In February, I Wrote Like Never Before — Here Is What Happened

My most successful month so far

Writing on Medium has been a roller-coaster ride. Although I wrote my first article in February 2020, I am only getting started.

I experienced early success in 2020 but didn’t take writing on Medium seriously and stepped away from the platform for several months.

In August 2021, I decided to restart my journey and give writing on Medium an honest try.

And damn, it was worth it!

I would be lying if I said that I gave it my best during the past 7 months. On the contrary, I had months where I had trouble creating consistently, and I never reached my goal article output.

However, I wrote almost every single day.

And in February, I reached several milestones on my Medium journey.

My first month of earning more than $100

I intended to publish at least 25 articles in February. I managed to write 17–2 of which were short-form articles.

That’s hardly an insane amount of pieces.

Still, I have achieved my goal of increasing my income to more than $100.

10 of my articles were “chosen for further distribution,” and my best performing article has more than 50 fans. It also accounted for 40% of my February earnings. It is my highest-earning article so far.

The funny thing is that I didn’t expect much from this article and braced myself for rejection when I submitted it. However, the publication accepted it, and it was a hit.

That showed me how important it is to write from experience and the heart.

My follower count grew to 5K

In February, I gained more than 2K new followers and 2 new referred members. I was incredibly proud of the latter.

People signing up for Medium because they liked my stories? That’s a huge confidence booster.

I was published in big publications

I have a colossal imposter sitting on my shoulder, whispering that I am not a good enough writer.

He relentlessly shouts that my English is too bad (I am a native German speaker), that my stories are bland and boring, and that I have nothing new to say.

However, I got over my fear and submitted to some of the biggest publications on Medium. They accepted my articles. This, too, gave me a huge confidence boost.

I started to write for new publications

After my 5-month long break, it felt as if I needed to relearn everything about Medium. Prominent publications had shut down, apparently “the algorithm changed”, and it seemed as if curation was not all that important anymore.

I also decided not to limit myself to writing about a specific topic, so I looked for new publications that I could write for and was accepted into all of them.

Moving forward

I am just getting started on my Medium journey, and I have many questions.

For example, I am debating if I should continue writing short-form articles. Whereas I had written more of those in January, I only wrote two in February.

I am not sure if writing short-form helps or hinders my progress as a writer because I need to develop even more ideas to write about.

But I only have so much time and mental space.

Another debate I am having with myself is if I should niche down. I have written articles on mental health, running, general fitness and lifestyle, productivity, relationships, and making your dreams come true.

At the moment, I don’t know if this is a good strategy or if it just confuses my readers.

Please leave your opinion about “niching down” or not in the comments.

Thank you for reading and being a part of my journey. I am excited to see how far I can still go 😀.

P.S. You can read every story I publish by joining Medium: With only $5 per month, you can support me and other writers.

By signing up with this link, I’ll get a small commission but it won’t cost you any extra. I would be very grateful.

Plus you can start writing for money yourself 🤑 !