No, I didn’t Receive a Bonus
$500 where?: Momentary musings about the Medium lottery
So, I think we’ve all woken up to articles this morning about writers detailing their surprise at a bonus granted by Medium. If you are unaware of this, Medium decided to give 1,000 writers a $500 bonus on top of their monthly earnings.
As you can guess from the title, I was not one of them. I have been a writer on Medium for a month now, so it isn’t all that surprising that Medium didn’t pick me. My writing gets a fair bit of engagement and my total income last month was just over $11. Considering I have never won a cash prize for my work or been paid for it at all, earning any money at all is pleasant.
As far as I am aware, Medium chose writers whose stories had lots of claps and engagement. I assume that the 300 claps on a poem of mine don’t match that criterion. If they continue to do this, I would eventually like to have that surprise email, but we shall see.
I am attempting to engage with other writers, and I am endeavouring to get comments on my work. I did reach 100 followers, which is exciting. I guess there isn’t a lot of purpose to this article. It’s more of a comfort to us all. Sadly, not all of us got a $500 bonus, but it would be nice, though. I want those who weren’t the lucky ones to see that they aren’t the only ones who lost out.
What would you buy for $500? I bought seventeen books last weekend, so I think books are out of the question. Maybe I would buy an expensive perfume. My birthday is this month, so if I had received the bonus, it would have come at the perfect time.
In conclusion, all we can hope is that Medium does this again and pray that it will be us who get that email in our inbox next time. I don’t believe that our writing is terrible because we didn't receive a bonus; it just isn’t getting the attention it should be. Excellent work often goes unnoticed. It’s very much the luck of the draw, and I think my streak of bad luck over the years has contributed to not receiving this bonus… :P
“Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.” Arthur Schopenhauer