6 Month BURNOUT: 440 Stories Later and Still Struggling for Reads!
Do you want to see a transparent update about my Medium journey?
As of November 1, 2021, I’ve been on the Medium platform as a paid member for six months to the day.
I can easily recall the day I came to Medium and decided to establish my Justiss Goode persona and profile. It just so happens to be the same day of my birth: May 1st (never mind the year for now :-)
This detailed journey of mine that I’m about to convey to you won’t contain a lot of fluff, but it will contain a lot of details. I know a lot of new members are interested in getting useful advice and opinions about how to get started and succeed on Medium.
That was why I decided to present the information I’m sharing with you in a question and answer format, complete with images and screenshots. In fact, let me state for the record:
ALL IMAGES: Provided by Author Screen shots
With that being said, let’s get to it…
What is my current Medium situation and how do I feel about my journey?
The above screen shot is current and up-to-date, as evident by the arrow showing today’s date. My story activities indicate the 438 stories I currently have published (which will actually be 442 later, by the end of the day).
I’m so long-winded when I comment, many of the 1337 responses I’ve written actually qualify as a short form story.
- My followers will soon hit the 1500 mark (YAY!)
- I have 23 email subscribers — which I think is rather LOW, considering the number of followers.
- Yep! I even have one referral.
But of course, most of you are waiting to hear about my other stats, as in my number of views, reads, read ratio, and above all, my earnings. Well, I hate to disappoint, but…
Hold on, I’m not saying I won’t share them, I’m just saying I hate to disappoint you on what I’m about to reveal!
I don’t know what kind of earnings you think I’m making from nearly 450 stories (alright dammit, 438), but I bet it’s no where near what I’m actually making!
That’s right. I’m telling you that my huge catalogue of stories, and my 1500 followers (I’m off by 6 — cut me a break), aren’t even keeping me in the $100 club!
If this reveal is unsettling to YOU, imagine how I feel.
I made $100 in July, and thought I was on my way by September, even though I appeared to have had a set back in August.
I didn’t worry, because I knew that the $50 July bonus I received, had caused me to reach the $100 mark. Without it, my $9 increase from June would have still been going in the right direction.
The September payout of $126 was bonus-free, so I thought my earnings continue up, from that point forward. WRONG!
In all honesty, I feel peeved, confused, somewhat disillusioned, but most of all, just tired and burnt out.
I’m sharing this, because lately, I’ve been sensing a similar attitude within this community of writers.
I was literally shocked to hear a comment from Edina Abena Jackson, a truly talented, and prolific writer with hundreds of stories — way more than me.
It came about when I left a comment on one of her stories, praising her for something profound that she said, which is typical of her. In her response, she thanked me, and indicated how much she needed the comment I left her, and indicated that she had been feeling a bit low.
Knowing the magnitude of all the work she puts in on this site, I immediately understood where she was coming from, even though it took me off guard.
I realize the benefits of commenting, when it comes to your stories. But I often forget how just a few simple words can be exactly what someone needs at just the right time.
I couldn’t even imagine having a thousand or more stories, yet your earnings showing an amount comparative based on the same kind of calculations and wonky math as my own payouts.
Of course, I’m not presuming to know what her, or any other writer’s bottom line is; I’m only dreading the idea of potentially publishing another 4 or 5 hundred stories, only to clear 2 or 3 hundred dollars a month.
What do my comments and experience indicate to you?
Normally, when Medium writers read stories like this, they’re primarily interested in one thing; how much money someone is earning?
Is that the case with you?
Some of you have gotten what you came for. Now you know, and you may even be preparing to leave this story and move on to the next. But what exactly do my comments and experience so far really indicate to you?
- You may not really care how things got to this point because you’re probably thinking this won’t happen to you, while you continue adding to your own portfolio of stories.
- You’re thinking maybe my writing sucks, or at the very least, it doesn’t have what it takes to earn me more money. You believe your situation and your writing is somehow different.
If you’d like to leave now, and continue wearing your blinders, feel free. But if you’d like to hear about the rest of my journey and see how things got to where they are, I encourage you to do that.
Maybe you’re right. Maybe somewhere along the way, I got something terribly wrong. I welcome you to read and point it out to me. Leave all the insightful comments and constructive criticism you want to, I can take it.
I truly want to know if you think you have an answer. But to provide me with one, you need to know the whole story.
Read and see what I did, and everything I tried, in order to be the best Medium writer that I could be, and a loyal reader and follower to those who did the same.
How did the beginning of my Medium journey start off?
When I came to Medium, I was already a longtime freelance writer and also self-published author. I was used to working online and navigating new websites, and I had lots of hands on marketing and promotional skills (from years of self-taught self promotion).
All of this gave me an advantage over many new writers who are just starting out, including some of the writers who had already been writing on Medium.
TIP #1: That goes to show that you CANNOT judge, compare, or belittle your own progress, based on what someone else is accomplishing, or appears to be achieving.
In the very beginning I began writing brand new stories on Medium, but I also did a lot of what was once called article spinning. This basically amounts to upgrading and retrofitting former articles and content for multiple sites.
Because I’m a fast typist and I have a flexible as hell schedule, I was able to create, rewrite, or republish both new and older content. At one point, I shared this information with my readers, hoping to provide full disclosure that could help them in their own Medium journeys.
Type of story writing I did
My initial purpose in coming to the Medium — in addition to wanting to earn money for my writing — was to try my hand at becoming better at short story writing.
I love writing fiction, but I didn’t want to tackle writing a novel this year. So I wrote a couple of short fiction stories for Medium and I even started sharing details and writing all about the the short story writing course I paid to take online.
I didn’t get much interest in that. But I also wrote a lot of writing advice and stories about personal experiences and other life lessons that happened to me. Those topics did pretty good, and eventually my stats were on the rise. So was my growing portfolio.
Tip #2: I wrote about the stuff I knew the most about, because it was easier, within my comfort zone, and people were reading it (based on read ratios like below). Even if it wasn’t at the rate that I wanted, my consistent earnings have come from allowing things to culminate slowly — very slowly.
Story length not a factor
In case you’re wondering about the average length of my stories, in case they were too long or too short. I doubt it, since I wrote a lot of different length stories. In the beginning they typically ranged from 3–6 minutes, sometimes longer. But lately, I’ve fallen in love with writing short form stories.
I spent a lot of time, fighting against my comfort zone writing; thinking I needed to be more diverse than I was already being. And don’t think for one second that I was only writing about Medium, or providing writing tips.
I wrote about everything; constantly trying to figure out what the masses wanted so I could generate higher earnings.
I finally concluded that it was easier to figure out what people need, than what they want, so that’s what I started doing. But I didn’t just stop at trying to write what I felt my readers wanted, I went beyond that.
How did my Medium journey progress along the way?
Clearly, many of my reader/followers are also writers. So I began focusing on different promotional activities to help expose my stories, and also to benefit my followers.
Being the creative person that I am, I came up with lots of brain storms since May. I really went the extra mile! Unfortunately, none of them really worked out like I planned, even though I had fun trying to implement them.
For instance:
- I started publications that I wasn’t prepared to really give enough attention to, not to mention to the duties of being an editor. I eventually gave up.
- I offered writing incentives, including cash and prizes. I also created a fun and simple little writing challenge that got little to no interest at the time.
- I tried to encourage writers to promote older stories, by offering them a publication to submit them to. I was impatient when it didn’t really catch on like I wanted. I moved on and stopped trying to accept submissions, but I didn’t give up entirely.
- Lately, I became super focused on promoting writers, both on and off the platform, particularly on Twitter.
- I used my primary publication where I publish all my own stories , and set up special features to promote writers, and even accept short form story submissions weekly.
- I began providing updates on not just my Medium status, but on all my writing and money making activities, and showing writers where and how to earn additional online cash.
That pretty much brings us up to speed on where I am, and how I got here. Today I’ll be displaying an announcement on my publication about my decision to discontinue the publication features.
I know that I probably throw in the towel too soon on some of my endeavors. But I can’t help but feel like maybe the problem is: I’ve tried too hard, to do too much, too soon.
I hate it, but that’s just who I am. Whenever I embark on a new endeavor, I tend to jump right in and give it all I got. Unfortunately, I end up having to walk things back sometimes, so I can reexamine my decisions more closely.
Now, it seems like I’m faced with the dilemma of how to proceed from here.
Final Takeaway
This story was written as much for me, as it was for you readers. I needed to revisit my journey and reassess my activities.
But make no mistake, I also wanted to try to encourage all you Medium writers out there, especially those who have been here for several months and aren’t satisfied with the results.
This story is not to suggest that you get mad and stop writing on Medium. This is not even to advise you to stick around, and continue writing and publishing stories. That’s a decision that only you can make.
This is only to make you aware of the following three points:
- Don’t assume that you’re screwing something up and failing as a result.
- You may be doing everything right, and still not getting justifiable results.
- Other writers who appear to be doing well may be doing worse than you think, so stop comparing yourself and feeling bad.
Whether you decide to cut your losses and run, or you choose to stick around and keep writing (like me), just know that you have nothing to feel bad or beat yourself up for.
If your stats are down and your earnings are low, blame it on the damn algorithm. That’s what I do!
As of this update (November 9, 2021), this story has had remarkable success, so I assume there is quite a bit of interest in whether or not my earnings will eventually improve.
For further disclosure and another candid view, stay tuned for the followup to this post, which I’ll publish one month to the day it was originally posted. You can expect a notification by December 1, 2021.
Be sure to SUBSCRIBE TO MY: Justiss Goode profile, if you want to be one of the first ones to read the upcoming title:
AFTER the Burnout: 30 Days Later and Things are Looking Up! — Have you been wondering whether my earnings finally increased?
DEAR READER: I have had a long hard journey on Medium since this story was originally published.
I welcome readers to visit my Profile page and enjoy some of the more recent stories.
If you’re a new writer or member to the community, or you’re thinking about joining, these stories are for you.
Enjoy these earnings-related stories:
