Cover Photo by Yasin Gündogdu from Pexels

It’s about showing up consistently and defining success in a way that allows you to do so

I write for one hour every day on Medium, and that’s how I make most of my money. Because of that success, I’ve been toying with the idea of creating an online event and assembling some of the most successful writers on Medium so we can share our experiences on how to make it happen.

But the truth is, most of it would be BS anyway.

A writer I greatly admire, Shaunta Grimes, is currently doing a very interesting experiment: Can a successful Medium writer become successful again using a different account?

Depending on how you see it, the results aren’t so conclusive after four weeks. She goes into greater details here:

When a Medium Writer Has an Off Week

Shaunta is a great writer and storyteller. She’s far superior to me in many aspects of writing. She also has a lot more experience than me. So when I heard about her experiment, I couldn’t think of a better person to do it.

Here’s her progress so far:

Week 1: $00.05
Week 2: $17.50
Week 3: $30.11
Week 4: $25.69

The total is $73.35.

Most people wouldn’t consider this a success. She works her ass off to make this, and she writes seven posts per week on average. I haven’t read the posts, but I’m sure they’re good.

Her goal is to see if she can get to earning $1,000 a month in 90 days.

Even for someone as talented as Shaunta, it’s going to be extremely difficult. And even if she reaches that goal, is it even worth it? Given all the effort required to get there, $1,000 a month is quite low.

So consider this: What does success on Medium mean to you?

Success on Medium

Trust me, we all have a different view on what success really means. I couldn’t care less about the money — I was writing on Medium way before the money came.

For me, success on Medium means having a positive impact on people’s lives. I was lucky enough to have a strong start by writing for The Startup back when I began in January 2018.

You can’t expect a strong start like that. I was lucky, not good. That success continued for the next three months.

Then for five to six months, I “tanked.”

Up to that point, I had published 120 articles and made $0. Publishing in the Partner Program back then wasn’t the right way to get people to read your articles.

If my definition of success back then was about making money, you can bet I’d have given up. And I did think about giving up. I very much thrive on growth, and I was definitely not seeing it. But every time I thought of giving up, I’d receive an amazing comment like this:

Actual comment from a reader from one of my articles when I was in a dip.

Talk about a way to lift someone up! If you’re a reader on Medium and a writer has helped you, do them a great service and tell them how much their work means to you. I’m part of groups of elite writers, and trust me, they all need to hear that once in a while!

For most top writers, that’s what success means. It’s not about having millions of readers and making tens of thousands of dollars.

I’d take a month of making less than $1,000 but receiving 10 comments about how I changed someone’s life way before a month where I make $3,000 and receive no positive comments.

Find Success on Medium by Caring for Your Readers

Success on Medium has almost nothing to do with talent. Success on Medium is about consistently caring for your readers and persisting.

Who do you see at the top of the Medium charts? If you read their articles, you can tell that they’re authentic and they want the best for their readers.

I’m not a talented writer. I still don’t consider myself a writer. I’m a software engineer by trade, and I think of myself more as an engineer than a writer. Yet, I make more money than people who are professional writers and view money as part of their goal.

There’s one immutable rule to success in life, and that obviously applies to writing on Medium: Give more, and succeed more.

I didn’t invent that rule. Every truly successful person I know is a giver. I read it all the time in biographies as well.

Now you’re wondering, “Doesn’t Shaunta care? Isn’t she a giver?”

You’re right. She cares and she gives, so why is her new account not yet “successful?”

The keyword here is yet. I was lucky enough that I become what people would consider successful in about 10 months.

End of my dip approaching. Posting 30 articles per month.

End of my dip. Posting about nine articles per month.

There are two key points to note here:

Success doesn’t happen overnight (more on that soon).
I started posting less and began succeeding again.

How does the second point make any sense?

It comes back to giving. It comes back to adding massive value to the reader. If you spend an hour writing every day on one subject, how deep can you go in that subject?

Not very, right?

I started applying what Michael Simmons calls the “blockbuster” approach. My goal was to write the best article my readers had ever read on my subject. That was my way to add more value to what people were reading. And by best, I mean in terms of content and readability.

Success Doesn’t Happen Overnight

Content is king. If you read any of Michael’s articles, you’ll see what I’m talking about. He spends 50–80 hours per article. If you’re a writer, how much time do you spend on yours? It’s not easy to reach that level, but you don’t need to be a talented writer to do it.

Also, a lot of Medium readers are not native English speakers. Talented writers use difficult words. Not me. I use words everyone understands. I’ll never win awards for my talents in written English, but I consider myself pretty successful on Medium. Readability makes it easier to add massive value to your reader.

As for success not happening overnight, that’s what’s happening with Shaunta’s other account. I have no doubt she’ll succeed as she keeps giving to her readers. Perseverance is a greatly undervalued skill.

My friend Anthony Moore struggled for almost five years before finally having a breakthrough. Ayodeji Awosika also wrote for years before reaching where he is today. Heck, here’s a tweet I read from him yesterday:

After five years of pushing for high-quality content, Entrepreneur’s Handbook recently celebrated having 100,000 followers. I know how hard Dave Schools worked to make this happened.

Anthony, Ayo, and Dave are all talented and giving people. Yet, you see how long it took?

I’m not saying that to discourage you.

According to Yuval Noah Harari, it’s very likely that the life expectancy of humans will reach over 100 years old this century.

Five years is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Most people don’t start achieving “things” until their 30s. That gives them 70 more years to kick ass. If five years is what it takes to succeed at “things,” then you can achieve real success in 14 things in your life.

That’s pretty damn fantastic!

Give consistently for 70 years, and you won’t believe how successful you can be.

So, if you haven’t been succeeding on Medium, reframe your definition of success. Give more every day. Be persistent. I don’t care if you’re talented or not, you can succeed without it. Talent is overrated. If a schmuck like me can succeed on Medium, so can you!

You can do this!