100 Days, 100 Stories — Medium Journey So Far and The Challenge Ahead

I’d just cracked the code and they changed it!

I complete exactly 100 days on Medium today. It’s been a short but a hell of a ride.

I also incidentally wrote my 100th story yesterday — I didn’t plan this, it just so happened. I’ve had days with zero stories and others with 2–3, I sure can’t claim that “I wrote for 100 days straight” as much as I’d like that discipline (unless I count comments which I don’t).

What Made Me Start?

I wasn’t a “writer”. I am probably still not in the true sense of the word.

I just love, or at one point loved, writing.

And like many of us, this strange year gave me an opportunity to rekindle that old love affair.

And so it all began with one fine day and the resolve to start my own blog — which I did, but I realized Google Adsense and the sad world of “follow for follow” that blogging has come to wasn’t for me.

That’s when I came across Medium. The platform that gave writers a chance to find their own niche and following. The platform that provided uncensored freedom of expression. The platform that gave novice and professional writers alike, the opportunity to make thousands of dollars sitting at home, publishing away at your own will.

My First Few Days

I was like a lost kid in wonderland. Figuring out my way through this interesting place.

The joy of self-publishing, the fascination, and challenge of publications, the obsession with statistics — it was all too much to get my head around.

And so my first 15 days were about writing and publishing on my blog, and importing onto Medium. Places like Illumination were welcoming enough to allow a newbie like me to be a writer and Dr Mehmet Yildiz was happy to let me publish my pre-published stories.

And then — the first month (or half a month) ended.

I made a sum total of $1.49 across my first 16 days of July. And I was elated.

This was real money — money I had made from my random musings. I have a steady job in investment banking, so it wasn’t about the “money” but about the thrill of being paid for expressing your views, and the appreciation that came with the handful of minutes of member reading time I had achieved.

August — My First Full Month and Serious Business

If I get intrigued by something and decide to give it a fair shot, I like to get into the details of it and do it right. And so I decided to fully understand Medium.

The elusive curation, the big sought-after publications, and whatnot. And so for August, I switched to Medium for all my writing — shifting to drafts vs. published pieces submitted to publications.

The research and effort started to bear fruit. My first month brought my first curation, and some more, and with it more followers and some $. I made a total of $11.55 in my first full month — a small number I was happy with.

September — Can I Say I Was Now in the Big Leagues?

September in a way and in my mind was the month I achieved a lot. I wrote regularly, and at a high quality.

I got the validation with a total of 12 curations across the month on a variety of different topics.

I was also invited to be an editor on Illumination and Illumination-Curated, an opportunity I grabbed with both hands. It allowed me to learn with the best and work with the best of minds and people on the platform.

The quality and breadth of my writing meant I got more eyeballs and the curation helped too. I got into some of the top publications as well.

With all of this achieved, I also made a decent ~$37 which for my 2nd full month wasn’t a number I was complaining about.

Come September — I Was Prepared and I Had It All Figured Out

Here is what I had made of Medium in a nutshell:

• Write regularly and well — quality and quantity matter about equally.
• Curation isn’t everything but it helps — Good writing doesn't ensure curation, but if you’re curated, you surely did something right. The “distribution” under topics also means (or meant) that you reach a wider audience.
• Publications Matter — The bigger publications are picky and it is hard to get in but like curation, they also give you a new set of readers, who will give you views and reads if your stuff suits their fancy
• Followers Are Kingmakers — Many people would differ and say that’s actually curation or publications — but in the end your followers are the “sticky audience” who will always see your content irrespective of where it is published and irrespective of curation. So the holy grail should really be gathering genuine following — and “Genuine” is the keyword. The “follow for follow” farce is on Medium too but it won’t get you real followers.

And so, I was ready to take the Medium bull by the horns and challenge the Tim Dennings and the Sean Kernans of Medium and dethrone them as the most popular folks on Medium.

But Wait …Medium Just Changed the Rules of the Game

We’ve all read about it. Curation is gone — or practically gone anyway. My profile looks different. The things I am “recommended” to read look different and it all makes little sense.

Like most of you, I am bewildered and perplexed. My earnings have taken a hit — what was going to be a record month of earnings, and still probably will be on my low base of comparison, is starting to taper off.

My daily uptick of earnings is falling. I published on some of the most sought after publications for the first time this month — some pieces were published in The Ascent and Age of Awareness. Many others were curated. Below is my piece with “The Ascent” — maybe it isn’t as good as the 100-dollar stories, or maybe that doesn’t matter?

Yet, many of them had less than 100 views, and less than an hour of reading time. Wait, what? I got that with self-publication in the “old Medium”.

Now What? Should I quit?

So, what am I to do? How do I tackle this new beast? Well, I am sure we’re all struggling but there is a way. And I’ll go out in search of that, as will all of you. When you find the solution to this new puzzle — do let me know, if I do, I will too, I promise.

But until then, I won’t let this change affect or change what brought me to Medium — The Love of Writing.

So here is my gameplan — I’ll give it a go and be sure to report what worked and what didn’t — but in case you want to try too:

• Work on my “Profile” — The new Medium means anyone that wants to read your stories from “Following” goes to your profile and sees some of your most recent/featured stories and gets previews — so I’ll be sure to only write quality content and showcase it in a nice way — apparently there are now tools to do that, which I haven’t figured yet.
• Write Killer Introductions — The introductory part of your stories are now more visible to a “potential reader” and so they’re key to converting the views to reads — so don’t skip the introduction, instead make it the bait that draws your reader into reading more — and don’t disappoint then either.
• Gain Genuine Following — Make sure when your followers see your name in the “suggested reading” they WANT to click and find out what you’ve written. Once you have a loyal following, no change on Medium or anywhere else can keep you away from your readers.

So Happy Writing — and we’ll surely with our collective writing IQs figure out the new Medium — and this too shall pass…