Medium Is Showing Signs of Life and Other Writing News
Replay of my writing Q&A from March 14th
Hello Friends!
There’s a lot of good things going on despite the uncertainty of our times. As always, I want to provide you with as much information as possible so you can effectively communicate a message of universal kindness and prosperity.
We need that now more than anything!
Last week I offered the first Q&A I’ve done since my other meeting was maliciously attacked. I was a bit jumpy about offering the meeting, but it turned out to be wonderful. I really enjoy having the opportunity to take questions from you all. I can get caught up in my own little world, and you often bring things to my attention that are very helpful.
I followed new security protocols and we had a fun and useful meeting (the replay is below). I’d like to do those more regularly, so the next one will be scheduled for:
Friday, March 21st 11AM CST
If you’d like to join, or if there are questions you want me to address, please fill out this form.
Again, it’s really useful for me to read your questions, so don’t hesitate to ask one even if you can’t be there. I print off the questions and I can refer to them as the meeting progresses.
Is Medium making a comeback?
I like to be as transparent as possible about the strategies that I’m using on both Medium and Substack. But even if you replicate my strategies exactly, there’s no guarantee you’ll get the same results. Lately, I’ve come to believe that the best strategy is to “flood the zone.” If you’re on this email list, you know how much content I publish. Every story you put out is an opportunity not only to get paid, but also to gain followers and improve your visibility.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve started to adjust my approach to Medium. For the last 2 years, I’ve been really focused on getting a Boost. Although I still am focused on getting Boosted, I’m publishing a lot more stories on Medium.
Part of the reason is that I have so much to say right now. Frankly, I’m absolutely terrified about the political situation going on in the US right now. There are so many false narratives going about, and the only thing that relieves my anxiety is to do what I can to combat them.
I might not be making much of a difference, but it helps me to sleep at night when I know I can send off a counter-argument to 7,500 plus wonderful newsletter subscribers (so thank you all so much for being there).
For the last two years, I’ve been mostly importing stories from Medium to Substack. These days, when I write a story I prepare three drafts: the text version on Substack, the podcast version, and a version on Medium.
When I publish on Medium, I am sure to remove any profanities. Medium doesn’t seem to like them (I don’t use a lot of them anyway… but if I’ve started to use too many please let me know).
I can create these three drafts efficiently because it allows me to combine editing with posting. Creating the voice over is very helpful because it allows me to see a few more mistakes. By the time I’m done with the three drafts and the audio, the text is in good shape.
As you can see from the image I posted above, I’m getting articles making in excess of $100 again. I’ve been trying to post something every day on Medium, and here are my monthly stats:
I think the algorithm likes to see new content so you start to gain momentum with frequent publishing. I don’t think you have to do 3 articles a day, but if you can get something between 20-30 articles per month, you can still do well on Medium.
Again, there’s no law against publishing your stories on multiple platforms. The idea is visibility, so get your words out to as many places as possible.
I still am a Boost nominator. These days it doesn’t seem like Boost performs quite as well as it used to. I’ve had two of my stories Boosted this month, and one was a complete surprise.
To be honest, I almost didn’t even publish this on Medium. Then I sent it in to a humor publication and it got rejected! It really is a nice feeling when you get that “Congratulations! Your story has been Boosted on Medium” email:
I expect that March will be the first month in about a year that my earnings will rise compared to the previous month, so that’s excellent. It could be that enough quality writers have left the platform that there’s more money in the pool. That’s the thing about writing… we always have to PERSIST!
I’m running out of space, so it’s time to wrap things up. Here’s the replay from last week. Again, mark your calendars and be ready to join me for a chat on Friday. Have a great week!
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Good advice. Thank you Walter. Give your voice a rest if possible. Is this hoarseness from so much reading, or skiing, or both? ♥️
Also, engagement matters. Even when I can't write, I can still engage - read, comment, think, share. There is production, and there is engagement. That can't be underestimated.