I Made $9.86 In My First 31 Days on Medium, And I’ve Learned From Every Penny

(Significantly less than) 986 lessons I learned this month.

On August 14th, I wrote a piece titled: Today, I Write. It was about beginnings. It was about stepping into something new, even though I didn’t fully understand what that even meant.

I wrote about wanting to commit to something and see it through, even though in the past, I have been more interested in ideas than execution.

In that piece, I wrote about the fear of publishing my ideas, about the anxiety that comes from knowing that anyone can read what I’ve written.

Don’t read it. It’s a waste of your time.

But since then, a lot of what I’ve written has been worthwhile!

In the last 31 days on Medium, I have written 29 articles that are published (and several others that are not published). I have more than 1,700 views, and more than 1,000 reads on my posts.

I’ve had four stories and written in five separate publications, although I’m approved to write in even more than that, but have been rejected every time I’ve tried so far. (I’m looking at you, The Ascent).

All of that has been fantastic, and I’m humbled by the (minimal) success I’ve found. More than that, I have close to 50 subscribers on an email list I started less than a month ago, and I haven’t sold anything from it.

During that time, I’ve made enough money to buy one burrito at Chipotle, but only if you don’t get Guacamole.

Lesson 1: I have no idea what pieces are going to take off, and I’m surprised at which ones have.

Don’t get me wrong, I know when my writing is better or worse, but I don’t know which topics are going to be curated, and I was shocked at the first one that was.

On top of that, I’m still learning what pieces will be accepted into publications, but here’s what I’ve learned so far.

1. Obviously, if you don’t follow the publication’s guidelines, it won’t be accepted. 2. Pieces that are backed up with some research and link externally tend to perform well, unless they don’t. 3. Personal stories are pretty consistently good introductions, but if the rest of the blog sucks, it doesn’t matter.

My first piece that was curated was an episode of my philosophy podcast that I had transcribed and then fixed for grammar. That’s all.

It was curated in Programming, although it was about philosophy and didn’t even use Programming as a tag. The Startup reached out to me to feature it, and it got some nice views, but the read percentage was terrible.

Probably because it wasn’t about programming.

Lesson 2: I’ll Fail If I Write For Money

I need to focus on the real reasons I write. Writing is my therapy. Writing makes me feel more clear-headed. Writing is challenging and forces me to refine my thoughts.

If I’m doing this strictly for the external validation of the work, it will never succeed. I’ll never get there. That’s a lost cause because there will always be a Tom Kuegler or Tim Denning or Mark Manson ahead of me.

And that’s okay, so long as I write for my own validation.

I write because I want to write. So that it pushes me and forces me to grow and learn. I write because it’s a skill that I’m learning to play a long game that unfolds over the rest of my life.

Lesson 3: Writing, like all things, is about relationships.

Building a relationship with other writers, with readers, with publications, you name it. This is not a solo game. It’s a team sport. And to truly appreciate that takes an abundance mindset. Medium isn’t zero-sum. My success doesn’t get in the way of others.

The platform is big enough for anyone to succeed in it, and I want to be helping other writers learn and grow also. It’s not just about my success. Everyone needs a hand.

Reciprocity is a valuable tool. By supporting other writers, I have found that other writers will support me right back. And that’s awesome. I want to keep seeing that.

Lesson 4: Medium has communities for a lot of topics, but not all topics.

I write about fantasy football in a few places, but Medium as a platform for it is not that good. I’ve put some good work here, but haven’t found any great publications or audience to plug into yet. Maybe it’s there, and maybe it’s still to come, but at this point, I’m still putting most of that content elsewhere.

However, for self-improvement and productivity, Medium is exactly the place I want to be.

It’s built for that, so long as the takes are new and unique. The best way to keep a piece new and unique is to provide an anecdote and make the lesson specific to the individual.

I’m very pleased with my first month on Medium, and I’ve learned lessons from more writers than I could list. It seems that every day I meet someone new on this platform who inspires me.

Let it never end.