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stories, and life lessons with my readers.</p><p id="3c89">The first article that made some real money was this one:</p><div id="8a0a" class="link-block"> <a href="https://passionatehealthwriter.medium.com/taking-a-break-from-cannabis-what-ive-noticed-ca021964e9e1"> <div> <div> <h2>Taking a Break From Cannabis — What I’ve noticed</h2> <div><h3>I have been a pretty devoted cannabis smoker for the past 10 years. My usage has varied throughout the different…</h3></div> <div><p>passionatehealthwriter.medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*OfkiN1soWMTjdPwrPM3zQg.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><p id="b18f">It wasn’t in a publication and I didn’t even have many followers at the time, but it started circulating a lot. This is obviously something a lot of people can relate with — using cannabis and wanting to take a break to see if your life improves. I didn’t see anything about it getting curated, but somehow it got around because here are the story stats today:</p><figure id="f6df"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*meBsFYWxLJJZlNyzk3LwAw.png"><figcaption></figcaption></figure><p id="81d2">Sure, in the grand scheme of things, 100 around Christmas time. It was the

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best Christmas gift ever.</p><figure id="be93"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*XSXTHcDWoV7GJnV2tcg0FA.jpeg"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://www.pexels.com/@cottonbro?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels">cottonbro</a> from <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/gift-with-a-ribbon-3927227/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels">Pexels</a></figcaption></figure><p id="7ba8">It’s amazing how when you get in your groove with your life’s work and purpose, opportunities suddenly present themselves everywhere. Out of the blue, an old friend reached out to me and asked if I’d be interested in ghostwriting a book for her! Of course, I immediately accepted and am now in the process of writing my first book… and getting paid to do it!</p><p id="e7b5">So my best advice for earning your first 100 (followers and dollars) on Medium is this:</p><h1 id="3747">Set a Sustainable Goal</h1><p id="4cea">Not everyone has the time or energy to write 5–10 articles per week. Be realistic with yourself about how many articles you can write every week while producing high-quality work that is meaningful and substantial. Find your sweet spot and stick to it.</p><h1 id="730e">Write From Your Experience in a Heartfelt Way</h1><p id="3e9b">The most meaningful stories that I read from other writers are based on their own life stories and what they have been through. In my opinion, our individual knowledge, experiences, and life lessons are the most valuable gifts we can give each other. The stories that earned me the most reads and dollars were based on this concept.</p><h1 id="a9b6">Self-Publish AND Work With Publications</h1><p id="1e31">It was a total shock to me when my self-published article about taking a break from cannabis started earning money every day. I didn’t understand how it was circulating since it didn’t get curated and I had almost no followers. I have a feeling I made it onto a lot of people’s home pages under the “recommended for you” stories.</p><p id="6d30">Although two of my articles made it into the Better Human publication, they both got distributed at 1:30 am (the middle of the night) and they are still WAYYY behind my self-published article in terms of earnings and views. One is at $17.96 and the other at$ 7.29, while another article I self-published made it to $15.42. I guess it goes to show that if you have interesting content, you don’t necessarily need to be in a publication to get exposure.</p><h1 id="4028">Stay Consistent</h1><p id="6880">Anything you do consistently you will get better at. There are so many opportunities to make money as a writer online in this day and age that you are bound to make something happen if you stick to it. Don’t set goals that put so much pressure on yourself that you give up, but don’t let yourself off the hook too easy either. Agree with yourself on a realistic amount of work you can put out per week and hold yourself accountable to this goal.</p><p id="50d3">Mindset is key. With a positive mindset and a hard work ethic, your success has no limits. As soon as I committed to making progress on Medium and in my writing career, things took off faster than I expected.</p><figure id="f815"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*zvGGRp8bFWn-VURpWjDGRg.jpeg"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://www.pexels.com/@olly?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels">Andrea Piacquadio</a> from <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-in-red-crew-neck-sweatshirt-photography-941693/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels">Pexels</a></figcaption></figure><p id="76b1">Although this is only the beginning (and my earnings are probably laughable to the Medium Mega-Earners), I had to stop and celebrate my wins this month. I reached my first two milestones (100 followers and 100 dollars) and am excited to set more goals for the New Year. I’m ending 2021 on a high note with my course firmly set for the future. Damn, it feels good!</p><p id="dec7">Much love ya’ll,</p><p id="7527">The Passionate Health Writer</p></article></body>

The First 100

100 followers and $100 in my first month on Medium

Photo by John Guccione www.advergroup.com from Pexels

The moment I committed to making money with my writing was when everything started to change for me. But I knew I couldn’t go about it in the same way as everyone else. I needed to find my own rhythm and workflow to make this a sustainable path.

About a month ago, I was at a crossroads. Do I commit to my e-commerce store or do I pursue writing? I have always had a keen interest in both and had purchased a rather pricey e-commerce course to show me how to be successful and profitable. I took the initial steps to set up my store and social media accounts, found my supplier, got samples of my product, and was ready to launch.

But something in the back of my mind kept tugging at my awareness. About a year ago I had started to make a little bit of money writing on a platform called Steady Content. It wasn’t great money, but the articles were interesting and it was the first time I had made money online, so it really opened my eyes to the possibilities.

I also started a Medium account about a year ago and posted a couple of things that earned me a grand total of 14 cents, but I don’t really count that because I did so very little on the platform. This past month was the first month I really put the effort in to gain followers and earn some money.

I got away from writing this past year when I was working in Yosemite National Park. Due to staffing shortages in the park, I ended up working a lot more than I had planned, which put my writing on the backburner. When the season ended I decided to take some time off and get back to writing.

I got a little distracted with my e-commerce store and right before I really started going hard on Instagram and building my brand, I realized I wasn’t going to have time for both e-com and writing. They are both businesses that require 100% of your time and energy to be successful, and I knew I had to pick only one path.

Plus, I missed writing… a lot! Sure, there are tons of ways to make money online these days, but I didn’t just want to make money, I wanted to do something that fed my soul. I knew from the small amount of writing I had done before that it was the soul food I needed to have both a profitable and fulfilling career.

So I decided to let the e-commerce dream go and focus on something that felt more aligned with my purpose. I hopped back on Steady Content and wrote four articles for them, making $112.50 during the month. (If you’re interested in applying to become a writer on the platform, feel free to use my affiliate link HERE.)

A friend of mine told me about how Medium had been restructured and there were a lot of changes going on. I decided to get back on the platform and take the time to learn from other writers who have found success and earned profits from their writing. I also needed a creative outlet because writing articles for a content company is incredibly structured and research-based. It was fun because I learned a lot of new things, but the part of me that needed to express herself was being neglected. Medium seemed to be the perfect outlet to write about anything and everything I wanted.

So I started writing some high-quality articles here on Medium. I focused on sharing my own experiences, stories, and life lessons with my readers.

The first article that made some real money was this one:

Taking a Break From Cannabis — What I’ve noticed

I have been a pretty devoted cannabis smoker for the past 10 years. My usage has varied throughout the different…

passionatehealthwriter.medium.com

It wasn’t in a publication and I didn’t even have many followers at the time, but it started circulating a lot. This is obviously something a lot of people can relate with — using cannabis and wanting to take a break to see if your life improves. I didn’t see anything about it getting curated, but somehow it got around because here are the story stats today:

Sure, in the grand scheme of things, $61.39 is not a huge amount of money, but for someone just breaking into making money on her own stories, it felt like a million bucks. :)

After watching my earnings climb every day on this post, I decided to get more serious about this Medium thing and pitched a couple of my stories to the Better Humans publication, which accepted them! It was these two:

7 Ways to Reframe Your Past and Eliminate Regret

Regret Can Consume You If You Let It

betterhumans.pub

How To Leave an Abusive Relationship

I broke free—and what I learned might help you do the same

betterhumans.pub

These two articles were very challenging to write because they are based on painful experiences I have had in my life. I cried many times writing and reading them, but I knew I had to publish them because I had a strong desire to help people by sharing these experiences.

I posted several other articles, some earning a couple of pennies, and some a few dollars. I started noticing that the stories that got the most action were stories that were based on my own experiences and had some gold nuggets of wisdom in them. The “use what you’ve learned to help others” type of articles seemed to do the best.

As my stories were distributed more, my following started to grow as well. My goal was to reach 100 followers and I am now at 138! I didn’t even have an income goal because I wanted to focus on producing quality work and not just throwing loads of half-baked articles out there to see what stuck. I didn’t publish every day or even 5 times a week like many Medium gurus will tell you to do. I averaged about 2–3 quality articles per week and I’m so glad I did. To my surprise, I passed $100 around Christmas time. It was the best Christmas gift ever.

It’s amazing how when you get in your groove with your life’s work and purpose, opportunities suddenly present themselves everywhere. Out of the blue, an old friend reached out to me and asked if I’d be interested in ghostwriting a book for her! Of course, I immediately accepted and am now in the process of writing my first book… and getting paid to do it!

So my best advice for earning your first 100 (followers and dollars) on Medium is this:

Set a Sustainable Goal

Not everyone has the time or energy to write 5–10 articles per week. Be realistic with yourself about how many articles you can write every week while producing high-quality work that is meaningful and substantial. Find your sweet spot and stick to it.

Write From Your Experience in a Heartfelt Way

The most meaningful stories that I read from other writers are based on their own life stories and what they have been through. In my opinion, our individual knowledge, experiences, and life lessons are the most valuable gifts we can give each other. The stories that earned me the most reads and dollars were based on this concept.

Self-Publish AND Work With Publications

It was a total shock to me when my self-published article about taking a break from cannabis started earning money every day. I didn’t understand how it was circulating since it didn’t get curated and I had almost no followers. I have a feeling I made it onto a lot of people’s home pages under the “recommended for you” stories.

Although two of my articles made it into the Better Human publication, they both got distributed at 1:30 am (the middle of the night) and they are still WAYYY behind my self-published article in terms of earnings and views. One is at $17.96 and the other at $7.29, while another article I self-published made it to $15.42. I guess it goes to show that if you have interesting content, you don’t necessarily need to be in a publication to get exposure.

Stay Consistent

Anything you do consistently you will get better at. There are so many opportunities to make money as a writer online in this day and age that you are bound to make something happen if you stick to it. Don’t set goals that put so much pressure on yourself that you give up, but don’t let yourself off the hook too easy either. Agree with yourself on a realistic amount of work you can put out per week and hold yourself accountable to this goal.

Mindset is key. With a positive mindset and a hard work ethic, your success has no limits. As soon as I committed to making progress on Medium and in my writing career, things took off faster than I expected.

Although this is only the beginning (and my earnings are probably laughable to the Medium Mega-Earners), I had to stop and celebrate my wins this month. I reached my first two milestones (100 followers and 100 dollars) and am excited to set more goals for the New Year. I’m ending 2021 on a high note with my course firmly set for the future. Damn, it feels good!

Much love ya’ll,

The Passionate Health Writer