What I Learned from Publishing 100 Articles on Medium

When you have no big victories to celebrate, just celebrate your journey

I would like to share and celebrate a small milestone I have reached on Medium with you today.

I have just published 100 articles.

This is my 101st article.

So, in this piece, I will reflect on what I have learned in this journey up to now.

First of all, I confess that I do not have much of a success to celebrate here on Medium if I judge it by numbers and metrics only.

My articles earn very little money or no money at all. So, I cannot share a “how much money I have made on Medium” type of article with you today:) I do respect their authors, but I do not particularly like these types of articles anyway.

I only have 400 followers on Medium. Wait, it has now dropped to 399 followers:) Not a lot of success metrics here either.

Let’s look at my statistics. As of today, I seem to have less than 1000 page views for an entire month. Not great.

If I evaluate my success with the metrics above, I just need to admit: This is a case of big and fat failure.

On some level, I have made peace with this. It is a long and difficult journey to establish yourself on any platform — and Medium is no different.

However, judging yourself by numbers is a formula for unhappiness. Comparing yourself to others is a formula for misery.

First and foremost, life is about your progress, learning, and exploration (rather than conquering, succeeding, and dominating categories).

Life is a journey to be experienced. The more experiments and opportunities you provide yourself, the better your adventure becomes.

I have left the comfortable walls of academia to feel like a starter, an artist, and an entrepreneur — once again.

I do not consider my Medium experiment as a failure at all.

It was all worth it and I consider this as a valuable journey of creativity and learning — because of three reasons.

Reason 1 to celebrate: I have shipped 100 articles with success

First of all, I have left the ivory tower of academia and started acting as a writer, an artist, and an entrepreneur in my life after 41.

Since I have started writing on Medium, I have been able to write and publish 100 articles in a second language. I would have never expected to write and ship so many articles in a couple of months.

I wrote my first article on Medium on April 26, 2019. It was about the promise and potential of doodling in revitalizing the self and one’s career:

I tended to publish irregularly after this — perhaps once a month or twice. Due to my teaching and research deadlines, I could not make enough time for my Medium writing. There have been some occasions where I did not publish anything for two months. However, I have accelerated my writing journey in the last couple of months.

Reason 2 to celebrate: I turned the lockdown into a period of productivity and creativity

Second, I am glad that I have turned my Covid-19 lockdown period into a time of productivity and creativity. One of the biggest factors that enabled me to be creative and productive was my decision to write and publish regularly on Medium. I made this decision on March 19, 2020. Until that time, I had only 18 articles published on Medium over the course of 11 months.

After the lockdown period until now, I have published 82 new articles over the course of 105 days. This translates into 0.8 articles on average per day. I would never imagine myself as a prolific writer and I always dreaded writing regularly in English. My journey until now has provided me a lot of hope, momentum, and excitement to go forward. When I look back to this lockdown period, I will remember this time fondly because I have been able to write regularly and create 82 articles.

Reason 3 to celebrate: I have learned a lot and grown as a writer

Third, I feel that I have learned and grown tremendously as a result of this journey. I have created lots of new doodles, exercises, and learning journeys. I have experimented with different writing styles. I have tried to find my own voice and style as a writer.

I know that I am still a novice on this journey and I have a long marathon to run. I am hoping to reach 1000 articles on Medium over the next five years (until the end of 2025). My journey up to now has taught me to become more persistent and perseverant.

In short, I think we need to give ourselves the credit and the celebration that is due after hard work. Therefore, I choose to celebrate myself even though it feels like there is not much reason to celebrate (in terms of my numbers or metrics).

A systematic look at my first 100 blog pieces: What I learned from my Medium journey

Below I share the lessons I have learned from my writing journey up to now. I am hoping that these lessons will provide inspiration and guidance for writers who are still at the early stages of their journeys.

1.Getting curated on Medium is difficult. I have only 4 pieces that have been curated until now (4 out of 100). Below are my articles which have been curated by Medium:

2. Being curated does not mean that your articles will reach large segments of readers or they will make money. And this is fine. I think we need to evaluate ourselves based on internal criteria that matter to us.

The articles listed above made the following:

• “Doodles are magical” article was curated in Creativity and Education. It has a total of 607 views and it has made $4.23.
• “FONKU: Fear of not keeping up” article was curated in Work and Self. It has a total of 917 views and it has made $1.28.
• “21st-century Leaders — From A to Z” article was curated in Leadership. It has a total of 267 views and it has made $0.87.
• “41 creativity lessons I have learned as I have entered my 41st age” was curated in Creativity and Productivity. It has a total of 491 views and it has made $8.16.

As you see, the total is less than $15. If I were in the game for money, I would have given up by now.

One reason I have not been able to make money on Medium is that I do have less than 400 followers.

If you are at the early stages of your journey here on Medium, it is very easy to be discouraged and give up. You need to hang in there and continue focusing on improving your game and your writing journey.

The real issue is not about the money I think — it is about doing things that will help you upgrade and improve your skills in writing, designing exercises, storytelling, blogging, capturing attention, and building your own audience.

I feel like I am making a lot of progress at my own pace — and this is the ultimate criterion that matters.

I am competing only with my former self (and no one else here on Medium or elsewhere). I am getting a little bit better every day. I am making progress — like a turtle.

3. I felt a lot of confidence about some of my blog pieces, yet they attracted no attention. When I published them, I was hopeful that they would be picked up by editors and curators at Medium. I was sure they would be my biggest victories since I have put all my hard work, efforts, and soul into them. However, they bombed:) In fact, some of them were not even read, let alone clapped. It remains a mystery to me why these pieces did not (yet) get the attention they deserve.

The first one was about doors, curiosity, and imagination (below). It has received just 19 views as of today.

The second one, below, is made up of a collection of videos and articles on making a creative dent in this world. It has only 15 views:

I was particularly excited about this one below, as I have designed 13 different creative challenges and exercises for the readers. It has got 15 views as of today:

Another disappointment was the piece below. In this article, I develop the theory of digital wonderland and provide 19 suggestions for professionals to thrive in the age of the Creative Renaissance. Yet, this piece has received only 20 views and 45 seconds of reading time! I still believe that this piece is a classic, yet to be discovered.

Here is another one. I proposed that we need to cultivate four kinds of hobbies for ourselves: Hobbies for learning, creativity, movement, and money. I think it was not bad, but it has received only 14 views:

Another one on my experiences of keeping notebooks and diaries has only 20 views up till now:

I was super-excited about this one on why we should embrace our own weirdness. It has had only 72 views until now:

Another one on storytelling. It was brief, but I poured my heart into this one. Received 36 views:

I also tried to create innovative theoretical pieces, such as the one below on Panarchy. As of today, it has received 68 views.

In yet another piece, I introduced practical tools and exercises for coaching ourselves. It has 38 views up until now.

In this one, I shared my artistic travel diary along with lots of reflective questions for readers. Only 18 views.

Another review piece on the massive changes we are living through and how we need to adapt. It has received only 38 views:

If we judge by numbers, the following piece might be one of my biggest failures (28 views in total). Yet, I think it has got a lot of interesting exercises and cutting edge teaching materials. I teach similar materials to executives and professionals in London (as well as to some of the best students at the University of East Anglia and the University of Cambridge). So, I am actually very confident about my teaching materials. I know that I do have very good content. Yet, I need to get better on getting discovered and capturing attention.

Overall, it remains a mystery to me why the 13 blog pieces above did not receive enough attention or curation (whereas the other 4 pieces above did). I think such mysteries are part of the challenge you experience on this platform.

Here is my initial hunch: I think I am not very good at positioning, marketing, and storytelling on Medium. I could not yet crack the art of writing titles with value hooks that capture attention. I need to work on this.

Perhaps I need a larger sample of experiments to really figure out what goes on here and why. This means I will need to create at least a few hundred articles to see the patterns more clearly.

I also need to be patient and give my articles more time. Perhaps some of my blog pieces will shine in the long run.

You just do not know if and when your posts will attract attention and/or curation. If you want to increase your odds of success, you need to keep trying. In some sense, this is pure probability theory.

However, I also need to keep learning and improving myself. I need to think of making more strategic changes as I proceed. For example, I need to think of better titles that will capture attention. I am still trying to figure out how digital attention works on this platform. It still looks mysterious to me and I need to better unlock its mysteries.

I also need to work hard to increase the quality and depth of my writing style. In many ways, I am still in the early stages of my career as an online writer and blogger. I need to put myself in the shoes of my readers and make my pieces more compelling and useful for them.

4. Remember that you are running a marathon. Do not focus on short term returns or rewards. Focus on the big picture. Focus on your own journey.

Remember: You need to give yourself a lot of opportunities for experimentation and failure.

I continue running a lot of experiments. For example, I have recently established my own journal: “Journal of Curiosity, Imagination, and Inspiration”. This is a very new and small initiative now, but I will grow it step by step. One day in the future, it will be a formidable publication.

Remember: When you are at the start of your journey, everything is hard. You need to work very hard for a long time before expecting any return or success.

Remember: Most people never finish the long term marathon. You will need to hang in there, be persistent, and continue loving what you do.

Remember: You will get better eventually, but this is a numbers game. In order to be original, you need to write and produce a lot.

In other words, you need to make 1000 pots (or posts):

Remember: You have a long way to go. You need to give yourself a lot more opportunities/chances to thrive. Some of this is purely probability theory — you are just increasing your chances (probabilities) with each post.

Remember: The world owes you nothing. You need to earn your place in this jungle — one piece at a time. Bird by bird.

Remember: Now that you have written 100 posts, you are a different person now. You can feel that you are learning, progressing, and innovating. And that is what matters.

Remember: Do not compare yourself to others. This is your journey and yours alone. You are only competing with yourself, not others. Will you get better every day?

Remember: This is a marathon and you are playing the long game. If you really want to get lucky in the long term, you need to provide yourself more opportunities for failure.

For each writer on Medium who makes thousands of dollars, there are thousands of writers who do not even make a dollar.

I consider myself among the latter group, but it doesn’t really matter.

What matters is that you are enjoying the ride.

Along the ride, you will collect fascinating ideas, stories, experiences, friendships, and connections.

You will grow, learn, improve, and surprise yourself every day.

If you are playing the long game, you need to provide yourself a lot of opportunities and chances for failure.

Failures are learning opportunities (and invitations) for us to get better.

I hope you enjoyed my reflections and perspectives on failure (and progress).

I will update you when I reach my 150th article, and then my 200th article.

You will then witness my writing adventures (and hopefully my slow progress) unfolding in real-time.

Until that time, adios amigos!

Sincerely;

Fahri

Fahri Karakas is the author of Self-making Studio. You can explore more here.