I’m Starting My Own 30 Day Medium Challenge

Summary

The author is embarking on a 30-day challenge to publish as many articles as possible on Medium, aiming to increase followers, earnings, and personal growth.

Abstract

The author, a self-described 'newbie' to writing on Medium despite a period of regular reading, has decided to undertake a personal 30-day challenge inspired by Catherine Mancini's similar endeavor. The challenge involves publishing close to 30 articles and submitting to 10 different publications, with goals of gaining 30-100 new followers, improving earnings, and achieving personal growth by overcoming writing inhibitions. The author acknowledges their tendency to overthink and aims to learn to write more efficiently while also organizing themselves better. Success for the author will be measured not only by quantitative metrics but also by the ability to consistently produce content and overcome the hesitancy to submit to various publications.

Opinions

The author believes that a high output of writing is key to success on Medium, despite previously dismissing this idea due to their own writing style.
They admit that the initial attraction to Medium was the potential to earn money, but now values the platform for its diverse ideas and people.
The author emphasizes the importance of tailoring challenges to one's own capabilities and creative processes, suggesting that arbitrary rules may not suit everyone.
They express a desire to improve their writing efficiency and organizational skills, recognizing that speed does not necessarily correlate with quality.
The author sets personalized goals, aiming for a realistic increase in followers and earnings, and views the challenge as an opportunity for personal growth, regardless of the numerical outcomes.

And if it works for me, it’ll work for anyone

I’ve been on Medium for a while now. I open the app to read most days but as far as writing goes, I still consider myself a ‘newbie’.

Since joining, I’ve written a decent number of posts, with varying degrees of success, but consistency has never been a feature of my game. The most I’ve published in a month is four articles, and I’m far more likely to go four months without posting anything.

So What’s My Challenge?

I’ve come across countless posts claiming a consistently high output is the key to success on this site, and it makes sense. The more you write, the larger your back-catalogue, the more likely people are to find your work. But I’ve always dismissed them because that simply isn’t the way I work.

Then I came across this post by Catherine Mancini who set herself the challenge of submitting 30 articles to 30 different publications over 30 days. She was inspired by other, similar challenges, but her circumstances and goals were similar enough to my own for this to be the article to get me to commit.

Why Did I Join Medium?

The answer is money — I won’t lie. I very quickly realised that Medium is a place full of great ideas and insightful people, which was more that enough to make up for the fact it isn’t a get rich quick scheme. But the original appeal was the possibility of earning a flexible income.

I’m happy posting on Medium. It allows me to interact with people I would never otherwise come across, and on a platform far bigger than my own website. But if I can make changes that mean my presence here could be more successful in the conventional senses, then it’s worth making the effort.

I’m Doing It My Own Way

I don’t subscribe to the idea that you should stick to any arbitrary set of rules, especially when practicing something creative. We’re all different, and some strategies may suit some better than others.

Some people are able to knock out quality work very quickly whereas others, like me, tend to stress over individual words until I’m absolutely sure they don’t suck. Differing circumstances mean that some people have more time to write than others, or are just more able to stick to a committed schedule.

Catherine’s goals were to succeed, while doubling her earnings and follower count in the process. I’m going to stick to her aims as closely as I can, because sometimes we don’t realise what the benefits can be until we’ve tried them.

For a start, not being able to write quickly doesn’t mean I can’t learn to write more quickly, and this could help. And while I might never be able to stick to a writing schedule, there’s no doubt I could stand to organise myself better.

But I am going to tailor them slightly. So here are my two personalised rules:

Publish as close to 30 articles as I can in 30 days. I’m confident I won’t make it, but I’ll never be sure unless I try. I hope to manage at least 20, but I’m aiming for 30.

Submit to 10 different publications. Baby steps, I know. But I’ve always struggled putting myself out there (the only Medium publication my work is in so far, they approached me) so I’m aiming low. This will also free me up to still write about the things I want to — if I’m inspired but can’t seem to find a publication that fits, you’d better believe I’m counting it as one of my 30!

What I Hope to Achieve

Followers. Generally, I’m writing for myself, with only the hope that I might entertain, inform or intrigue a handful of other readers. But to be considered successful on Medium your work needs to be read, and the best way is to have a decent number of followers. At the time of writing, I have 162 followers, but a significant number are those accounts who follow tens of thousands of us, so you know they won’t be picking up any notifications. I don’t think 100 extra followers would be too high to hope for, but even 30 followers who are generally likely to go on to read future and previous posts could be significant.

Earnings. This is the one most people will be interested in. I don’t have high expectations — I’ve only earned over $10 here on a couple of occasions— so I’m not going to set any specific targets like ‘double my earnings’ (if we take last month as the base, I’d still only be aiming for cents). But I want to see progress.

Personal growth. Honestly, I just want to see if I can do it. I’ve always stressed too much over the little details to be anywhere near prolific enough to make money here. I need to know if I can train myself to work through my inhibitions and produce output at a decent rate. If all this teaches me is that I can’t, I’ll consider it a success. The same goes for ‘putting myself out there’ — even if none of the publications accept my work, simply submitting them will have been a personal success for me.

So that’s it, one down, 29 to go. I’ll be posting updates for anyone interested in how I get on. But for now, wish me luck!