Five things that motivate to write on Medium
By: Volodymyr Hrunskyi
Tags: Motivation, Goals, Ｍedium, Writing, Productivity

Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash

New activities always attract. We immerse ourselves in them with inspiration and enthusiasm, and are ready to take on the world. But some time passes, and the initial passion ends. The routine begins, which, without periodic rewards, makes us think that our new hobby is not worth our efforts. The same is with writing.

Any novice writer knows how difficult it is to force himself to write regularly, especially when there is no motivation for it and the initial passion has long died down. Besides, an editor sends articles for revision, the results of published works are unenviable, incomes are meager, and there are no new subscribers. All these things push us to stop writing.

But if we live only with such thoughts, the chances of finding ourselves in a few years as writers with a formed circle of fans reach zero. But how to find proper motivation for this period? Fortunately, Medium has something to offer. And no, it’s not only money. Below I publish some of the motivators that keep me writing here.

1. First suggestion to add an article to the publication

I belong to the type of people who immediately get down to business. Instructions, recommendations — all this I put on the far shelf until there is a problem. Medium is not an exception. I immediately began to write and publish articles, and only then realized how many nuances were left out of my attention. I remember how the first article hung for a whole month in self-published without any revision. I decided not to wait for someone to like it and sat down for another. A few weeks later, I received a message from Esat Artug, who said that he liked it and offered to publish it in The Innovation. I was extremely pleased because I realized that my hard work turned out to be useful for someone. By the way, the article was about recommendations on how to avoid problems with a rented car. It was a case from my own life.

2. First dollar earned

We can convince ourselves that we did not come here for money, but this is not true. If I were asked if I would start writing here without a partner program, I would think twice. Of course, I never expected that writing would replace my main job in time. I started writing to improve my English and try to develop myself in a new direction. But when $0.01 in my account changed to $1, it became the second trigger that I do everything right and have to continue. Of course, this is a thousand times less than what I earn now, but this first dollar was for me like $1000 earned in a regular job.

3. First curation

For many Medium writers being curated is one of the biggest dreams. It is a recognition that you have done an excellent job, and your article is worthy of distribution to a large number of people. For me, as a newbie writer, it was also one of the most enjoyable moments. My work was about pulse oximetry in smartwatches. The topic was quite popular at the time, so the article took off. Frankly, my next piece on a similar topic, even without curation, was more popular and earned more money. So, I can conclude that a catchy title and exciting topic, even without curation, can bring many views and money.

4. Admission to a cool publication

As you may know, a publication with many writers isn’t always the best place to start. Good is that publication in which, among other things, is difficult to get in. You just can’t up and become an author of The Startup, Mind Cafe, or The Writing Cooperative. However, the more complex the task is, the more exciting it is to deal with it. And as a reward, there will be a much greater return on your articles. But believe me, even admission to ordinary publications is also encouraging. And I always try to write on different topics and submit them to various publications. It allows me to look at the mistakes in my pieces from other editors who have their own opinions on how the article should look. And it is always extremely motivating when various publications accept me as their author. It means that everything is done correctly, and I should not stop and set more complex goals.

5. 100 subscribers or $100

I don’t yet belong to that small cohort of writers who earn more than $100 a month on Medium. And I don’t have more than 100 subscribers. But that is the goal I am striving for at the moment. You may notice that I put money first. It’s not because they’re more critical than subscribers. I just noticed that it is easier to receive subscribers than money (I’m not talking about mutual subscriptions, likes, etc.). At the same time, subscribers are much more important on a global scale. A platform may disappear, but readers will remain. These are people who are interested in you and who are interested in what you write.