My Highest Earning Story in November Was A Poem

Summary

The author shares their surprise at having their poem "We'll Never Meet Again" become their highest-earning story on Medium in November, challenging the belief that poems perform poorly on the platform.

Abstract

The author of the article began their Medium journey with the understanding that poems typically do not perform well on the platform, supported by the notion that "serious poets" would not publish on Medium due to its perceived ease. Despite these preconceptions, the author's poem titled "We'll Never Meet Again" became their most successful piece financially, earning $3.20, which was a significant achievement for them. The author speculates on the reasons behind the underperformance of poems, suggesting shorter reading times and rumors of Medium's preference for self-help articles over poetry and fiction. However, the author's own experience with poetry on Medium has been relatively positive. They invite readers to reflect on their experiences with poetry on Medium and conclude by recommending an AI service, ZAI.chat, as a cost-effective alternative to ChatGPT Plus(GPT-4).

Opinions

The author initially believed, based on their learning and readings, that poetry does not perform well on Medium.
They were pleasantly surprised when their poem became their top-earning story, contradicting the common belief.
The author suggests that the brevity of poems may contribute to their perceived underperformance on Medium due to shorter reading times.
There is a sentiment among some that Medium does not take poetry and fiction as seriously as other genres like self-help, although the author acknowledges this as hears

Is it just a myth that poems don’t do well on Medium?

I’ve always believed that poems don’t do too well on Medium. To my surprise, my top earning story in November was a poem.

One of the first things I learned when I started to write on Medium was that poems don’t do well.

I also read that no serious poet would ever consider publishing a poem on Medium. The reason? It’s too easy.

Luckily for me when I started my journey on Medium, I wasn’t a serious poet. I only wanted a place to express my feelings.

Since I started my journey on Medium writing poetry, having a poem doing this well has made me happy.

What poem?

When reading this article, you might ask yourself what poem she is talking about.

The poem, and also my most earning story in November was

It earned $3.20.

I know it’s not a lot for many people. For me having a poem do this well is amazing.

Proof if anyone needs it. Screenshot by author

Why aren’t poems doing as well on Medium?

I believe one of the reasons poems don’t do as well on Medium is that they have shorter reading times than longer articles.

I’ve also heard rumors that Medium doesn’t take poetry and fiction as seriously as for example self-help. I’ve got no evidence to back this up, other than I’ve heard others suggesting this.

This could also be a rumor as I feel that my poems usually do ok on Medium.

How are your poems doing on Medium? Do you feel that Medium treats them equally in comparison to for example self-help articles?