I Finally Levelled Up: Upgraded to ‘Friend of Medium’

Snippets from my journey.

Those of you who have been following me regularly know that I had committed to levelling up my experience and upgrading to ‘Friend of Medium’ at the end of January 2024.

After all, who doesn’t love an upgrade? We all live, we learn, and upgrade even in life, don’t we?

Right, so the dilemma was whether to wait to earn enough back from Medium to deem it a ‘free’ upgrade or to keep up my commitment to myself and upgrade anyway.

I chose the latter. I upgraded on 31st January 2024.

The Journey

As some of you know, I started my journey with Medium on 13th December 2023. I wrote sporadically and also took a break over the Christmas holiday period.

I, however, did not stop reading. I read and I learned a number of useful tips from writers I follow on Medium and was determined to make my journey worthwhile.

Mind you, earning money from the platform was not at all on my mind as I didn’t know enough about the platform. Not to mention my abysmally poor efforts at Instagram and TikTok (Whatever was I thinking?)

However, my first 20c on Medium in a couple of days changed my outlook and opened my mind up to thinking that I could finally earn something for doing what I would have done anyway.

December earned me a grand sum of $6.26 for 13 published stories, some of which still haven’t started earning.

Oh, I forgot to add, that two of my top-performing stories so far (there aren’t many!) were the ones written in December — small joys!

Sorry, I digress!

Back to the Journey

I started January with a purpose.

The fact that I got sidetracked by trivial pursuits such as gaining followers, stats gazing, etc. is already mainstream. I have stopped one, and working on controlling the other — It is rather difficult for a data nerd!

In January, I was more intentional and regular with publishing stories and I am thankful to all the regular readers for their interest, support, and constructive feedback. I appreciate it more than you think I do.

And thank you to all the 57 readers who engaged with my most successful post so far!

I had committed to publishing at least 6 stories a week. I published 43 stories in January (not including this one!)

You know what? I might shamelessly write another post and tag all the people who have influenced me on Medium in some way. Please let me know if you DO NOT want to be tagged. I respect your privacy.

What to look forward to?

• Over 29 (yes we are in a leap year!) well-researched stories on topics that I believe in and think will add value to you.
• A couple of respectful rants and Medium-centric stories — not many I assure you.
• Whole-hearted engagement without half-measures. I assure you I will not compromise your read-ratio unless the title is totally misleading!
• Won’t chase followers, but rather do good work to attract readers and form a community.
• Take the staircase, the elevator is too full anyway.

Once again, thank you dear readers for being with me on my short journey on Medium. Hopefully as ‘Friend of Medium’, I will be able to add more value to your efforts.

Best wishes, Vivian Robert, Ph.D.

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