I’m Only Doing This To Get Rich and Famous

I often see a lot of blowback from some writers here on Medium any time another writer posts an article about making money. It seems as though half the people here read these articles with great interest. Some ignore them. Others get a bit pissed off.

Writing about writing gets read. Of all the main topics I write about somewhat regularly, the blogs I write about writing seem to do the best. Controversial topics about politics and religion seem to do fairly well, too. But not as well as writing about writing.

For me, this gets a bit boring. If I was solely focused on that suitcase full of cash in the picture above, I'd only write about writing on Medium. There would be enough interest and my blogs would receive an above-average amount of earnings. Bermuda, here we come.

Fortunately, this isn't the case. I love to write about a multitude of topics. Writing, however, is only of them. But the reasons I do it are different than the reasons some other writers do it for.

I don't do it for the likelihood of higher-than-average read-minutes. I'm not posting about my experiences on Medium to brag. I do it because I truly believe that the introductory success I'm having during Year 1 on Medium can be replicated. And I'm always willing and wanting to help my friends.

Sadly, I know that won't be accepted by all writers who see my articles about writing. Some people won't be convinced of this, but that's ok. I am trying to appeal to and help those who really need and want help. People who want a coach, mentor, and most importantly, a friend. Those are the ones I love helping.

For me, it's easy to tell who wants that suitcase full of money at the top of my blog. The ones who actually believe in the title and subtitle of this article are the writers who are writing about writing constantly. Those are the types of articles they are posting about, exclusively.

They may have a lot of followers. Some I've seen don't have many at all. But they'll portray themselves as super-successful, though they've only been writing on Medium for a number of months. There are other signs that differentiate them from the actual writers who are doing their best work possible.

Some of them use giant blocks of sentences, forming way-too-long of paragraphs. I've seen bad grammar and poor spelling. They misuse punctuation frequently. Some even pull pictures from places that you're not allowed to use photos from, without crediting the photographer. It's not a pretty sight.

If you are going to make your writer's niche about writing, you need to be skilled at it. At least get a hold of Grammarly and work on your formatting. If you want people to believe that you can actually be of help to them, do the work.

Sadly, many of these people are only writing about writing to get the most views possible from a popular topic. And while that's their right to do that, we can be selective and choose which of these writers we give our time and read-minutes to.

I'll generally read the first article I see of theirs. Then I'll check their page and see if they write about other things, or if it's only about writing every time. If the first article was sub-par in my opinion, I'm not likely to read others.

Another aspect is checking how many followers they have. It's hard to disagree with someone who has over 10,000 followers versus someone with 100, who's trying to tell you how to write on Medium. Yeah, I think I'm good, Buddy.

Writing about writing to only get more reads and new followers seems deceptive. I can't imagine that someone is putting their true thoughts, feelings, and emotions into writing pieces like that, generally speaking. I have far more fun writing fiction or humorous blogs than I do about writing on Medium.

Be careful whose words and advice you choose to accept. If it seems fishy or doesn't line up with the way you prefer to do things, move on to the next article. There seems to be no shortage of writing to read on Medium. Especially articles about writing.

Ultimately, we have to blaze our own trail during our Writer's Journey, taking into account the things we find value in during each of our paths. I've read quite a few wonderful, helpful articles about writing here in the past 10 months. I've also passed on some, too. Be choosy and support the writers who add value to your Writer's Journey. &:^)