Medium Partnership Program — My First Months Earnings Report

Follower Count, Income in Dollars and Great British Pounds, and How Much I Wrote.

Introduction

I thought long and hard about sharing my first month's earnings report on Medium.

I decided to share it, as it helps me keep track of my growth, and it might be of some encouragement to a newbie like me.

I don’t share to brag or show off.

I read so many earnings reports, and it is really fascinating stuff to read.

I personally do not believe we can figure out the algorithm — so I won’t beat my head against a brick wall trying to. Life is too short to waste precious energy on what you can’t control.

Just focus on what you can control. That is, your mood, writing, and engagement on Medium.

My Journey Todate

I started to write on Medium on 10th January 2023.

My Medium Partnership Journey began on the 6th of February, 2023.

As soon as I became a member of the MPP club, I made sure to meter all the stories that I had written before I became MPP, so they could start earning pennies for me.

Next, I wrote a story to record the fact I became an MPP and how scary I found the W8BEN form to fill out. Again to track my milestones on my Medium journey.

Did I Have A Strategy For Growth And Earning?

Honestly, No!

Frankly, I was too clueless to know where to start. I just went for it.

I knew I was going to grow organically and that I wanted to write poetry, SOCS, and other standard types of writing to do with thoughts and positivity and take part in prompts. I also knew maybe this type of writing might not be everyone’s cuppa tea!

I Read and Engaged Like A Crazy

As we all know, we earn money (sorry, pennies) based on a member reading time on our stories. So engagement is critical in growing and earning.

Therefore, I read like a ‘crazy’. But, admittedly, I was so excited, new and full of energy that I was on Medium every moment I could get. I read so much about whatever came my way.

With all my reading, clapping, highlighting and commenting, I got up to 400 followers by the end of February 2023. All I did was have fun!

I did not take part in follow-for-follow because that is like building a house on quicksand.

The Statistics For My First Month as MPP

Okay, this is the interesting bit.

February Views

This is the graph everyone shows when they write about their earning — so here are my February 2023 story stats.

The black dots represent how many posts were published on that day. You can get the same stats using a google extension — read here.

My Follower Growth For Jan and Feb 2023

Earnings In Dollars vs Great British Pound

My earnings for February were $19.21 dollars, and I was really quite happy about this. Considering how difficult I find writing. Being a newbie, I had no clue how this was going to pan out.

As my father always said, “pennies make pounds”. In this case dollars, then pounds.

Actual take-home income was £15 GBP.

Living in the United Kingdom, currency conversion kicks in (or it is the stripe processing fee), so the earning is less. What can we do? That is the way the cookie is going to crumble!

The fact is, this is the most I have ever earned from writing ever! Basically, I have never earnt money for writing before.

Finally, It covers the monthly Medium Subscription fee, and I can buy a couple of coffees or save it.

How Many Stories did I write?

I wrote 27 stories/ poems in 17 days. On eight of those days, I posted more than one story.

Yes, I was like, “crazy”. I was on a mission; I needed to prove to myself can I do this.

Self-Publish Vs Publication

To be honest, I haven’t quite got the grips of writing for publications. And I am still figuring out the ropes of Medium. I certainly, find it easier to self-publish.

I often think I have selected the publication I want to submit for, and I hit submit/publish, to realize I have just self-published. Ahhh-it is so painful; I have lost count of how many times I have done it.

Below are the statistics for published vs self-published.

Closing Summary

I became MPP on the 6th of February.

I published 17 days in February. I wrote 27 Stories/Poems.

Because of being a newbie and over-excited, I post several stories on the same day. Or the publication and my self-published post came out on the same day, sometimes at the same time.

Oh, I can’t tell you the number of Newbie errors I made!

• Clapping — well, who knew you could clap up to 50 times! And that is utterly bad manners to clap once — my newbie friends.
• Thinking Lists are bookmarks.
• Submitting to Publication to only realize I self-published. Ahh Man!
• I am not good at writing Titles or selecting the right tags.

I am a newbie still figuring it out.

The Things I Did Right:

Reading, highlighting, commenting, clapping and engaging are so much fun. I absolutely love it. It is the joy of being on Medium.

Last Thoughts and My Advice (as a Newbie)

My craziness, as I call it in February, isn’t something I can sustain forever. So we will see what happens in the coming months. Titles and Tags matter. Writing for publication helps a great deal.

I think the important thing on Medium is to engage and write regularly.

Don’t bother to figure out the algorithm; not worth your time or energy.

And if you are a new writer, don’t burn yourself out on publishing, but do write at the same time. I wrote a story you might find interesting on this topic — read it here.

Have fun and write. Read, comment, highlight, clap a lot, and engage with other writers. It is as simple as that.

© 2023 Bella of Thoughtsnlifeblog

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