Blogging reflections
My Second Month on Medium
And what you could learn from my four top stories…
I wrote “My first month on Medium” in mid-March of 2022, which already shows what a noob I was.
I didn’t realize that the best time to review progress is at the end of the month, as that’s when you can see your month’s MPP earnings.
One of many things I’ve learned…
Earnings — I’ll come back to those very shortly. But first, how many new stories did I write in the month of March?
Productivity
I’m currently at a point where I have around 100 stories, counting both drafts and published stories. Of the drafts, around a third are fully written and ready to go.
Checking back, I published 42 stories in the month of March — a very healthy total. Much more than I was expecting, I’ll be honest.
In part, this is because I have been exploring various topics and preferences. I guess my focus will shift as I get more used to writing here.
At the start, I mainly wrote about my fantasy writing. Now, I am writing more posts about the creative process and about writing or blogging in general. These seem to get more traction.
But I’m still going to write posts about writing and publishing novels, too. I am, after all, an author and a book lover!
Story Earnings
As I said last time, my expectations were not high. I was hoping to cover the Medium membership fee, and that was about all. I recognise that it would take time to connect with readers and to learn the platform.
As things stand, I have four stories that have earned over a dollar for the month.
Wanna know what they are? Here goes:
- Want to write more? Narrow down your ideas.
- Why I write.
- Are you writing dialogue? Here are the basics.
- My first month on Medium.
All four were in different publications. Of the four, I’m most surprised about “Want to write more?”. It’s quite technical, with some stuff about the psychology of creativity in there.
I’m most pleased about “Are you writing dialogue?”. It’s a long and detailed guide (almost 1400 words) which I think will be a genuinely useful reference for authors.
It’s the kind of stuff I needed to learn myself as a new author.
Hopefully the level of interest will last.
I think that “Why I write” and “My first month on Medium” are mainly successful because other Medium writers can connect and identify, and are curious to compare their own experiences.
I could be wrong, though!
If I am slightly baffled about one thing it’s the fact that the story below only made one cent. I thought it was pretty good — every bit as helpful as the ones above:
What do you think? Anything I can do to rescue it?
(I’m sure every author has a few like these that bomb for no obvious reason!)
The bottom line
Finally to my monthly total.
In the whole month of March, my MPP earnings were:
$14.82
Okay, not life-changing, but I honestly think that’s not bad for a start.
As I mentioned, I’d have been happy to just recoup the membership fee, so to almost treble it in my first full month is decent. Also, my earnings stood at only $2.75 half-way through the month, as I said here. So, the curve appears to be gradually ticking upwards.
I now have more followers, more publications, and a much better idea of what stories work than I did at the start.
I feel cautiously optimistic that I can double that monthly total in April.
For anyone who has read, clapped, commented and otherwise supported me, thank you! Thank you to the publications, and to my fellow writers who have shared such valuable insights.
A couple more things: you should get my posts direct to your inbox. Do that here!
Also, if you’d like to experience Medium yourself, consider supporting me and thousands of other writers by signing up for a membership. It only costs $5 per month, it genuinely supports writers, and you have the chance to make serious money with your own writing as well! By signing up with this link, you’ll support me directly with a portion of your fee, it won’t cost you extra. If you do, thank you so very much!
And here’s my very top story again: