This Mistake Nearly Stop me from Writing!
During the cold rainy day back in March 2022 in Bali, I was fixated in front of my talking computer reading attentively about an article that I had just stumbled upon on the internet. I still remembered, the article was about the experience of an university student in the US making money through her writing online.
No. It wasn’t those flashy, clickbaity article about making millions of dollar on the internet posting weird kinky stuff on the net (I guess I’m talking about Onlyfan).
It was rather straightforward.
She wrote about her experience making money through writing online on Medium. Again, the kind of money she made was not one of those F.U money — but rather “enough to get buy” type of money. Looking back, honestly I guess that was more realistic target to achieve.
Coming fresh from a failure experiment on making crypto video that garnered zero views on Youtube, my curiosity was definitely tempted by this idea of this Medium thing. Not to mention you could make money doing it? What the hell! Sign me up please.
“this website is actually great,
And FUN
And all the communities seem to be very intellegent human beings!”
Ever since that day: I was officially hooked on Medium!
After reading few good articles, I knew immediately that I wanted to become a writer on Medium world! I wanted to start writing and make some money online. Although I was aware that it was difficult to make real estate money on Medium (unlike Youtube and other platforms) — since I love writing it wouldn’t be a problem anyway. That was what I initially thought.
With all the excitement bubbling up inside of me, I created an account to start writing, and was gearing up to publish my first story.
“Now I ‘m ready to make some dolla dolla bilt on Medium”
And just when I thought I found a perfect platform for me to start my content creating journey, I was suddenly pushed back by a new fact that I discovered later on:
Sorry: Medium Partner Program is currently unavailable in your country!
It kinda Killed my Motivation for Writing
Now you might be thinking:
“then you are not really in for the writing,
You are only in for the money Wikan.”
Honestly, both!
Let’s face it:
- I love writing solely for the sake of writing. True.
- I love writing solely for the sake of writing — but if I can make money out of it — extra motivation.
So, not being able to do the ladder due to country restriction was a huge blow for me.
The problem is: it’s not only Indonesia that is out of the Striped economy ecosystem though, but many other countries as well. Although I actually tried to find way around it, from rerouting the bank account, changing location, using third party services — none of them have worked out. To be honest, it was not sustainable anyway.
SO there I was, with all the materials, ideas, and inspiration that I was planning to publish, yet I wasn’t going to because the simple reason that I wouldn’t be able to monotise them.
No money = no motivation
A stupid reason when I think about it now — but boy I did make that mistake
Lesson Number 1: Do not wait for everything in perfect order. Just do it!
You are not ready next time, but you are ready now!
Needless to say, I did not post my article on Medium for a long time because I planned to wait until the Striped is available in Indonesia. I thought I would wait until everything was ready. I thought I was clever. yeah.
Who wants to write and not getting paid anyway, right?
UGH. No one. So I thought.
However, during my consultation with one of my buddy from Aussie, I got slapped in the face (over the phone) when I brought up this excuse to him
“what you are doing mate?
You’ve been wasting your time trying to control what you can’t,
Start writing now and publish your work!
You’re not ready next time — you are ready now!
I felt stupid. I felt like icey cold water has been pored into me. All those times complaining about weird international payment system, Striped not being available, and not starting anything were just an excuse to not start writing. My Aussie mate was right.
Although it was a bit harsh for my taste. But he was right telling me to put my ass on the chair and start writing and publishing my stuff. I knew that all along I was finding excuse to
- I had to wait until Striped is available in my country
- I had to wait until my grammar and story perfect to post
- I had to wait until I can get enrolled in the MPP
I was waiting for the external factors to align themselves, so I can start moving. But the truth I was just procrastinating.
Yes. I was procrastinating. No sugar coding around it.
Lesson Number 2: done better than perfect!
Screw MPP
After receiving harsh comment from my Aussie mate, I started to change all my approach regarding Medium.
No excuse this time.
I began hit the ground running. Posting one story after the others. I kept on working and working.
As a result of that, I successfully post my first
Article
On medium. Successfully reaching 100 followers milestone. And even getting some of my stories be read and liked by hundred of readers from across the globe!
Obviously, all of these wouldn’t be possible if I would have waited all along for the imaginary MPP to be available in my country. Because:
- It would unlikely to happen anytime soon — might as well start writing
- It would likely prevent me from building audience, which is the most important thing — might as well start writing
Don’t get me wrong. I’m still making 0 from medium to these days.But it doesn’t matter ( at least for now). I’m slowly building my audience. Creating and crafting my experience as
Blind born raised Balinese. I enjoy the process. You should as well. While I think it’s gonna be a very long way till Striped and MPP is available in my country, by the time that happen, I’d be already build enough audience to sustain my writing contents. Which I think we all should strive for as a writer. To build the audience and the readership. Because that will truly matter in the long run.
But for now: screw MPP!
Well, for now at least😀
