I’m Not A Top Writer, I’ve Never Had A Story Curated — I Still Earned $94 In One Week

Is getting a Top Writer award overrated?

This is only my second month on Medium, so I’m still learning.

I’ve picked up many great tips so far that I hope will both make me a better writer and earn me more money.

Some of the best tips I’ve learned are from the free Tim Denning course. I’ve summarized some of these below.

Headlines — 14 Key Takeaways From Tim Denning’s 3-Day Writing Course

Others I’ve picked up from various articles and also from reader comments.

Two ways to improve keep cropping up again and again.

One is to become a Top Writer is a specific topic, or in many topics.

The other is to get your article curated.

But do either of these really matter?

Let’s take the Top Writer status first. I would love to be able to say that I’m a Top Writer on Medium. Beyond that, will it get me any extra views, reads, or earnings?

Sure, getting there might mean my writing has improved, but that doesn’t automatically mean more views for my stories.

I’m not even sure whether Medium gives these writers extra promotion or not.

When I read stories here, I never know if the author is a Top Writer or not, so it seems kind of irrelevant.

So, what about getting your story curated? That must mean more views, reads, and earnings? Mustn’t it?

I’ve now read quite a few articles from authors that say their story got curated but didn’t get any extra views compared to their un-curated stories. Some even said that these stories sometimes got lower views.

I then look at my own results and wonder what all the fuss is about.

Here are my earnings for the first 7 days of December.

That’s right, I made $94.02 in the first 7 days of this month.

I don’t have a Top Writer award. I don’t have any curated stories.

So is there any point in me putting any extra time into working towards these two things? Isn’t my time better spent just writing, as that is what’s bringing in the views and money at the moment?

I’m a great believer in doubling down on what’s working. So that’s what I’ll be doing.

If I get a Top Writer badge, or if one of my stories gets curated, it will be a nice bonus. But for now, I’ll carry on writing.