I KNOW THE STRUGGLE

I Chose to Believe in ME Over My Medium Stats

Earnings Shouldn’t Dictate How You Feel About Your Writing

All right, it’s time to take a poll: Who here remembers the beginning of their Writer’s Journey? For some of us, it’s been years, maybe even decades. For others, it may have been earlier this year or even last month. Perhaps this week.

Some of us started this journey on other platforms like WordPress or other websites. Maybe you started writing in 80-page spiral-bound notebooks like I did as a child, or kept a daily journal. Still, many of our writer brothers and sisters began here on Medium.

If you did, I’m sure you can relate to what I’m about to say: The stats aspect of Medium can make us pretty emotional at times. Once we start earning our pennies per article, and see that grow into dollars a day, it can be motivating. And addictive.

Sometimes downright toxic.

I didn’t join Medium back in January of 2022 to become rich or famous. I only joined because a friend recommended it as one of a few good options to host a blog. I needed somewhere to showcase my articles, so I could get hired for freelance content writing gigs.

I was hired right away, after sending links to a half dozen of my newly written Medium blogs. I happily accepted my second writing job and hoped that it would make more than the pennies a day I was earning on Medium.

I shit you not, it was pennies a day. Here’s proof of how bleak being a blogger looked like, in terms of making a livable wage or even a respectable side hustle:

Ten cents a fucking blog? I suppose if I had been a writer back during the Little House on the Prairie days, I’d be rocking it. But in 2022, not so much. Nellie Oleson would have turned her nose up at me and said, “COUNTRY GIRLS…” in that bitchy tone of hers.

Fortunately, I was only testing the waters with Medium at that point. Though I was starting to find my first writing role models through reading, I wasn’t contributing jack-shit to the community, at least in my mind. Back then, I judged myself based on what I earned and not on my early writing creations.

But at least I had my content writing gig. I focused on it so much that I only published one article on Medium in my second month. Yet I earned triple what I did during my first month, even with just one new blog. A 300% increase is nothing to sneeze at, right?

But something happened in March that changed my perspective about my new writing career. Two things, actually. The first was that I started to realize how shitty content writing was. I actually didn’t enjoy it much at all. The topics were pretty boring most of the time. These were some of the things I was writing about:

However, on Medium, I was starting to find my writer’s voice. I decided that blog writing was far more fun than content writing. I could choose the topics I wanted to write about and didn’t have to create lame-ass articles about products or businesses I didn’t have any interest in.

Then, the worst thing that could have happened to me happened: I had my first big article on Medium. I remember that it hit toward the last week of March and helped me to average over a dollar a day for my 3rd month on the platform.

A tenfold earnings increase over February. And my first political rant. Win-win. I started to understand how addiction worked.

Seeing the views, reads, and earnings increase faster than they ever had was a thrill. I suddenly had 446 followers at the end of the month and many of them clapped for my shit. Some even commented and gave me encouragement and support. Again, the validation became addictive.

The big story caused another tenfold increase in April. More than that, actually. I earned over $420 for the month and decided I’d give at least half of my writing time to Medium and the other half to the more steady content writing gig. Eventually, I spent more time working on my Medium development than the boring stuff on the other site.

But Medium started making me feel bad about myself. Though I loved writing my articles and publishing more and more frequently, the stats at times broke my heart. And started making me feel bad about myself. I hated the feeling of seeing downhill movement on my earnings during the ups and downs we all go through here on our platform.

I decided that I wasn’t going to allow the downs to ruin my new goal: I wanted to become the biggest blogger in the world. Not just on our platform, and not only here in the United States. In the world. It was time to fight back.

And fight back, I did. I worked harder. I developed and tested new methods constantly. I engaged more with my writer friends and found more readers. My following jumped to 6575 people by the end of my first year as a paid, professional writer. You wouldn’t believe where it’s gone since then:

Because I believe in my heart of hearts that I’m a badass Renegade Writer, it’s become so. I know that I have the writing talent, the work ethic, and the drive to succeed. You cannot convince me otherwise.

And believe me, people try to at times. Every shitty comment I get makes me laugh and fuels my writer’s fire. You cannot hurt my feelings about my own writing. I love it. I know that most other people enjoy it. The steady increase in followers and earnings proves it.

I enjoy making people think through my writing, and I love making them laugh. When I can do both with one article, I feel fulfilled. And that has nothing to do with my Medium stats. Those come automatically as I do my thing.

We created a Discord server for Medium writers in early 2023. It’s an online hangout for over 300 writers. The purpose of creating it was for all of us to hang out, socialize, network, and share our most recent writing pieces. It’s a pretty lit place.

But as it grows, I notice more and more posts from writers lamenting about their declining stats, changes that Medium has implemented, and a lot of pissing and moaning. We used to chat about certain writing pieces and how they made us feel when creating them. That’s since been replaced by a lot of complaining and trying to crack the code to Medium’s finicky algorithm.

It makes me sad sometimes to see so much negativity from my writer friends. To the point where I don’t visit as often as I used to. I try to be encouraging when I can, but if it brings my mood down, I vamanos out of there for a bit.

My wish for all of you, my Medium writing friends, is that you focus on the joy writing brings to you, and less on what you’re earning for it. Trying to alter and change your writing style to earn dollars a day rather than pennies a day won’t serve you well on your long-term Writer’s Journey. Having pride and joy about writing whatever the fuck you want to will.

Take it from someone who used to do that himself. Once I believed that I was one of the best writers on Medium, it became far more fun and rewarding. I’m going to blast past 50,000 followers sooner than later and am always looking forward to bigger and better accomplishments as a writer.

And it comes from doing just that: Writing. So do more of that and less complaining and doubting yourself when your stats are down. I believe in you. If I can accomplish what I have in just over two years on Medium, I’m certain that you can, too. &:^)

© 2024 Jason Provencio. All rights reserved.