Here’s What I Learned From Trying 14 Different Paid Writing Platforms
99% of life is trial and error — here’s mine.
I’ve always needed to make my own mistakes in life.
Growing up, it was to my detriment. I totaled my first car, racked up thousands in credit card debt, and broke my jaw in a drunken haze.
I didn’t do these things because I thought they’d be fun — but because something inside of me needed to experience them firsthand.
The same goes for my writing journey.
After 5 years of writing online, and giving my best effort to 14 different writing platforms, I’ve finally decided on a path that’s right for me.
Learn from my journey to expedite yours.
My number one piece of advice.
Humans are naturally curious. It’s in our blood to explore the world — and new areas of interest.
It’s also natural to feel as though the grass may be greener, elsewhere.
When choosing any path in life, I’m a big proponent of embracing your curiosity.
Throughout my journey of writing online, I’ve finally discovered 4 platforms that I feel confident investing in long-term.
Ironically, they’re some of the first platforms I tried.
But, as is one of the many funny things about life, it often takes a wrong path to discover that the one you are on was right all along.
The grass isn’t always greener. But you won’t know until you take a look.
Fiverr:
Fiverr is where my freelancing journey began and ended.
In my first year, I wrote 150 articles and learned many valuable lessons. I also gained confidence that my words were worth something— even though at the beginning, it was $5 per article.
Ultimately, I decided that Fiverr wasn’t the right path for me, due to:
- 3 AM pings
- Low-ball offers
- Uneducated buyers
- A plethora of shady requests
But most importantly, I discovered that I don’t love freelancing. I much prefer to write about topics that inspire me and earn based on their value to readers.
👉 If you’re still interested in Fiverr, here’s an in-depth analysis of my experience.
WordPress:
WordPress is where I posted my first original blog post.
Still fearing scrutiny from the internet, I posted it under an anonymous blog called “Anyhoo”. I wrote one blog about coffee euphoria, another about creativity being like an alien, and a third on the philosophical brilliance of “Popeye the Sailor Man.”
Suffice it to say, I’m glad these were deleted when I canceled my membership.
My original plan for monetization was to build an audience, set up ads, and promote affiliate links. At the time, ‘Clickbank’ was a popular website to find generic products to promote for a commission.
I canceled my membership for these reasons:
- It was tedious to maintain
- The monthly hosting fee was too expensive for me
- I didn’t want to learn SEO (search engine optimization) writing
At the end of the day, my goal has always been to become the best storyteller I can be. Time spent doing anything else feels like a waste of time to me.
**This will become a pattern throughout this list. So, keep that in mind when forming your own opinions.
Freelancer.com
Around the same time, I was writing on Fiverr, I also experimented with Upwork and Freelancer.com. Although I can’t speak to Upwork as I never booked any gigs on it, I did work with a few clients from Freelancer.com.
It’s a little different than other freelancing websites.
On Freelancer.com, you bid for gigs. This is good and bad:
- It’s good because you have the opportunity to make your pitch directly to buyers. And, you have all the details before accepting gigs.
- It’s bad because it breeds undercutting, resulting in lower-paying gigs.
Plus, it’s ripe with scammers.
I still remember the vile words of one scammer who attempted to get me to write 2 free articles for them under the guise of it being a trial:
“Time-waster! You ask too many questions because you know how incompetent you really are.”
It still stings a little to this day.
In total, I probably accepted 3–5 gigs from the website with no other issues.
On a positive note, I did meet one buyer who would end up giving me steady writing work for a few months.
Eventually, I decided I didn’t love freelancing as a whole and moved to a platform that allowed me more freedom — Medium.
Medium:
I love Medium — it’s 1/4 of the platforms I currently write on consistently.
In fact, Medium is where I invest the most of my time, for these reasons:
- The aesthetic
- The pay structure
- Its built-in community
I could go on and on…
I truly believe Medium is the best platform for writers to develop and earn from their writing. Although platforms like Substack offer a closer relationship to readers, I feel as though they fulfill different needs.
I know there’s been a lot of criticism about Medium’s future lately, but I feel as though it’s merely a reflection of how passionate writers are about the platform.
Deep down we all love Medium and want it to succeed.
Substack:
I ran a weekly Substack newsletter called “Finding Balance” until quite recently.
It taught me a lot about email marketing and allowed me to build my first email list. Eventually Medium came out with its own email subscription feature.
Being that Medium pays based on member read time, it made sense for me to focus my energy on building my Medium email list. So, I imported my subscribers to Medium and put a halt on Substack.
Substack has since made some big changes including paid subscriptions. As of right now, I feel as though my content meshes well with the audience here on Medium, but I would love to re-explore Substack in the future.
For now, I’m honing my email marketing and promotional skills on a platform called “Gumroad.”
Gumroad:
At the beginning of 2022, I created my first free product using Gumroad. Since then, I’ve been on a crash course in marketing, promotion, email marketing, copywriting… the list goes on.
It’s also become number 2/4 of the platforms I currently use.
If you’ve never heard of Gumroad, it’s a free all-in-one platform for housing, selling, and marketing digital products.
It’s great for writers as you can easily sell e-books, guides, courses, and other digital products without having to host your own website or learn complicated email software.
It has a built-in email marketing tool and discover page, making it easy to learn as you go.
Personally, I create products using Canva and Notion and market them using my social media profiles.
Instagram:
Yes, you’re reading that right… Instagram.
Back when I was writing on Substack, I had the idea to post quotes from my articles as images on Instagram to drive traffic to my Substack page— eventually converting it into a paid subscription.
👉 The Instagram account is still active, here.
Ultimately, I just felt like it was taking too much time away from my development as a writer. I even tried outsourcing work to someone on Fiverr but found it to be more time-consuming than it was worth.
To be honest, I do believe this is a viable option as Instagram is one of the top social media platforms in the world, with 1.4 billion active monthly users.
But here’s the thing…
It’s best to find viewers where they are. In my experience, platforms like Instagram, TikTok, or Pinterest are full of ‘scrollers’, not necessarily ‘readers’.
If you want to find readers for long-form content, I’ve found it more efficient to use platforms where written words are the primary type of content — Twitter, LinkedIn, Medium, etc.
Quora:
Quora is one of the most powerful question-and-answer platforms on the internet, with 300 million active monthly users.
**To give you a reference, LinkedIn has 310 million and Twitter has almost 400 million.
Quora has amazing potential as you can immediately tell what readers are looking for. This makes it a great place to sell courses, promote affiliate links, and most recently, it has even introduced an option for paid subscriptions.
This means you can put content behind a paywall and earn from it.
Many of Medium’s biggest writers started on Quora as it’s a great place to learn what the internet wants.
In 2021, I made a run at Quora, answering 3–5 questions per day for 60 days. In the end, I decided not to continue, for these reasons:
- I didn’t love the format
- I didn’t love the community
- I didn’t feel like it was the right place for my content
I prefer writing stories that inspire me, and frankly, don’t love writing for SEO (or clickbait). Something I felt Quora was full of.
Long story short, it just wasn’t the right fit for me.
Vocal Media:
Vocal Media is currently 1 of the 3 top platforms for creative writing. The other 2, being Newsbreak and Medium.
I tried Vocal Media briefly before deciding it wasn’t right for me. That said, I know many writers who copy and paste their existing blog posts to it to earn some extra cash. Although, I’ve yet to hear of anyone making a substantial income.
On Vocal Media, you get paid from:
- Views
- Subscriptions
- Contest bonuses
👉 Here’s an in-depth breakdown of the pay structure.
My main reason for not pursuing the platform even to re-post is that re-posting content feels like a chore to me. Yes, you can earn a little extra cash from doing it… but you’re investing time as well.
My growth philosophy is to spend 90% of my time developing as a writer.
And as of right now, I feel my time is better spent creating original content.
Pinterest:
Pinterest is another great SEO-based platform.
After being curious about the platform for years, I finally decided to investigate its potential. After speaking to a Pinterest expert, I created 30 pins and scheduled them using Canva.
Ultimately, I didn’t continue with the platform for these reasons:
- I don’t love writing for SEO
- I feel as though my niche wasn’t a great fit for the platform
- I’m not a natural Pinterest user so re-pinning felt like a chore
At the end of the day, passion drives productivity. And it just wasn’t a platform that excited me.
LinkedIn:
LinkedIn is a great platform with numerous ways to express yourself, including a newsletter function, live videos, carousel images, and medium-length posts.
It’s also number 3/4 of the platforms I currently write on.
LinkedIn has a very positive community. And in my opinion, it’s best utilized for these business models:
- Coaching
- Freelancing
- Selling online courses
Although I do none of these things, I also find it extremely beneficial for:
- Networking
- Practicing headlines
- Building a community
- Gaining invaluable feedback
The average user on LinkedIn is a working professional. This means they usually have disposable income and/or are looking for new opportunities.
Plus, LinkedIn has a great algorithm, meaning you can gain hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of views on single posts. Even with a small following.
To summarize: LinkedIn gives you access to eyeballs. Whatever you do with them is up to you.
👉 If you’re on LinkedIn, let’s connect.
Twitter:
This is number 4/4 of the platforms I currently write on.
Here’s a secret — I’ve had a Twitter account since 2015, but was scared to post until 2021.
The media paints Twitter as a toxic place, but my experience has been quite the opposite. Being word-based, Twitter has a vast community of writers who share tips and re-post each others’ work.
As a solo creator, the community is extremely important to me.
Although I’m not a big fan of the current copy-and-paste trend on Twitter, I’ve found it to be a great place to receive honest feedback. If nothing else, Twitter is a place where people have no problem voicing their opinions.
I find it to be very helpful for getting answers to simple questions:
Plus, it’s a very low time investment for the amount of views/feedback you can get in return.
I use a platform called “Hypefury” to schedule my content. It also works as a passive way to promote my Gumroad products.
Submitting to paid publications:
For years, I’d see stories on Medium about paid publications that pay $50–$300 per article.
Being that Medium stories have no guaranteed payout, I was intrigued.
So, this year, I decided to dedicate a week of my life to pitching to paid publications. Here’s the condensed version of what I learned:
- It was a lot of effort
- It was time-consuming
- I didn’t feel it was worth it
👉 Here’s an in-depth explanation of my experience.
All in all, I’m happy I decided to explore this curiosity as I no longer have to wonder.
Licensing stories:
I fell into the lucrative world of story licensing by accident.
One day, out of the blue, I received an email from an international English school in Korea.
👉 They were interested in licensing this story of mine — which at the time, had earned a total of $3.
So, I did a little research to see how much stories were worth and responded with a price — of $250 USD. To my surprise, they accepted and promptly paid me via PayPal.
After this experience, my eyes lit up with dollar signs.
I began emailing brands, schools, and any company that I felt could benefit from licensing my stories.
After going 0/10 on cold emails, I decided to give up. Mainly, because I don’t enjoy cold-emailing. And, once again, I’d rather spend my time developing as a writer.
Final thoughts: my advice still stands.
For me, writing is about marrying my passion for writing with a career. What I’ve learned over the years is that I don’t actually care about money.
I just want to make enough to do what I love.
So, I’ve taken the approach of scaling my earnings as I develop as a writer. The better I get at writing articles, the more I earn. And the more insight I have to create products that can help others.
Finally, after 5 years of writing online, these are the platforms I’ve committed to:
- Medium
- Gumroad (making digital products)
The last platform I have on my list to explore is YouTube. It’s been a life-long dream of mine to run a channel and I won’t feel complete until I at least give it a try.
I hope my experiences have helped expedite your writing journey. But if you’re like me, you may want to experience these platforms for yourself — and I encourage you to do so.
Happy writing!
Hi, I’m Hudson. I write about living healthier, happier, and more mindfully. To have stories sent directly to you, subscribe to my newsletter. 👇
