I’ve been able to find some success here on Medium the last few months of 2021.
I decided to take Medium seriously in September. I focused a few hours every week on creating content and engaging with other writers. I was going to try that until December and re-evaluate to see if it was worth my time.
I earned $2.70 in September, $11.35 in October, $633 in November, and $2,313 in December. In September, I wanted to earn at least $100/month, so those results were way past my meager expectations.
It didn’t happen overnight, but I felt like I was building momentum. I also gained 1,200 new followers, and had a few articles go semi-viral — getting 10,000+ views.
The problem is, I assumed the momentum would continue on its own.
That’s not how the internet works. Your momentum online disappears very quickly. I published the most content here in November. I published 38 articles.
I slowed down a bit in December and published 21 articles. I took more breaks for the holidays and dealing with burnout. I published 22 more articles in January.
At the time, the momentum I had in December was from the work I did in November. I stopped pushing hard in December, but my stats didn’t slow down much until mid-January. I was getting 1,000+ views every day from mid-December to mid-January. By the end of January, my views dropped to ~500 per day.
That’s still 10x more views than I was getting in September and October, but it was a significant drop.
I lost momentum because I stopped pushing.
Success is up uphill climb
I know people say that an object in motion stays in motion, but that’s only true in theory. In the real world, moving objects slow down. Gravity and friction bring everything to a stop rather quickly once you let off the gas pedal.
Things come to a stop even faster when you’re moving upward. When you’re moving uphill, as soon as you stop pushing it’s natural to not just stop, but go backwards.
This is the same in the online world. Finding success online is an uphill climb. A few years ago, everyone would’ve told…
