Tell Me One More Time About How You Made $10,000 in a Month.
Is milking your paycheck’s number the way to go?
Today, I saw one of Medium’s finest talking about how they made a significant amount of money last month. But I recall them talking about the same thing couple of days ago as well.
The only thing that changed was slightly the title. Still bait-ish, same content.
Some questions were raised in my mind.
Do they have any dignity? Did they sell their souls to make money “writing”? Is this the joy that one finds when making a living out of writing?
I even questioned my future and if I want to be a part of this system. No, the world needs more diversity.
The list of questions could get bigger, but I don't wanna waste your time. I’m only here to talk about the plague that spread in Medium. The very place where I love coming to when I wanna find something new, written from the best.
Now, the bests are talking about how they make money every month. And that generates more money for them so they will talk about it again.
The milking process
Imagine if someone can make $100 from one story, talking about how they made an X amount of money.
If they write about it 10 times, they will make $1000 just from it. Now, next month they will write 10 times about how they made $1000. This time, they will make more. The number 1000 will attract more readers.
This will enable them to enter a great loop of generating more and more money by only talking about the money they made.
Sorry, but I’ll talk with names as well. Today, a post popped up in my feed. It was Tim Denning again. This guy is a beast. He knows how to draw attention and he always has something to say.
The title was: I Finally Quit My Job Today: Here’s What I Learned. It was posted on 18th May. But it reminded me of something.
I scrolled in his profile and I found this. I Am Petrified to Quit My 9–5 Job. Posted on 10th of May…
Really Tim? Did you quit two times in 8 days? What the what is this…
You should write about the same idea at least 5–7 times. But there is a thin line of posting every draft you created and how often that should be.
At some point, you might lose your dignity. I know, people like these have tons of readers. They can afford negativity. I thought that we, the writers are something more than money-making machines, though.
Can we change this?
Of course, we can. I love big people in Medium. I will continue to show my support by leaving a read, a clap, a share. But I won’t give them the pleasure of making more money talking about how they made more money. I won’t read the same story, with a different title, twice.
I like insights, I love to learn from people that know better than me. But this is effortless. This doesn't deserve any support, and I encourage everyone who wants to keep their dignity intact to follow this.
I want Medium to be the best place it can be.
It might be an unpopular opinion but it’s my opinion, and I want to share it with you. I’m sure some people feel like me. I hope, at least.
I remember myself talking about how I made some money on my second month on Medium. I feel like I was naked. In a bad way. I was selling my body for reads. Now, I want to share my valuable insight on Medium, but I will do it the right way. Non-bait-ish.
Final Thoughts
This is an attempt to make Medium a better place for readers.
“One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.”
― John F. Kennedy
I’m writing here for over 6 months. I’m reading for almost a year. Yet, I see the same names mostly. I know, they are doing a great job with what they are doing. But sometimes I see how this works for them.
It’s the fact they are writing for a particular story multiple times. The amount of money they make. As they write more and more about it, they make more money to write again about it.
This became a plague. Hot topics are always the same. For this to change, the readers should change their approach.
We are the readers. We can change that.
I hope you will as well.
