April — 58 Stories, 56,000 Views, $1,695

1 May 202218 January 2023 Mike Lewis

It’s a numbers game

April was a good month for me. I doubled my March earnings and quadrupled my February earnings. I’m still convinced that it’s just a numbers game. Don’t make it any more complicated than it needs to be.

My first month on Medium earned me $92.88. In my report, I wrote that…

Maybe all those stories of Medium going downhill and not being worth it are just not true at all. They don’t seem to be true for me. Unless this is just a case of beginner’s luck. I hope not.

That was one of my early lessons on this platform.

Don’t listen to the doom-mongers. Follow and model yourself on successful writers.

Even back then I thought that this was all just a numbers game.

Which writers have the highest number of followers, the highest views, and the highest earnings? The ones that have been here the longest and written the most articles.

There’s a very BIG clue there if you’re looking for the secret to earning decent money. Stick around for the long term and write consistently.

Another thing I noticed about the top writers is that they never complain. They just get on with the job. And it is a job. Not a get-rich-quick scheme. The more time you spend complaining, the less time you have to write quality articles.

If you think everything is the algorithm’s fault you may as well give up. There’s no way you can change the algorithm and you’ll miss the mistakes that you’re making. That means that you can never fix them.

I’m a fan of Joko Willink. If you haven’t already, I’d suggest you read his books. Start with Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win. Hell, even if you have read his books, read them again. They will change your mindset forever.

Doesn’t quality matter?

Yes, of course it does. When I say that Medium is a numbers game I’m not suggesting you churn out thousands of crap articles. I’m saying that all other things being equal, more articles means more money.

If one writer publishes one article this month while another publishes 30, it should be obvious that the latter is almost certain to earn more. Yes, I know there are exceptions.

I wrote a post last week asking what would happen if you wrote here consistently for 5 years. In that post, I mentioned that I’ve been writing here for 6 months. It’s simply common sense that if I continue for 5 years I’ll have written 10X the number of articles I’ve written so far. 272 will become 2,720.

Does anyone honestly think I’ll be earning less if that happens?

Most of what I do in life to help me succeed is to simply follow a common-sense approach. I ignore all the complexities and just focus on what’s easy to understand and easy to follow.

For this platform that means being consistent and staying for the long-term. No promises though. Something better may come along.

Sometimes, maybe even often, when I mention I will write more to get more views, someone will point out that views don’t earn money. They go on to say that only reading time does. They are correct but are completely missing the point.

We can only do what’s in our control. We can control our writing output, so focus on that. The views, reads, and earnings will follow. Just as night follows day.

If I 10X my number of articles, will that automatically 10X my views, reads, and earnings? No. But the only choice I have is between writing or not writing. If I give up, I can be certain that all those will drop. So I will continue writing.

Keep it simple, stupid.

If you want to make a career in writing and earn decent money from it, now is one of the best times in history to do it. And Medium is, in my opinion, one of the best platforms to write.

Check back in 5 years and see how well I’m doing. I’m in it for the long haul.

If you also want to succeed here I’d suggest writing consistently over the long term. You either want to be a writer or you don’t. It’s time to make up your mind.

My April Stats

I know many of you like following my stats, so here’s an overview of what happened in April.

Stories

I had planned to write 60 stories this month. I managed to write 58. I was a little disappointed, but what let me down was giving up coffee. The first few days were hell. I’ll write about that later.

Halfway through the month I was well ahead. If I’d kept up that pace I may have been able to write 70–80 articles. But it was not to be. 58 is perfectly respectable though. I plan to writer fewer stories this month as I have other projects taking up some of my time.

Views and Reads

My stories were viewed 56,181 time in April. The most views in one day was 4,038, mostly due to one story getting around 2,000 views that day. The worst day had just 788 views.

That means my views dropped over 80% in 12 days. They will likely be down even more today. I think May will almost certainly have lower views than April.

I had 25,841 reads, which gives a read ratio of 46%. That’s pretty decent.