The Striking Similarities between Medium and YouTube Content

Because first impressions do count and make the difference between clicking or discarding.

Image made in Canva by author.

I was binge-reading written content on Medium the other day. Halfway through the article, the writer asked me if I remembered what the title of his piece was. Now I did, but it got me thinking.

The title, subtitle, and featured image are the first things you see when open the Medium app and hunt your homepage for worthy-to-read pieces. Ideally, the featured image is a perfect addition to these short but intriguing lines, making you inclined to click.

Once you click, the writer passed the first hurdle. The next challenge is to get you to continue reading. To do so, the writer must entertain, inform, make you laugh, or teach you something new.

If a reader doesn’t click the article, the words inside it will never be read. You, as the writer, will miss out on an opportunity to receive feedback on your work. Your words won’t get the chance to do anything but aimlessly float around in envy of other texts that do get eaten up like strawberry pancakes during a Sunday brunch with the family.

I thought of YouTube, and how this applies equally much. You can spend weeks or months on the video of your…