I Wrote on Medium Every Single Day For a Year And Here’s Everything I’ve Learned

My 2020 story writing on Medium.

Note: This is my journey writing every single day on Medium in 2020. This changed my life as a writer and most of these lessons still reign true today.

What a ride.

This has been a post in the making for a year. There have been a ton of ups and downs. I’m still flabbergasted I made it this long.

I still classify myself as a “halfway decent” writer because I’m nowhere near a Medium master. But I’ve figured out a few tricks along the way. So if you’re new to the platform and you’re struggling to make it past year one, here is everything I’ve learned and my results to get you through it.

Let’s go.

Here’s Some of My Story For Context

As I said before, I found out about Medium in 2018.

All I did was post a poem on the platform and call it quits. I tried to start my writing career back then by doing tons of cold-calling and good ol’ guest blogging. I had no idea what I was doing and gave up because the process was unsustainable. I cold-called every business in my local area and didn’t get one client. Plus, my anime review WordPress blog didn’t get any views! I wonder why…(sarcasm).

I gave up on my writing career for a while and tried a bunch of other business ventures like digital marketing ended in smoke. Fast forward to 2019 and I read a post by Shaunta Grimes saying how she went from zero to six figures on Medium. I didn’t even know money could be made on the platform, but at this point, I was willing to try anything to live my dream of being a paid writer.

I tried, then stopped for a while because I made a bunch of excuses.

Now it’s 2020 and something clicked. I watched a video from Ayodeji Awosika who is a six-figure writer on the platform. He said in that video to write on Medium every day for a year and see what happens. I also read a post by Jessica Lynn talking about her first-year Medium journey.

So I strapped myself in to write every single day for a year.

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My Writing Ability Increased Exponentially

What else can I say?

The more you write the better you get. But I didn’t just write to meet some number. I practiced consciously. That means studying the platform, looking at viral articles and trying to replicate them, and learning new techniques from my favorite writers.

Here’s how you can improve your writing drastically:

• Aim for clarity — Clear and concise writing wins the game. You aren’t writing for an English teacher. You’re writing for someone who wants to unwind. Use short sentences.

• Always weave in your personal story — People are much more likely to forget about your article if you don’t have some sort of personal story that can resonate with them. Yours truly made sure to do this at the beginning of this post because there are many articles on this same subject. Always differentiate yourself.

• Write about stuff you’re interested in — Your writing gets 10x better if you write about your favorite subject. For me, it’s life lessons, race, and writing. Find your subjects and write something you can be proud of no matter how many views it gets.

You need to write your ass off every single day. It’s not easy. There is going to be a ton of rejection and roadblocks. If you can do this stuff every day, your writing ability will jump off the charts.

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I Get Curated Loads More Than I Used to

I’m so glad most of those beginning articles didn’t get curated. They sucked ass. I’d say I got curated about once or twice a month during my first nine-ish months.

Ever since month ten, my curation rate has more than quadrupled. How? Practice baby. Even during those months where I had little to no curation, I kept churning out articles. I guess that added compound interest I put in over those nine months paid off exponentially.

But alas, curation doesn’t matter.

I understand that it can be crucial for increasing your earnings. But I sing a different tune. My biggest article that made me over seven hundred bucks and counting was not curated.

Screenshot by Author

I’ve had a ton of curated articles end up as duds.

Here’s some actionable advice — don’t look at your curation rate!

I only looked at mine for the sake of this article. All that does is cloud your head. You get so focused on the curation rate that you’ll start having hidden agendas when you write articles. You’ll start writing to get distributed and that never works.

Remember why you write and leave the curation up to the curators.

I got into the top 1,000 writers on the platform and earned a nifty $938.00 in April.

April was a crazy month.

Not only did I get in the hundred dollars club again, I almost reached the four-figures club. Medium decided to grace the top 1,000 writers who received the most engagement in April a five-hundred-dollar bonus for their hard work. I was one of them.

Screenshot by Author

Screenshot by Author

Let me start by saying that it’s impossible to make a decent living from this platform if you aren’t willing to publish multiple articles a week. I’m not bullshitting you when I say I write and publish new articles every single day. Heck, sometimes I publish twice a day. Saying I wrote 365 articles in 365 days is an understatement.

I even get nervous when publications go too slow and I have to weather a day of not getting an article out to my audience.

A quick note on publications — those don’t matter either. I achieved top-writer status on this platform and got into the top 1,000 by publishing in smaller/newer pubs.

You can’t make any excuses not to publish. If you want to succeed on this platform, you need to treat writing like a job instead of a hobby.

Consistency, consistency, consistency.

Here are my stats from exactly a year ago and now to show you what’s possible in a year.

Stats for May 2020 by Author

Stats for May 2021 by Author

And if I keep going, who knows what I can accomplish?

Final Thought

I could keep going for hours but this post is already too long. Here are the most important tidbits for your memory:

• Improve your writing quality by aiming for clarity, weaving in your personal story, and writing about topics you love

• Don’t look at your curation rate, it doesn’t make or break your earnings

• Publication size doesn’t matter, I haven’t posted in one in months

• Write and publish like crazy

I hope my story gives you a small glimpse of what is possible to accomplish on Medium in just one year. I’m still a work in progress myself, but this is by far the best decision I’ve ever made in my life. This is only the beginning.

So what are you waiting for?

Write on!

And never stop!

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Huge Announcement! Introducing The Story Crafters Club!

On Sept. 30th (Monday) at 8 am EST

I’ll be hosting a 2-hour long writing training Zoom call going over subjects like:

• How to make your writing more clear

• How to write good intros

• The best ways to format your Substack posts

I’ll also be unveiling the Story Crafters Club group chat for paid subscribers with tons of free resources and perks to get your writing career off the ground and soaring!

Plus, I’ll be answering any questions you want afterward!

And if you can’t make it, don’t worry! This meeting will also be recorded and posted for you to refer to anytime!

It’s gonna be a blast!

Hope to see ya there! :)