5 Things I Learnt From Making $110 in September

Some lessons to help you in your writing journey

September was a good month of writing but far from my best month. Just as in sports, sometimes as a writer you go in a slump. You can’t hit a home run every time when you’re batting. You can’t score a goal with every shot you take. The most you can do is be persistent and figure out what you need to do to get better.

Everyone goes into a slump from time to time. If you don’t play sports, Merriam Webster says a slump means to “fall or sink suddenly”. Sometimes you can struggle mentally since you have a life outside of writing. Distractions can easily get you off-focus.

Other times your mechanics are off. Maybe you are suffering from arthritis typing away on your computer. Doing different stretches and wrist exercises with weights helps.

This month, I tried not to write a similar article so this one is different than my September summary. If you’re a returning reader, I’m sure you’d like to see something different rather than a repeat of last month’s article. I know I would.

This month I decided to change it up a little and give you my take on five lessons I learned. At this point, I have written for Medium consistently since March. I have completed seven months of writing, going on eight months now, and exactly 123 days of writing one article a day.

There is no guarantee you’ll make $100 or more every month

To get rich, you have to be making money while you’re asleep.

David Bailey

When I reached $100 in June, it was exciting. After my first writing pay of $.08, I created a goal to double my earnings every month. I was reaching that goal until August when the numbers didn’t double.

Then when September came around, I didn’t create an article that took off. I didn’t write an article that reached $20 or more like I did the previous month. In fact, September was one of my lowest earning months since reaching the three-figure mark.

Since June, I have made it to the 7% club on Medium earning at least $100 a month. Back in June, writing was easy as my income kept surpassing the previous month’s total. Then after July, everything started to go downhill. Some months you’ll have bad months and other months you’ll have good months.

Publishers can change the rules overnight

A publisher is simply a useful middle-man.

Oscar Wilde

My luck with getting published with the big publishers wasn’t as great in September. I didn’t submit as many articles to Better Marketing or Ascent but I also tried to get into other publications. Many of these other publications gave me a big fat no.

Because of that, I am preparing to start my own publication. The topic of the publication is probably what is holding me back. Maybe I’ll finish it up this weekend but we’ll see. It might slip another week or two.

Since there are more writers, there are fewer opportunities to get into some publications. Several publications are overwhelmed as it is now. Unless your name is Tim Demming, keep writing and look for other avenues to publish your work.

My read time took a huge drop from the previous month

We read to know that we are not alone.

C.S. Lewis

From August to September, my read time was down about 500 reads. My views were down about 1500 views. When I analyze this further to see how many articles I created, that should give me a general reason for the lower income.

After a quick check, I published 32 articles in September. A few articles I submitted were not published and they are sitting in my draft folder. In August, I published 33 articles. This snapshot didn’t help at all.

The number of articles published is almost identical. The number of hot articles is probably the big difference.

Creating money-making articles are not easy

Today making money is very simple. But making sustainable money while responsible to society and improving the world is very difficult.

Jack Ma

As mentioned, writing a top article is not always easy. Sometimes it’s a matter of luck to see which article takes off unless you have a good idea. Some articles may hit a trending topic and that could push up views. I tried to write a few articles that could trend but I’ll have to wait and see how that turns out.

My best article of September I actually wrote three months ago and it’s still doing well. This article I wrote in June and was the top-earning article for September with $13.61 for a total of $73.38.

This past month, two of my top articles were articles I wrote early in September. I think if you can figure out what you want to write, try to write your very best articles early in the month. This may give your article more time to get more views and read time to calculate in your numbers.

The second highest-earning article was $10.75. My third highest-earning article made $9.89. I have a few ideas that I plan to write about in October.

I crossed 1000 followers but that really didn’t help my overall numbers

Everything negative-pressure, challenges-it’s all an opportunity for me to rise.

Kobe Bryant

While sitting on 1100 plus followers, you would think your income would go up. That isn’t always the case. You can have a lot of followers but then you have to hope your article appeals to your readers. Not every reader will like all of the topics you write about.

In September, I wrote articles about investing, cryptocurrencies, writing, going back to school, fitness, racism, and scams. Seven different topics could mean seven different readers. Not everyone may have an interest in the topics. Overall, my articles on writing attracted the most interest from readers as well as reading time.

We’ll see if my slump continues in October or if I break out of my slump. It’d be nice to hit a couple of home runs this month.

Did you meet your goals in September?

Tom Handy is a top writer on Medium, former Quora writer, and father of two kids. He retired from the Army and sits on several non-profit boards. You can find him on Twitter @tomhandy1.