How to Make Money on Medium in 1924

It’s not easy, but with a little hard work, anything is possible!

A tough as it is to make money on Medium today, it was even harder back in black and white times.

Sure, everything seemed peachy during the Roaring 20s — after all, there were speakeasies, long cigarette holders, and jugs of bathtub moonshine with three “X’s” on the label. However, the stock market crash that would eventually spark a worldwide economic collapse was fast approaching.

If you were one of those poor saps living in a Hooverville camp, it would have been damn near impossible to make money on Medium.

Using the platform to publish listicles and self-help pieces at a time when Hitler was writing Mein Kampf would have taken not only tremendous courage but also a time machine. Science tells us that if time machines are ever going to be invented, then they already have been.

That means people are already making money on Medium in 1924. I know that’s what I’d be doing if I had access to a time machine.

Maybe people did make money on Medium, but were discrete about it. Maybe one of them secretly invented the platform but hid the recipe in a hollowed-out copy of Jane Eyre so none of their idiot brothers would find it.

Though we can’t know for sure, it’s fun to speculate. Would the algorithm have been more egalitarian in those days? It was before FDR’s New Deal, but people were already crying out for reform that would level the playing field for common folk.

Given the prevalence of underground culture and naughtiness in general, erotica stories might have even thrived in that environment. I like to think madams in brothels would have read my Stepmom Adventure stories out loud to their Johns as a way of breaking the ice and setting the mood.

They would want to put off kissing the guys for as long as possible because, in those days, everyone had black teeth and horrible breath.

Author’s Note: This was inspired by this Smillew Rahcuef article:

Author’s Note Part II: My story fits the March Furious Fiction prompt from the Australian Writers’ Centre. Here are this month’s rules:

• Your story must be 500 words or fewer.
• Your story must include a character who revisits something.
• Your story must include the same color in your first and last sentence.
• Your story must include the words CAMP, FAST and SPARK.

This also satisfies the requirements for “Option Two” with Ann James and the March Deluded Custodians:

Author’s Note Part III: I’ve written so many stories based on this prompt that I decided to make a list. Be warned — some stories are NSFW!