No | Rich | Quick | Scheme
Why Leaving Medium Angry Isn’t a Solution to Your Problem
Tales about entrepreneurship
Does the Medium Algorithm feed stories of fed-up Medium Writers to your profile again as well?
Every few months, I get a bunch of “Here is why I quit Medium” or “Medium is Broken. Goodbye” stories into my news feed.
Is it some special force test of willpower? Does Medium want to weed out the wheat from the chaff?
This question will remain unanswered. After reading through some of these articles, I want to make three remarks.
Medium isn’t the problem. Other underlying forces at play keep you from becoming successful.
Medium Writer are Entrepreneurs
Whether you like it or not. The minute you decide to focus some of your time on writing on Medium, you step into the world of entrepreneurship.
My definition of entrepreneurship is:
the activity of setting up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit
Successes like Coinbase, Tesla, Microsoft, or Facebook confuse entrepreneurship.
It isn’t about developing game-changing solutions. Entrepreneurship is simply about investing your time and money to create something that brings value to other people and makes you more money at the end of the day.
Why do Medium Writers fall into this category?
- Medium Writer, first and foremost, invests their time and expertise to produce a story — for free.
- They hope that other readers enjoy the story to make them money
It is the perfect definition of an entrepreneur.
Money is the wrong motive.
When I started writing on Medium, I was searching for a blogging platform that was easy to use.
I wanted to publish one or two articles to promote a conference I organized within my circle of influence.
My business network already existed before I discovered Medium. The platform was easy to use, compared to WordPress, for example.
The additional reach was a nice add-on I wasn’t aware of when I started writing here.
My driving motive was bringing value to my established business community.
When I wanted to stop writing, Medium fed me articles about writers who made tens of thousands of dollars on Medium.
Was it a coincidence? Does the Algorithm want to keep writers from quitting? Are the articles true?
I could never verify whether this was simple marketing or whether it was a legit claim that writers can make a solid income from writing on Medium alone.
This year August 11, I turn 48. When I was in my twenties, the internet started, and making money online from creating content was next to impossible. The internet was an additional marketing channel to promote products and services.
Is the creator economy a reality, or just a marketing idea to promote platforms? Is it the carrot on a stick to keep writers going?
The World of Competition and Entrepreneurship
I am a curious person and wanted to find out if writing articles every day has the potential to make money.
In whatever direction you want to turn and twist entrepreneurship:
Entrepreneurs who want to make money, must provide value first
And this is the first problem for many novice writers on Medium. They want to get rich quickly. It is a self-centered motive to fix a personal problem without providing anything valuable.
The truth is: Self-centricity never works in entrepreneurship
- Bill Gates didn’t become rich because he wanted money so much. He became rich because his company Microsoft solved a significant problem: An Operating System for Microcomputers and Office Software.
- Jeff Bezos became rich and famous because he made purchasing goods easy and simple for people. Do you want a product? Go on, Amazon. Mostly, the Algorithm directly shows your desired product. Click one time, and you get it a day later.
- Mark Zuckerberg became rich because he brought people together at zero expenses. Facebook was the first social media platform on which I could find old friends and family members I hadn’t seen for years.
The problem is that the minute someone becomes successful, competition increases. Microsoft wasn’t the only operating system. Many companies tried to copy the Amazon Model. And even Facebook isn’t the only social media platform on the planet anymore.
Medium isn’t different. Since one Writer made about 50k a month, and another made 16k from one story, the competition grew on Medium.
More writers, less income for average writers. More writers, stories, and readers translate into more revenue for proficient writers.
Success is All About Work Ethic
The ugly truth of all industries is:
The Winner Takes it All
Some make enough money to survive, and the majority go extinct.
It is the eternal cycle of industrial development. Someone invents something new and becomes successful, and others start copying. Initially, it increases the total market, and the market is satisfied at one point.
It is when markets consolidate, leaving a handful of competitors.
The creator market is far away from being satisfied. Only 1% of the WWW create something, and 99% of people still are on the consuming side.
What isn’t most likely not growing so fast are the subscription revenues on Medium. Also, the ad revenues on Youtube are likely to go down.
Why?
The world has become an unsafe place, a high inflationary environment, with social unrest and wars starting.
People don’t want to spend money that is not needed, and many might have reviewed the necessity to pay 5 dollars per month on Medium.
In such contracting times, the wheat from the chaff gets separated. Writers who love writing keep going regardless of the payment. They keep improving and will be there when the next economic upswing starts.
All successful writers on Medium have one trait in common:
They write every single day and publish 3–4 times per week.
Quitting too early
Why do some writers get angry?
Writing is NOT for everybody. People who are not passionate about becoming better storytellers to help others become successful in their lives will fail when the going gets tough.
When your success metrics revolve around money and views, you will most likely get angry when those metrics go down.
Success isn’t a straight line. I also believe successful writers will see a decline in views and income a few times a year.
My theory is that in summer, fewer people use social media, which automatically leads to a decline in views and income.
Also, treating the Medium as a reliable source of income is the wrong approach. Every successful entrepreneur started their venture as a side hustle.
Jeff Bezos had a full-time job when he evaluated the feasibility of Amazon. Brian Armstrong worked on the Coinbase idea weekends while working full-time at Air BnB.
Before becoming a quitter, ask yourself questions two times:
- When feeling the urge to start something new: Does it already make enough money to pay my bills?
- When you get frustrated: Why am I here? Will I regret my decision to quit when I am 80?
Whether you like it or not:
- Medium Writers are Entrepreneurs
- Medium Writers face a lot of competition on Medium
- Medium Writers need a lot of practice to build an audience that benefits from their articles and to have the necessary storytelling skills to satisfy the audience.
- Since there are thousands of Writers on the internet, only those passionate about writing will make it.
- Most will never make significant income from the Medium, even when they write daily.
Getting mad doesn’t solve your problem. Ask yourself what’s behind your anger and solve the root cause of your problems.
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