I’m Submitting 30 Articles to 30 Pubs in 30 Days

My mission: 250 new followers and $250+ in income

There’s been a lot of interest in the Challenge. You can find the details on how to take part here:

You can see the results of my original Challenge here:

Now, onto the original article.

I‘m starting a Medium 30-Day Writing Challenge, and you’re invited. The aim of the Challenge is to:

• Get new followers — my goal is 250 new followers.
• Network with other writers — and build valuable connections with some of the best writers on Medium.
• Increase income — my aim is to make March my biggest earning month yet.

…and have a blast along the way.

I’m sharing my cunning plan to run laps of Medium faster than Usain Bolt in a Ferrari.

I’m doing it as a LIVE event, and you’re invited along to take part with me — I share how to join in below. You can also just follow along and see what happens. I’ll be sharing my results at the end of the 30 days.

It could be a roaring success. It could crash and burn. Or it might land somewhere between the two.

In this article, I’ll share the Challenge rules and why — even if it won’t instantly make you into the next Ayodeji Awosika, Sinem Günel or Zulie Rane— I expect it to have significant benefits for all writers who take part.

The rules for the Medium 30-day Writing Challenge are as follows:

• Submit to any publication.
• Submit one new article each day.
• Submissions can be anything: Poetry, in-depth analysis, a self-help article, fiction, whatever. As long as the submission fits the guidelines of the publication.
• Every new submission must be to a different publication.
• Any publication is fair game. I’ll be submitting to a mix of publications that I’ve written for previously, and pubs that are new to me.
• I’ll be banking some articles ahead of time. I know some writers can write a new article each day, but that’s beyond what’s possible for me in my current circumstances.

One more thing:

Rejection will happen. It’s guaranteed.

So, I’ve planned in advance, and I recommend you do this too. When an article gets rejected, I’ll submit it to another publication. These re-submissions won’t count as new submissions in the 30-day challenge, but their performance will count in my data analysis.

In other words, no messing around here. I’ll be submitting 30 unique articles. I won’t be cheating by counting the same article twice if I resubmit it.

7 benefits I expect from the Challenge:

1. A bigger stadium

When a soccer team moves up to the Premier League, they build a bigger stadium. As a writer, the size of my stadium is dictated by my follower count.

I’m not (yet) a niche writer, so I want to build a wide base of followers with a range of interests. Each new publication I write for is an opportunity to get discovered by a different set of readers.

2. Reaching outside comfort topics

By branching out to a range of publications, I’m planning to go beyond my usual writing topics of creativity and personal development. Topics I’m hoping to explore include personal finance, faith, spirituality, books, environmental issues, pets, being a vegetarian, and mental health.

3. Trying new writing structures

For example, I’m planning to write:

• A rant for Eir Thunderbird’s The Venting Machine
• A journal-style entry for Katlyn Gallo’s Unwritten Journal
• A poem for ◦•●❄ Christina M. Ward ❄●•◦’s The POM
• An article tear-down for Mary DeVries’s Story Second Chances
• A book write-up for Anangsha Alammyan at Books are Our Superpower

4. Connections with big-name writers

Medium is a networking platform. As such, it’s always in your favor to reach out to a wide range of writers and build connections. Most publications are run by writers on Medium, and submitting to their publications is a good way to say “hello!”

Some writers I’m excited to connect with by submitting to their publications include:

• Benny Lim at Writers’ Blokke
• Ben Le Fort at Making of a Millionaire
• Dew Langrial at Positive Minds
• Anangsha Alammyan at Freelancer’s Hub
• Jared A. Brock at Common Faith

5. Stretching my writing skills

I’m with Ray Bradbury here. I’m a firm believer that quantity leads to quality.

Bradbury encouraged beginner and intermediate writers to “write a hell of a lot of short stories”. He explained:

If you can write one short story a week — it doesn’t matter what the quality is to start, but at least you’re practicing, and at the end of the year you have 52 short stories, and I defy you to write 52 bad ones. Can’t be done. At the end of 30 weeks or 40 weeks or at the end of the year, all of a sudden a story will come that’s just wonderful.

I’m hoping this also applies to my 30-day experiment, and at least one of the articles I submit will be “just wonderful”.

6. More feedback than I feel okay with

I like feedback because it improves my writing. I learn a ton. My favorite editors are the ones who give feedback.

I also hate feedback because it’s well, feedback. It’s a euphemism for “you need to do better”. It’s uncomfortable to be told that I need to up my game.

As I engage with so many different editors during this experiment, I expect to get pushed way out of my comfort zone. And I hope to learn a lot on how to improve my writing.

7. Becoming a BIG DATA machine — and even more insights into what resonates with readers

“If you’re not using data to inform your writing process, then what on earth are you doing? Guessing?” — Nicolas Cole

I love looking at my stats, and not just to boost my ego. With my stats, I get insights into what’s working, and what resonates with readers.

Submitting 30 articles over a 30 day period will create a ton of data points to analyze at the end of the month.

One Big Potential Risk

There’s a BIG opportunity cost to writing for so many publications.

I’ll be investing dozens of hours getting set up on new publications, and writing and submitting all these articles.

It’s possible that I’d have been better to spend this time writing for my current roster of publications, on the same topics I already write about.

That said, it’s a 30-day sprint. If I lose, I’ll only have lost thirty days.

Once the 30-days are up, I’ll be reporting back on what happened

I’ll be sharing the exact results, in numbers:

• How many views did I get for the month — and how does this compare to previous months?
• How many new followers did I gain?
• How much money did I make?

I’ll also open up about the experience. I’ll reveal how I found it, and what I learned from the process.

Why I’m doing this — what possessed me to take on this Challenge

I believe in writing to express my soul. It’s deep. But if that’s all I believed, I could write in my journal and be content forevermore.

I don’t only write to express my soul. I also write for readers.

I write for an audience. I write to make my readers think, to inspire them, to give them big feelings.

And as I’m writing for an audience:

I have zero shame in admitting I want to build a community of readers engaged with my writing.

So, if you like my writing, leave a comment and say hello. And I’d love for you to follow me too.

I’ve found a new hobby that gives me a ton of attention and pays me real dollars

Of course I’m planning to keep getting better at writing.

I’m fulfilling a lifelong dream, and I’m improving my craft in the process.

As a writer, I’m developing a skill that’s valuable in almost any walk of life — whether that’s dating, finding a dream job, or building a side hustle. Everything these days involves writing.

Then there’s the money side. I’ve been writing on Medium for almost four months, and during that time I’ve made over $500. That’s nice for a hobby I’m doing in my free-time, around two jobs and a busy family life.

Writing as much as I do takes a lot of time at my keyboard. But I’ve found you can earn a decent side-income from Medium. Especially if you’re just doing it for fun.

Now comes the part where you get to try this, too

I’d love for you to join me in this Challenge! You can find the details here:

Not sure who to write for? The ten publications I shared above are plenty to get you started.

I’ll be listing the articles that I publish as part of this experiment below, as they get published. If you’d like to follow along, then be sure to index this post so you can return to it.

Happy writing! Great to be walking with you on this journey.

A bit more about me:

• I’ve published over 80 articles on Medium
• I‘ve been awarded Top Writer status in five different categories on the platform (Creativity, Writing, Music, This Happened to Me, Art)
• I’ve written for a wide range of publications, including Mind Cafe, The Ascent, Writing Co-operative, Better Marketing and Publishous

Check out my other writings here:

Other writers taking part:

Zach Klebaner:

Alana Rister, Ph.D.:

Catherine Mancini:

◦•●Christina M. Ward ●•◦

Hammad Khalid

Verbieann Hardy

Challenge Complete!

The Challenge is now completed, you can read about the results I achieved here:

Submissions:

I will add article links as the articles get published. With many publications, there is a delay of 1–2 days between submission and publication. With some publications, this is up to 10 days.

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3: REJECTED

Day 4:

Day 5:

Day 6:

Day 7:

Day 8:

Day 9:

Day 10:

Day 11:

Day 12:

Day 13:

Day 14:

Day 15:

Day 16:

Day 17:

Day 18:

Day 19: REJECTED

Day 20:

Day 21: REJECTED

Day 22:

Day 23:

Day 24:

Day 25:

Day 26:

Day 27:

Day 28: NO RESPONSE

Day 29:

Day 30: