Hey Fellow Medium Writers
It’s Time You Jump On The Friends of Medium Bandwagon
Why do I care? It’s more fun to make moola with friends
Recently, it was suggested to me writing on Medium is a vanity project. A vanity project? If that’s the case — my vanity comes cheap. Up until I sprung for the Friend of Medium little heart on my profile pic, my vanity afforded me a glass of house Chardonnay once a month. Maybe. Some months my vanity couldn’t buy me a cup of crappy gas station coffee.
Just to be clear, the vanity suggestion was made kindly and not intended to offend me. It didn’t offend me. What it did was make me think a little deeper. Why exactly am I writing on Medium?
I’ve been a writer since I was a young whippersnapper. One of my earliest projects was a fan fic of Get Smart. Get Smart was an American sitcom that ran from 1965–1970. It starred Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, a quirky inept detective working for CONTROL, a top-secret counterintelligence agency.
Maxwell Smart had a shoe phone, which as an 11-year-old, I thought was the coolest thing ever. He also schemed his bumbling spy plans under the Cone of Silence. What’s not to love about a Cone of Silence?
In case you don’t know what that is, take 105 seconds and experience it for yourself.
The Cone of Silence, and the crazy shoe phone made me laugh. It dawned on my pre-pubescent brain that words can make people laugh, and words need writers. Bingo! I parked myself in front of our Underwood typewriter with the worn-out ribbon and worked hard on my shitty first draft, of course, I didn’t know it was a shitty first draft. I thought it was a masterpiece.
I also didn’t know people made money writing words that may or may not make other people laugh. I made money babysitting so I didn’t care about money from writing. Writing was fun that’s what mattered. Which brings me back to Medium.
Up until the Friends of Medium program, my net gain was a solid net loss. I didn’t care. It’s been rewarding and just plain fun to have a no-barrier place to put my stories where anxious readers can find them and shower me with adoration. That’s the pre-pubescent vanity-seeking kid talking.
I’ve been a writer long enough to realize my job is to write — what happens next is out of my control.
A bonus for me — two of my closest friends, Carolyn F. Chryst, Ph.D., and Aslynn Roe 🐈 have joined me in writing stories, posting them on Medium, and making zero dollars.
It was Carolyn F. Chryst, Ph.D. who first recognized the potential for a win-win as a Friend of Medium. Notice the Ph.D. behind her name. They don’t just give those out. It took Aslynn Roe 🐈 and me a little longer to see past the initial $$$ but we got there.
The Friends of Medium membership has given the three of us the kick in the keester we needed. I’m guessing hundreds, likely thousands more keesters are being kicked this very moment. The prospect of 4x-ing the actual moola your writing earns will do that to you.
For the low down on the perks of the Friends program, I suggest you take a gander at the article linked here by Robin Wilding 💎 Also check out her profile pic and the googly eyes she added to the Friends badge. I think every Friends badge should have googly eyes.
So here I am writing for fun and, thanks to Friends of Medium, I’m also writing for actual moola. It’s a win-win. My vanity has gone way up in value. Yours can too. It’s time you jump on the Friends of Medium bandwagon.
Kris Downey here, holding your place on the bandwagon.