Why Medium Isn’t Paying You Enough.
How proper quality control habits can help your stories stand out.
Most of us if not all have been in a ‘situationship’. If you have no idea what that is, it’s a relationship that has no label on it… like a friendship but more than a friendship but not quite a relationship.
In most cases, we get to face the tough question that women ask especially when you just shared a really special moment together. And it goes, “What are we?”. Smiling, she gently bites her lower lip, stares deep into your eyes, and waits for you to sign yourself over to her.
Assuming that ‘writing’ was a person preferably a woman and she does the same. What answer would you give? Would you wanna be with her and possibly marry her?
Why do you write? What inspires you to write?
Until you get the answers to these questions, you’ll never get it right. It all begins with understanding your purpose and drive. Whenever I wake in the morning, I look at myself in the mirror and have a proper conversation with myself. It’s kinda weird but it works. I’m asking you to do the same but find a way to engage with yourself.
The month of September just ended. How much did you make from your stories? $1000? $300? No?. A dollar maybe less? Look, whatever it that's up to you to know. What I’m interested to know is how much you expected to earn from them.
If you are not making enough there’s a 20% chance medium’s algorithm is messed up and an 80% chance your work isn’t good enough. Before to stack up to expectations on how much you should be paid, read through your article and ask yourself this.
If you owned a publication or a magazine, how much will you be willing to pay for that article?
From my previous article on writing, I championed the importance of originality. Being as ‘naked’ and vulnerable to your audience as possible.
My stand hasn’t changed on what makes an article pop. It’s just that sometimes the story isn’t enough. How you deliver the story counts. They say that Ridley Scott is the greatest film director of all time. Suppose some of his most popular movies like The Martian were reproduced by an inferior director, I doubt that anyone would want to watch them.
It doesn’t matter how great the story is. If the delivery is whack, so is the story
Good quality control habits and practices will help your articles stand out and possibly make more. I get it. It’s so much work and could have you spend several hours on a single article. But remember;
“Cheat your landlord if you can and must, but do not try to shortchange the Muse. It cannot be done. You can’t fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.” — William S. Burroughs
IMHO, It’s way better to produce one or two well thought out articles a week rather than hastily produce mediocre content on a daily basis that Medium just casts straight to their ‘trash can’.
