On August 26th I completed my 100th article on Medium. It’s not the biggest writing milestone ever. There are accounts on there with hundreds, even thousands.
I had a goal of reaching the century mark by the end of this year, only to end up blowing right past it. This one is №118. A pleasant surprise, especially given how I was consumed with another writing project of mine for most of the past year and a half.
My experience with Medium has been decent. I’ve found some success with a handful of articles that got thousands of claps, and earned me some money. I’ve survived not one, but two account suspensions. One just recently, and another back in 2022. Both occurring without any real reason other than somehow my account became caught in the “spam filter.” Okay, whatever. Never had that issue with Blogspot back in the day or WordPress now.
On the positive side, I have over 900 followers. The majority of whom I’d say subscribed due to my finance-related articles. My highest earning month so far was this past July with $291. I’ve had multiple $100+ months over the last few years. I don’t know that Medium will ever be, or even could be, a full-time gig. Not without insane commitment and a willingness to plunge into primarily the most lucrative subjects (personal development and finance). I have too many other writing projects going on and other interests to go that far with Medium. As I’ve stated previously, I have no desire to try to build a “brand” there. I sure as hell don’t do coaching. I don’t do freelance work. I will never sell a stupid course or membership of some kind. I realize that’s how a lot of top writers on here make their full-time income, but it’s just not me. There are enough “gurus” out there peddling their snake oil. I just write novels and on occasion scribble out a usually sarcastic editorial. And a finance article here and there.
Writing on Medium for money is not a primary concern for me. My earnings have paid for the Friend of Medium badge for a few years though. Which is nice. At the least, the site is a net positive.
Overall, I see Medium as a good place to practice daily writing and gradually build a platform.
The other milestone happened to take place the following day on August 27th. That is the completion of my 11th novel. A horror story with a dark and twisted romance at its core. This was a tough one to get through. I struggled with it for years. A sharp contrast to previous novels I’ve written, which largely flowed. The inception of the idea actually came way back in 1999, which makes it the oldest concept I’ve ever maintained and seen through to a completed work. It was just a tiny undeveloped spark of a thing. I didn’t know what to do with it then, so I wound up putting it on the backburner for a few decades.
It wasn’t until 2020 that the idea ignited further. Then in 2022 it started to really kindle. At times it felt like trying to hammer cooling iron into shape. I went down two blind alleys, and almost 50,000 words, before having to start over twice. Daunting and dismaying, for sure. But when I have an idea I’m passionate about, I like to stick with it.
This past March, after revising the outline, I began the third attempt. Six months later the first draft is finally finished, and stands at over 90,000 words. My first drafts tend to be strong. I don’t believe in doing “vomit drafts.” I try to get most of what is needed down on the page in a structured and coherent (more or less) fashion in the first go. Even still, it’s perhaps only 65% where it needs to be. As I typically do when finishing a novel, I let the first draft rest for a bit before returning for revisions.
Even though I’ve written 11 novels so far, I’ve only self-published three of them. This is largely because, while I love writing, I have no effing idea how to market or sell my work. Simultaneously, I have little faith in or concern to play the lottery with the traditional publishing side. I’ve read a lot of articles on here about publishing, and let’s just say it’s a sad state of affairs. Even if you land an agent or a publishing deal, the problem of selling your work remains the same. You have to do all of that yourself.
Few, if any, publishing houses, big or small, will put any money into some no-name like myself. I don’t begrudge the industry. It’s the way it is. Most publishing companies make money on their back catalogue of hits, or on “bread and butter” sales like the dictionary or something. Most authors only sell a few hundred copies of their work at best. Publishing in general is a boutique-style business driven by hits. Hits are random. Even celebrity books have totally bombed. So, until I can solve the marketing side of things and learn how to sell myself, I don’t see much of a purpose in putting my eight finished books out there. Perhaps that’s extreme and self-defeating, but I think it’s important to have a plan of execution and not just go out on a wing and a prayer. My books are like my children. I want to treat them right.
I do love my latest book a lot. I think if there’s one that will finally get me to solve the riddle of the Sphinx of Marketing, it’ll be this one. It’s tough to be a writer these days. You can’t just scribble away in a room and submit to publishing shops. You have to learn to do everything yourself. You have to build your own platform. I suppose that‘s part of why I stick around here on Medium. I probably should make YouTube more of a thing, too. That’s a fantastic digital ecosystem, and potentially, a money-making one.
I’ve also thought about posting some of my fiction on here, though I do like keeping the worlds apart. It’s strange. Even though I enjoy writing articles on Medium, non-fiction never makes me feel like I’m really “writing.” Only when I’m writing my novels do I feel like I’m actually really producing something. Fiction enables me to get into a flow state the best, which is my favorite head space. Nothing else comes close.
Anyway, since I don’t like to spend too much time navel-gazing about writing “successes,” I’ll just leave it at that for now. Two good milestones in the rear view mirror. Onto the next.
Over the past few months, I’ve found myself increasingly dissatisfied and disinterested with Medium, and have decided to focus my efforts toward building a Youtube channel instead.
It’s not that I haven’t seen some good results on here. Back in September of last year I had my best month ever, bringing in over $170.
Source: Screenshot of my earnings.
Mind you, this was accomplished mostly with an article that wasn’t even published on any major publications. My article “Why I Don’t Drink Alcohol” has brought in $213.43 and almost 2,000 views to date, 90% of which were organic internal views.
Source: Screenshot of my article earnings
I didn’t even have that many followers to help kickstart my article’s views. And the article barely got any views the first two weeks before blowing up later. This proves that Medium has a quality algorithm so that even articles with no publication promotion, and written by writers with only a small following can still get traction.
Medium is a great platform for the most part. I have no intention of leaving for good. It’s just that I think my efforts would be better rewarded on YouTube in the long term. Medium seems to have a low upper limit of success and income. Even if you’re a writer with tens of thousands of followers, you’re unlikely to realistically make more than a few thousand dollars a month sustainably.
Whereas, there are many, many people on YouTube making many times more than that.
Here are a few more reasons why I’m switching to YouTube over Medium for my content creation going forward:
Content Diversity
It’s no surprise YouTube has vastly more content than Medium, as the platform is open to everyone to use. You can find everything from academic lectures, to video essays about Batman, to just some guy who has a channel of nothing but videos of him drinking water.
Medium seems to be a place devoted to subjects like digital marketing, side hustles, and the occasional personal story.
I find myself on YouTube way more than Medium. In fact, I only passively check Medium from time to time, and usually I find the same sorts of articles again and again.
Content is Going Video Anyway
The written word is never going away. People will always be attracted to strong writing, either on the web or in printed form. But there’s no question there’s a growing preference anymore for video over blogs and articles. I find myself consuming information more through podcasts and videos over static articles on the web.
YouTube also has tons of audiobooks, if you prefer fiction instead.
You Can Build a Bigger Audience With Video
There are some people with tens of thousands of followers, and even hundreds of thousands of followers here on Medium. Those are great numbers, and having a big Medium following is a great accomplishment. But I can’t help but think if all the hard work that lead to those figures wouldn’t have been better put on YouTube instead. That guy I mentioned earlier who posts videos of himself drinking water? He has over 70,000 subscribers.
Sure, you can argue that videos of yourself drinking water is low effort content and not the same as a deep ten-minute article on the philosophical implications of AI, but numbers are numbers. I see other writers posting regularly about deeply important issues that don’t have even one tenth the followers as the “internet’s premier water drinking series.”
Better Engagement
When is the last time you saw an article with hundreds, or even thousands of comments? Never? I see videos of all kinds with immense comment engagement. Sometimes even on videos with few relative views.
Moving on from the humorous example of Jon Drinks Water, let’s look at a Youtuber I enjoy listening to regularly, and who posts the types of content you might see here on Medium, to see what I mean about engagement.
Martin Goldberg posts faceless videos talking about a range of subjects, but generally about society, culture, gender relations, politics, and other opinion and commentary type stuff. His style is like the soft-spoken “smart friend” who always has interesting and witty insights to share. His latest video talking about Vivek Ramaswamy only has 3,600 views, but has 107 comments as of right now. By constrast, my alcohol article has 2,000 views, but only 8 comments.
While I’m very appreciative of any comments or engagement on my articles, as well as for my 398 followers, it’s clear that if you’re interested in reach and engagement, YouTube is the way to go.
Medium is Strictly Leftist
My personal politics is hard to pin down and I’m agnostic about a great many issues. There are some things I agree with on the left and the right. But overall, I tend to fall on the conservative and traditionalist side of things.
Well, this is not the case with Medium whatsoever, which is largely left wing, very feminist, socialist, and generally hostile to anyone outside whatever is considered “progressive” or “woke.” In fact, I’ve seen conservative writers I’ve liked banned for seemingly no reason, even after building an audience in the thousands.
While I’m not an overtly political person or writer — I tend to avoid politics for the most part in my articles—I’m not a strictly technical writer either. Obviously one’s world view and mindset is going to bleed through the edges when writing about different topics. Medium isn’t friendly toward voices outside what I’d call the deep blue “metropolitan sophisticate” cohort who unquestionably embrace the DIE (diversity equity inclusion)/ BLM/CRT/LGBTQ+/ and whatever other leftist belief system you want to throw in there. Browsing Medium is sometimes like hearing a chorus of programmed NPC automotons. I don’t think people in that narrow mindset realize how exclusionary they really are, even while supposedly being all about “inclusivity.”
It’s not to say conservative media is any better. In fact, I think it’s largely godawful and cringe. And don’t even get me started on the “red pill” weirdos.
Increasingly, I value originality and voice, even if I may disagree with the politics of the content creator. I think maintaining a strict political mindset crushes creativity in many ways, whether you’re on the left or right.
YouTube may have issues with censorship in some cases, but for the most part it has the kind of diversity where it matters — in thought and opinion.
For example, just recently I discovered a YouTube channel called “the radical center,” created by a woman who talks about ideological bias in her academic experience. Her channel has the kind of content that would largely be a no-go here at Medium. But with just 86 videos, she’s amassed over 15,000 subscribers, and very active engagement. Something I doubt would happen here. Her latest video has only 1,500 views but 93 comments.
YouTube Offers Better Income Opportunities
Over the past months, I’ve covered a few YouTube channels in my “Niche Knowledge” series. You can make a living doing almost anything on YouTube — talking about comic books, sharing updates on cryptocurrency, making copyright-free music, or talking about controversial figures like Andrew Tate. Not necessarily the case on Medium, which again, seems more focused on things like digital marketing and “city professional” stuff.
And again, while I occasionally hear about people making $10k or so on here, those days seem to mostly be in the past.
I’m Tired of Hitting the Google Lottery and Having Nothing To Show for It
You’d think with me making this big case against Medium that I’d be some disgruntled writer who barely gets reads. On the contrary. Not only am I not disgruntled, I’m not even gruntled.
I routinely get anywhere between 60–75 or so hits daily on my articles, with no promotion or any real effort on my part. About a month ago, on May 9th, I even got almost 1,000 views in one day for my article “Three People Who Destroyed Their Lives in Less than 60 Seconds.”
Source: Screenwhot of my article’s stats.
The problem is virtually ALL of those views were external. On Medium, you only make money when other paying members view your stories, or people buy something through your affiliate links.
Now, it’s not Medium’s fault if a story does not click with an internal audience. If anything, this example shows Medium’s value in helping your articles rank in Google for different key words and topics. But what’s the point of that if any time an article hits the Google algo it doesn’t translate into actual dollars? At best all I’m doing is increasing Medium’s digital footprint, and increasing awareness of the site to other people, for free. At worst I’m short changing myself. Had that article been hosted exclusively on a website, or made into a YouTube video instead, those views might have meant actual dollars.
The majority of my regular daily traffic is external. I know that because my partner earnings increases by pennies. If over the course of a month I’m getting 2000–3,000 views or more, something like 95% of that is external, and therefore goes unmonetized. If a typical ad rate impression for a website or Youtube is around $10 RPM, then that means I’m potentially missing out on around $30 in revenue. That’s pretty small, but supposing in a year I’m getting 10,000–15,000 views a month, and it can start to really add up.
YouTube has its downsides too, in the interest of fairness. You still need 4,000 watch hours and a minimum of 1,000 subscribers in order to monetize your channel. And like almost any other platform out there, you’ve got to be put in the work and upload regularly if you want to see any results. Some niches pay more than others. Most of the higher paying ones, like dropshipping, affiliate marketing, finance, and others, are not areas I’m interested in covering. They are also hyper competitive.
Then there’s the fact that video is a different medium of information, and requires a much steeper learning curve. I can put together an article in under an hour. But shooting and editing a video properly takes time, and a good bit of knowledge. Youtube is more competitive now, and I think viewers are more demanding and discerning now than even just a couple of years ago. If you want to produce professional-looking videos but don’t have any editing skills, it’s expensive to hire a good editor. I’m not talking about AI-voiced “cash cow” video editors, either. I mean the ones who can put together videos you may actually want to watch, and convey worthwhile content. Over on Fiverr I see them usually starting at a few hundred dollars and up.
However, despite the challenges of the video medium, I’ve already seen some results on my Youtube channel. Over the last few months I’ve been mostly turning my Medium articles into faceless YouTube videos with some V.O. and either copyright-free or fair use imagery. A few weeks ago, out of nowhere, my video “Hot Blonde Bimbo Teachers Can’t Stop Banging Kids,” a video version of my article, “Hot Blonde Bimbo Teachers Can’t Stop Fucking Kids” about Marka Bodine, got over 7,000 views in a matter of days.
Source: Stats for my YouTube video.
That video brought in about 24 subscribers, bringing my current total number of YT subscribers to 32. That’s pretty small, I realize, but again, all I’ve been doing is sporadically uploading video versions of my Medium articles. Obviously, I’m not monetized yet. But small successes like this are very encouraging. I posted that video back in November. It took until this May before it got any traction. And that was purely algo-driven. I did not promote my video anywhere, or pay for views or anything. But if that’s the kind of results you can potentially get with no promotion or efforts to build SEO, imagine what you could do if you took YT really seriously. Video essays and humorous commentary on news topics tend to do really well.
In summary, I’m going to focus on making content exclusive to YouTube because I see much more long-term upside on there rather than on Medium. I’ll still going to post here once in a while, but it will be more off-the-cuff type stuff, or announcements.
I still think there’s opportunity on Medium, if you’re a certain kind of writer, and you write for a certain type of audience. But I think YouTube offers opportunities for virtually all audience types and interests. It can also prove to be a great platform for fiction writers like myself. There are many writers who use YouTube as a platform to help sell their books.
I’m certainly not a YouTube personality or a professional video editor by any means. I’m not the best at verbal communication, which is something I’m trying to improve. Except for a few videos I don’t even show my face. I think it will be a challenge to get serious traction on YT, as it would be anywhere else. But in the end I think it will be worth it.
Dean Brooks 