Here Is What You Should on Your First Three Months on Medium

Six pieces of advice.

I have always been very skeptical about making money online, for a long time I didn’t believe it was doable for me. I did try Redbubble and the surveys online but I made no money.

Then I found this platform, I joined and this time I did receive some earnings, but it didn’t happen overnight — more on that later.

For all the starters on Medium, I genuinely hope these next pieces of advice can be helpful.

1. Be in it for the longterm

My favorite writer here, the one who actually inspired me to write and hit publish: Jessica Lynn took this piece of advice from Tim Denning, which is —be willing to write for one year and earn zero dollars.

Challenge yourself to do it unrewarded for three months, six months, or ten months and make your best efforts to really stick to it. Consistency is key.

To be successful at anything, you don’t need to be different. You simply have to be what most people aren’t: consistent.

No one in Medium simply became notorious overnight. Many creators have consistently invested a lot of their time, energy, and effort to get where they are now.

2. Built a writing habit that works for you

Probably the two most recommendations about writing on this platform are:

— Keep writing and — publish stories daily.

Since early in the beginning I found out that writing and posting day after day wasn’t feasible for me.

I have a full-time job and I am a very sociable outgoing individual, so during my free time I am out with my friends or out by myself, nonetheless, I did promise to myself that I would be posting at least one story a week, or four posts a month and I have managed to do it. — How, you may ask?

Weekly I set aside a few hours of my time on my agenda to write, edit, and publish.

It’s totally okay to take breaks or days off from writing, you certainly aren’t obliged to write and publish daily. I am aware many writers manage to produce pieces every day, but that doesn’t mean you should do the same.

You only need to find a pace of work that works for you, a pace of work that makes you contented, one that doesn't add stress to your day-to-day living.

3. Build genuine engagement and experiment too.

Take me, for example, I pretty much write about navigating the dating realm, dating advice, and my dating experiences. This is what my readers read the most. So the first strategy has definitely worked for me.

At the same time, I do try to experiment with other topics, for instance about writing on this platform, my monthly earnings, and self-development, but people don’t read that much and that’s fine, I am still exploring the possibilities.

So you go ahead and experiment, write about one specific subject or write about a different variety of topics.

4. Do submit to publications and create your own

Yes, pubs are shutting down however, you can still pitch your stories to some.

The first time I submitted my piece to a pub the editor helped me tremendously ameliorate my article, and I also learned plenty of writing tips.

You are more likely to reach a larger audience through publications, so definitely pitch your pieces to them.

Also, try creating your own publication.

There are many reasons why starting your own publication on Medium is a good idea. It’s easier to grow and stand out as a writer being the editor of one or more. — Jessica Lynn

I created my own pub because I personally like the presentation of my stories in that format much better. I believe it creates more engagement because of the way of the layout.

5. Do check your stats

Please be mindful of this one, don't obsess over the analytics. In all honesty, not all articles will do great and that’s okay.

The views don't really matter, what matters the most are the reads statistics, that’s how you come to recognize what your audience enjoys reading. That’s how I found out that dating and relationships are my strongest subjects.

So study your stats and use your conclusions to determine what type of content you will produce next.

6. Don’t compare your earnings with others

We will perpetually see articles about folks generating thousands of dollars every month, and I wish every story would disclose how many pieces they have published in order to reach those profits because, believe me, there is no way they have achieved that with a few posts.

For the vast majority it's been hundreds of publications and several months of typewriting, if not years, so don't compare yourself to them, because that wouldn't be fair, would it?

Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today. — Jordan Peterson

Last week I read a piece about how an author was making one hundred dollars every day, this creator was publishing three or four posts per day.

She had been blogging for over seven years now, so it makes total sense that she gets that remuneration.

It's easy to get discouraged when we don't note big profits, but you will get there, you need to trust the process.

To conclude

You have to be your biggest fan, believe in yourself, have a little bit of faith, celebrate every single dollar or penny you gain.

Do your best to stay committed to your content. Remember consistency is essential.

So keep going, keep writing, keep submitting and keep publishing.

Things have a miraculous way of working out, trust that.