Here’s the four-part secret to my “success” at being an anonymous failure on Medium:
- I have a calculator and some math skills. Based on the amount of money Medium has paid over the last 27 months, only 2.3 of the 93,000+ writers could make $10,000 each month. The idea that there are tons of people making huge money each month is a serious con game run by Medium and its shills.
- Logic and an understanding of the gig economy. If Medium pays out 80% of each subscriber’s five dollars, you would need 2,500 paid subscribers to never write an article and only read you work to make $10,000. Does that sound like anything close to what happens in the real world? Almost everyone who has clapped, highlighted or commented on my writing is also a writer, so I find it hard to believe there are significant numbers of paid subscribers who only read.
- Having enough writing successes in the real world: writing and producing TV and radio spots, branding and ad campaigns, and writing taglines. I know that my frustration on Medium has nothing to do with the “quality” of my writing. Did you notice how they never qualify it with the word “good” or “bad”? It is a word roared by people to justify their bullshit.
- I enjoy the community of writers who have become my online friends. It’s part of my mission on this site to unravel Medium’s mysteries and tell people the truth about how things work, especially the inexperienced writers so easily seduced by the snake oil salesmen.
Like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, Medium is a social media game.
Writing credibility is not based on your popularity or how much money you claim to make. If it were, Agent Orange would be a bestselling author.
The problem is, the allure of the get-rich-quick scam is so powerful and all-pervasive, we all fall into the trap.
