Medium Meta

Yeah, I Made over $1,000 on This Story That I Found on Twitter

A celebratory clap to me, me, and me

Don’t quit too early. When I started writing on Medium it was for my mental well-being. I had zero expectations. I had been through this path before — blogging.

I would write a few stories and quit.

The same was true for website ideas, I would be so excited to register a domain name, install WordPress, pay for hosting, write a few stories and quit.

But 2020 was different for all of us, I was my mom’s full-time caregiver, and suddenly the pandemic hit.

Nothing was left to do but to write.

My Medium story isn’t different from many writers here. My first paycheck was humbling. It was all for $1.41 but it brought me back to Medium after years of inactivity.

Before all this happened, my last published story was in 2017.

And that story somehow managed to get some fresh readers in 2020. I also got an email that I would get $1.41 in a few days.

Money was tight in 2020, my goal then was to make enough on Medium to pay the monthly subscription fee.

Yes, I was thinking small.

Again, it was 2020, I wasn’t planning long-term. It felt like the world was ending.

Death, new beginnings, and being in my 50s

Mom died in 2021. Again, I leaned to ‘writing.’

Finishing a story wasn’t easy for me. I would struggle with words, and it would take me days to finish a story. A 1,000-word story was an exemption rather than the rule.

And when I missed my goal of making $5 a month from Medium to pay for my subscription, I wanted like many of you — to quit.

But I always believe we are where we needed to be, so here I am in 2022 still writing on Medium. Yes, I thought about ‘quiet quitting’ or should I say, quit quietly without fanfare.

Because the last thing worse than quitting is finding yourself crawling back to the platform that you hated so much that you felt compelled to write a 1,000-word story.

It is Ok to take a break from writing, but it becomes harder when you are hustling.

I try to keep a balance; no story can’t wait until tomorrow.

And believe me, there are days when I don’t want to write, not that I can’t write another story.

Life happens, that’s why.

My first $ 1,000 story

There are no secrets. Yes, I tried to reverse-engineer my first $1,000 story, but what is nice about Medium writing is that you can’t have a recipe that you can do over and over again.

Well, sort of. A good headline and photo make a big difference, huge!

That is why it would be a waste of money to take a paid Medium writing course.

What worked for me is that it got better after I had published 1,000 stories, by the time I finished this story it would be №1375.

I was pleasantly surprised that this story got more views than usual, it started like all of my stories — slow.

And besides, I only read about it on Twitter. My go-to source for trending stories.

A story about Ricky Martin and the scandalous allegations, but is Ricky Martin still a thing in the US, or was he like he is to me — a personal look back at my younger years?

Yes, I was a big Menudo fan long before Ricky Martin hit it big with, She Bangs.

So, I never figured it out, even my ‘follow-up’ stories never flew off the roof.

But to have a $1,000 story is still something to celebrate and be grateful for. I wouldn’t make that money from making YouTube videos, I doubt it very much if anyone would want to watch me dance or reveal to the world that Adam Levine had been sexting me.

Yes, I have to add my new story as I wind up this one — Just like Bill Gates, Adam Levine Had a Lapse of Judgment.

To end, nobody knows what will happen tomorrow on Medium. There is money to be made here, and it will surprise you when that happens because I would be the first to tell you it doesn’t happen every day.

My Medium journey is a learning experience and while I’m doing it full-time, it will always be a place where I can finally say,

I’m a writer.

Thank you for reading.

Extra reading

And more stories from The Pub — Smillew Rahcuef

👉Claim your offer.

If you enjoyed this article, please consider joining Medium by clicking on this link. I may earn a little commission to buy myself a decent cup of coffee. Thank you.