This Is How Medium Awarded Me $500 Bonus For One Month
Persistent work pays off, even if you non-native or a new writer
Who doesn’t want to be rewarded for his work? Everyone wants to be recognized and appreciated for his work as it keeps him motivated. But what if a great platform like Medium picks you up among millions of writers and chooses you for a big bonus of 500 dollars! Wow! isn’t it amazing?
I was literally speechless and wanted someone to pinch me to check if I am not mistaken or sleeping. I checked my email again and again and read it a few times to find if it is real, there it is, IT WAS REAL!
I wonder what I did that I received such a tremendous bonus and quickly found the answer in the email that my stories engaged readers immensely.
There is no glorious moment of happiness when you find that your work is indeed adding value to your readers, and someone is recognizing it.
So, I wanted to share my success with you to motivate you to keep your writing journey intact, even if it is tough for a while. Keep writing no matter what is happening.
Whether you are getting appreciation or not, just write and a time will come that you will see that you will shine among other greater stars of the constellation.
So, today, I have listed out my strategies how I stumble upon this great opportunity:
Write On Diverse Topics
I stepped into the writing journey recently and it’s been 6 months that I am writing on Medium actively. In the initial days, I couldn’t understand the platform and wrote articles that I think can be termed as the worst pieces of writing out there.
But I kept writing. I wrote every day. Although I didn’t publish every day because sometimes it happens to me that I write a draft and leave it there. Sometimes, I leave the story in the middle and forget about it. I completed a few stories that I published.
In April, I only published 14 articles. But the stories did very well and my view skyrocketed. Although I thought they aren’t doing well but then, I realized yesterday, that it’s doing great. You don’t know your worth unless others appreciate you. And when that other happens to be an authority, then you are indeed a worthy writer.
My everyday writing included diverse areas. I write about self-improvement, history, writing and education, and many other things. I am always in search of a new topic in new fields. My draft section has diverse topics left unfinished, and some of them are still under consideration to be completed.
I leave them unfinished not because that I can’t write about them anymore, but because I have many other fascinating ideas which I want to write about immediately. Thus it becomes difficult for me to handle all the topics soon, and some of them get lost in the debris of drafts. However, long talks short, write on whatever you want to write. Just write.
Write Regularly
Since starting my writing career, I have been writing every day. It doesn’t mean that I don’t take some days off. I have breaks and sometimes, I can’t find the time or willpower to write. And some other days I just don’t want to write. And it’s a healthy behavior to take breaks. It refreshes you. You come back with more vigor and enthusiasm.
Writing every day has many benefits. When I started, I couldn’t type on the keyboard speedily. Writing 500 words was a herculean task for me. But gradually, I build the habit through regular writing and even reached the level of writing 7000 words a day. I am claiming this because I recently ghost-written a book of 30,000 words for a client and that too in 6 days along with proofreading and editing.
So, if you want to improve your speed of writing, write every day. Writing every day not only improves your speed but also brings quality into your writing. It arranges your thoughts in a sequence and brings harmony and rhythm into it.
By writing every day, you develop a habit of focusing your thoughts more on arranging your random ideas. All the rumblings get connected and you achieve an automated level of writing in which you don’t need to stop and think and write. You just sit and write. And once you write, your views and readership will get traction and your earnings skyrocketed.
Study To Improve Your Writing Craft
I read every day. And when I am not writing, I read a lot — almost all day except doing necessary natural things like eating, walking and…… you know what I mean. It is obvious that reading helps us write better. All writings, whether books or other pieces, are good because they always teach you something. If you find an excellent book, it inspires you and gives great insights, and if you find someone’s writing isn’t good, again it gives an insight into avoiding those mistakes which the author has made.
The result is to read. Reading is like feeding your writer self. If you don’t read, you will starve your writer and he will eventually die. Therefore, read to save your writer self.
Aim Different Publications
Sticking to one platform or a single publication is not an excellent strategy. It works against your creative genius. If you want to improve your writing skills, challenge them and write for various publications. I always dare to write for new platforms and aim to get into new publications. Because it helps me push my limits. It is always rewarding.
Once you start pushing your limits, you grow exponentially. However, you can’t perceive your growth or track it on daily basis. But after some time, when you come to your articles and give them a read, you find that you have improved a lot.
So, it is always healthy for your creative genius to challenge him to grow. The strategy I follow is that I write one article in my niche regularly, which is history in these days, and aim to write one other in various other niches. This helps me know various other fields which I can always relate to my main niche. So, exploring new vistas can help you develop not only your own niche but also get insights into other fields and hands-on other areas.
Final Thoughts
Writing needs constant motivation. You need to put a committed and persistent effort into it to grow and heap its rewards. If you are taking it as a hobby and deal with it like an extra thing, chances are there that you won’t grow into an accomplished writer. And getting rewards is a far cry.
But once you put your genuine efforts into it and take it seriously, no one can stop you from becoming an influential writer. And again, no one can stop you from getting substantial rewards.
But expecting immediate rewards is a foolish thing to do. Don’t strive for rewards. Strive for betterment and perfection. Rewards and bonuses are littered on the way ahead and come to you by themselves.
So if you are serious about growing into an excellent writer:
- Hands-on diverse topics. Don’t shy away from a field or a topic simply because you don’t know it. Study it and write about it. And in the process, you will come to know that this is what you wanted to write about.
- Put your fingers on your keyboard regularly. It doesn’t mean that you should write 7000 words every day. Just write a few sentences, but write. Many great writers have experienced that they even wrote less than 50 words a day, but they wrote it.
- If you lack input, you can’t expect to give output. Reading works as an input for your productivity. So read every day and read often. It will only sharpen your sense of writing.
- Don’t just limit yourself to a certain publication or genre. Write on diverse topics and write for various people and publications. Also writing for a diverse range of audience help you understand various age groups empathically.
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