The New Most Popular Topics Almost No One is Writing About
Up-to-date Medium statistics showing millions of followers for Top Writer topics and how you can use them to your advantage
I’m back after six months of taking a break and trying other creative channels. While I was away, Medium did not kick me out and I continued to earn based on reads. Surprisingly, my following also grew, but I will reserve that story for another article.
Let me first share with you what I discovered.
I’m always curious and I enjoy analytics, so I collected and plotted some data to grease my wheels before diving in again.
The most popular topics on Medium have shifted. Movies, Science, Diversity, and Politics have lost their spot at the very top.
Today, Technology is leading the pack by a large margin. Travel jumped to second place, pulling in 700,000 more followers since last year.
Why is this data important?
It is a great way to analyze your potential audience. You could tailor your content to what your readers are interested in and avoid subjects that most likely will collect dust.
It could help you try a new arena, find your niche, or overcome slowdown.
And perhaps more importantly to some, it could get you the Top Writer award. If you’re unfamiliar with how Top Writer works, read Medium’s Introducing Top Writers in Tags.
Now, let’s go one step further and marry this data with the number of stories and writers.
Look at the graph below and tell me what you see.
Medium is brimming with untapped opportunities. The most popular topics are hungry for stories. Take a look at Technology — 3.2 million followers and only 46,000 stories?!
Even Writing, which I initially thought was flooded, is starving for articles!
Compare that with Life or Love. Would you still write about these topics when so much content already exists?
And if your goal is the Top Writer prize, would you compete against 194,000 writers in Love or 48,000 in Creativity?
I could draw so many conclusions from this information, but there’s one thing that stands out. Medium is a long way from being saturated. Competition is high but there’s a big audience out there to capture.
So take your time to come up with creative ideas, find a spot and capitalize on what’s in front of you.
