WRITING

Surprise! $500 Extra Received! How Did That Happen Overnight?

Medium pays extra. Did you know?

I write quantity. I write quality. And after 2 years of writing for a niche audience, I have passed the 5K followers. But so far, my earnings have stayed kind of the same. They passed the magic boundary of $100 rather quickly, but after that; it remained kind of constant.

For me, that’s a pity, but I just know it is a matter of time so I keep at it. Sharing my visions, my experiences, and my ever more adventurous life. Sharing every day on LinkedIn too and earning the rest of my income from other projects in the regeneration. Or from coaching people how to story-tell their way to impact.

Therefore, the Stripe payment for April was a surprise. I received 2 Stripe payment emails this time. Apart from my normal somewhat over $100, an $500 extra has been paid out. What? How? Why?

Heartfelt Personal Contact

My mind goes into overdrive. I really would like to know what this money was paid for. How else can I replicate my success?

Of course, I spread my writing out over many publications. It is how I receive a wide audience and followers who might become a fan. With many people, I have personal contacts. These conversations color my days.

Whenever I write about my success factors, this is my #1. Heartfelt, personal contact with your readers.

How else are they gonna like you and your writings? And the good thing is that my readers’ questions fuel my appetite for writing more stories. They give me ideas. And I answer their questions in a way that is relevant for many more readers.

And voila, more questions and beautiful conversations with new people arise. It’s what writers in the old days did when they gave book talks. I don’t have to travel and still can talk to many readers all over the world about what interests me… and them…

But that’s no explanation for the extra $500.

Meaningful Publications

I do know that some publications pay for stories. But as far as I knew I was never contributing to those. I did try to get into Better Humans a while back. They pay a flat fee of $500 per story. But my stories were rejected. So that can’t be it either.

Okay, so what else?

I’m a top writer in some categories on and off. At this moment, I’m hot in ‘future’ and ‘science’, but that doesn’t get me payment either.

I passed the 5K followers mark. Does that get you an extra payment from Medium? I really don’t know but I haven’t heard it mentioned before.

Of course, I could spit through all my emails to see what I missed. It will take me a while because I’m an editor too and my inbox keeps being flooded with emails about all submissions. So, I transfer all my Medium mails to an archive. No time to spit through that at the moment…

What special publications did I write for last month?

There were my stories for Literary Impulse. They had these wonderful prompts for poetry during National Poetry Month. I got hooked, motivated by some friends like Tree Langdon and Joe Luca. And wrote about my special experiences here in Ibiza. I did understand from the editors that there would be a selection published. Did I make that selection? Did it earn me?

I don’t think they are that big yet, but I definitely hope they will be someday… My editors Priyanka Srivastava, Somsubhra Banerjee, and Elisabeth Khan are working hard enough for it.

Then I got published in The Aperion Blog. Great publication about philosophy. I read them to learn about philosophy in a cool way and I wrote about Deep Ecology, Gilles Deleuze, Descartes, and femininity for them. But also here, no payment that I know of. My editor Jon Hawkins would have told me in one of our direct chats if payment was an option.

And, to be honest, I have not even been so active last month. Two weeks silence because of our move to Ibiza, no great activity in my collaboration with the Illumination publications, not many stories with Climate Conscious, Age of Awareness, Change Your Mind Change Your Life, Weeds and Wildflowers, or any of the others.

So, where did the $500 come from?

Medium Pays Extra

While I’m writing this story with the intent of finding out from my friends where the good gift came from, I receive an email that clears up the fog.

It’s from my friends at Medium herself. This is what they wrote.

Desiree,

Medium members are discerning readers, drawn to great writing — like yours. To recognize the writers who made the most impact on members this past month, we’re rewarding 1,000 writers with a $500 bonus. Congrats, that’s you!

You made it here because the stories you published in April received the most member reads, claps, and follows. So, nice work! It’s writers like you that make Medium and the Partner Program a living network of insightful thinking. Keep the good ideas coming.

– Your friends at Medium

Takeaways

Mystery solved. But for the record, I’ll give some takeaways to all of you who want to copy my success.

1. Be out there and interact with your readers in an honest way
2. Read other writers and interact with them as well
3. Write quality and be inspirational
4. Write quantity and do the work
5. Be serious about your publications. They don’t just exist for you, you exist for their success too. Grow together and a nice future as a writer might await you

Thank you, my friends, for interacting with me and making me earn extra. Next time it will be you! Let’s keep the conversation going.

Want to connect? You can find me somewhere on our beautiful planet, with my hands in the soil and my eyes gazing at moonshots and quantum leaps. Or find me via Linktree.

© Désirée Driesenaar