Medium

The World Is Mostly Full of Good People – and the Medium Comments Section Proves It

~ ChanAtkins ~ 5 Comments
Image by Maximilian Neumeier from Pixabay

This was originally posted on Medium!

Us humans we are so good at focusing on the negative and downplaying the positive. We do it all the time and I’m not sure why. During a week, for example, most things will go smoothly, perhaps even positively, but it’s that one ‘bad day’ we focus on. That one bad day will make it a bad week.

It’s the same when dealing with other humans. If I look back through my life I can rationally see that most of the humans I have dealt with have been overwhelmingly kind, well-meaning and good for me. So, why is it those few bad ones stick in our heads?

We shy away from compliments, sometimes don’t even notice them, yet one word of criticism and our day is in tatters. That one piece of negativity will become the focus for the entire week. I can still clearly remember horrible things other children said to me as a child — they haunt me, yet there are only a handful — do I remember all the kind things other children said? No, not so much.

As a writer we are especially sensitive to this. We can get reams of positive reviews but it will be that one negative one that flattens our soul. The words will come back to us at night, needling and hurting.

When I look around me, I can plainly see that most people are good. Most people do their best. The majority of people on this planet are not evil, not even close. But we focus on the bad ones, don’t we? We hear a bad news story, we read about unspeakable cruelty and wonder what on earth has happened to the human race. We damn them all because of the actions and inhumanity of a few.

It’s hard to remember that most people are good, but they are. It’s hard to believe that most people are on your side, rooting for you and cheering you on, but they are.

I joined Medium in April and instantly found it to be an overwhelmingly positive place. When you compare it to the trolls and keyboard warriors causing misery on other platforms, it really does feel refreshing. I was nervous when I published my first pieces and even more so when I got into the partner programme. I wondered what sort of comments I might get.

What I noticed right away is that most people are not commenting to critique your work or offer feedback and, for me personally, that’s a good thing. I’m not there for writing advice, not that there is anything wrong with that, but I feel I have done my time and paid my dues. I don’t mind critical feedback, as long as its apparent the person commenting has actually read and understood the article.

Generally though, what I found was very positive. People reading the piece because the title or subject drew them in, then enjoying it and letting me know. Perfect. Wonderful. It spurred me on.

Obviously, at some point I was going to get a nasty comment and recently it happened. I wouldn’t have minded if the comment had made sense or had been articulated kindly… However, the piece was a sensitive one, a piece I wrote about women’s obsession with weight and my recovery from eating disorders.

The piece got boosted and the comments poured in. I was nervous. I am sensitive about this topic and I was wary of opposing viewpoints. All the comments, bar two, were supportive, kind, understanding and mentioned that they had experienced the same issues. I breathed out in relief.

It was an article about women, for women, posted in a women’s publication — it might be wise to point that out before I get to the negative comments.

The first one wasn’t too bad. The person meant well, I think, and had, (I think,) read the article. Their advice was to join a gym. It wasn’t a great comment to read from a man on an article about weight sensitivity and eating disorders and I responded by telling him so. The article, for example, was not one about how to get fit. I was not asking for advice. I was writing about my experiences. Sometimes people struggle to tell the difference. It did annoy me. I probably should have ignored it. I just felt like he had missed the point.

The second comment was worse and yes, it ruined my day. I couldn’t stop thinking about it for days actually. It upset me and angered me for many reasons.

I won’t go into it too much but it was something along the lines of, ‘just admit you are lazy and have no discipline’. He had also commented on another man’s supportive comment, by laughing at his support.

I felt uneasy. I felt misunderstood. I was very pissed off too. Considering the article was about women and aimed at women, considering the article mentioned my past struggles with eating, I felt this comment was nasty and uncalled for. He had obviously not read the article. He had seen the title and responded with cruelty that probably felt funny to him.

A few days later I commented back. I told him the article wasn’t aimed at him and that he did not know me and had no right to assume I was lazy. There were a lot of other things I wanted to say to him but I held back. I prepared to block him but all he responded with was a clap.

Weird.

Anyway, this brings me to my point. That small comment from someone who had blatantly not read the article spun in my mind for days. It made me tearful, it made me angry. It made me think for a few seconds about quitting Medium. It made me second guess the articles I had lined up.

How ridiculous is that?

Now, I know writers are sensitive — we need to be, we should be. And I also know that once you start publishing you need to grow a thick skin. I am fine with that. I have been publishing since 2013 and I do not expect every reader to love or understand my writing. You cannot expect to escape criticism and you cannot expect everyone to agree with you.

What bothered me about this was it felt needless and it felt personal and it felt extremely insensitive given the topic of the article.

I gave myself a week off Medium. I needed a breather and it did me the world of good. I got the idea for this article while walking my dogs and seething about that one negative comment. So, I suppose I should thank the person for that!

Everything is writable, after all. Every experience, good or bad, provides us with a story.

But I had to give myself a shake. I had to remind myself of the boosts I have received, of the payments I’ve had and more than that, I had to remind myself of the predominantly positive and supportive messages and comments I’ve had there.

Medium is a wonderful place. I know that to be true. The world is full of good people and you only have to look at the comment section on Medium to see the proof. Where there is one unkind, unhelpful comment, it sits drowned and lonely among the mass of supportive, understanding ones who are glad you shared your story.

My Medium Experience Updated Plus Top Tips For Success

~ ChanAtkins ~ 4 Comments
Image by Anna from Pixabay

Two months ago I posted about my experiences on the writer’s platform Medium, so far. To briefly recap, I first joined the site in April – finally giving in after other writers had been suggesting I try it for some time. I signed up to the paid membership because I knew if I didn’t fully commit, it would fall off my radar and get ignored. Knowing I was paying five dollars a month to the platform would, hopefully, encourage me to be active.

It did, though for April and May I was very quiet – time was spent just adding my About Me story and reading and researching publications that would be a good fit. You need to reach 100 followers to meet the Medium Partner Programme criteria, so that was another incentive to read, follow and comment on other writer’s work. I was pleased to discover there are many excellent writers on the site and it was not the chore I had envisioned reading and enjoying articles. I got to 100 followers by August and received my first payment from Medium in October. This was just over two dollars and was payment for what I had written in September.

In November my payment was just over eight dollars. At this time, I was enjoying the platform so much, I hadn’t actually examined my stats page yet. However, when I received a payment in December for $189 dollars, I was astounded! Luckily for me, I had been boosted in October, and again in November. Your story, if written well and received well, may be chosen to be boosted by the editors of the publication you had it published in. Looking at my stats, it’s obvious that while some of my poems and pieces of flash fiction have made me a few cents or a few dollars, my boosted pieces have made me a lot more. So, the trick is to get boosted if you can, but I’ll come to that in a bit.

I didn’t expect my January payment to be the same but it turned out to be even more. I was paid $249 dollars which is around £193. Amazing! Looking at my stats, I was reminded that in December I was boosted three times.

So far in January, I have published eleven pieces and obviously, my aim was to get boosted again if I could. I was delighted to discover I was boosted just last week! Now, that doesn’t automatically secure me a large payment. It still needs more reads and responses and at the moment it has less than my other boosted pieces.

The stats page is fascinating and I am learning more about Medium every day, but here is a quick run down of my top tips so far!

  • Once you’ve reached 100 followers and posted a certain amount of content, you can start getting paid so this is when you need to start paying attention to your stats if you haven’t already. It shows you how many reads, views and responses each published piece had and it shows you how much each piece earns you. This should help unravel the mystery of why some pieces make you more money than others.
  • I suggest submitting to publications. That is what has worked for me so far, but I am sure other writers might say different. There are millions on there so it’s just a case of looking for writers and content that are a good fit with your own. For example, I like writing about women’s issues such as motherhood, family relationships and the perimenopause, so Modern Women is a great fit for me. There are other similar publications and you can ask to write for as many as you like. In terms of poetry, I am a writer for three poetry only publications, and two that are a mix of poems, stories and articles. I submit to particular ones depending very much on the style, format and content of my poem.
  • Research the publications! Very important. Read as many of their published pieces as you can. Get a feel for their writers and their readers. Check their submission guidelines very carefully. Once you feel your work would fit in, ask to be a writer and hopefully you will be added. Some are stricter and fussier than others. Very large publications obviously have a bigger readership but I assume that makes it harder to be boosted, I’m not sure. At the moment, I am satisfied with how it is working out for me in the eight smaller pubs I write for. At some point, I may try getting added to bigger ones but at the moment, its not a high priority. I am still finding my way and don’t want to give myself too much pressure.
  • Make sure you format correctly! Publications have specific requirements but formatting your title and sub-title correctly are universal, so remember to do that. You simply highlight the first letter of your title then click on a big T to make it a title. For the sub-title, you do the same but click on the smaller t. You then need to add a main image and it gives you an option to upload one of your own, one from Unsplash or one from elsewhere. Make sure you credit it and make sure it fits with your piece and draws the reader in.
  • Pick alluring titles that make people curious to know more. My boosted titles so far have been: Less Is more: The Most Important Lesson The Perimenopause Has Taught Me; An Emotional Haircut: At Age 45, I Finally Like My Hair (my most read and highest paying piece!) I Was The All-Seeing Eye: But Who Saw Me? ; Take It From A True Cry-Baby: It’s Far Healthier To Let It Out Then To Keep It In; One Toothbrush: A Tale of Days Gone By (previously published on this blog!); and finally, I See You, Single White Eyebrow Hair: And You Don’t Scare Me At All (again, previously published here, updated, shortened and reworked for Medium.)
  • Make sure you send your piece to the right publication! Know your pubs and know them well.
  • Leave it overnight before submitting – I’ll write a piece, read it through, edit a bit, read it again and then leave it overnight. The next day I will always find bits I want to sharpen up or edit.
  • Be authentic and write from the heart – This is just what has worked for me so far. When I look at my boosted pieces, and other articles or poems that have done well on Medium, I can see a common thread; writing from the heart. I would say my style and content on Medium is exactly the same as it is here on my blog. My essay style pieces are usually about life, relationships, obstacles, mental health, parenting, etc. I write from the heart, I write as me. I don’t try to be anything I am not. I don’t try to impress anyone. Writing advice style articles are popular but there are so many… I’ve earned a bit from these sorts of pieces, but the ones that have got me the most views and earned me the most money are the universal ones, the ones people can relate to. It works both ways. The pieces I am more likely to comment on or highlight are the ones I can relate to. Everyone wants to feel understood, after all. So, if you’ve got something to say, a point to raise, a life obstacle to discuss, then do it.

I am still learning a lot about Medium and I’m sure I’ll update my progress again at some point. I can definitely see it as something I want to stick with though – something I am happy to devote time and energy to.

My Experience On Medium So Far

~ ChanAtkins ~ 16 Comments

I first became aware of the writer’s platform, Medium, a few years back when an author I follow on Facebook started posting about it. This author would share pieces he had published on Medium and suggested it was a worthwhile platform for writers to invest in if they fancied getting paid for their work. At the time, I thought, good for you and moved on by. So often in this industry, authors are bombarded with ways to make money out of writing and it often becomes too much. There are only so many hours in a day, and most of us have full time day-jobs and families to contend with too.

Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay

Over the next few years I noticed a few other authors I respect had started publishing on Medium. They too often mentioned how good it was. Again, I thought, good for you, but I don’t have time. Too many books to write and promote and not enough hours in the day was my excuse.

Then, back in April, one of these authors messaged me privately to urge me to give it a go. He had just enjoyed one of my blog posts and pointed out that similar types of articles, essays and personal pieces could be making me money on Medium if I gave it a go. He told me he was on average earning around $200 a month which made a nice little side hustle and finally, I was intrigued. I decided to sign up and give it a go. I went all in, rejecting the free option for the paid one. You pay $5 a month to be a member on Medium and that gives you access to all the work published on there, plus it gives you a chance to apply for the partner programme. Being part of that, I was told, was how you eventually started earning money.

To start with, I set up my profile and on the advice of my friend, wrote an ‘About Me’ article. This is apparently the best way to begin to get follows. Life took over after that and I neglected the site until a few months later. By now, I was aware that another author friend of mine was also doing well on Medium, making an average of £200 a month to supplement her other income streams. There are, of course, many writers making even more than that per month, and this knowledge gave me a new determination.

If you’re not aware of how Medium operates, I will try and break it down for you.

You can sign up to the free version, post anything you like and read other posts that don’t have a paywall in front of them. This is not a bad way to get started and get a feel for the place.

Or, like me, you can sign up to be a member. You can then start posting whatever you like. Poems, stories, flash fiction, articles, essays, personal pieces and more. You can post by yourself or you can submit to write for publications. Luckily for me, one of my friends was already an editor on several publications that were a good fit for me, so I joined all of those, read the submission rules and got started. The aim is to get to 100 followers, as that is one of the criteria for being accepted onto the partner programme, which will then enable you to get paid.

I found it really easy to get 100 followers. I started following, reading, commenting and clapping on other writer’s work and they would do the same for me. I found people were following me after reading and responding to my About Me piece, and again, whenever I posted something, I’d get a new little burst of followers. It was exciting and felt a lot more worthy of my time than other social media platforms. Plus, I was really enjoying following and reading the work from other writers!

Once I got my 100 followers, and had posted enough articles, I applied for the partner programme and got in. A month after that I got my first payment! I was thrilled to bits. It was for just under $3 so didn’t quite cover my membership fee, but it spurred me on. This was starting to look really doable. And I was enjoying it!

I still am. I think Medium is a great platform for all kinds of writers. I just got my second payment the other day and it was just over $8 dollars. Again, I was absolutely thrilled. I’ve made a little profit and covered my membership fee. I now feel even more determined to write and post more quality pieces to up my earnings again for next month. In fact, I now have a goal in mind of £200 a month. That would be a really nice extra income stream for writing things I would have written anyway.

If you are interested, here’s a short breakdown of the pros and cons I’ve found so far!

Pros

  • you can post anything, though of course there is guidance and some rules so make sure you read these first. Some writers only post poetry, some only political articles, some lifestyle pieces and so on. It’s totally up to you.
  • There is a publication for everything! I am currently a writer for 7 publications which gives me a good choice of who to submit it to whenever I write anything. Some of them are really niche, so you will definitely find one to suit your writing style and topics.
  • people are overwhelmingly positive and supportive. I’ve only had one critic on there which was a bit odd but we’ve unfollowed each other now. Everyone else has been absolutely lovely. Writers are keen to support each other as it increases the chance of the favour being returned
  • it’s like a co-operative of writers all helping each other and I love that!
  • editors can pick pieces to ‘boost’ which gives you even more visibility. This happened to me recently!
  • publications offer lots of prompts and challenges so you will never be without something to write about
  • Medium promotes the writers with ‘daily digest’ emails tailored to suit you. I try to read this every morning, a bit like reading a newspaper. I read as many as I can and clap and comment as much as I can too. It is a reciprocative platform so make sure you are helping out other authors too.
  • It’s super fast to gain genuine followers, unlike other social media sites!
  • You can get started by reusing old blog posts. Medium doesn’t mind if something has been published elsewhere before, but some of the publications do, so check first.
  • There are some very talented writers on there and I genuinely enjoy reading the Medium Digest each day!

Cons

  • It can be time consuming but I have managed to fit it in. In order to be supportive to others, you do need to follow, subscribe, clap, comment and share as much as you can. You can’t expect to help no one and still gain followers and views.
  • Like all internet platforms there are going to be some trolls, and some people who let you know they don’t like your writing, but overall, it is completely the opposite.
  • It leaves you with less content for your blog! I like to post on here weekly if I can, but it’s been less lately because every time I have an idea, I choose to put it on Medium instead!

That’s it. I can’t think of any other cons so far, but perhaps, further down the line I’ll feel differently. I think I will write an update post maybe six months from now and let you know how close I am to my payment goal and whether I have come across any other negative aspects to the site.

For now, I’d definitely recommend it. Facebook and Instagram have become such an echo chamber lately. Social media can be very depressing at times but so far, I am thoroughly enjoying being a part of the Medium community!

If you want to follow me, I’ll gladly follow you back: @chantelleatkins_17828