Dec 12, 2020
You’re Using Medium the Wrong Way
It’s not always about money
My Medium career began in March. New to quarantine, I had to find some way to keep my mind running and the cash flowing. I had been searching for summer internships, but all offers and hope of an internship went belly up when the pandemic shuttered the world as we knew it.
As a result of this, I searched for a regular job, anything. I knew that if I still wanted to hit the Wendy’s drive-through or buy a new video game once in a blue moon, I would need some sort of cash flow. So I became an “essential” worker.
As my quarantine spring semester was winding down, I began to work at work Target. I still go back during semester breaks because the company culture and my other team members make it a rewarding environment to work in.
Aside from being “essential”, I found myself writing more often. This is something I had always been thinking of and even attempted on my personal blog, but with failed marketing and little audience, it was difficult.
I stumbled upon Medium when Firefox recommended a story to me about business or something of the sort. Medium grabbed my attention and my free stories quickly dried up, prompting me to give Medium five dollars a month to a world of knowledge provided by independent writers.
But this platform is much more than that. Admittedly, I began this journey with the mindset of making a decent living wage publishing my work through Medium. While this is possible, it requires much dedication and often a high output of articles that requires writers to work more than a full-time job.
For a brief moment, I tried. However with working more hours at Target, developing my online classes, and returning to school, spending 40 hours or more a week writing was simply not feasible. So I took a step back and set a goal for two stories a week. Twas more achievable and I could finally continue to write without letting my grades or social life slip away.
There was just one hurdle left. I was still writing for money. I know it may not seem significant but you need to have your mindset straight before your fingers begin banging on the keys. You need to find what the motivation for this story is. Money? Power? Promotion? Community?
The last one, community. This is who I write for now, while some stories are still used for promotion like my recent one that promotes my new online class, I still write for my community. While the overall goal of this story is to influence people to take a look at my class, it has value as I offer five ways to control your personal finances.
My point is, reevaluate why you are writing and why you started your journey on Medium. If you’re writing for money but have well-written stories with value, don’t stop! We all began with only a few cents on here and even now after more than 80 stories never earn more than about five dollars a month.
But for me, it’s not the money anymore. Hence why I created this and why I’m changing my CTA at the bottom of every story moving forward and beginning to promote other stories that I’ve read on Medium that add some sort of value to the community.
So, my fellow readers and writers. Stick to your goals whatever they may be and continue to use your talents to better humanity.
Seeing Christmas decorations around my town is one of my favorite parts of this time of year. Tressie McMillan Cottom wrote about her experience with the decorations in her town. Written with a cup of humor and teaspoon of despair for these joyful decorations, it’s definitely worth the read!
