How I Doubled My Following and Increased Earnings by 250% in 30 Days
… by joining David Majister’s 30-day writing challenge!
Inspired by David Majister in May I took on the 30 articles in 30 publications during 30 days challenge! Here is a link to my original post 👇
Did I meet my main targets?
Believe it or not May was only my second month on this platform as a writer!
- Grow my followers — my goal was to reach 500 followers in 30 days. I ended the challenge with 650+ (at the time this article was published).
- Network and connect with other writers — I wanted to learn from some of the best writers on Medium and be part of an engaging and supportive community. I took a course by Scott Stockdale and highly recommend it! I downloaded Tim Denning’s eBook and took Tom Kuegler’s free email course and attended his webinar. I discovered some awesome new writers and more importantly made some great new friends along the way too!
- I also increased consistency of my writing —AND established a writing routine!
I pushed myself out of the comfort zone and wrote in styles, formats and even covered topics unfamiliar to me such as writing poetry for POM, a ranting post for The Venting Machine and some micro-fiction in Centina Pentina!
I stop searching for publications and even had several(including 2 bigger publications) approach me!
I got finger ache too, ouch…
Challenges Results in Numbers
- Articles submitted to publications during the 30 days: 30 (total of 50 written)
- Articles published during the 30 days: 22
- Rejections: 3
- Still waiting for a reply (at time this post was published): 5
More Numbers…
Submissions
Starting Point: 10 submissions a month Goal: 30 submissions in a month Achieved: 30 (50 articles written in May) ✔️
Follower growth
Starting Point: 324 Goal: 500 Achieved: 650+ ✔️
Responses (comments)
Starting Point: 5 Goal: 25–50 Achieved: 150+ ✔️
Views
Starting Point: 800 views (in a 30 day period) Goal: 1000+ views Achieved: 2000+ ✔️
Reads
Starting Point: 425 reads (in a 30 day period) Goal: 1000 Achieved:984+❌
Fans
Starting Point: 50 (in a 30 day period) Goal: 100 Achieved: 489 ✔️
Words Written
Starting Point: No idea! Goal: / Achieved: 47,000 (approx.) written in the last 30 days ✔️
Curation
Starting Point: 0 Goal: 1- 2 articles Achieved: 70% curation rate✔️
Earnings
Starting Point: $5 Goal: Increase by 50% Achieved: Earnings have increased ten-fold! ✔️
If you are interested in taking part (and want to read the challenge rules)👇:
The main benefits to this challenge (for me)…
1. Discovering and connecting with other writers
I enjoyed connecting and meeting with other writers. It was create to be part of a group of supportive challengers too and we championed each other on and shared each other’s stories on Twitter, thank you!
2. Getting out of my comfort zone
I was honoured to be published in all 3 publications that I wanted to write for as it pushed me out of my comfort zone. Ironically my poem was one of my successful pieces and was published in POM, a ranting post for The Venting Machine and I wrote some micro-fiction in Centina Pentina.
3. Improving my writing skills
My formatting and writing skills has started to improve. I learnt so much about this platform I even started my own publication called ‘New Era’, which is currently open to new writers, especially those of you taking part in the 30-day writing challenge!
Reflections
I didn’t just jump into the challenge I spent several days preparing for it! Banking articles, finding the first 15 publications and from those the ones that pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me try new writing styles and formats. For the first 15 days I worked to schedule with a colour coded spreadsheet created in excel. The final 15 days I freestyled it totally, which made me anxious and stressed, but I used this negative energy positively to push on and succeed.
Not all publications are created equally and there are also so many abandoned publications out there too, which I never really noticed until I did the challenge. PS I love you, got divorced from Medium whilst I was in this challenge, which was a real shame as I really wanted to write for them and now I know why I didn’t hear back!
I seem to have the most success, higher responses, more claps and higher curation rates among the smaller of publications. It was almost like Medium is now rewarding the underdogs and I love that!
My favourite publications have to be The Daily Cuppa, Sky Collection — Medium and ILLUMINATION as they are so welcoming of newbies and provide support and constructive feedback that will enable growth. I hope to write for these publications more regularly now this challenge has ended.
How did I double my followers and increase my earnings by 250%? I submitted to publications EVERY DAY for 30 days. I showed up and put in the work and learned from the feedback of my rejections. The rejections, that worked out as 1 in 10 articles helped me to greater appreciate the articles that were published. I thought I would feel drained by the end of this challenge, but if anything I feel excited and ready for my third month on Medium…
In Summary
If you want to increase your following and earnings in 30 days you need to show up! This means post regularly to publications (for greater exposure), read and respond to the work of other writers on Medium and don’t give up — you got this!
Special thanks too: David Majister (the challenge master), Rachel Maree, Philip S. Naudus, Alana Rister, Ph.D., Lucia Landini, Jennifer Dunne and Rambling Rose. Sorry if I missed any other challengers who started at a similar time to me. Well done on making it this far. It’s been great to share this writing journey together. Stay in touch!
Trisha got published! Check out the full list of all the publications I wrote during the last 30 days in the original challenge post: 👇
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