Me and Medium are Not Getting Along

I've been writing on Medium for several years now. Over those years, I've made about $5,500 US. That works out to around $7,300 Canadian. I mean, that's not bad for a casual income, right?

The trouble is, no matter what I write there now, no matter how long or short it is, no matter what the topic is, or even what publication I send it to, my words just aren't reaching any viewers. If I get more than 50 views on a story it's a minor miracle!

I had one story in January that got more than 2,000 reads and over 4,000 views. Sounds good, right? Not so much because the majority of the reads came from people who were not Medium members, so their views didn't count towards my earnings.

This isn't a "I hate Medium," story though. I don't. I've loved the site and learned a lot. I love the community of readers. But I have to figure out where my time is best spent if I want content creation to be a major part of my online work.

My focus is changing

Over the past few months, I've realize one thing: I want to write full-time again.

Part of my plan to start making a full-time writing income online again is to write for clients. I've been working on building up my Fiverr income and I've been applying for jobs.

However, I also want to build up passive income. In the past, that's meant Medium. But, seeing as Medium and I aren't getting along very well right now, I thought I would come back to Vocal and see if I can start earning some money here.

I don't think I really gave Vocal a fair chance the last time I was here. I was mostly re-publishing my Medium articles. What can I say - I have a lot of them!

This time around, I'm going to be writing exclusive Vocal content.

I'm also going to focus on writing content that may attract clients. I'm going to put a link to Vocal on my web site so potential clients can see it and see the articles I'm capable of producing.

I'm not as familiar with Vocal as I am with Medium, so I think I'm going to have to do a little research to learn about the best ways to earn on Vocal.

Vocal contests

I love the fact that Vocal puts on contests for their writers, too. I think that's a really good opportunity to branch out. Writers can try writing about topics they may never have thought to write about before.

Since I'm both a fiction and non-fiction writer, I think I will submit to some of the contest. You can win if you don't enter right?

Tips and advice?

I'd love to hear your tips and advice for making money on Vocal if you've been here for a while. Obviously, someone is making money from Vocal, right? So, if that's you, please feel free to leave me a comment with your tips for making the most from this site.

I think good writers have a tremendous opportunity to make money online from writing what they love. As a content creator, it's important to change with the times. I remember when Squidoo was the site to write for. People made a lot of money there. In fact, some people made all their money there! And then it was sold, and it was gone. It left a lot of people without an income.

The smart writers found other places to move their articles to. The smartest writers were already writing in other places!

So, I may not give up on Medium entirely. Who knows what will happen in the future. But I am looking for other options because I don't want to be one of those writers that disappears into the void!