My New Project and Adventure

Some people say that writing is not for money, but to be honest with you I DO want to make some money by writing. Money is not everything, but at least it can be a motivation or an incentive. Though money is not my first priority for writing, I think that I can be more creative if I can get a little money from writing.

Medium is a great place to write and to read. I will be even more sure that I am in the right place to write if I can earn a bit through this platform.

It might be a blue ocean

I read a few writers who are talking about how they succeeded with Medium, and I started wondering if I could bring more Japanese users to this platform, is there any chance for me to make more money?

The answer is YES, of course! Because I can write more articles in Japanese if there are more Japanese users. Writing in Japanese is as easy as I breathe. While I can write two stories in English per day, I can write five in Japanese and even more creatively.

Which factor brings money to writers is not clear on Medium. Some writers say it’s ‘claps’ when the others say it’s ‘highlights’ or ‘responses’. Now, another question comes to me; if I can stimulate a free user to become a Medium member, can I get a bonus? I am not sure about that at all. Yet, because that seems to be the point when Medium directly earns money, is it reasonable to assume that I should?

I have talked a lot about money, but I also quite simply want to share the joy of writing and of connecting to other writers on Medium, including sharing with other Japanese writers.

So, how can I increase the number of Japanese users? I am a “little” writer, an ordinary person. What can I do?

Here is what I did so far

At first, I created my publication which is for stories written only in Japanese. The nationality of writers doesn’t matter, as long as you can write in Japanese, even if you are not Japanese, you can join and write.

Secondly, I promoted my publication through social media and I continue to send messages on Twitter about how good Medium is for creative writing and how to use Medium, I try not to be too pushy though.

If my goal is getting more Medium members, which means non-free-users, there are two hurdles. The first is to make people sign up as a user on Medium, and the second is to make free users become members who can read unlimitedly. The more Japanese members Medium has, the more readers my Japanese stories get.

If you want to get more readers, it is not complicated, you just keep writing good stories. However, here is the dilemna. If I want to get my stories read by more non-members, my posts should not be behind the paywall, but if they are not, I cannot get any money from them. How would you solve that?

My strategy

My current strategy is; I first post my story in Japanese as a free post (ineligible to earn money) which anybody can read as long as they are Medium users. About 24 hours after I publish, I change “the distribution setting” to enable it to earn money.

My post is automatically posted on social media, so my followers can read my posts within 24 hours even if they are not Medium members. If they want to read my older posts, they have to become members after they read three posts.

I just wrote down what I have in my mind now. I don’t know if it works. My adventure has just begun. I know it will be a marathon, but I believe it’s worth challenging.

My books are available on Amazon!