I Earned $1,041.53 and Gained 836 Followers in My First 6 Months

How controversy can earn you money (if you can tolerate the haters)

I joined Medium in July 2021. By the end of December, I had published 185 stories. Here are my earnings and stats for those first six months.

Earnings

As you can see, October was when things really started to take off. November was like October, and then December increased by about 28%.

Audience stats

By the end of December I had:

• 836 followers
• 23 email subscribers
• 7 referred members

Highest earning stories per month

July

Not much to shout about here.

August

People started getting interested in me and my opinion’s about autism.

September

People seemed interested in why I’m so enthusiastic about NSR Meditation.

October

This was the month when it all started to change. NSR Meditation and The Headless Way seemed to really capture people.

But above all, it was my criticisms of Eckhart Tolle which really got people’s underwear in a twist. I published it in August, but it took two months to properly gain traction.

The lesson here is:

When you first publish a story, don’t worry about it. Just move on and write the next one. You never know when one of them might suddenly start getting attention.

November

Those high-earners in October continued to do well in November. So I wrote some more about Eckhart Tolle and enlightenment:

• 8 Ridiculous Things Said by Eckhart Tolle Which Don’t Stand Up to Scrutiny
• How Rich is Eckhart Tolle? And How Does He Earn His Money?
• What Does Enlightenment Mean? This is What 7 Well-known Experts Say

Readers were lapping it up and writing long comments telling me I’m wrong. Controversy seems to be great for the algorithm and earnings. So, feel free to keep arguing with me. I’ll happily keep receiving the money.

Think this is the wrong way to approach writing? Feel free to write a long comment explaining why.

December

In December, I wrote another article about NSR Meditation. Why not? If the last one earned lots of money, maybe a new one would too.

And it did!

Some people got annoyed that it was like an empty sales pitch. I’d spent four minutes telling them how great NSR is without telling them what it involves. I’ve since added a bit of information about the technique.

But the controversy had already done its job, and that one story earned me $128.88. Thank you very much, I’ll take it.

Another high-earner was my article informing people they are not in control of their thoughts. It seems that some people are really attached to the idea of free will and hate being told otherwise.

Continue writing long comments explaining how you do actually have free will. After all, you don’t really have any choice.

Most read stories

Eckhart Tolle, free will, meditation. These are topics that people are interested in, especially if you have a unique viewpoint.

But an unexpected hit was my shortform piece about the Beatles song Octopus’s Garden. It’s had 1.92k reads so far, but because 97% of them were external, it only earned me $0.60. I wasn’t trying to earn money with that one anyway. I was just keeping myself amused for a few minutes.

Stories with the highest read ratios

All my stories with high read ratios are 1 or 2-minute reads.

People have short attention spans.

Stories with the most fans

Not much new to see here, although I did get 48 fans for my rant about being removed from a publication. It earned me $8.28. Not enough to buy a house with, but I’ll take it anyway. It all adds up.

What does this all mean?

Controversy can earn you money.

If you say things that some people will passionately disagree with, you’re onto a winner. Some people like writing long comments telling you how wrong you are. This seems to count towards the reading time and give it an algorithmic boost.

But those types of articles aren’t the ones I enjoy writing the most. I have the most fun when I write mad nonsense like these:

• My (Probably Incorrect) Predictions for the Year 2022 on Planet Earth
• Hogan Torah Flung From a Catapult Into a Huge Bowl of Custard
• Breaking News: All Facts Are Now Known, Say Experts
• Breaking News: Oprah Winfrey Buys Northern Ireland for $500 Million

These do okay for reads and claps but don’t earn much. But I write these to amuse myself, to keep the fire burning.

Actually, I need to write these sometimes. Although it may sound contradictory, writing silly stories keeps me sane. I laugh so much at my own nonsense that it really makes life worth living.

You do need to be reasonably sane to write good quality crazy stuff. Like when a musical comedian plays badly on purpose for comic effect. They need to actually be a good musician to deliberately play badly. For example, Les Dawson:

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