avatarScott Hughey (TheWriteScott)

Summary

Scott Hughey reflects on his success on Medium, emphasizing the importance of focusing on controllable writing goals, such as consistency, quality, and engagement, rather than external metrics like earnings and follower count.

Abstract

In his Medium article, Scott Hughey shares his experience of earning $125.86 in his second month of writing on the platform. He distinguishes between goals within his control, such as writing frequency, quality, and community engagement, and those outside his control, like earnings and follower growth. Hughey acknowledges the role of luck in his success, particularly with a high-earning article, but stresses the significance of a methodical approach to writing. He advocates for consistency, learning to tailor writing to the platform, and implementing strategies used by successful writers, such as starting a publication. Hughey's methodical approach, which includes publishing an average of one article per day and optimizing content for Medium readers, has led to increased earnings and follower growth, surpassing his initial goals.

Opinions

  • Hughey believes that while external success metrics like income and followers are exciting, they are not within a writer's direct control and should not be the primary focus.
  • He suggests that a consistent writing habit, aiming for at least one published article per day, is crucial for improvement and discoverability on Medium.
  • Hughey emphasizes the importance of formatting articles for online readability, using a mix of paragraph lengths and sentence structures to engage skimming readers.
  • He values the advice of successful writers and the wisdom of knowing which advice to follow, which led him to start his own Medium publication, "Open Letters To," contributing to his increased visibility and follower count.
  • Despite the unpredictability of which articles will perform well financially, Hughey is convinced that controlling the quality and consistency of his work is key to long-term success on Medium.
  • Hughey's wife set a practical goal for him to earn at least $5 to cover the Medium membership fee, which he took seriously as a supportive gesture and a motivational target.

Control What You Can Control

$125.86 In My 2nd Month On Medium Isn’t The Point

Set Writing Goals For Long Term Success

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

I started writing on Medium this past January 10th with several goals, many of them terrible.

It doesn’t matter that I’ve met those goals. My approach to Medium has been calculated, and I’d like to think, both sustainable and effective.

I’ve also been just a little bit lucky.

Let’s break my goals into two categories.

  1. Those outside my control.
  2. Those within my control.

The goals I couldn’t control were the ones I was the most excited about. How much money would I make? How many followers would I get? How quickly would I get accepted into publications? And lastly, how much money would I make?

The goals I could control included how often I would write, the quality of my work, engaging with others and eventually starting a publication.

Controlling the things in my power makes the numbers I’m looking for possible.

The goals outside my control for February? $100 and 100 followers

Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash

By February’s end, I’d reached 235 followers and $125.86

How did I manage this?

By controlling what I could. By working toward the less flashy goals. And, by getting a little bit lucky.

Lucky?

That’s right. My most financially successful article in January was 5 Simple Exercises That Blasted Away My Lock-down Weight.

It made $73.58. Quick math will tell you, hold on…almost there… that one article earned 58.5% of my February totals. What’s more, I wrote that one in January.

If I could reproduce that type of success, I’d be telling you how I made $2060.24 in the month instead.

Relative to all my other articles, this one took off. I’ve analyzed the article and tried to duplicate what I thought worked. I’m even reasonably sure I know what made it successful.

I just can’t duplicate it, yet.

My point, discouraging though it may seem, is that you never know what will take off. My next closest one only made $10.40 in the same month. I’m not going to say no to a ten-dollar article. I just want more of the higher-earning ones.

I have other, better articles, that should have outperformed both of these. You probably do, too.

But I’m not discouraged. Heck, I met the goals. And I did, even if by accident, through my methodical approach.

For those of you skimming, this next part is what you’re looking for.

I control the writing process. I had goals centered around that process as well.

Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash

Consistency, improvement, and education are the themes here. These goals were straight forward:

  • Average 1 published article (or better) a day.
  • Learn to tailor writing toward the platform.
  • Implement what other successful writers do.

Average 1 published article.

Consistency is key. Am I telling you to publish an article every day?

No. Of course not.

Instead, I encourage you to develop a consistent writing habit. The more often you write, the better you will get and the easier it will be.

Beyond that, the more articles you write, the more opportunities for readers to find you. There are several theories on this. I suspect you are doing yourself (and your readers) a disservice if you’re not producing at least 3 stories a week.

I didn’t write every day. I took breaks. But I still managed to publish 33 stories in 28 days.

It changed things for me, even though I’d done similar numbers in January.

My numbers jumped. I was getting better at writing for Medium. I was also giving readers, and the algorithm, chances to discover me.

January breakdown:

  • 10 stories between $0.00 — $0.09.
  • 10 stories between $0.14 — $0.84.
  • 2 stories between $1.29 — $1.35.
  • 1 story at $8.17.

Look what happened in February:

  • 7 stories between $0.02 — $0.10.
  • 19 stories between $0.11 — $0.50.
  • 14 stories between $0.51 — $0.94.
  • 8 stories between $1.09 — $1.79.
  • 5 stories between $2.06 — $3.72.
  • 1 story at $10.40.
  • 1 story at $73.58.

Most of these stories I wrote in February, but many of them carried over from January. The same will be true for whatever I earn in March and beyond.

I feed Medium. It feeds me.

Learn to tailor writing toward the platform.

This is true of wherever you write, but we’re talking about Medium.

Medium is an online publication.

Guess what readers do when reading online? They skim. Your job as a writer is to entice them to invest in your story. The writing has to be top-notch. It also has to be readable.

I could take the last four paragraphs, put them all into one paragraph, and lose half my readers just like that.

Crusty old writers are going to grumble about young whippersnappers having the attention span of a squirrel just ran past my window. What was I saying? Never mind.

Those writers won’t succeed on Medium.

We can and we will because we care enough to learn the craft. Formatting, which includes a mix of long and short paragraphs, is part of that. Vary your sentence lengths, too.

I wrote about that here:

Reader ratio is something I can’t control. But, I can influence it by optimizing my writing for Medium.

Doing that has improved my numbers just as much as continuing to write has.

Implement what other successful writers do.

This is an article in itself. There is also wisdom in knowing which advice to follow and which to pass on. That’s also an article in itself.

What works for one may not work for others.

Here’s what worked for me. You hear the advice from multiple sources. I’ve read three books on making money on Medium. Each one mentioned this. So have several top writers.

Start your own Medium publication.

Let me tell you, it’s a lot of work. I avoided it for a while because I wanted to build my following up first, But, I couldn’t ignore that this tip kept coming up.

There are several advantages to having a publication. For me, it’s about having a wider reach while having one place to write in a consistent format. I also get more interaction with good writers here.

And my emails from Medium tell me that most of my new followers lately have found me because I’m an editor for Open Letters.

I mention this here because it not only helped me meet my goal of 100 followers by February’s end but to more than double it.

The Takeaway

Photo by AbsolutVision on Unsplash

I’m convinced that doing all of this is what helped me earn the money I did. I’m also convinced that I could have done everything here and not met those numerical goals.

I can’t control the numbers.

I can control the quality and consistency of my work.

With those things in my grasp, and with an eye on the long game, the other things will fall in place.

I want to double my February earnings in March. Can I control that? No. Can I do all the right things in order to optimize my chances? Of course.

And that’s what I’m going to do.

One final goal category: My wife’s goal.

“So,” she said slowly, possibly doing the math in her head once she learned about my membership fee, “you have to make at least $5 then to make up for it.”

“Can do,” I said. “Can. Do.”

I appreciate her support. I really, truly do. That’s why I’m not going to end this article with the words, “Neener, neener, neener.”

Scott Hughey would like to point out that he ends all his articles with an in-the-moment bio. That’s why, technically, the article didn’t end with the above quote, “Neener, neener, neener.”

More by Scott:

Writing
Writing Tips
Writers On Writing
Publishing
Blogging
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