Recalibrating the goal of writing and reading on Medium — When I first started writing on Medium, I had dreams about joining the elite. I imagined the pride I would feel making over $1000 dollars a month writing and the benefit some extra cash would provide in the chaos of the pandemic. When I first started writing on Medium, I…

Expand your writing skills by writing for different platforms — How do we get better at writing? Short answer: write often I understand there is more to it, but at the end of the day, if you want to improve in a skill you need to practice. To get better at writing you must write frequently. There are other pieces…

I had the content but lacked the passion and the audience to gain traction — Should I stay within a niche or expand my writing topics? Depending on which “here’s how to make oodles of money on Medium” articles you read, the suggestion will differ. I primarily write about health and medical research. My personal mission is to reduce health misinformation and help people make…

May has been my best month ever on Medium — When facing a situation you are pissed about you have two options: complain and blame or adapt and grow. I choose the latter. I live my life by the philosophy of silver linings — always find the positive in a situation. My Medium journey has been filled with silver linings…

‘Chosen for further distribution’ has lost its allure — Since the new ‘chosen for further distribution’ model was introduced, I have curated every story I have published. My rate was not that high previously. The current model doesn’t have the same sense of accomplishment. I remember when I received my first curation email last summer. I filled with immense…

Lessons learned and hope restored — I’ve had three stories cross the $100 mark. The first was published in Elemental. I don’t consider that a “viral” article as it was a Medium-owned publication. All of those stories have a strong reach. That leaves me with two stories: one about writing (which seems to be the easiest…

And how do I keep it up? — Well, that was a pleasant surprise. I’m guessing your home page looks similar to mine with every other article pertaining to the second month of bonus payouts. I am not looking to rehash what has already been written multiple times. Instead, I am going to share the perspective of someone…

There is a reason the tag didn’t last long — Maybe they made mistake. Last week, Medium chose me as a top writer in writing. The guy who read more spark notes than books in school and refused to write more than the minimum required amount. Maybe they realized they made a mistake as the tag has vanished. More likely…

Bye bye 100% distribution rate — I recently wrote a story explaining distribution doesn’t matter and is easy to achieve. Since the new curation model was rolled out last year, I have been auto-distributed the moment I clicked the publish button. Not anymore. I mainly write about health and fitness research — that’s what I’m passionate…

The article started on Medium but it went viral elsewhere — I have finally written a viral article. I would love to tell you the reason is due to extensive content and keyword research, writing 14 different drafts, and enlisting the help of social media influencers. Those take substantial effort. Nope. It was one singular change in a story I had…