I Found Some Complainers on Medium, and Here’s What I Discovered In Their Articles…
They don’t make enough money, and there’s a reason for that.
Have you stumbled into some negativity on Medium? Have you seen the people complaining about not making enough money?
I hope this doesn’t discourage you because it almost discouraged me. I was going to quit and go all in on Twitter/X instead. (That would have been a huge mistake.)
I understand the complaints because starting on here can be frustrating. You see people making a lot of money. Then you write your little heart out only to end up making $1.59 for the month. Been there, done that!
But I took a look around at a couple of the complainers’ articles, and I discovered some problems.
1. They don’t write consistently enough.
People in the comments are always complaining that quality should matter over quantity. They may be right, but for now, Medium favors quantity.
So, you can complain about it, or you can do something about it. I used to complain too, but once I started to publish (almost) daily, I started to make more money.
The good news is, your articles don’t need to be long to make money. Focus on writing shorter articles if you need to.
2. They don’t write about things people care about.
I always see this complaint:
The only people who make money are people who talk about making money.
There’s a reason why earnings articles do well. Everyone on Medium is a writer, and just about everyone wants to make money from writing. Therefore, people care about this topic.
That doesn’t mean you need to write about making money, but you need to write about things people care about and can relate to.
You might be putting your heart and soul into your stories about your life, but if people can’t relate to it, or can’t gain some important lessons from it, they won’t care.
I wrote a whole series when I was doing a calorie-counting challenge, and it didn’t get many reads. I’m OK with it because I just wanted to write to keep myself accountable. I didn’t care about making money from that series.
That’s a perfectly reasonable option as long as you’re OK with not making a bunch of moolah.
3. Their headlines are too vague.
Not too many people are going to click on a headline that says “A Windy Day” or “Creativity at the Pond”.
I suck at headline writing (and I’ve had my fair share of vague headlines), but I have learned that you need to give people an idea of what your story is about. Otherwise, they will scroll on by…
Put yourself in the reader’s shoes. Which headlines catch your eye and make you want to click?
4. They complain *too* much.
Sometimes complaining works because people are frustrated with the same thing you are and they relate to it. But there is such a thing as too much complaining.
No one likes someone who talks trash all the time. Have you ever worked with someone like that? It’s so annoying!
5. They swear too much or write about crude things.
The beauty of Medium is you can swear and be crude all you want. But you can’t get mad if you’re not making money.
A lot of people get turned off by too much swearing, especially when combined with #4 — complaining! It can come off as aggressive and it’s uncomfortable to read.
Also, a lot of publications won’t accept swearing in your articles. It’s their rule, so don’t get upset if you get rejected. (I’m sure there are plenty of pubs that don’t mind though, so keep looking for some.)
If you like to swear and be crude, see how Robin Wilding 💎 does it. She manages to be hilarious and teach people a thing or two while dropping f-bombs all over the place.
6. They don’t use the right (or enough) tags.
I don’t claim to be a tagging wizard. Sometimes I sit and stare at the tags for far too long trying to think what the heck my story is all about. But I do know this. You want to:
- Pick the maximum amount of 5 tags.
- Pick tags that are as relevant as possible.
- Pick tags that have the highest number of followers.
This will help get more eyes on your work.
7. They’re not patient enough.
Some complainers are pretty new and don’t have a lot of followers yet. Followers aren’t the main metric you need to worry about, but it does give you an indication that your stories are resonating.
You may just need to give your account more time to gain followers so you have more people reading your work.
Yes, you will see some people who are making a good amount of money right away. But they are likely doing two things:
- Writing consistently
- Connecting with other writers through commenting, highlighting, and giving claps on their work.
If you’re not doing these two things, try them out for a while and see if you can get traction.
8. Their articles aren’t formatted nicely.
This becomes easier with practice. Look around and see how the top writers format their articles. You’ll see a lot of:
- images
- white space
- subheadlines
- bullet points
If you write long paragraphs that look like blobs of text on a screen, it’s too hard to read. Break it up and I’ll bet your read ratio goes up. (And a better read ratio = more money!)
I know what negative people might say about all this. “I can do what I want and write how I want!”
I 100% agree.
In fact, you need to find your own voice so you stand out from the crowd. However, if you want to make money, you may need to make some compromises.
This is just my 2 cents from someone who has been when you are.
About the Author
Hey! I’m Christina, an introverted book nerd on the outside, and a raging metalhead on the inside. 🤘 I’m a married mom to two teenagers (and 3 cats and a dog). I love Vegas 🎰, the band Chevelle 🎸, and murder mysteries 📖.
I also love creating short, daily lists of resources and ideas to help you boost your online income. 👈 Click that astonishingly long link to sign up for free.
