Member-only story
The Way to Actually Make Money Writing on Medium
My writing and blogging failures, and my new success
I first found Medium one day during the height of the pandemic. I’d lost my sommelier job at a steakhouse in Houston exactly one month after I’d gotten a great raise. At first, the general manager had told me that I would probably be out of work for one month before I could return.
Eight months later, I was still waiting for that call. Even after the extra pandemic money was added, unemployment benefits were only enough to pay the mortgage — nothing else.
I went nowhere. Getting a beer was a serious financial decision. Credit card companies called constantly, asking for money that I had no way of getting. Sometimes I’d buy a lottery ticket, hoping for a miracle.
I had friends and family who had jobs that had been called essential or had jobs that could be done remotely. They never missed a check. So I started looking online for work that I could do using my English degree.
When I found the site, Medium seemed like it might save me. Like a lot of people, I read about people who regularly made thousands of dollars a month on Medium. I still remember how I smiled and even cheered. I told my dog that we were going to be alright.
