How I’ve Made $24,514.89 From Writing On Medium

All I had to do was let my heart bleed all over the page.

Here’s the proof, since everyone always wants receipts:

I’ve made $24,500 on Medium in the past five-ish years.

Sometimes I think that’s an astounding feat, and then I see someone talking about making that much in one month.

I go back and forth between feeling motivated and bummed out about it. I don’t write about the topics that make big bucks — Well, I sort of do, but not in the way that generates income.

I ridicule AI and Elon Musk and I’m generally a technophobe, except I like working from anywhere. I talk about quitting jobs instead of taking video calls, and how I don’t want to work full time.

In short, I don’t create career-advancing content. You might even say I create career-killing content.

When I try to create peppy, corporate-friendly stuff, it falls flat. Y’all just know it ain’t me.

But one think I’ve connected with others on: Heartache.

Most people who read my work know I’ve been in an abusive relationship, and I had teen parents. Whenever I write about growing up or experiencing relationship abuse, I strike a chord. I guess that’s my niche.

Everyone can relate to having expectations and first love. Everyone can relate to disappointment and frustration. Everyone can relate to the dream of potential.

Organization kills my vibe.

I know it’s responsible and practical to have a content calendar, a mailing list, an organized way of launching my books. I just can’t do it. It kills my flow.

I think everyone needs to find a flow that works for them. There’s a lot of helpful content online, but sometimes when people try to follow strict steps: Find a niche; create a mailing list; make a content calendar — I think they kill their own drive before they even begin.

Passion has to come first. A lot of people get so angry about that. But if you’re using AI to create your blog posts to generate content to make money, you’re just wrong.

You’re literally missing the point of why people even create content to begin with. When the internet was new, we just did it. All this monetization came later.

If you need inspiration to do something for the sake of it, might I recommend rotatingsandwiches.com. It is what it sounds like…and it will remind you of early 2000s internet. Remember just…doing stuff?

Creating content is a privilege. We forget that because we all want to get paid, we all need to get paid. But the fact that I can write this in my room and reach you…in seconds…is a privilege. It’s not something I’m entitled to.

So I have to do it passionately.

We have created robotic scripts on how to make content, and AI robots to generate that content. Who needs your humanity at all, then?

Actually, we all do, earnings sheet or no.

While I might not make big bucks creating from the heart…it’s better than not creating at all.