How I Made $10,665 in a Single Month on Medium
Here’s how I did it…
I’ve been writing 6 months on Medium, but certainly August (2021) was the most enjoyable. Oddly I met a lot of amazing people (this doesn’t usually happen to me), and I founded my futurist publication.
My Experience Founding a Pub on Medium
I’m not the only editor of my publication, my futurist friend David is also a key help and inspiration. In August I was a digital nomad in Taiwan. It connected me to Asia in a way I was never before, and inspired me to dig deep into Chinese Tech, so much so that’s it’s now one of the tags on the publication. China.
I did some outreach to other writers and added a bunch as writers on the new pub, but few responded to the call. For me the sheer thrill of starting something new is intoxicating. But I guess most writers want to write on publications with massive followers where they feel they will get more exposure. I’m not exactly worried, I can fill an entire publication with seductive tags such as “Artificial Intelligence”, “Crypto”, “Futurism”, etc…. topics that resonate deep within.
My Experience as a Digital Nomad
I also wrote quite a lot in August, and for top writer status (as a kind of social proof) or for making articles that give some kind of income, I’m pretty positive that as I’m the most prolific writer in Technology on Medium, which definately helps my case.
I’m a top 5 writer in Technology. Without being someone that writes viral content at all, in fact, most of my content is what you would call Technology and Crypto News.
I’m super proud to write on Startup (it’s pretty much the only one I respect) or to build up an audience for my publication, a few hundred followers will do.
I Earn Coin for Being Prolific
The truth is I wrote 103 articles in August alone on Medium. I don’t advocate doing this, but it’s what I did.
I wrote on topics I like to write about, on artificial intelligence and wealth inequality, on privacy and the evolution of technology, on what matters in business, Big Tech, what I’d myself consider impactful journalism, with spelling mistakes and all. I whore typos, I don’t have time to edit, because I’m writing 24/7, in a sense.
What is My Kind of Community
But when I look back on August, it’s not just the writing that felt good. It’s the micro conversations that took place for me on Medium.
I even had a few people add me on WeChat (ID: Mikekevinspencer) through Medium which I enjoy, the prospect of real conversations that enrich my day as I create stories, well more like current news about topics I’m passionate about.
Stories are Dumb to Me; I’m a News Curator
I actually don’t get stories, I like news and business content with data, a bit of meat in it about the real world, better yet if it’s relevant to our future! They don’t call me a futurist for nothing I guess. Did I mention I find ‘stories’ kind of dumb?
Medium is a creative outlet for me, as I’m a content and social media consultant, I’m lucky enough to be able to do that and write ‘on the side’. Okay that trip allowed me to write over 100 articles, I didn’t realize it was so much! Most writers are pretty satisfied with a decent article every week day, which I find pretty outstanding as it is. I respect that, quantity is not better than quality, I’m just hardwired a different way. It was the same thing when I tried to be a poet.
My Content Focus for September
In September, I’ve decided to buckle down as well on Crypto content. You may find some of my content there.
Writing by intrinsic motivation and being rewarded by Stripe (how Medium pays out) based on claps, is kind of a novel experience.
I’m an extremely simple, frugal and almost ascetic person in my day to day life. I’m a hermit and super introverted.
So this is community coin that has a silver lining on it.
This is like being paid for something I love doing, and there’s no better feeling than that on some deep profound joyous level. There’s AI that can write now, but giving it my own twist while still trying to get in as many facts and relevant trending salient (sometimes recent to the hour) tech news, makes me feel like I’m one of Medium’s pet journalists.
The Intrinsic Joy of Writing; The Discipline to the Craft
I’ve made 10k on Medium not on purpose, by as a by product for my enjoyment of writing, of issues I care about, of an intrinsic burning need for self-expression and research and learning. Writing to me is as natural as reading, perhaps more organic to my well-being and neuroplasticity. I process through writing. It’s not about hacking a system or going viral or getting popular — I literally get pretty upset about how some of Medium is designed that favors vanity stories and over-promising content.
But as ascetic as I am, I also like the gamification. I like the top writer tags. I was joking with someone just today about how it’s mostly just around post frequency. That’s the big secret.
The Ambivalence of it All
At the end of the day, these are just numbers on a screen, symbols to convey meaning, we are just catalysts of expression and having a voice. When having a voice died on LinkedIn, I chose to lend my voice to Medium. I’m not sure how long it will last, but so far, in the last six months I’ve been enjoying myself greatly.
So I’ve come a long ways, I’ve done some writing, I’ve met some people I actually like, I’ve tried to found a publication, I’m paying my rent thanks to a few loyal followers, I’m no longer sharing my Patreon account because nobody cares, and life goes on. It’s hard to make money on Medium, I’ve had to hustle for every cent, sometimes I forget to write behind the paywall, I’m sort of bad at making viral content. But we have to remember what’s actually important, are we doing work that we think is meaningful, would we want to read our own work, do we like the topics we are contributing to? I do, affirmative, some small satisfaction for the few reads I get.
Futurism and Writing What Matters
I was not put in the brain of a futurist to earn bread on some website, but here I am. Very much alone with my future thoughts, but friendly, prolific, and very much a hidden techie of Medium. It doesn’t actually help that I have 170,000 followers on LinkedIn or 11,300 on Medium, not one bit. Every word can be a struggle, but when I’m writing about the future, it all feels so personal and relevant to me in the moment.
How do you experience writing?
Comments
There are no comments for this story
Be the first to respond and start the conversation.