YOUR LINKS TO MY BEST STORIES
Best Stories of Stephen Dalton
Spurred by a prompt from Dr. Mehmet Yildiz, the founder and administrator of ILLUMINATION, the best publication on Medium, IMHO, I decided to accept his challenge to link some of my “best stories.”
These are some links to a few stories I wrote to help others succeed on Medium. Although I am not a big money earner on Medium, I have found some methods to make it easier to promote our stories.
Want to Write the Next Gone with the Wind
I wrote this when I was still quite new to Medium, though I have been writing professionally for nearly ten years and have enjoyed quite a bit of financial success elsewhere.
I came across a quote from Stephen King while reading a Medium article, “If you can turn out two pages a day for two years, you will have written 1,460 pages, a manuscript the length of Gone with the Wind.”
I thought, “Wow, he makes it sound pretty easy.” Well, of course, he has written many best-sellers, and he and his wife are worth more than $400 million.
Since I published it in July of 2019, 700 people have viewed it and it has more than 5,000 claps. Hopefully, it has helped many of those readers “fill the white space” and write their stories. Who knows, maybe it even started someone on their journey to become the next Margaret Mitchell or Stephen King.
Writing novels is not the only path to success writing, there are several. In fact, for the average writer, it isn’t even the most lucrative. Margaret Mitchell made more money when she was alive writing newspaper and magazine articles than she did on the second most-read book in America.
Too Many Writing Projects, Too Little Time
I wrote quite frequently on Medium the rest of 2019, but the change to the payment algorithm in November took some of the air out of my balloon. Although I didn’t give up, I focused a lot more of my time on my other endeavors.
Then, in March I decided to use Medium as a way to write about things that interested me. Writing mostly copy and website content was boring and unfulfilling, so I decided to use Medium as an outlet to write about whatever I wanted to share.
I got to thinking that writing is just a portion of what we do when a client said, “Wow, you really get that much for just writing?”
This is the article I came up with about what a writer does beyond writing.
Do You Want to Travel & Write?
A few days after publishing that, I remembered an article I had written about traveling overseas and some of the challenges it presented in getting paid.
I pulled that article out of mothballs and gave it a fresh coat of paint, meaning I chose a new image, updated the links, and added some more items I had learned since then. I still live in the Philippines and travel quite frequently.
I wrote about the importance of having a US or home country bank account, an international credit card, PayPal, Immigration, taxes, Social Security, and a virtual private network (VPN).
I think it is crucial for anyone who travels and works overseas to have a VPN. It makes it easier to get onto websites that block many overseas visitors. You might need to read their About Us page again for more personal information to write their blog.
Traveling overseas on the money you make from writing can be challenging, but these are a few tips to make the journey a little easier.
5 Ways to Make Money Online without Startup Money
In March, when the pandemic put a lot of people out of work, I wrote about five methods to make money online.
I wrote, “You do not need to wallow in your self-pity, you need to hustle up some cash! You can make money online with little or no start-up cash, sell your products or handmade crafts, review products, write website content, post to social media, or provide online services.”
I do not offer any “get rich quick schemes” or ask for any money, I just provide readers five methods to make money that does not require a significant initial outlay of cash.
Even if you decide to start a website, you can get a domain name and hosting from GoDaddy or Blue Host, go to YouTube and find a video in your language “How to Build a Website” or whatever, and put together a website. You don’t have to pay thousands for a professional design.
You can get started with WordPress or Wix for just the cost of your domain and hosting. Although looking back, I would get a secure socket layer (SSL) protection, and buy a two-year contract with the host. You will rank higher faster with a two-year contract as the search engines will look at as if you are serious and not a fly-by-night scam.
How to Use Twitter, LinkedIn, Many Stories, and Signal to Boost Your Medium Income
If you are looking to automate your Medium shares on Twitter, this is a good read for you with step-by-step instructions. In this article, I show you how to use Many Stories and Signal to automate your articles as Tweet.
Although you can promote your article links on Many Stories, the reader has to click on the option to “read on Medium” to get paid, which is not obvious to some. However, you must join Many Stories to join Signal, which is how to automate your links as a Tweet twice a day.
As is true with all writing, you cannot expect hundreds or thousands of Medium readers just because you wrote something excellent.
What I Do to Get More Reads
One day I got a little perturbed with writers that shared their latest as a comment on my story without tying their story to mine or even indicate whether they had read it. Others just said, “I read yours, so read mine.” Please do not give me an ultimatum.
In this how-to guide, I shared my Excel Spreadsheet that I use to remember which Facebook groups I had shared which story. I assign a number to my stories and put that number in the box when I share. That way, I don’t get removed from a group for “spamming.”
Summary
Well, there you have it. Those are my six “best stories.” At least those are the six that I believe are the most helpful to Medium writers.
When you need an in-depth article on any Medium subject, here is the link to Casey Botticello’s My Bio, Top Articles, and Medium Publications. Casey probably has more knowledge about everything Medium than any other current writer. Once again, my opinion.
Furthermore, if you want to write for the best publication on Medium that will promote your work, this is the link to ILLUMINATION.
Stephen Dalton is a retired US Army First Sergeant with a degree in journalism from the University of Maryland and a Certified US English Chicago Manual of Style Editor. Currently living in the Philippines, Stephen is a Top Writer in Virtual Reality.
You can see his portfolio here. Email [email protected]
