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I Gave Up on Medium Years Ago
Now I just write when I feel like it and support writers I know
I was on fire on this platform once upon a time. I did it all. I read all the how-to articles and spent hours on social media promoting my work and reading that of writers whose work was interesting to me. I followed and engaged and added value to this platform daily. I attracted followers who also engaged and added value to this platform and we all paid $50 a year for the privilege of doing so.
Watching this latest dumpster fire with explanations and suspensions and accusations flying is old news to me and a lot of other people who once saw Medium as a legitimate place to share and find interesting writing.
Early on I thought I had the key to managing a modest little hundred or so bucks a month in earnings. I had been invited to be editor on a couple of publications and spent a fair amount of time every day creating (what I hoped was) interesting new material to publish and promote. I engaged with other writers whose work resonated with me. And even without playing the follow me and I’ll follow you game, I did reasonably well.
My Best Month’s Earnings ever was $260 once upon a time.
Guess what happened the next month. My earnings dropped. I recall reading a number of cranky pieces from writers who screeched about algorithms having been tweaked on their way out the door. I wasn’t going that route. I doubled down and worked harder. I analyzed my “audience” and wrote about things that interested me but that I hoped would also catch other eyes. I slowly regained some traction but never to the tune of that holy $260.
And every time I’d manage to hit a hundred bucks a couple of months in a row, bang. My earnings would drop again.
I was about to quiet quit — I refuse to write any of that boring “I’m Outta Here, Medium!” nonsense — this dog and pony show when the pandemic hit. What else did I have to do every day but write? And what else was there to write about except the history-shattering global catastrophe I happened to be sitting in the middle of?
