My Medium Plan is Working *Evil Laugh*

When strategy actually pays off — roll with it

I get that we are all just tiny cogs in a massive machine that makes no sense. It’s some kind of science-fiction machine where the functions of all its parts are always changing. As soon as you think you have your position or your purpose in this conglomerate of parts well-defined or understood, something changes and you have to change with it or get left behind.

Such is the way of Medium.

I recently wrote about the sober truth of my journey here on Medium and quite a few of you responded to me both publicly and privately to thank me for sharing that truth with you. (Writing for Medium: The Sober Truth)

But don’t thank me. I am simply throwing it all at the wall just like you guys are. I’ve also recently written about my relationship with publication writing here on Medium which brings me to my brief update for today. (Here’s How to Win at Publication Writing on Medium)

It’s working

We get few big wins here so when we do it’s time to celebrate. In my article Here’s How to Win at Publication Writing on Medium I detail how in the world I manage to write for over 65 different publications. Of course this is done on rotation but during that article I made a commitment to myself to make a few changes to see what would happen.

To catch you up to speed I am one of the top 5.4% making over $100 on Medium per month and most of my work falls in the personal wellness, parenting, or poetry categories. I’d say about half of my work is poetry. So this in and of itself is quite an accomplishment considering I do not write tech-driven topics and I rarely write about sex or overly revealing topics.

I realize when I took a look at all of the publications I am writing for that I cannot, in good conscious, blame Medium for the drop in my earnings for the previous few months. I went from over $200 a month down to barely making $100 a month and yes MPP has been a big thorn in my side but I can’t blame them completely.

I realize I’ve been dropping the ball all over the place. I have all of these fantastic publications that include me as a writer but I was not submitting my material. I got in the rut of submitting my material to two or three different publications and ignoring the rest. I decided when I wrote that last article about Medium publications that I would change a few things and just see what happens.

The plan

First — I decided to write more often.

It is true what they say that you need to write more often. I’ll admit I had become so discouraged from the MPP changes and the sudden drop in my income that I slacked off a bit and stopped writing so often for Medium.

I realized this was not serving my goals here. I took a look at how many articles (including letters and poetry prompt posts) I was putting out each month:

February: 11 stories in 6 different pubs

March: 13 stories in 6 different pubs

(Insert re-dedication to writing more often here)

April: 23 stories in 16 different pubs

May: 33 stories in 16 different pubs

Secondly — I began rotating publications

In addition to writing more often I have recommitted myself to writing in as many different publications as I can. If you write for the same publications over and over you likely are getting the same eyes on your work over and over.

When you rotate your publications you are submitting your work to multiple audiences and this is important if you want to get your work in front of as many people as possible.

So, when I began writing more often I implemented a pub rotation strategy. As you can see by the graphic below, I have been using an Excel sheet to keep up with my publication submissions. You can also see that I have been very busy in the months of April and May contributing my work to multiple publications. After I publish with a publication I highlight it on the sheet then add extra checks of numbers if I submit to them again.

Each week I make a list of the publications I intend to write for that week and I check them off as I submit my work. Of course this does not mean that the publication has accepted the work yet but that I submitted my work there. If a publication refuses my work I typically will go back and remove my check mark and work on something else for that publication.

It is working

The bottom line is that it is working. I had a good month in January making 298.52, partially due to one article that earned almost $100 on its own that month. But in February I dropped to one 142.13. In March I dropped again to 126.67. In April I dropped again to 113.41.

It was probably about mid April that I committed myself to my “write more frequently and for more publications” plan and here we are about three quarters of the way through May. I’m already up to 143.62. I plan to write for at least five or six more publications this month and I expect to finish out May strongly.

Here is a screenshot of my current stats.

Stats are generally trending up and my MPP seems to be sludging forward on an upward slope. I am calling this early as a small win and will keep up with the plan. Also, I have noticed an uptick in new followers.

Why do I write these articles / updates?

As much complaining as we see about people not wanting to see these “how I made all the money on Medium” articles, I think they are extremely important. When I first began writing for Medium I read all of these articles that I could find. Yes sometimes it feels like false hope but looking at the progress and stats and strategies of other writers has helped me to develop my own personal strategy for success here on Medium.

Sometimes a look at the stats of other writers compared to my personal income, it does not match up to what I think it should. Meaning, I see other writers with similar stats making way more money than I am — ???

I find that very frustrating but it can also be encouraging in that I see areas where I could probably make more progress or put in more effort.

FYI: I am a stay-at-home mom because I am at least partially disabled. I have a neck injury from about 10 years ago that renders my left arm fairly useless most days and leaves me in a lot of daily pain. I cannot work outside the home so this side hustle is important to me. It provides me some way that I can contribute to the financial security of my family and I just refuse to give up on the hope that it can be lucrative and I can be successful in spite of my limitations.

So, I write these articles because I know that there’s someone out there today who is jotting down their plan, evaluating their Medium strategies, and putting everything they have into building their writing portfolio here — and this information may be helpful to them on their journey. It is certainly not to brag in any way but for other writers who are writing in the same lane as I, this gives them an opportunity to gauge where they are and where they want to go with Medium.

I expect that the adjustments I’ve made to my Medium work will continue to pay off and I can look back on this first year of hard work and be proud of the efforts I have made.

I wish you all the best in your Medium journey!

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Christina M. Ward is a well-living blogger and poet from North Carolina. Her work has been featured in numerous blogs and poetry journals. You can follow her work here on Medium or on social media.