My Medium Journey: Thank you my readers!

I Got a Top Writer Twice on Medium! And How it Affects My Earning

Struggle with writing and now getting a badge of Top Writer of Poetry on high competition tags!

I'm sorry if the Title and Subtitle above sound cocky, I just couldn't find appropriate words to tell it in humble way :-)

To this end of June 2021, I have been writing for 9 months and quite enjoy with both my works and Medium itself. I feel grateful to find this platform which has changed my boring days a new life with a beneficial creativity, my writing activity!

Yet I have never gotten $1,000 or even hundreds as have been shoutouted by some popular authors who said they earned fantastic amount even in their first months joining Medium!

Honestly, for the seven months journey (before being the Top Writer), only one of my story got curated. Well, I think they truly recognize that I’m not good enough in writing! But it’s okay, I know my capability. I have to learn more in this new world. :-)

So, then as many tips written by Medium experts who showed quite realistic promises, I just focus on the task at hand.

"The results will follow if you keep your mind focused!”

I always try to plant those words to my mind when I feel faltered. Yes, as person live with some mentality weakness, labile determination is the things I should be prepared to face with when doing something new. I still encounter that feeling of anxious when it’s time clicking the green publish button or choosing a publication for my piece and then click 'submit'. I’m always worrying if that my plain writing is acceptable or interesting enough to read.

So, struggle writing with all my shortcomings, I have truly been learning hard to create interesting pieces, plus with my phone low compatibility that makes (sometimes) editing a draft can be a bit bothering. I use old version of Android, so I have to find any hidden tricks to, example; send a private note, filling the image caption, etc as not all Medium features run well on my phone.

The first earning

Honestly, I chose Medium over other blog platforms was for money. From some reviews, I felt impressed that it's truly promising to use Medium. Though the spectacular posts stated we can get a hundred to thousands dollars a month with Medium, I didn't expect that much as I'm a newbie. Just for covering a month internet data felt realistic earning for me then. And it's true, I still remember to get $4.63 in the first month involvement. It was October 2020, right a month before Medium announced the new algorithm for writer's earning from claps to reading time.

In that initial period, I have my second post curated, that might affect to my earning. To get curated, I felt more certain there's a good hope with this platform. Even when the new algorithm took place, and my earning for the next 4 months still in the range of $3 — $4, and also by disastified writers who have complained about their dropped earning with the reading time system, I tried to stick with Medium than searching for new income sources.

And after 7 months spent times with Medium, really started from zero knowledge about writing on it and facing dificulties to write out my thoughts, I was quite surprised to count that I have already 30 published stories (I'm amazed to writers who's successfully reached their target creating 500 stories in 6 month!), from poem to nonfiction.

Didn't have my story curated again, however, some were got lucky published in large publications; Illumination, Be Yourself, A Patent is Born, My Selection, etc and some others got rejected and only published on my homepage or just letting them as drafts (now as I have publication, I posted them on my pub after being refreshed).

For me, being rejected is something to consider when posting in a publication. And honestly each rejection always got me unconfident with my writings. But the Medium is healthy community where all people involved in it seem so respectful and encouraging. The editors are usually kind enough to tell that they actually liked my writings but didn't have enough time to do a lot of corrections. So, though felt embarrased with the rejections due to my writing quality. I keep motivated myself that I can actually write, but just need to learn more and recheck my pieces accurately.

I just feel faltered when my earning on the 5th month jumped down to only $1.88 (see my earning at the bottom). Yet, I still believe to the motto above; to keep focused, and begin exploring different ways about how to make my works noticed. I followed other writers’ tips to make my pieces interesting; choosing eye catching image, creating compeling title and subtitle, make my post longer, etc.

I also followed as many as writers, some following back and checked out my pieces but mostly ignored (you can see, I have thousand following (not followers :-) ! I'm too lazy to delete them one by one! Truly, I dug up all aspects of Medium for those months brutally, innocently, desperately :-)

What Happened On May 19, 2021

And with those frenzied and unmanaged efforts, still, it gave promising progress. Getting 20 to 30 views/reads was enough exciting for me and felt happy with $7 three months ago which is the highest at time.

To see that it's really prospectful, I kept writing poems and and another forms too and earned $10.80 in the next month. Still, I did it nothing to loose, not too craving for being curated by Medium. And that day, May 19th, I surprised to find email from Medium that congratulated me for my acchievement! I was stated as Top Writer of Poetry! Medium has given me a Top writer in the topic of poetry! Here’s the screensot:

To see that, I was jolted and yelling silently “Oh My Jood!” (As an Aspie, I tend to have my own word for any specific emotions :-)

How can I get this...?!

I’ve heard about Top Writer before this. I have come across many authors referring to it in my Medium research during the last months, but honestly, I wasn’t too interested to know more as in my thinking, the Top writer will be for the top skilled authors or for so popular authors with lots of followers! I almost didn’t have a believe or wanted to achieve one for myself.

There are 3 poems that bring me to a top writer (published in Know Thyself Heal Thyself and Be Open)!

Actually, for this surprising recognition from Medium, I want to write some more poems, fiction and non-fiction too. But my business with a publication I’m managing, Be Open, I have no time to write, I only made 2 pieces and didn't expect my title; the Top Writer of Poetry stay last longer as I heard that there is possibility the top writer place will be taken at anytime replaced by new writers if we failed to meet certain requirements. and June 6th, for my surprise, Medium notified me again by email that I was selected as a Top Writer in the poetry niche for the second time!

This time, with 2 new poems published in My Selection and Be Open!

I have to say thanks again to Medium, and also those publications as well my fans or readers for these amazing moments! And of course for my own publication that's just created a few months ago, Be Open! :)

Still feeling surprised, On the other hand, still, I was in questionable thoughts, how can I'm chosen as a top writers, what are the criterias to be featured in it? I honestly did not expect this level of exposure so fast regarding I know exactly that my poems might not be the best compared to others. As a non english speaker and an autism, I always struggle to form words and finding the best word that match with the emotions I want to deliver. Also I’m not posting everyday, I can only publish one poetry in three days even a week! My followers and my views is also still lesser than 400 at that time.

How Medium pick a writer to be the top in a particular topic?

To answer my curiosity, I’ve spent the majority of this week tracking any aspects of my writings, my behaviour during involved with my Medium account to find if there are things I have done that triggered Medium choosing me as a Top writer.

And from my raw researches mixed with self interpretation, I found that it seems Medium pick a writer as a Top Writer is based on the story’s engagement. The pieces triggered to be picked as a Top Writer doesn’t have to be viewed by thousands or hundreds, but how fast this piece can gain new fans. I got fans around 7 to 9 fans in three days per poems for the first pick. And it seems Medium gave some exposure too to those poems that make me then have more followers and fans which also trigerred Medium to put me on Top Writer of poetry for the second time. I got total 50+ new fans from those poems in the second pick with read ratio from 30%–50%.

And those poems still getting new views and fans till now. Medium also give exposure to others my stories (the non poems) that has surprisingly made my earning jumped up more than 100% from $10 to $37! Here's my earning from the start to May 2021 :)

Besides the analysis above, I have also guessed that some of our behaviours in writings could possibly make Medium place us as a Top writer. You will find the list in the next post!

I'm also excited to see this 9th month earning (June 2021) is the highest along my journey with Medium after become Top Writer. :-)

UPDATE: This July, I got the $100 bonus too based on my engagements! Really great months! :-)

I want to say thanks to these kind people who have given attention to my poems above. Their views, reads, claps, highlightings and comments might have made my pieces seen by Medium as having good performances. :-)Also for Muhammad Nasrullah Khan, Susan Foster, Diana C. the owner and editors of My Selection and Know Thyself Heal Thyself :-)