I Went From Zero to 500+ Views in 5 weeks. Here’s my journey.

Author note: No typo in the title. It is 500, not 500k.

Author note 2: For a full ANIMATED GIF experience, read the version on Medium.

Disclaimer: You are not entering a sarcasm-free zone!

Superstar bloggers are making 500 views in less than one hour.

If you want to read a success story, follow this link.

Oh wait — you have to pay to read this one.

Stay here. My story is free and only a “tiny bit” less successful.

(but are you making it successful)

Now you have two choices:

• Either you close this window and go back to work
• Or you spend two minutes of your life to read the following story

How I did 500 views with five articles published throughout five weeks.

Author note: Picture of my cat included at the bottom. Continue to scroll down.

My challenge

My goal was to write at a regular pace — one article per week for five weeks. And after two months, to write a final article describing the result of this experience. (I’m speaking about this exact article, the one you are reading now and enjoying).

And here the plan.

You can notice I’m a bit behind schedule for the final article.

What I got in my toolbox: a Big Rock

Luckily, I was not starting from a blank page.

I wrote an analysis in 2017, a part of my Master in Sales and Marketing, about the Marketing Automation industry.

It is a bit academic, but I could cut it in small pieces and write single posts.

Like a kind of big rock content strategy. I will repurpose my report in single blog posts.

And I’m a writer now; I can drop fancy Marketing jargon.

Unfortunately, some important things were missing:

• I’m not a writer
• I’m not a native English person

And by the way, did I tell you that I have also a regular job? Meaning, I can only write in the evening.

Let’s start: Writing

November 2018. Five weeks to Christmas.

The timing is perfect. My deadline is set. I need to write every single week until the Christmas holidays. 

Otherwise, Santa won’t come.

Easy.

I will just cut and paste stuff from my report, and that’s it. Done.

Well, this is what I thought.

Not Easy.

Each article required a full rewrite to make it sounds less academic, with more storytelling.

You know people love to read stories.

(And I even experienced this. The story about “My journey into Marketing Automation” received the most views.)

I had to research again about the Marketing Automation industry. Not because in one year everything was obsolete. (By the way, no dramatic changes to notice in one year)

Because, once you start putting some effort into writing, you want to incorporate recent references. You explore some new possibilities and try to broaden the initial scope of the original piece of content.

Or maybe I just did this because I’m not a professional writer.

I do too many digressions. I believe that more explanations are required. Because my audience is too broad, I try to make it understood by the maximum of you — Again a digression.

It was time-consuming.

Writing, researching, rewriting, polishing, publishing, promoting.

For instance, one article took me more than 20 hours. The one about the Landscape of Marketing Automation software (Some claps?)

Initially, I planned to write every Monday evening and publish Tuesday. It didn’t work out like this.

After each publication (on Medium + LinkedIn), I moved directly on the next one.

I wrote almost all weekdays evenings and even sometimes over the weekends. I also did some illustrations — indeed, it was not enough.

Do you want to see some stats?

Of course, you do. You even didn’t read yet, you are still scrolling down to find the picture of my cat.

And here the statistic. Ta-dah!

Few facts:

• 535 views in total on Medium and LinkedIn.
• The article about My Story in Marketing Automation was the most popular.
• The second most popular article is the longest article one — long-form content pay off.
• LinkedIn generates more views — I have 600+ followers on LinkedIn while on Medium my audience is about 10 followers.

I know what you feel after looking at this stat.

What I’ve learned

• Writing is tough.
• Writing every week is even harder.
• Writing helps you to develop your ideas and thoughts.
• Once you have a goal and a plan, you are most likely to succeed. (And this is true for many things)

But let me finish this article by quoting Marcus Sheridan a.k.a “The Sales Lion”. He is a better writer than I am.

And in his great book about inbound marketing “They Ask, You Answer”, he perfectly describes what I feel about my experience.

“By writing this book, I’m being forced to take everything I’ve learned and distill it into words. I’ve been challenged to research deeper, think harder, and articulate my thoughts and experience more clearly. And because of this, I will finish this book a better communicator on this subject than I was when I started. You see, that is the thing — by producing content, regardless of how many times “it has been said” — we become better people, better employees, better sales professionals, and better communicators. That’s how it works.“

Yes, that’s how it works.

And now. I will continue writing. At my own pace. Once I have something interesting to say. Once I feel the need to put my thoughts on a paper. Even if I have almost no reader. It will still help me to develop some expertise.

Do you love cats?

I believe that if you scrolled down until here it was only for the picture of my cat.

But first. Can I ask you something?

Even though, I didn’t do all of these for the statistics and the number of likes. It is always appreciated to see that some people are reading you.

If you liked my story please click the LIKE button and share it with the world!

Everybody wants to be loved.

Especially my cat.

Writing with a cat is not always easy.

My cat picking the right GIF.

Proofreading.

A lazy cat. Hopefully you are not sleepy right now.

Did you miss a story about Marketing Automation?

No worry, they are all now on my website. Just click on the image below.