Summary

The author, James Gordon, acknowledges a decline in his Medium earnings due to reduced writing output, emphasizing personal responsibility for the results rather than blaming external factors.

Abstract

James Gordon, a successful Medium writer, experienced a significant increase in earnings during his first two months on the platform, reaching over $600 in his third month. However, his earnings dipped by 17.25% in November, which he attributes to a decrease in his writing productivity. Despite travel and other commitments, Gordon takes full accountability for the drop in earnings, viewing excuses as counterproductive. He advocates for consistent effort and self-improvement as the keys to success on Medium and in life, encouraging other writers to take responsibility for their performance and to actively seek ways to improve rather than blaming the platform's algorithm or other external factors.

Opinions

The author believes that one's success on Medium is directly tied to their own effort and consistency.
He criticizes the tendency of some writers to blame the platform or external circumstances for their reduced earnings or viewership.
Gordon emphasizes that personal challenges should not be used as excuses for not meeting writing goals.
He suggests that writers should focus on producing content regularly and improving their craft to maintain and grow their earnings.
The author promotes the idea that writers should be proactive in their approach to writing and platform engagement, rather than being passive or playing the victim.
He implies that the Medium algorithm is not something to be angry at, as it is merely a system that rewards consistent and quality content.
Gordon encourages writers to learn from his experience and to apply strategies that can help them overcome setbacks and improve their performance on the platform.

My Medium earnings dipped in my third month and it’s all my fault

I see a lot of people whining on this site and blaming everyone but themselves when their earnings dip.

If they bring in less money than the month before, it’s never their fault.

“This platform hates me! I went on vacation and didn’t write for three weeks and I got less views! How dare they?!”

“The algorithm changed! That’s the only explanation for why people aren’t reading me as much as before!”

“My readers don’t understand how brilliant this work is! They don’t get it!”

I’m not going to do anything like that.

Instead, I’m going to try something radical: I will take responsibility for my own results.

First, let me run you through how I got to a pretty consistent $500 or so in earnings per month, and then where I went wrong in my third month.

The story so far

If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know I got off to a pretty quick start on this platform.

I’d heard anecdotally that only 6 per cent of writers (or thereabouts) make $100 or more on Medium each month.

As I detailed in this story, I passed that threshold in just 23 days by publishing an insane number of articles over at my main account James Julian. If you’re interested in how I did that, I’d strongly suggest you read the piece I just linked to.

By my first full month, as described in this piece, I was making hundreds of dollars.

This worked out to $477.50 from my Stripe account, as I’m benefitting from a very strong U.S. dollar exchange rate right now.

My writing pace slowed in my second full month, but with money rolling in from older stories, I actually tripled my hourly wage (I found this by dividing my earnings by my estimated hours worked), from about $10 Canadian per hour to $31.02.

Here are my second month earnings:

So to recap, here was my earnings growth (in Canadian dollars) to start my Medium career:

August (partial month): $14.36
September: $477.50 (3225.21% growth)
October: $608.97 (27.53% growth)

Looking good, and then…

November: $503.92 (-17.25% decline)

Did you catch that last one? Woof! Aren’t numbers always supposed to go up?

Let’s dig into what happened here.

It’s my fault

I could blame the algo or the site or you, my fair reader, but that’s a copout.

The reality is that I didn’t do the work.

In this piece I wrote last week at James Julian, I detailed the dropoff in my output:

“In September, my output was epic. I published more than 50 articles.

“In October, my production slid to just under 30 posts in total. Still good enough to make writing feel easy.

“In November, it was closer to 20 and writing was starting to feel like a bit of a slog.

“How many have I written in December? This is the first. Yikes!”

I also provided this excuse:

“Over the past month I’ve being doing a ton of travel.

“I went to visit my dad for almost a week, which required a plane trip, and I’ve gone to two hockey tournaments in the car. If you have kids in competitive sports, you know how all-consuming a tournament or competition weekend can be.”

That’s all they are though, if I’m being honest — excuses.

Just as my output dropped at the beginning of October because I was trying to start a YouTube channel, travel was no excuse for my productivity dip.

In October, I could have pumped the brakes on YouTube here and there to ensure I was publishing enough articles. While I was travelling, I could have carved out some time to write.

But I chose not to, ergo this is all my fault.

Take responsibility

Your success on this site, or anywhere in life really, is dependent on your effort.

I’ve seen multiple posts here of people absolutely livid that their views dropped off when they took time off because they got COVID or something.

They were mad at the algorithm.

Tell me, what use is it getting mad at a piece of math?

As with anything in life, you will be rewarded for your consistency. Everyone faces challenges. Not everyone uses them as easy excuses, reasons to play the victim.

Now fix it

Instead of whining about things you can’t control, ask what you could be doing to get better.

Could you write twice as many articles when you’re feeling better to build up some momentum again?
Could you study the platform and your own writing and dig down to what’s really working for you (or not?). I’ve written a bunch of articles on how to succeed here. After reading them, did you apply the information, or did you go watch Netflix?
Could you practice more, or take a course to become a better writer so people will actually want to read your stuff?

There are countless other ways to tackle a problem like an earnings dip, but at the end of the day, it’s all up to you.

Medium doesn’t owe you a living.

So what have I done? I’ve dug back into my schedule and my psychology to figure out why I was so much more productive in September than I was in November. I’m adjusting accordingly.

What will you do?

My friends, thank you so much for reading this post all the way to the end! If you enjoyed it, please give it some claps so others can find it!

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