Coming back to Medium — what I learned, what were my mistakes and how I will approach things now

In May this year I started writing for Medium. It was the first time I did something like that and I wanted to do a great job. I published a small introductory post where I talked about who I am, what I wanted to achieve and how often I was planning to publish.

Two months later I gave up writing for Medium and I focused all my attention on Steemit, a platform powered by blockchain, where you can do all kind of things like share images, talk to other people, write articles and so on. The advantage of that platform is that you have a chance to receive money for everything you post.

It works in a pretty simple way — you post something on your profile page (an image, an article, anything) and if people like it they will upvote it. Depending on who upvotes it and depending on how many upvotes you have, you can receive money. Some people receive a few cents, especially beginners, while others receive hundreds of dollars for whatever they post.

Now, I think you can imagine why I wanted to focus more on that platform. My main objective when the year started was to get a pretty expensive computer that would allow me to do whatever I want without having to worry about my system’s specifications.

I wasn’t a great writer (and I’m still not) and because I had a really hard time focusing on publishing daily on both Medium and Steemit while also trying to come up with design packages for Graphic River and Creative Market, I decided to just focus on Steemit and make sure I post as much content as I can on that website and get as many rewards as possible.

I created as much content as I could for that website for several months. I got around 400 followers, got some money out of my articles, learned how to trade Steem to increase my initial amount of money, and many other things.

It was awesome and I was glad I decided to focus a little more on that platform. Now I feel like I made a lot of progress when it comes to writing and I’m better than before. I’m certainly not amazing and 90% of the people on this platform have a lot more experience than me and are better at creating content.

However, I learned a lot in those few months of writing for Steemit and I think it’s time for me to come back to this website and apply some of the lessons I learned while I was away. Plus, now that I can write quite a lot without feeling exhausted, I can focus on publishing on both Medium and Steemit.

Anyway, I wrote this article to share with you some of the lessons I learned while not writing on Medium, what are the things I think I didn’t do right the first time and how I plan on creating content now.

I’m not gonna focus on making money any more

I have to confess that I didn’t start writing on Medium because I loved the platform or because I thought I was good at writing. I started hoping to get some money and buy that computer faster. That was my only objective at the time, and while I know that high quality content is the best and only way to succeed, I completely forgot about that and I wrote whatever I could hoping to get something in return.

I decided to publish short articles every day thinking that the more content I publish the more people will get interested and I even made plans about how I will get a lot of subscribers on my e-mail list, how I’ll share all kind of affiliate links and how people will buy products helping me get money so I can get what I want.

As you can guess, it didn’t work. At all. I published for a while without getting anything for my work, I got no subscribers on the e-mail list I created and 9 people decided it’s a good idea to follow me (I’m still not sure why).

But I learned my lesson, because I tried to do the same thing on Steemit and there I learned that no matter what platform you use, the users of that platform are the ones who will decide your fate. If you focus on money and you completely ignore your audience (or the people who don’t yet know about what you do), then you will fail for sure.

The only way to succeed is to make sure you put as much value as possible in your content and offer something to the consumer.

No matter what you write about, you should make sure you offer as much value as possible. If all you care about is money and if all you try to accomplish is get as much income as you can, then you’re focusing on the wrong thing and you’ll probably realize that after months of hard work when you’ll see no one really cares about what you do.

Plus, Medium doesn’t pay through PayPal right now, and I can’t get money until that’s implemented so yeah… I’ll be spending my time trying to get your attention until I can become a partner and make something out of my content!

I tried to do too much by myself

When I started publishing on Medium I was already doing a few things. I was trying my best to publish around two design packages every single day on Graphic River, trying to figure out what design elements to create for Creative Market while also trying to get some income out of Steemit by publishing twice a day and trading.

All that combined with daily publishing on this website from a person who didn’t know how to write really well was too much. I got burned out. I didn’t really want to publish anything here because I was too tired after hours of working on other places.

That’s why most of the articles I published at the time were pretty damn short and focused only on sharing bits of information I acquired in the past from books and other articles. All I wanted to do was to just publish. I didn’t care about anything else.

Now things are different. I learned how to let go of some of my work and focus on what truly matters. I try to take it easy when it comes to design packages and give myself enough time to learn whatever I need to learn. I also do my best to create content for Steemit every day, because that’s the main place where I’ll be writing, but I have a different strategy this time.

Instead of trying to write one or two articles a day, edit them and publish whenever I have the time, I will focus on writing a bunch of articles when I feel like doing it and then focus on editing when I don’t have inspiration to write.

That’s why I probably won’t be publishing on Medium every day if I don’t feel like it. I won’t even have a fixed schedule. Yes, I know that’s something you should have, but instead of forcing myself to write here just because I need to, I want to publish on this website when I have something to say.

If I can publish daily, then I’ll do it. If not, I’ll try to publish a few times a week and if that doesn’t work either, then I’ll figure out another strategy. What I know is that I want to write for Medium as well, without getting burned out and without doing too many things at once.

Not reading enough

I wrote several articles where I talked about how important reading is but I was so focused on creating content that I forgot to do it myself. I wasn’t reading at all, I wasn’t consuming content, I couldn’t even watch a movie or play a video game. I was just focusing on work and nothing else.

Now I’m not doing that any more. I learned that taking a break and consuming content is a very important aspect when it comes to writing. You need to feed your mind in order to create something. If you don’t, then it’s gonna be hard to come up with good ideas.

I stopped working on several projects in order to have more free time and focus on all kind of things I liked. That resulted in more ideas, more energy and a lot more motivation to take care of the things that required my attention.

I’m not ignoring that any more. I will make sure I create content for this website, but I’m not sacrificing reading and content consumption any more. Those things are as important as the writing process itself and if I don’t feed my mind with interesting things, then I don’t think I’ll be able to come up with interesting articles.

I tried too hard to be like others

Now, if by any chance you see this article and you think (hopefully) “Oh, I think this guy is nice, I’m gonna follow him!” then I have something to say first: reconsider. If you like stupid jokes, some dark humor and the writing of a guy who pretty much has no idea what he’s doing, then sure, follow me.

You don’t believe I make stupid jokes and you may not enjoy them?

Here’s one: What’s the name of a cooking show where people are included? Hannibal’s cooking show.

Got it? As I said, stupid jokes and a dark sense of humor. I forgot I had those whenever I wrote an article for this website. I saw all those people who tried to be serious working on their articles and publishing here, and I just wanted to be like them.

I completely forgot I had a personality as well, and I was more than sure nobody will like me if they would know how I really am. Now I’m sure of one thing — I need to be who I truly am in my articles, in order to attract people who are like me.

I don’t need to be like anybody else. All I need to focus on is being original, and if that means including some of my stupid, pervert, dark sense of humor accompanied by my harsh opinions about life and people, then that’s how it’s gonna be. I’m not trying to be someone else any more. I’m me. . .

(I wanted to actually write “I’m me b*tches” mainly because I watched too much Rick and Morty for the past few days, but we don’t know each other well enough yet, so yeah…)

Conclusion

That’s it. Maybe there are other things I learned in the past few months, but to be honest I’m too lazy to remember them.

Plus, I have cake. No matter what you say and who you are, nothing is more important than cake.

And coffee!

But, at least I managed to write a few of the things I learned after publishing on Steemit for a few months now, and I’m kinda proud of that (proud? not sure).

Anyway, cake is waiting for me and I am a sucker for sweets. Plus, I don’t get fat (please be jealous) no matter how much I eat (and no matter what) so I’m gonna go eat.

Have a nice day!