I'm Finally Going To Get Serious About Writing, and Here’s How I Am Going To Do It

Halfway going at it is the worst of both worlds.

I’ve been on Medium since February, and really not much to show for it. Don’t get me wrong, I am incredibly grateful for those that have followed me, and helped me get here, but it’s time to get moving or move along. Oddly enough, I have built a solid following, and even manage roughly 4–5000 reads a month… but the most I’ve ever made in one month was 18$. That was my first month on Medium on about 1000 reads. Since then, I consistently average hundreds of reads per article, but pennies, if anything, after that.

For example, here’s my last month:

What did that result in?

It basically paid for the membership. Obviously, there was a big 2-day spike, but even with that, I averaged 150 views a day. Let me clarify, I am not ungrateful, and I am extremely thrilled with this progress, growth, and support. That being said, when compared with people with similar stats, they’re hitting the $100 club, and I am struggling to break even.

So what do I mean when I say I am getting serious? People seem to like reading my work, but I am obviously doing something wrong. The main thing? I haven’t really been playing the “Medium game”, in that, I write and publish some stories, and maybe send it through some channels aaaannddd… that's it. I haven’t really expanded much, and used Medium to my advantage, but rather just a platform.

Lets Change That

Obviously, in order to do this, we need a plan. I have tried some stuff, and it’s actually been going extremely well, but I want to actually commit and make this work. Here’s what we’re going to do:

• Branch out into new Publications
• Interact with the community
• Write works more consistently for curation requirements
• Write. Every. Day.
• Referrals

All the good stuff that makes Medium, well, Medium. I know, you’ve heard it a million times, and it seems like half the stories on Medium are about “writing every day”, but I’ve actually committed to using the system. Mostly, because I figured “Ah. It’ll come eventually” but… it hasn’t. I’ve seen tons of writers on the platform for half as long hit the $100 club, and I think I am at a good place to do it too.

So, Let’s do this.

Publications

Everyone has mixed feelings about publications, but the fact of the matter is, they are a great way to get discovered as a new writer. Sure, the requirements can be a hassle, and once you have a following big enough to stand alone, you might not even need it. That’s not the case for most people though, and definitely not me.

I use to submit to literally one publication, and that was it. While this isn’t bad, there are million of others on the platform, and each new publication has the potential for a few m0re followers, reach, etc. So, I’ve recently been reaching out to various publications to try and get accepted, and it’s been going well! I’ve already been added to a few!

Interaction

For reasons unknown to me, I have gotten significantly more followers from comments and interacting with the community than I did writing. I never made a comment on a story until the last month or two. In the 6 months of writing, I got to 88 followers, and I’ve hit almost 200 now, in that month and a half.

Interacting with popular posts gets thousands of eyes on you, in targeted topics of your choice. If you’re big into Venture Capital, go and find the top people and just make informative comments on it, and that person’s tens of thousands of followers will be looking at you now.

Curation

Remember how I said my first month was the best month I’ve ever had? Well, part of that was the fact that almost every story I had written got curated. Now? I don’t think I have gotten curated since June. Honestly, I really have no idea what makes the curation overlords choose these stories, but I have definitely not been doing it right.

Due to this, I’ve been doing my best to make sure everything is squeaky clean and fitting those requirements. No matter what people say, consistent curation matters. That’s tons of eyes on from Medium writers, and it will literally only help.

Write Daily

The quintessential medium advice. Write daily. It seems like most of Medium is just telling people to write more. Anyone find that… suspicious? In all seriousness though, it makes sense. If there are 30 stories out per month, compared to 10, that’s 3 times more earnings potential, people discovering you, and Medium is going to reward more active writers. So, I will definitely be attempting to write daily for at least a month, maybe more.

Writing daily is definitely a hefty task, but again, we’re giving it our all now, so I’m prepared.

New To Medium?

Obviously, even getting 1 referral will give any small writer a huge boost in earnings, more or less many. That’s why I plan to try and bring in some more over the coming months, as the consistent income is definitely tons of potential.

Speaking of referrals, if you liked this article and want to read more from me and authors like me, without any restrictions, consider becoming a Medium member using the link below!

You get unlimited access to tons of great work, and it helps me by getting a small portion of the membership at no cost to you!