I asked +100 writers why they publish on Medium and these were their answers:
Not everyone writes for money.
If we assume money in its absolute value is a survival tool, then we can conclude that everyone wishes to make it doubled, tripled, or even more. It was not the main reason for writing for Medium, tho.
I did not want to draw early conclusions that we write only for money, because it turns out to be wrong. We actually don’t write only for money. Thus, if we exclude the money option from the survey’s outcomes, we will be left with other reasons why people share their articles on this website.
On average, there are more than 38% of the people who participated in this poll wish to improve their writing skills:
Well, it is a generalized answer not only to literally improve their writing skills but also to learn more about writing as a profession and to get insights about it as a career. This rate is very high for such a small and random survey, but it reflects that there are a lot of amateur writers who actually start their writing career here on Medium. Maybe they will make a full-time income, or not. Again, I can not confirm the last outcome to be completely true, but based on what writers share, there seems to be a great chance for being recognized and being upgraded to a skilled writer.
- One answer that made me rethink about was that some writers actually write for the sake of writing only:
Their answer was the following: “I write for me”. I tried to explain this reason using my intuition, and I guess the intuition is to share ideas and thoughts with their audience. I believe, to some extent, more people will be interested in reading what you write about as long as you write to share what you have experienced. One hint is to turn your writing into a story, a real story.
- Other reasons are to share knowledge, generate email lists, and for fun:
It is interesting that the more you learn about Medium, the more interested you become.
The question is why does it matter to know about that? In fact, I am interested in knowing the best way writers communicate to build their network. I am still learning about the best way of doing so on Medium. I believe that if writers find a way to communicate correctly, they will improve their “writing skills” and have more career options through this amazing platform.
What is the best way to build a network on Medium? This is the discussion of my next story. Stay tuned!
Take a look at my previous story where I share “Six Technical Advice & Lessons for Writing on Medium”
