I Write For Money And I Am Not Ashamed

Medium is one of the healthiest social media platforms that I have ever been in. There are few healthy platforms out there. I bet you will agree with me.

I love it for the positive, honest, first-hand experience, personal, and in-depth stories. The reciprocating nature of writers on Medium also makes it a wonderful and supportive community.

There isn’t much negativity on here. No name-calling, no hurling insults, no roasting, no shaming, and there isn’t too much self-promotion. You also won’t find a lot of the ‘bliss’ and ‘my life is perfect’ trope that dominates other social media platforms. Medium keeps it real.

On Medium people are raw, they are vulnerable, they don’t pretend to have it all together. They admit their mistakes, struggles and shortcomings, they share stories on how to overcome these shortcomings and the personal lessons learnt from their mistakes. They don’t pretend to be rich and always having a good time to impress strangers on the internet who would probably care less. On here, people teach and learn from each other. They also disagree politely, sometimes they agree to disagree.

Editors

The editors of publications are also something else.

Imagine someone creating a platform so that your stories can find a home. Imagine someone taking their time in this era of wonderful books to read, places to visit, tv shows to watch, family to nurture, work to finish, and personal stuff to deal with so that they can read your story, correct some of it, enhance it, make it better for your own benefit and publish it on their publication for little or no personal benefit at all?

That’s editors on Medium for you!

I feel Medium should come up with an incentive for all independent editors on the platform. I might even write a whole story on that. Time is money. And even though there are lots of other personal and non-monetary benefits derived from being an editor in a publication, I feel a monetary compensation would come in handy and would help add some more meaning to their hard work.

Why do we write on here?

There are lots of reasons why we write on Medium. I write because I have numerous thoughts on various subjects that I would like to share. I write because sometimes I may not have someone to share these thoughts with and the platform helps me with finding an audience for them. I write because I am a loner and my readers are the friends I’ll never meet that I get to talk to at their own convenience and without the hustle of maintaining an active friendship from both ends. I write because I like to build my creativity and to express myself through it.

I write because I’d love to immortalise my words. This way they just don’t go with the wind after I say them and they can be read by other people at an unknown time in the future.

I write because a platform exists that allows me to do so. I believe in exploiting the opportunities that come my way.

I also write to make money. And I am not ashamed.

I love it when I see that my story enjoyed a good number of views and reads. External or internal — it doesn’t really matter. I wrote the story so that it could be read and wherever that reader comes from is cool for me.

That being said, I celebrate internal views more because they make me some dough. It doesn’t matter whether it’s cents. I love seeing green bars on the graphs of my Medium stats. It’s a wonderful feeling and it’s very fulfilling.

I understand that many people don’t like to talk about money, especially on Medium. I really don’t understand why because Medium itself is after all a business! It might not be profitable so far, but I am pretty sure maximising profits and gaining in value is one of its goals as a company.

Costs of being on Medium

Being on Medium comes with its costs.

I need a good device that will allow me to write on the platform. The Medium app does not work on older phone models. I need a good internet connection to enable me to read stories from other writers and to engage with them seamlessly. I need electricity to charge my device and for the smooth running of my internet connection. I also need to be well-nourished in both mind and body so that I can write quality stories that readers would want to read.

I need a comfy chair and some nice cushions to give me a good posture. A comfy bed is necessary because that’s where I read and react to most of the stories on the platform. I also need to pay rent to house my comfy chair, bed and device that I use to write and share my stories. All these require money. I wish it weren’t so, but that’s how it is.

Of course my Medium earnings cannot afford me all these. But if I make a few dollars that can meet some part of it that will enable me to keep being on here then I am grateful. Reciprocation right?

I imagine other writers have incurred expenses related to being on here. Some buy courses to help make them better writers, some need more than one device, others forego other personal ventures to dedicate their time and efforts on Medium.

Success on Medium

So far, I have made some progress on the platform. There’s still lots of room for improvement though.

I am aware that there are people who are making car payments, paying rent, having dental work done, buying food, raising their children, donating to charity, going on holidays, chasing their dreams, building businesses and creating wealth from their Medium earnings. And that is very encouraging because that’s also what I am aiming for myself.

It would be good to add that I recently bought some orange and grape seedlings with my last Medium earnings and I hope to nurture them so that I and my future children can enjoy sweet, juicy and nutritious oranges and grapes for prosperity. In the future I will even sell the surplus for extra income. I believe in building. And thanks to Medium I have been able to do a bit of that so far.

Making money on Medium is one of my favourite topics on the platform. I guess you can tell that by now. In fact, it is a story about making money on the platform that got me to sign up in the first place. Full disclosure! I see no need to lie. I bet that was the case for many of us.

So yes, among the other reasons that bring me here, I also write for money and I am not ashamed.

Are you?