You’re very sweet, thanks for the response!
So keywords vary depending on what type of article you’re writing. It goes hand-in-hand with something called SEO, which is essentially how to get your piece discovered on Google or other search engines and platforms (like Reddit).
So for example, one of my older articles titled The Cure for Writer’s Block is titled in such a way so that it (hopefully) appears on the first page of Google when a user types in some of the keywords in this title (or rather, a combination of the keywords in the title). So when someone types in something like “what’s the cure for writer’s block?” this article might appear (also depends on other factors, like web traffic). So as such, “cure” and “writer’s block” are the main keywords here, and I’ve also sprinkled them throughout the piece itself (mostly the phrase “writer’s block”). Keywords in a subtitle also count.
As for tags, I usually refer to this article here: https://medium.com/@RabbutMail/what-are-the-most-popular-tags-on-medium-fa754e90248f
When you’re done writing a story, just click those three horizontal dots on the upper right corner of the screen and go down to “Change tags.” Ideally, tags that have an audience of over 10K (some have over 100K) are better because your story will reach more people.
And then for publications, it just depends on what you want to write about, but I like this article here: https://getgist.com/top-50-medium-publications/ (it gives a pretty good overview of the 50 best ones).
To get added as a contributing writer to a publication, just fill out the form on their homepage. (So for The Ascent, one of my favorites, it’s right here: https://medium.com/the-ascent/how-to-write-for-the-ascent-on-medium-cddb899ef924?source=---------2------------------)
Now, to add a piece to a publication, click those three dots again and click “Add to publication.” You’ll see a list of publications that you can submit for, but they have to accept you as a contributing writer first. The editor will review it and let you know if it’s accepted or not. And if it’s not, just submit it to another publication. Editors are not created equally, and some may love your piece and others won’t.
Whew OK, hope that helped and don’t ever give up on writing!
Cheers and have a Happy New Year!
-tally
