More on Making Money on Medium

This writer will say what Dr. Y will not because he’s too polite

Dr Mehmet Yildiz has created what is probably by far the best publication on Medium. Those of us who joined early, wrote hard and participated have all benefited not only from his extraordinary generosity of spirit, but also his unending support and embracing of broad and deep diversity.

I am a fan. He knows it.

I read this piece today of his about the FAQ that new writers to Illumination pose:

I read it, but unlike Dr. Y I AM going to respond to a few of the points he chose not to ( because he’s more polite than I am, and you don’t have to listen to me AT ALL).

First: my creds. Prize-winning journalist, prize-winning business person, multiple prize-winning author. I’m a decent writer. No Pulitzer, mind you, but I can write. Sort of.

Second, I have produced close to six THOUSAND articles on Medium since joining in March 2018. That’s despite the fact that I travel a lot, for a month at a time, sold my house and moved, and a lot more. Somehow there is always time to produce.

Third, I do not, will not and will NEVER write a brag fest about how much I earn on this platform. I will share with you what I make in this article for the purpose of making a point. After that, it’s nobody’s goddamned beeswax. I rarely believe the hype I read, nor should any of us.

To that: just before Covid hit, I was making very close to $2600 a month. Given that only about 10% of all Medium writers make over $100, that’s not bad chump change. Then Covid. Since I am an adventure traveler, you can imagine, my earnings took a nosedive. I redirected, found new lanes that I know a shitload about, and I am already back up to $1700, close. Again, not bad chump change. But here’s the piece: I don’t watch stats or income, don’t give a shit, until I see it land in my checking account. I do NOT live and die by my stats. I look maybe once a week. I am way way way way too busy living, working and writing to bother.

That might be a good idea for all of us, my guess.

I do not have an email list (as yet) nor do I have a newsletter. I do have more than 6k followers. I follow a shitload of people. On purpose. They interest me. NO I can’t read all their stuff. But I am never short of material to peruse, learn from and tag, support, link to and include in my reading. That’s another good idea which Dr. Y heartily supports (Fans).

We can all claim to make $10k a month. Right. Show me the payments. Other than that, kindly just write, work and will you STOP it with the bragging and posturing. GTFU already. Because why? It sends the wrong fucking message. More on that in a minute.

I want to totally underscore and support some of Dr. Y’s points here:

1. Quality DOES NOT DETERMINE curation, nor does it mean income. As he’s said, politely, but I am going to state more frankly, some articles are the literary equivalent of steaming turd piles and they still earn eyeballs. Sometimes lots of them, which to me is the Medium equivalent of rubbernecking at a bad accident. It’s so bad you have to look, which again, sends the wrong message. To quote Dr. Y: I read several stories about how a celebrity chewed gums gaining myriads of readers on Medium. Un-fucking-believable.
2. Curation is about as predictable as Denver weather. Ask any of us who have lived there (I made it fifty years). There is no guideline. Maybe someone eats anchovy pizza the night before and the steaming pile of shit writing is right up his alley. Who knows? You cannot chase curation. You will go mad and your writing will suffer more than it already does.
3. Many top earners are, well. Go figure. Because it’s unpredictable. People, our readers, are unpredictable. Mine were unpredictable. That’s why I don’t watch the stats.

Read his piece. It’s smart and chock-full of important guidance.

Now. My unapologetic rant, with this proviso: I have written my entire life. At 67, it’s who I am, not what I do. I live to write, not write to live. That makes a massive difference. I don’t write because I’m bored or can’t get a job (both are sometimes true) but I write because I have to. I HAVE to. Drew Magary wrote a piece about this once which got me right in the feels: I am always writing, composing, looking for and living stories. I cannot NOT write. It is an imperative as important as breathing. If you labor to write, it might not be for you. Or it might. The creative process is as unique as a fingerprint. I do not have to labor to write.

I have to labor to NOT write. If I can‘t write I can’t function.

That said.

Kindly, here is what I want to expand upon from the esteemed Dr. Y:

As the first caveat, this story has nothing to do with ethics, my personal preference, and motives about money. Making money on Medium is not my goal and motive. I have different views on content creation and money. I exclude this aspect in my story.

Yah. This:

I do not write on Medium for the money. Period full stop.

The articles I produce, sometimes three a day, sometimes none (I missed part of a week in the hospital, but I still wrote multiple pieces while on morphine). I got an open fracture on a middle finger flipping my car in Idaho which put a damper on my 140 wpm typing, but now I can remove the splint and am back up to about half speed.

Like I said, I HAVE to write. Open fracture be damned.

I write for the people who are in my lane. Period full stop.

First, I know my lanes. This is Entrepreneurship 101. Know who the hell your market is. If you don’t you will end up wandering all over creation, you will steal other people’s stuff (that’s illegal, kindly) and waste a shitload of time with your literary thumb up your butt. Find your lane: what do you know? Who needs to hear your story?

This is why most small businesses- and yes you ARE a small business and YES you had better learn to sell- die out fast. Please see excellent material by Illumination writer Sharon Hurley Hall. Read her stuff. It’s smart and she lays out how to market yourself as a writer. You and I have to SELL ourselves.

Kindly, my lane does not include curators. These are my fans, my regular commenters. Those who share their personal stories (which I draw from, link to, comment on, promote and get very excited about, which is another pretty damned good habit to develop) are part of my article fodder. As much as I possibly can I read, clap for and respond to them. When I am out of country and out of wifi range for weeks on end, I can’t possibly go back and respond to 1k comments. Folks get that.

They come and go, a few have hung around for the long run, and many take the time to call me on my shit, correct my grammar (which has gotten worse since I fucked up my left middle finger) and point out either my mistakes, or when I am showing up like an asshole. Those also happen, like when I run out of pain meds or hit my open fracture on the edge of my kitchen countertop.

Key piece? I listen. Respond. Thank them. They are my crew, my peeps, and they are constantly teaching me what they like.

How? Highlights. Not just claps. Highlights. You do not get better feedback about what people want from you than highlights. PAY FUCKING ATTENTION. People like your shit enough to highlight it, that is your best teacher. Ignore them at your peril.

Make friends on Medium

If you are not actively reaching out, reading, connecting with, emailing, talking with and meeting with folks off Medium you are utterly missing the goddamned point. This is a community. If all people are to you are eyeballs that pay, folks, get a mail room job. There are so many takers and manipulators out there. Medium is a learning community. As in, people who get invested in you enough so that when you disappear you get an email or a phone call.

Where the fuck are you? You all right?

Kindly, you want to argue to my aging ass that money is more important than the occasional 1.5 hour phone calls I have with my Medium buddy Ann Litts, who is helping me sort out a brand new diet so that I don’t get more kidney stones? The folks who checked in on me after my car accident?

Priceless.

You want to tell me that the friendships I’ve crafted, the women I’ve met and befriended, the relationships that are evolving into business partnerships (ask Gillian Sisley how that worked for her) are less important than what you earn?

Because many of those connections may well lead to consulting contracts and books written. Medium is where I am finding those amazing people.

When all you focus on is the money, you are missing the fucking point.

So yes, I am earning. Pretty good dime. Because…

1. I am not doing it for the money alone. Helps, but that’s not what drives me.
2. I give a major flying shit about the folks who read, comment on and highlight my work. You bet I do. And to the best I can I respond, uplift, support, link to and celebrate those folks. I take their comments and feedback to heart (except for trolls) and am damned grateful for the gifts of their interest and time.
3. I actively reach out, learn from, speak to and engage people. I really do. It’s an emotional investment.
4. I actively promote other writers. If it is all about you, people get that fast. Nobody owes us anything, not ever. Eyeballs are earned, loyalty to a writer is earned. Again, ignore your fans at your peril. I am known to go back to very old stories to clap for and respond to material I might have missed while traveling. Six thousand stories, nearly, but I care. I listen. If your readers aren’t worth your investment, there’s a meat packing plant up here in Eugene that’s hiring. You think I jest. No. I don’t.
5. For god’s sake BE FUNNY. I hear from so many folks who are exhausted by the angst and anger and moaning. Funny makes money. We need to laugh, we need relief, we need perspective. Angst only gets you so far and you will exhaust your reader’s good will. Learn to see the absurd. If I want to see the absurd, all I have to do is look in the bathroom mirror before I put in my dentures.

Finally, I use Medium to get writing assignments. I post good stuff for people who are my clients (please see my work on Kilimanjaro and Offbeat Safaris). That gets me gigs. I get, what? $4.85 for a story? I could care less. That story got me a gig in Kenya, or Nepal, or whatever. The money isn’t the point.

The point is learn how to goddamned well write. This is a profession. Too many folks do it badly and a great many of those write on Medium, get curated and, not to belabor the point, that sends the wrong fucking message.

Ask fellow Illumination writer P.G. Barnett about learning to write well.

It’s a skill. Takes training. Years of practice. YEARS. I’m not saying you can’t write right now. I am saying that learning to do it will take the rest of your natural life. Just like it will take the rest of mine.

I will never, ever be a good enough writer. But I care, and the fact that I genuinely care about people, write what I know and engage those who are generous enough to read my work are why I earn money on Medium.

Because it’s not about the fucking money. It’s about the community.

Lest you missed the point, I tagged and promoted six different writers in this piece. Maybe seven. I need morphine.