After Three Years Of Writing On Medium With Over 200 Stories And Articles, Here Are My Experiences

I couldn't have asked for more.

Writing changed my life!

It surely did. I mean, three years ago, I would never have known that I would embark on this incredible journey of sharing my thoughts and learnings for others to read.

I always wondered if I could ever be consistent. See, everyone knows the secret to mastering any skill — consistency.

But it’s more than that.

Writing on Medium Started as an Experiment

For me, I had to be relentless to successfully write things that I read, understood and share for future reference. I thought it might help others.

It started as an experiment.

Writing involves reading a variety of articles, absorbing new things, researching for articles, drafting them, editing them thoroughly, and submitting them to big publications.

Then comes the never-ending cycle of despair, where your articles get rejected, you learn from your mistakes, publish again, and receive rejection again until you successfully publish in a major publication.

All this is in addition to my day job, where I work as a software developer, working on a banking project for a demanding client. I love working on my projects as it challenges with problems, stimulates my intelligence and gives me an opportunity to learn.

Sometimes, I am fixed on an issue for days, while other times, I had to make sure every we build and ship our apps and its updates the way we commit to our business partners.

Hence, now you understand my dilemma why I cannot choose writing over coding and vice versa. This is also the reason I cannot write every day as much as I would like to.

However, I wanted to turn my hobby of writing into a source of income so that I could buy pizza from it every month.

Medium is ‘YouTube’ for Writers (for me)

While many may disagree with me on this, for me, Medium is like YouTube for writers.

There are two basic differences, as of this writing: 1. Unlike YouTube, there are no ads on Medium. 2. Since there are no ads, writers have to rely on the subscriptions of their readers.

That’s the reason writers on Medium earn less when compared to creators on YouTube. There are no ads, and hence, people who read without a subscription don’t help the writers.

Still, after 3 years, I’ve written 219 articles, which is reasonable for someone with a full-time job, and I’ve received about 500K views on my articles, for which I am grateful to my readers.

Whatever I have gained from the platform is a bonus. I have always focused on writing stories that I would read rather than on the money I would make.

While I have been publishing for the past three years, I can confirm that views and reads have declined drastically.

Winning a Lottery is easier than Getting a ‘Boost’ on Articles

I am not even exaggerating on this.

For those writers, who don’t know if any of your articles’ get a ‘boost’ from the curators, your article will be shown to more number of readers — it can reach to several hundreds and even thousands.

Medium’s algorithm still amazes me to this day. No one really knows which article will explode and which won’t. It sucks, doesn’t it?

But I still love about it though.

I have gained immense knowledge reading from other writers. It reignited my love for reading books since last year because of the book recommendations shared by others.

Apart from coding articles, I happen to read a lot of satire, history, fiction, and even travel experiences shared on the platform. All of this is because of the suggestions due to the algorithm, if there is one.

Change in Medium is Constant

Like any other good company, Medium has experimented a lot over the years, sometimes so much so that it is difficult to follow.

A lot of big publications are now closed due to a lack of funding.

The changes they made to the curation policies, in my opinion, are a failure. None of the articles are getting distributed or ‘boosted’ to a wider audience these days.

Unlike their predecessor, where most of the articles have done well only due to ‘curation’ since they grabbed more eyeballs.

There are some positive changes as well. Now, there is no restriction on having 100 followers and a story for applying to the Partner Program.

Also, the platform has extended to several other countries, and hence, writers from these countries can now write and earn from their articles.

Closing Thoughts

I’ll be honest with you all, I had no expectations from the platform when I started writing seriously three years ago.

Medium has been the home for some of the best articles I have ever written. It has been the home for my thoughts, journals, programming notes, or even my experiences.

I always believe that if I genuinely value the time of the readers, then half of the article is a success.

I’ve had reasonable success on the platform and have received writing opportunities from other firms due to the platform.

Also, I have made some great friends here. The writing community is incredibly awesome and non-toxic, where everyone supports each other.

Expectations are frequently met with disappointment. My motto is simple: “Don’t expect much, just keep writing!”

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