THE 30-DAY WRITING EXPERIMENT: UPDATE #4
7 Lessons I’ve Learned From 1 Month of Writing on Medium
How much I made in 30 days — will I keep writing?
I made 8 cents my first day on Medium. By the end of that week, I was up to $2.76. By the end of week 2, I was up to $12.26. If you add in the first two weeks of May ($19.20 combined), I’ve made $31.46 in just over 1 month by writing and publishing articles.
Honestly — that’s the first time I’ve added it up. I’ve just been going by “what I made last month” and “what’s currently being made” in my Partner Program tab.
Month-to-month, it feels like much less.
If you want to see the details broken down by week, find them here: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3.
Writing this past month has been a lot of hard work, included a lot of frustration — and I have grown an enormous amount just by having a place to write, read, and connect with other people doing the same thing.
Here are the top 7 lessons I’ve learned, how I made over a dollar a day, and the answer to the question… will I keep writing?
Lesson #1: Curation Can Be Magic… Or Not.
Seeing the “distributed” message pop up on your stats, or seeing an email like this still makes me do a little heel-click jump for joy.
It’s just that… sometimes it means more than others. Some topics are more widely viewed, and it depends on what else has been curated in that topic — what company are you in at the time?
For example, this article about what happens after a global pandemic and returning to normal life was triple-curated in Mental Health, Self, and Society. I was ecstatic, and it has done extremely well.
It even has a pretty good read-ratio, which can be hit or miss. It is my most-read article. To some, this may look like child’s play, but to me, it looks great!
Here’s the thing: I wrote it at 2 A.M. when I couldn’t sleep, because my work schedule is completely crazy right now.
I had no intentions when it came to this article — it just took off on its own. It has been getting great read times for days, but today has only seconds, so it might be dead in the water.
After getting triple-curated and having a modicum of success, I thought I’d figured out how all of this can truly work.
Then came this article:
Double-curated!
“Okay, I think I’ve got this!”
Oh no, you don’t. Somehow this happened:
I’m not sure how it got 28 internal views and only had 6 seconds of member reading time — with 44 views total.
I’m not going to lie to you — this made me feel pretty bad about myself. I was confused. Yes — it was curated. In two topics. But then… once people clicked on it, they really didn’t want to read. So much so that they clicked off without spending as much as a second. The data had to be wrong… right?
I gave this too much time and attention until I just gave up. It was curated — I like the piece — but I’m leaving it alone after this.
Sometimes curation means striking gold and getting tons of reads, and other times you might just find a few people who liked your story who wouldn’t have seen it otherwise.
There are so many different factors, but you still want to keep your quality up so curators get to know and like your work.
It’s a balance, just like everything else!
Lesson #2: Don’t Obsess Over Your Stats
Refresh. Refresh. Check article stats. Refresh. Stats for all stories. Mouse over for earnings. Refresh.
Sound familiar?
As you might see from my wacky stats above, you will drive yourself insane if you think about your stats too much. They’re often delayed — and although you get a hit of dopamine every time you get a view, a clap, a response, or maybe even a highlight — they will drive you over your very own metaphorical cliff.
Why is no one reading it? Is it bad? Did I choose the wrong picture? The wrong headline? How was my intro? Why aren’t they staying? Why aren’t they clapping?
Trust me — you don’t want all of that in your head all the time.
Do not keep the stats tab open 24/7 so it’s an easy refresh.
You will thank yourself later — you aren’t going to get more reads just by giving yourself a panic attack through over-analyzing your own work.
Is your article flopping? Write a different one!
Lesson #3: Let It Sit
In the first few weeks, I would just give my articles a once-over and hit publish after adding tags. I didn’t really go for publications, and I just published whatever. I’d find grammar errors later that my brain or my friends found, and I’d casually fix them.
These past few days I have really learned some patience in waiting for publications to check my work, respond to me, or just review my own work after walking away from it for a while.
It was the first week I actually had drafts sitting in that section instead of just publishing right away.
I do feel like this helped me curate better content overall — but I am still working on patience. Take the glasses off… walk away… let it breathe.
Lesson #4: Don’t Frankenstein Your Articles
On the flip side, there is such a thing as creating such a mess of an article because you have gone back to it so many times that it’s just… nearly hopeless.
I Frankenstein-ed one article to the point where I had over-edited and over-analyzed every possible part of it, and I didn’t even know what I was trying to say anymore.
I once thought it was going to be my next best thing, but I edited to death because I was paranoid about rejection and what readers would think. I looked at what I had done well in the past and tried it all in one article — but each article has magic because it’s unique.
Formatting, great ideas, and proper grammar will never go out of style — but sometimes an article does well simply because… it all just worked.
My Frankenstein’s monster article did end up getting curated in one topic, but it isn’t the article I’d send home to Mom and Dad with a gold star on top.
Lesson #5: You Will Get Rejected
A writer’s worst nightmare, but every writer’s reality.
You will have some publications you never hear back from — even after sending your beloved article off for review with a pat on the back and a satin bow holding it all together. You’ll chew your fingernails off for days while you wait.
You will have some publications tell you it’s not what they’re looking for at the time — or at all.
You will have some publications balk at your writing and question why you think it’s publish-worthy at all.
Guess what?
You can forget about all of the responses except for “your article has been accepted to our publication” and the like.
I still struggle with which publication might want which article — because I feel like a lot of mine have multiple topics going on within each one.
I struggle with the fact that they might not like my voice, or the way that I write — but I also get a lot of positive feedback on that as well.
If no one wants to publish it or if you’re impatient?
Self-publish and promote it around on Facebook, to your friends, your co-workers — whoever!
But it needs to be in a publication to be curated!
False!
Lies!
It may take longer, but it can still happen! It will happen for you, even when you’ve given up hope.
Lesson #6: You’ll See Some Success, Then Want It Even More
There are people all over the internet telling you how you can get rich quick by doing XYZ.
There are people on Medium and YouTube telling you how they make a killing by writing.
You will make a few cents, then a few dollars, and you’re going to wonder when you’re going to start making 4-figures each month, then 5-figures the next.
When will it happen for you?
It’s going to cause frustration, but don’t get desperate. I put up a quick “how to” article that I’m not entirely proud of just because I wanted to put something up and be like the big kids of Medium.
Tell people how to be more productive by doing this one thing… and you’ll strike gold!
I am not an expert after 1 month here, but I do stand by my belief that if we’re all robots writing how-to articles with no personality, it’s going to get boring pretty quickly.
I saw a thread on Facebook the other day that asked what people wanted to read more of. They said:
- Personal stories (stories — not a journal, and there’s a difference)
- Short fiction
- Unique perspectives
And most people said they wanted to read fewer “how-to” articles!
Then why are we all still writing them? Because that’s the ticket to the gold rush. If we started spending more time actually reading other people’s work, we’d change the platform completely.
Is anyone ready for that? Is that too radical? I just got here — I don’t know.
As a writer, you’ve got to follow the trends and be versatile.
Lesson #7: It’s Not All About The Money
It’s about the connection, too.
We get the hit of dopamine when we see we have new interactions with articles because yes, you might earn a cent or two off of it. You might earn a few dollars — or you might earn $8,000.
But — you are also receiving feedback on your writing, your thoughts, your hard work.
Someone liked your headline enough to click.
They liked your content enough to keep reading.
They read enough to clap, and maybe even to follow you!
They liked your voice, your thoughts, and validated them.
As writers, that’s what we should be here for. Money is lovely, don’t get me wrong — but connection is what we’re trying to build. That’s why the reward center in your brain lights up when you see one of those green notifications.
Connect with others — read their stories, clap, and genuinely respond. It’ll come back to you, but it will take time.
After 1 Month, Will I Keep Writing?
After 1 Month, here’s where I’m at. I had my writing challenge in my bio, and I’m not sure what I’m going to change it to now that I’ve technically finished the 30 days.
I started out hoping to write and publish every single day — but life got in the way of that when I lost a friend.
In a way, that derailed the challenge — but it also helped me think more about what I was doing. I only published 22 articles, which is why it says 22/30.
Should I do a year?
365 days?
365 articles?
I’m not sure what the future holds, or what will keep me motivated for the long haul.
I will continue writing articles on Medium — but not when I’m frustrated or if I’m doing it out of obligation just to keep my stats up.
I do want to continue to share with others and see if I can make this a stream of income at the same time. Honestly, I think that’s what we’re all doing.
With all of the promotions the platform is getting via YouTube and day-to-day shares, I could see the readership growing — but you have to stick around for the long-haul.
Most YouTubers don’t gain a quick following or make a quick buck — you have to build up your library, build up the trust from your viewers and readers — and stay genuine.
You have to be you — and even though there are thousands of people out there telling you how they did it, your path to success won’t look exactly like theirs.
Start making goals, start reflecting, and… start thinking about how you’ll tell your story once you’ve made it.
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