Let's Meet for a Q&A on Friday, March 14th
Bring your questions about Substack, Medium, and writing in general
Hello Friends!
I haven’t done one of these for a while and I’m looking forward to seeing you all again. The last time I did a group meeting I was maliciously attacked by a conservative hate group (go figure). If they want to attack me, I’m only going to continue to call them out.
A couple of you provided me with wonderful advice as to what I can do to ensure this won’t happen in future meetings. If you’re available, here’s the information about the upcoming meeting:
Mar 14, 2025 11:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)
I’ll be using the waiting room, so once you join please remind me to check the waiting room periodically for stragglers.
If you want to join this meeting, please fill out this form. Then I’ll send you the Zoom link the morning of the meeting. I included a question on the form where you can tell me what days and times are more convenient for you. That will help me plan future meetings. I’d like to get back to doing this once a week.
Between the form and the waiting room, that should take care of any problems.
Somebody asked me how I create discount codes, so I might as well answer that one now. You go to Settings—>Payments—>Discounts—>Manage:
Other news
I’m seeing a little bit more life out of Medium lately and that’s positive. I’m finding that even non-Boosted stories are earning a bit better. Here’s my month so far (note that the stories published at the beginning of the month have had enough time to earn well):
That column doesn’t add up to a staggering number, but keep in mind that I have around 1,500 stories living on Medium and quite a few of them continue to earn for me.
When I started Medium, my strategy was to feature 1,000 quality articles on the platform. The idea is to both generate a following and establish some passive income. The platform still works for that.
Over the last two years, Boost has provided a tremendous opportunity for big earnings on a single story. Boost still is a powerful tool, but you can see from my stats for March that my one Boosted story has only earned $57. That’s not bad, but it’s certainly not the $300-$400 threshold we used to see. Then again, you can’t come to any conclusions about Boost based on the performance of a single story. Maybe the title wasn’t good enough, maybe the featured image didn’t attract readers, maybe the concept of the article wasn’t of public interest… the list goes on and on.
You’ll notice, too, that I’m repurposing more of my Substack work onto Medium. I schedule my posts for a month in advance. Usually after I get done with the voice over, I cut and paste the text into Medium. It’s an efficient way to upload stories, and if some of them make me an extra $100, it’s worth it.
Finally, I remain a Boost nominator, so if you have great stories, please contact me. I find I’m more inclined to find great stories from Substack writers than on Medium. It’s more efficient to hear from people who have read my articles on what works on Medium.
Things are really weird right now
I think the most important thing to keep in mind is that the world is really unstable at the moment. I’ve been going to bed absolutely exhausted every single night. There are so many false narratives that need to be contested. In fact, there are more false narratives than time to answer them all.
We are finding our way through all this chaos, and I think we will figure out an appropriate response. The scariest thing for me is how willing people are to go along with plans of action that inflict cruelty on innocent and vulnerable people.
I mean… can’t we just give kids school lunches? People get so hostile about that concept and it baffles my mind. How can you really get angry about the idea of feeding some kids. WTF?
I keep hoping the bubble will collectively burst. I read something recently that suggested you don’t have to change all the hearts of a group that opposes you. You only have to reach 3-5% of them, and then the group starts to dismantle itself internally.
The point is that we just need to keep going. We’re looking at it like we have to change the minds of 100 people, but really we only have to reach 3. So don’t think it’s a daunting/impossible task. Just keep at it. We’re closer to victory than you realize.
Keep at it.
Keep at it.
Keep at it.
We can talk about this on Friday! Looking forward to seeing you all!
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Could you record the session Walter? I will be traveling to pick up my grandson - service is sketchy in the mountains.