I Was Misled Into Buying Classes From Writers Who Exaggerated Their Success on Medium

Twice.

I am a total sucker for Medium stories about making it big in the Partner Program. I read every one that I see. Each story is a little different, and it gives you hope and makes you believe that anyone can have success on Medium if they just get the formula right. It’s like hearing that your neighbor went to the gas station that you frequent, and he bought the winning lottery ticket thereby merely selecting the right numbers. How difficult can that be? I can do that.

Well, you can’t win the lottery if you don’t play. Medium is the same; you can’t make money from the Partner Program if you don’t publish a story. That’s where I ran into a little glitch. I was nervous beyond words about publishing on Medium. I had fear, anxiety, nervousness, fear of failure, performance anxiety; I had it all.

Adding to my anxiety about Medium was the fact that Medium involves using a computer. Being older than the average Medium writer, I wasn’t very familiar with social media and all of the computer stuff you need to know to use Medium. Now I know that it’s straightforward, but I felt quite overwhelmed and insecure having grown up using a typewriter and a phone with a dial and a cord.

Before I could get to the point where I was confident enough to publish, I needed a little help. I took control of the situation. I read e-books to educate myself about how Medium worked. Every article I could find in Medium could provide information about decreasing my odds of being a complete failure. I read it all.

So many successful writers were making the big bucks in the Partner Program. Some of these writers made money almost immediately when they started publishing on Medium. For others, it took a while longer. Some were able to support themselves entirely from their Medium earnings.

All I knew is that I wanted to know their secrets to make the big bucks too. Ain’t no shame in my wanting to make money off the Medium game. My household needed some financial relief and Medium could help me with that.

I didn’t want to try to make it big on Medium and fail. No one likes to fail. I figured the best way I could guarantee success was to take a class about earning money in the Partner Program. Ultimately, I ended up taking a total of three classes over a little more than a year.

The first class taught me almost everything I needed to know about writing and publishing in the Partner Program. It was taught by a writer who showed his first six months of earnings as an example of how quickly and easily you can make mucho dinero on Medium. The numbers were awe-inspiring. I would be thrilled if my future earnings ended up being a fraction of that. The fact that he did it was proof that I could do this. I just needed the know-how.

The class was a significant investment, but I would easily earn back the money in a month or two so long as I earned money like the guy teaching the program. I knew I would. It was a no-brainer to whip out the debit card and buy it.

I bought it and listened to the classes. Some of it was a little difficult to understand because it was just a concept. After all, I hadn’t written and published on Medium yet, but I was sure it would make sense as soon as I started writing.

But months go by, and I don’t publish. I was still too nervous.

The guy who taught the first class wrote articles explaining how he was moving onto something bigger and better than Medium. He said Medium was fine, but he had found something that he liked even more, so he wanted to devote all of his time to his new interest. That made sense to me.

I thought I would try another course that sounded even better than the first. It didn’t cost quite as much as the first one, and it was more detailed. It was taught by a writer showing how successful he was in his first three months. His numbers were phenomenal. I couldn’t pass that up. So out comes the debit card again, and I signed up with him.

This class was more my style than the first one. It was also far more encouraging than the first course I took. It was worth it. I even talked to the guy a little bit via email regarding some questions I had. He was great.

Then he started publishing articles about how Medium sucks, and he can’t make any money anymore. Next, he disappears entirely. Poof, he’s nowhere to be found. It appears he was pretending to be more successful than he really was.

He eventually surfaced again. He seems to be having some personal issues. And his Medium earnings are in the toilet. I hope everything works out for him.

More months go by, and I still don’t publish. I was too nervous. I was onto the third class.

The third class was taught by a guy who earns some serious coin on Medium. It took him a long time to do it, and he works very hard to maintain his success on Medium. He is still around and continues to offer help to those who need it. His class taught me the same stuff I learned in the first two classes. I paid the most for his course even though I got fifty percent off as part of the deal for signing up early.

Approximately $1,000 and three classes later, I learned the same information in all of the classes three times.

Last week, I found out that the guy who taught the second class appears to have misrepresented his Partner Program earnings that the class was based on. I found an article that he recently wrote where he talks about his income over the past few years. It was far less than he had said it was in the emails soliciting people to purchase his class.

It looks like he went on to do something he liked better than Medium because he had no choice. He couldn’t make decent money from the Partner Program any longer and needed to find a different way to support himself. That’s not consistent with the image he put forth to get people to buy his class.

Some people on Medium like to create an image of themselves being far more successful on the Partner Program than they actually are. They then use this image to start a business.

It looks pretty convincing when you regularly read about people making ridiculous amounts of money on Medium, and some of those people show you numbers and give you legitimate information about how they achieved those numbers. It’s easy to buy into their story when you need the money and think about how much that money would help you and others you care about.

I’m not saying that they didn’t give me useful information about how Medium and the Partner Program works. All of the classes were very informative. I got great benefits from them.

I have no issues with the guy who taught the third class. At least I don’t have any problems with him at the time that I am writing this. Who knows what I’ll find out in the future.

The first two guys crossed the line with the pictures they painted concerning their results. I’m not talking about the results that I could get; they all ensured that I understood that they could not guarantee that I would be successful in the Partner Program. They crossed the line with the pictures that they painted concerning the results they got. They sold me the idea that massive success on Medium is possible because it happened to them. And it happened quickly and easily.

All I saw is that these guys were walking success stories. Instead, they were floundering or had minimal experience on Medium and used screenshots of a few good months in their Stripe Accounts to create a business.

Color me silly, but I expected more from people who say they want to help other writers. I should have known better. But I thought they were legitimate due to the many stories about the incredible Medium successes out there. Why would I doubt them when there are so many others achieving the same level of success?

Allow me to tell you the truth. It is not easy to make money on the Partner Program. It takes a lot of work and even more luck. Anyone fortunate enough to strike it rich on Medium should savor every minute of it because, with a single tweak of the algorithm or a change of a rule, your riches can grind to a halt.

Making money on Medium is unpredictable and unreliable. Had I known that long ago, I wouldn’t have been sucked into the idea that there was a reasonable likelihood of making big money? Now I know better.

I love writing on Medium and all the opportunities it presents. I participate in the Partner Program. It’s part of an overall plan that I have for my future. I consider any money that I get from it a bonus; it’s not money used to pay bills. Maybe I should use it to buy lottery tickets.

The bottom line, I was misled. No, I was lied to, and I don’t like it.

My advice to you, be careful who you believe. It’s okay to be suspicious. Save yourself from buying into a false dream. It’s better to be pleasantly surprised with a big juicy deposit in your bank account than disappointed when you earn far less than you expected.

Please click here to stay in touch and to follow my writing journey. Thank you.

Linda Kowalchek is a work in progress and a member of the typewriter generation. She spends her time with her husband and her rescue cats waiting for golf balls to crash through their windows. PSA: Don’t live next to a golf course.