I Changed My Subject Matter and the Platform Changed

When I started writing about writing, Medium transformed

I joined Medium two years ago, but back then I didn’t really understand everything the platform offered. For me, it was no more than a way of sharing long-form ideas on social media, without resorting to unappealing and amateurish screenshots of large blocks of text.

Don’t get me wrong, Medium served its purpose perfectly. An attractive image and link to a well-formatted page was exactly what I was looking for, and I rarely published anything more than once or twice a month so I didn’t even have to worry about the paywall.

At least, I didn’t have to worry about how it affected those wanting to read my work. But the longer I spent on Medium, the more I realized it had a lot to offer in its own right. After a few months I became a member so I could catch up with all the saved articles I hadn’t been able to read because I’d reached my monthly quota.

Medium quickly became one of my go-to sites when looking for interesting takes on any given subject, and I feel I’ve absorbed a lot of information over that time. But in terms of my own writing habits, nothing really changed.

That is until I decided to start my 30-Day Medium Challenge. It’s hard to ignore all of the articles offering advice on how to make real money on here, so when I came across a number of people doing similar challenges, I wanted to see if I could make it work for me. So I set myself the challenge (albeit with my own twist) and wrote about it here:

Then something new happened: I was getting responses. I’ve had decent feedback before in terms of claps, views/read ratios and curation, but very rarely did it trigger the urge for any of my readers to respond. Suddenly my notifications felt more like Twitter, as people I’d never previously interacted with took time to wish me luck and share their own experiences.

I’d only ever received a handful of comments on all of my other articles combined, and it dawned on me that one of those was for the only other piece where I’d written about Medium (a satirical and slightly cynical take on all of the ‘how to get rich on Medium’ articles). I didn’t submit to publications back then so its reach barely broke into double figures, yet still there was a comment.

The reasons are clear

People are more comfortable communicating with people they share something in common with, and if there is something the vast majority of people on Medium share in common it’s the desire to write. When you write about writing, many of the people viewing your work are likely to be here for the same reasons and so recognize your experiences.

This is confirmed by the fact it wasn’t just a one-off. My article on my successes with curation during my first year was peppered with highlights, while people were willing to continue the conversation started in my story on getting curated and featured.

Suddenly I’d discovered the site I’d been using for two years was in fact a social media network giving me access to a welcoming and insightful community, looking to discuss a positive, shared goal. If you’d asked me in advance if I’d prefer an extra hundred views or a comment, I’m sure I would have opted for the former. But the positivity you get from a well-intentioned response is worth far more than the handful of cents you’d get from those views.

It seems to affect income, too

That said, the handful of cents seems to get bigger as a side-effect. Or to put it another way: writing about writing earns money. Not significant money in my case, at least not yet with my limited number of followers. But while people all too readily scroll past the work I’m most passionate about, anything with the word ‘Medium’ in the title is getting clicks.

The easy take away is that if you want to make money on this site, use the word ‘Medium’ as clickbait for a dozen banal articles every day. That’s absolutely not what I’m suggesting you do, and I certainly won’t be doing it myself. What I am saying is that you should pay attention to your experiences on here, and if you notice something interesting or useful then it’s probably worth jotting it down.

Readers here are often looking for insights, shared experiences, and even just reasons to communicate. If you genuinely have something to say, then say it — people are interested. It may or may not have a significant impact on your income, but it could be the key to a community that ultimately proves to be far more valuable.