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Abstract

o many people out there who had the creeping horror that their days as a full-time Medium writer are forcibly coming to a close. With me, I had a lot more riding on it than many others.</p><p id="6c2d">You see, I don’t do well in office settings most of the time. I also was almost entirely “all in” with Medium. In other words, I didn’t have many other clients. It was not enough to make ends meet and I was facing eviction.</p><p id="cbde">I had a meltdown over it. This was not what I was expecting nor was it what I wanted. Eventually, I realized that I’d have to go back to doing work for clients and maybe publishing on Substack.</p><p id="5b98">Honestly? If I had my way and it could happen again, I’d absolutely want to live my life the way I used to. But, it’s not in the stars for now.</p><h1 id="b32b">The biggest thorn in my side was the Boost program.</h1><p id="df5a">To earn big, it was “boost or bust” back in the early days — though read time started to pick up more. Like most Medium writers in my position, I started to write as hard as I could, trying to get a boost.</p><p id="3e87">The funny thing is, my work kept getting nominated but it wouldn’t make it past the final round. My views also plummeted. Eventually, I all but gave up and relegated my writing to Substack for the most part.</p><p id="5b57">But, the weird thing is that I didn’t want to fully give up on Medium. As it turns out, something was brewing in the distance that would make me give the platform another chance: the Nazi issue.</p><p id="6159">I personally lost some subscribers because they did not want to support a platform that also supported Nazis. (For the record, Substack still has yet to demonetize hard right groups on their platform.)</p><h1 id="d79e">Like many people in my shoes, I made the mistake of trying to guess what works in the Boost program.</h1><p id="59e9">I’ll be real with you: I have no idea what makes something boost-worthy in the eyes of the algorithm. I don’t! And more importantly, neither does anyone else at Medium.</p><p id="22e0">Even the nominators don’t get their nominations b

Options

oosted 100 percent of the time. The boosting is totally arbitrary and it also happens to be totally subjective.</p><p id="9107">That’s an issue with writing that every single writer has to face: what is good to one set of eyes can be absolute dog to another. As someone who was used to near-constant accolades, it was a blow to my ego.</p><p id="453c">I started to wrack my brains to try to figure out what I was doing wrong. Like many others, I kept asking “Why am I not enough!?”</p><p id="a768">That was a huge problem that led to me drinking, vomiting, crying, and basically being an absolute nightmare to deal with for the better part of three months.</p><h1 id="edf1">I realized that writing for the Boost was taking the fun out of writing — and ruining my workflow.</h1><p id="9385">It’s oh, so hard to feel like your writing is being judged as “not enough,” but truth be told, my writing’s been going viral regardless of what the Boost program has been doing. I haven’t been boosted since August or September.</p><p id="cdb3">Worrying about the Boost made it hard for me to actually come up with topics. I started to center boosting, rather than my readers or what I really wanted to say. It was, in a word, fucking up my flow and making me second-guess myself.</p><h1 id="8e14">At the end of the day, the Boost is not what pays my bills anymore.</h1><p id="4f65">Actually, it never has been what paid the bills. My mistake was trying to cater to a singular, nebulous group of people instead of the people who were actually resonating with my writing.</p><p id="fe56">The moment I stopped caring about the Boost program was the moment a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. With that said, I hope everyone learns a lesson from me secondhand. That stuff was <i>not </i>fun to go through.</p><figure id="6c80"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*grWtyumoxW2L5VSvvFoplw.png"><figcaption></figcaption></figure><figure id="6b42"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*aqW4X0WbUUFn9D6XQDCRig.jpeg"><figcaption></figcaption></figure></article></body>

How Medium’s Boost Program Gave Me A More “Zen” Outlook

When you stop caring about pleasing the bots, good things happen.

You know, I keep publishing on this platform — though I really was debating on it a while back. Part of the reason I continue is because I know that many of my readers do not want to spend money on Substack as a result of their Nazi-sheltering way.

The other part? Well, I’ll be honest. Some of my favorite readers are here. And they are not budging. Oh, and while I’m only earning about a third of what I used to, it still helps pay the bills.

Looking back at my time from August of this year made me realize something. My attitude towards Medium and the Boost program has changed — but not in the way that I expected.

Here’s what changed, why it changed, and how it made me evolve.

Back in the day, Medium was my financial backbone.

At my peak, I was earning around $80,000 a year off this site. No cap, even when things slowed down, I could typically expect anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000 per month.

Medium was the place where I first really felt comfortable finding my voice online. With Twitter, I sound like a train wreck. With Instagram? It’s often kind of the same thing. I don’t “social media” well because I do have a trainwreck side to me.

One of the reasons I work well with Medium is because it let me put my thoughts down on paper. And when I published stuff, people actually resonated with it! And it got me paid.

Needless to say, when Medium’s earnings crashed, I went into a tailspin.

I’m not alone. There are so many people out there who had the creeping horror that their days as a full-time Medium writer are forcibly coming to a close. With me, I had a lot more riding on it than many others.

You see, I don’t do well in office settings most of the time. I also was almost entirely “all in” with Medium. In other words, I didn’t have many other clients. It was not enough to make ends meet and I was facing eviction.

I had a meltdown over it. This was not what I was expecting nor was it what I wanted. Eventually, I realized that I’d have to go back to doing work for clients and maybe publishing on Substack.

Honestly? If I had my way and it could happen again, I’d absolutely want to live my life the way I used to. But, it’s not in the stars for now.

The biggest thorn in my side was the Boost program.

To earn big, it was “boost or bust” back in the early days — though read time started to pick up more. Like most Medium writers in my position, I started to write as hard as I could, trying to get a boost.

The funny thing is, my work kept getting nominated but it wouldn’t make it past the final round. My views also plummeted. Eventually, I all but gave up and relegated my writing to Substack for the most part.

But, the weird thing is that I didn’t want to fully give up on Medium. As it turns out, something was brewing in the distance that would make me give the platform another chance: the Nazi issue.

I personally lost some subscribers because they did not want to support a platform that also supported Nazis. (For the record, Substack still has yet to demonetize hard right groups on their platform.)

Like many people in my shoes, I made the mistake of trying to guess what works in the Boost program.

I’ll be real with you: I have no idea what makes something boost-worthy in the eyes of the algorithm. I don’t! And more importantly, neither does anyone else at Medium.

Even the nominators don’t get their nominations boosted 100 percent of the time. The boosting is totally arbitrary and it also happens to be totally subjective.

That’s an issue with writing that every single writer has to face: what is good to one set of eyes can be absolute dog to another. As someone who was used to near-constant accolades, it was a blow to my ego.

I started to wrack my brains to try to figure out what I was doing wrong. Like many others, I kept asking “Why am I not enough!?”

That was a huge problem that led to me drinking, vomiting, crying, and basically being an absolute nightmare to deal with for the better part of three months.

I realized that writing for the Boost was taking the fun out of writing — and ruining my workflow.

It’s oh, so hard to feel like your writing is being judged as “not enough,” but truth be told, my writing’s been going viral regardless of what the Boost program has been doing. I haven’t been boosted since August or September.

Worrying about the Boost made it hard for me to actually come up with topics. I started to center boosting, rather than my readers or what I really wanted to say. It was, in a word, fucking up my flow and making me second-guess myself.

At the end of the day, the Boost is not what pays my bills anymore.

Actually, it never *has* been what paid the bills. My mistake was trying to cater to a singular, nebulous group of people instead of the people who were actually resonating with my writing.

The moment I stopped caring about the Boost program was the moment a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. With that said, I hope everyone learns a lesson from me secondhand. That stuff was not fun to go through.