I completed two months on Medium today (31st Dec 2021). This post intends to dissect my numbers and understand what is working and what is not. This is an analysis post, not a brag. I intend to give you (& more importantly, to me) hope.

If you want just to know the top-line numbers, I'll provide a quick summary so you don't have to read the whole post.

Let's dive a little deeper now!

Highlights & Key learnings:

• Consistency pays big time: I nearly tripled my income in month 2, writing only 37% more than the previous month. In terms of time spent, I probably spent about the same time. I've gotten slightly better at writing more in the same amount of time.
• Lack of Consistency hurts, really bad and really quick (my most popular post ever was on this topic). This post has close to 970 claps. I'm really looking forward to my first post with 1000 claps!
• I'm still exploring topics that I like to write about — they are all over the map now — Privacy, Climate Change, Agile, Books, Travel, Success, Writing, etc. I don't know if I need to specialize or stay generalist. I guess that is the beauty of this journey: the more you write, the more you know yourself.
• I'm genuinely more excited about what the future can bring. I need to stay in Quadrant 1 and not quit!

Writing Process:

• I have developed a structured process to write. I have three folders — Done, In Progress & Drafts. You might relate to this if you know how the Kanban model works!
• Done: All the published works go into this folder. It keeps reminding me that I have been writing and publishing consistently
• In Progress: This folder has the posts which are slightly more mature. I usually pick something from this folder and more or less get it to the finish line if I'm in a hurry.
• Drafts: This is more an 'idea factory'! Everything I want to write about gets a place in this folder. No judgments, no editing! If I want to develop them further, they move into 'In Progress.'

This method is what what works for me. Find the method that works for you!

Stats for Dec 2021 with comparison from Nov 2021: (I added the numbers again in case you skipped them earlier)

It feels like I'm beginning to build my audience, however small it may be. There are a few good people who consistently appreciate (clap/comment) and it is uplifting when that engagement happens. I stopped for a week in the middle and had a dramatic dip, but Medium seems to be forgiving (read more here).

Some deep dive on the stats now:

Audience:

• I'm more and more speaking my voice and that does mean that I'm going to lose some people. I added followers 15–20 daily in Nov 2021, but that slowed down to 5–7 in December. I also lost about 10 followers this month. I don't know why but I suspect it is more likely due to these posts about breaking my promise or/and message to my followers.
• I'm really letting my writing find followers for me. You, me and everyone else needs followers who actually read what we write. So I stopped doing FFF (follow for follow), but actively searched and follow writers/publications that write on the topics that interest me.
• Email subscriptions: I added six more people to my email subscription list. I learned how to ask and the call for action is now added at the tail of each of my new posts. But I do not know if this makes a difference. I'll report if it does in the next update
• Have added MPP promotion: I did this today. I was circumspect about this, but finally asked people to sign up for MPP. I'm still not sure if I'm 100% comfortable doing it. Time will tell.

Money:

• I made $11 in my first month! That was a lot for the first month (here's my post on the first month). The minimum to get paid into a bank account is $10, so it feels like I had achieved something remarkable. But I was also reminded that it is probably the worst job I've ever done if I think about the $/hour rate. I keep constantly reminding myself: I'm riding with training wheels, so the fact that I'm paid at all is good enough, for now!
• I've now made $32 in my second month, with one more day to go. I'm reasonably confident that I will triple the money. Of course, tripling the earnings is easy when you make only $11 in the first month so I have to be careful and not read too much into it.
• While $32 isn't exciting by itself. What does please me is that I don't have to work three times more to earn three times more.

Learning:

• After 40+ posts, I understand what works for me slightly better as a writer. I'm beginning to form my unique style. I like sarcasm and dark humor, but I don't know if I'm as good a writer as I need to be to use it. I'm taking baby steps!
• I have learned a few simple things to write better posts and extract more value out of old posts. Read my earlier posts about writing better here, here & here. I would add that the choice of pictures is essential — I'm beginning to get a sense of what kind of pictures work for my posts.
• I constantly update titles, pictures, promotional messages, quotes, etc. on old posts. I may have written the post when I was naive, but it is still my work. If I can improve it, then why not! I've touched a little bit of almost all my posts. Some of my old posts shot back to life, so don't take a chance. If you can make your old posts better, do it now!
• I understand slightly better what topics are hot sellers for my audience. Some of my best writings die quickly, but some of the less deep posts do surprisingly well.
• I've learned to realize the audience and the world, in general, don't exist to make me happy. It is a sad thought. I accept it. If you hate a post that I gave all my love to (or even worse ignore it), it's OK! We can meet again on another post! No hard feelings!
• I have some choices to make: write more of what sells or write more of what makes me happy? Or find a middle path?

That wraps my report on how the second month was. I'm a tiny bit wiser as well as richer and a lot happier as a writer! I hope this post gives you a little more hope and energy to keep kicking for a little longer!

Thank you for reading. I wish you a very happy new year!! Please do follow me/subscribe to emails here. I might even surprise you by writing something you enjoy reading!

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