Forget Video Games, Play Medium

You’re still playing a game, but at least make some money from it.

“People should pay us to play this game,” said xx$deathMama02, as he and his friend guided me through a 4-hour questline to pick up an exotic weapon in the game Destiny 2. I looked at their profiles and did the math. He and his friend had a cumulative playtime of 400 days of playtime, which equates to 9,600 total hours.

Perspective: if a writer on Medium gets 12 cents per one-hour article they create, and they spent the same amount of time writing as the Destiny players above, they would have made $1,152.

I believe you can make $1,000 per month on Medium without spending ten-thousand hours trying.

I also believe you can write a poem that makes $100 on Medium.

Playing Means Knowing Rules, Not Following Them

All games are the same: board games, video games, college syllabuses, employment contracts, and Medium writing.

• There are always rules to the game.
• The winner is the one that has a strategy to manipulate gameplay to coincide with the rules yet have a competitive advantage.

Let me give you an example. In college, I ended up with 100% in one of my classes, despite having flunked the final exam. How? I studied the rules of the game: I read the syllabus. The professor said he would take the three best exam scores as an average and drop the lowest exam. I studied and aced the first three exams; I played video games and didn’t bother with the last exam.

Let’s take Medium, our favorite subject. Know the rules. Some rules will disqualify you from the game: hate speech, racism, etc. In general, if you think Trump supports it, don’t write about it. Medium created more rules that qualify you for distribution: don’t talk about Medium being the biggie. (Sounds like fight club, doesn’t it?)

Notice that playing the game does not equate to following the rules. Yes, you should know the rules. No, you don’t have to follow them. Work the rules to your advantage.

Enter the Cheat Code

Medium has its own version of ↑↑↓↓←→←→BA. A few months ago, the Medium programmers rewrote the game code and installed it via the latest patch. Gamers (aka writers) used to chase achievements in the form of claps. Now players need to be “relational” to have the highest score.

The cheat code is: engagement.

Similar to YouTube, content creators on Medium are beginning to chase the algorithm. This is a good thing. Instead of being flooded with articles by Tim Denning on how I can get in “flow” and be more productive, I now see articles that interest me, such as finding and pleasing a woman’s clitoris.

Allow me to share with you an example below. When I go to Medium’s homepage, the top articles recommended to me are what I’m interested in reading. I’m very likely to click them, read them, and leave a comment on them, versus the articles on “trending” that are mostly boring or foreign to me.

Yes, follow Michael Burg, MD. He’s hilarious and informative.

Character Creation

“Know your niche” is the most overused piece of trite advice I’ve seen. If I were Tim Denning, I’d be bored as fuck writing about flow and productivity and about productivity and flow. I love the guy, but that ain’t me.

One moment I may write a touching piece about the relationship with my father, and the next moment I might be calling Hitler my meditation homie. Do you know what? I’m doing okay without a niche. I’ve even made enough on Medium now to buy two whole cheeseburgers!!

There’s a lot of advice for writing on Medium, but I’m giving you permission to be who you want to be.

The best advice is this:

• Publish daily.
• Use catchy titles and pictures.
• Write for engagement.
• Pay attention to SEO (under settings when you publish).

You don’t have to stick to a niche, and you don’t have to seek curation. This leads me to…

Choosing the Quest with the Most XP

Quit slaying thousands of Kobolds throughout Azeroth. Just because King Varian Wrynn has a golden exclamation point over his head, doesn’t mean his quest offers the most experience points. It’s a tedious grind. I’d much rather spend my time doing something fun, like the Plants vs. Zombies quest.

In Medium, everyone is bowing down to the curation gods. They create articles that take days to research and a thesaurus to write. These articles are “chosen for distribution” and fed to the high-society reader. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a refined audience for this, but a million more people would rather watch MrBeast give away free cheeseburgers and iPads.

Allow me to illustrate with another example:

I’ve gotten more views and made over twice as much money with an article that wasn’t curated, nor was it in a large publication, nor did it follow the distribution rules. It was short; it was engaging.

Have Fun!

If you’re not having fun, you’re going to burn out. There’s a reason you’re playing the game; don’t lose sight of that.

You may not be the chosen one, selected by the Medium gods that reside in San Francisco, but you can still make money and have a blast doing it. Don’t sell your soul to play the grind of productivity writing and trending niches, but play the game you enjoy, and you’ll find your rewards.

Hey FRIEND, thanks for reading!! Please keep me company on Twitter: @LifeisPresence.

Also, I promise not to sell you anything if you join my mailing list. I’ll send you all my books for free. Enjoy!