Rebel Against Medium’s Partnership
The first internet money feels like a misfit seductive first love, you can’t wait to hold, but then once you have it, you need to let it go.
A year ago, I so yearned to get my first 100 followers, to monetize my Medium account as quickly as I can.
The first internet money has its own charm, like first love. There is just something different “in” the first time, the sweet discomfort it brings, that beauty never comes back.
But then, as with everything else, reality has a way of crashing the party.
It’s so easy to monetize these days, earn peanuts, it’s so easy to get the first 100 followers, but is it all your heart desires?
Earning a few dollars means nothing if it restricts your reader base. What’s the point? You need to be found.
If you have just started, it’s impossible to be so good to make people want to spend money on reading your words.
Writing is strange, it has no destination, it follows no path, nowhere to reach. It just flows and you just try to play nice with it. It’s a tough road, no doubt, but it’s the only road worth travelling to be a true writer.
The only way you could improve is to just fail forward, write and forget, and keep practising without wanting or even waiting to be rewarded.
I can afford not to make money from writing. I can afford to not get paid. This is a privilege I have.
What I need now is not a few dollars but a reach to make, to find my own voice. Money alone can’t buy that.
Medium’s partnership program was a great morale booster, but it’s a trap for beginners. I don’t need Medium’s partnership program. I don’t need that crutch.
It might seem reckless, going against the tide, but sometimes, my friend, it takes a bit of recklessness to stay true to your art.
Keep pouring your soul onto the page, and let the world catch up to you.
