replicate this in the future. Virality is never a given, but with the right tactics, you can give your work the best chance of going viral.

If you prefer the video version, you can check it out here:

Let’s dive into these six posts. I’ve organized them by reverse financial order, so going from the least amount of money to the greatest amount of money. It’s worth noting this doesn't correlate to views.

1. 4 Traits of Extremely Insecure Girlfriends

This one currently has 51k views and has earned me just over $1k. This one, to the best of my knowledge, went viral for two reasons.

First, it was in the right publication. If you hop on over to the popular relationship stories, you’ll notice nearly all of them are in one particular publication — P.S. I Love You. They are *the* publication for love and relationships, and to have a shot at going viral, it’s got to be P.S. I Love You.

Second, it was at once very personal — all the specific traits are traits I once had, as an extremely insecure girlfriend — while also being broadly applicable, as there are lots and lots of insecure partners out there. The writing was specific, but the appeal was universal.

It is unique among the rest of my stories in that it had one peak in views, and then settled down to nearly nothing. Most of my other stories have had multiple spikes.

2. How I Doubled My Income with 5 Separate Income Streams

This one was a huge surprise, and the one I’m least sure of why it went viral. To date, it’s got 62k views and has earned me just under $1.4k.

*Screenshot of Author’s stats on Medium*

My best guess is that once again, I got the right publication (the inimitable Post-Grad Survival guide, who has begun to specialize in money, personal finance, and life lessons) and the specificity of the numbers in both my title and my subtitle let people know I was talking real business.

This was one of my first non-listicle viral hits, and I’ve taken it as a big consolation that I don’t have to crank out listicles and can still make a decent living on Medium.

3. The Viral Math Girl From TikTok Perfectly Encapsulates What It’s Like to Be Female on the Internet

I know, it’s a long title, right? All the best advice tells you to keep it under ten words. I love this viral post because it proves so much advice wrong. It’s gone on to get me 57k views and earn me just over $1.4k.

It was my first post that went viral based on a current event. I also originally did *not* put it into a publication at all. A week later, I retroactively submitted it to Better Marketing, but all the virality of it came before it lived in a big publication.

Two things contributed to the success of this post. First, it was a major event on Twitter. A lot of people were talking about it, a lot of folks had seen it happen. It was a big (though temporary) cultural event. When I wrote, “viral math girl,” everyone knew who I was talking about. If you google Viral Math Girl, my post is top of the Google Search results. It’s not just that it was topical — I was the first one to write about it in a meaningful way. All because I was procrastinating on Twitter and happened to see it.

The second attribute was that I added context. It is hard to be female online — you have reply guys, dogpiling, folks doubting your credentials, and so on. This was just one example in a long list of examples. I didn’t just write up the event; I added context that placed it in a wider ongoing cultural conversation.

It did very well in the first few days and then, as is pretty typical for these things, faded quietly into obscurity as the world moved onto other viral moments.

4. The Psychological Trick That Lets You Subtly Influence Human Behaviour

Early on in my Medium career, I wrote a lot of “Psychological Trick” this, and “Scientific Hack” that. Medium penalized clickbait, so I stopped. Then, way too late, I realized it’s OK to write these sorts of titles as long as you actually deliver what you say you will. This story proves that to be the case, earning me just under $1.8k at around 38k views — a viral Medium story, by my count.

The interesting thing about this one is it didn’t go viral on Medium right off the bat. The first few days, it did alright — respectably, but nothing stellar.

Then, three months later, it blew up. (Again, “blew up” by my standards.)

I don’t know what caused this. I don’t know how I can get it to happen again. But it does mean I no longer panic that much when I publish something good and it flops, because it doesn't mean it’s doomed to obscurity.

This story went viral for two reasons, as best as I can tell. First, it has a traditional title — a psychological trick. Secondly, it fits a very particular template for blog posts that I find is very engaging for readers, keeping them on till the end of the story — the Anecdote, then the Science, then the How You Can Do This At Home. It may not have been good enough to fly off the shelf at first, but it was then engaging enough that when it did begin to pick up steam, it could really fly.

5. 7 Traits of Subtly Toxic Friends

Normally I avoid using the number 7 in my listicles, because I feel I’ll never compare with the original listicle (7 Habits of Highly Effective People) but in this case I did, and maybe I should do so again in the future because it 100% paid off. This story has 55k views and has earned just over $1.8k.

This story has a few secret weapons. First, the listicle — I numbered 7 traits. Second, the word “toxic.” It’s very hot at the moment. Third, talking about friends. Everyone suspects they may have or may even be a toxic friend, and might be interested to find out. Fourth, it’s in a big publication — Mind Cafe. Finally, again, this story is personal. I had some toxic friends and the lessons they imparted taught me a lot. That comes through in my writing.

This is another one that’s done well externally, too. If you google Toxic Friends, it’s 4th on the results page. It also has several popularity spikes, rather than one big one:

6. Six Habits of Deeply Miserable People

This was my first and biggest viral hit ever. It has 173k views and has earned me over $3.8k. And I wrote it out of spite and jealousy — I saw someone had written a personality trait listicle that attained the coveted “Popular on Medium” tag, and thought to myself: well, if they can do it, why can’t I? So I did.

It’s kind of my white whale — I don’t know if I’ll ever see a viral hit of this magnitude again. But it did inspire me and allow me to know how to write further articles that would go viral and earn me this kind of money. It also gave me the template for several winning titles later: [Number] [Habits/Traits] of [Intensifying Adverb] [Negative Adjective] [Group Person Noun]

7 Habits of Subtly Toxic Friends
4 Traits of Extremely Insecure Girlfriends

I think this one went viral for the title, but also because I backed the title up with actual science. It was written in May 2020, a time when many of us may have suspected we were deeply miserable but weren’t really sure, and I think it struck a chord that resonated with many. Each of the traits is backed up by a scientific study, and comes with help on how to address it.

I don’t pretend to be a psychologist, but I do believe that the resources are there to make your stories well-researched, and this story proves that effort is worth it.

I’ve gone viral on Medium 6x this past year and these are my takeaways:

Classic titles (psychological tricks and listicles) are popular for a reason. As long as you back them up with science, Medium won’t penalize you and you can still go viral with them. But, some titles don’t require
Publications matter a lot. It’s not enough to get it in the biggest pub. You should instead aim for the best fitting publication. A self-help story would not flourish in Better Marketing, for example. But, you don’t need a publication to go viral.
Current events are good, especially if you can place them within context. While breaking news is always a good bet, understanding how it fits into the existing cultural dialogue will help give your post extra wings.
Numbers are eye-catching. Maybe because they signal to your reader that you have real information to share.
Good writing matters. I’ve written clickbait titles; I’ve written cutting-edge current events; I’ve peppered my title and subtitle with stats. None of it matters unless you can write about it well and engagingly. Using anecdotes or personal stories can help.

I can’t predict every story that will go viral. Sometimes a story flops and goes viral unexpectedly several months later. Sometimes I write something that meets my criteria listed above and it perishes quietly nonetheless. But I am confident that no matter what happens with the algorithm, or what changes come next to the platform, these guidelines for viral content will at least get you writing well. As with all viral stories on Medium, good writing is the first and most important step.

How I Went Viral on Medium 6x in 2020