Alvin Ang Medium Monthly Breakdown — December 2020
I made $739 this month — my highest-earning month on record.
Hello, my dear constant readers!
Welcome to the last monthly breakdown of the year. As always, I’m going to be 100% transparent with my earnings and stats. You, my dear readers, deserve the raw arterial truth, and only the truth. And the truth is this has been a rather lucrative month.
Earnings-wise, December 2020 was my best month ever.
I know, I know. Seven hundred bucks isn’t a big amount in the grand scheme of things. But I choose to take this as a positive indicator, a nod from the gods that I did the right thing in becoming a writer. This way, any continued success, no matter how small, invigorates me. I know that I am born to write, born to hustle words across the blank page.
And there’s no better feeling than fulfiling your life’s purpose.
My most popular story for January 2020
There Are Only 3 Ways to Make Money as a Writer
1.6k views. Published in The Ascent and curated. To be honest, I knew this piece was going to do well. I put a lot of effort into it, and more than that, I wrote with passion — blood and guts on the page, as Bukowski would say. Making money through writing is a topic that is close to my heart, and I would like to think this passion was expressed in my words.
Honorary Mentions
In 2020, Every Artist Can Make Good Money (Doing What They Love)
Published in The Startup. This piece was curated but never really took off. I put a lot of effort into this one, too, but it goes to show that sometimes a story sinks and sometimes it swims. To find out, we have to hunker down and write.
My Writing Goal Is To Become The Best Asian Writer Of All Time. What’s Yours?
My personal favourite story I wrote this month, it was published in my own publication and intended as a mode of self-affirmation. I was afraid I would come across as boastful, but people liked it. I am heartened.
A Brutally Honest Review Of December 2020
- Total earnings: $739
- Total stories published: 13
Once again, I haven’t been as productive as I would’ve liked. Now, I can use a lot of things as an excuse. It’s the end of a wild, wild year, for one. It’s also the holidays. Everyone’s winding down with raw-egg drinks and presents and family-friendly comedy on Netflix. It can get to a writer’s drive.
But the fact of the matter is this: now that I’m doing this writing thing full-time, a dozen stories a month simply won’t cut it. I don’t just want to scrape by.
I want to excel. Shannon Ashley used to publish two stories a day. It’s a massive undertaking, but I think I can work myself up to one a day. It would be difficult — but doable.
So it shall be done. I’m looking forward to writing thirty stories in January.
Interesting Notes
Firstly, my backlog of stories saved me once again.
I ran some calculations, and a whopping 74.8% of my income this month came from old articles!
This is a sure sign that I am on the right track. The secret to making good money on Medium is writing “whales”, well-crafted, timeless stories that people will continue to read for years to come. I’ve written about this before here.
Secondly, for some reason or another, I wrote a lot of random stories I knew were never going to take off. I think the root cause of this anomaly is because I’ve been reading lots of fiction from the unknown great John Fante, and his stories affect me on a soul-level. It makes me want to let loose; rant and rave and write with mad magic and abandon.
Which is understandable, but that being said, I will have to prioritise well-researched, well-crafted articles. Those are what makes the moolah on Medium, after all.
What’s Next?
When I took the leap to write full-time last month, I was terrified. I drank too much and wrote too little. But now, as the wild year comes to an end, I find myself becoming excited. My soul sings as my fingers fly across the keyboard. Tap, tap, tap; finally, finally, I am on the right path.
I talk a mad game, but it never ceases to astound me that people read — and sometimes even enjoy, my stories. To be able to pay the rent with my words is just the icing on top of the awesome cake. So thank you, my dear reader. Here’s wishing you a very happy New Year.
Love, yes, yes, yes,
Always,
Alvin.
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