How Much Money My Top “News” Story Made on Medium
Let’s Just Say I’m Going Back to the Evergreens
Many writers here on Medium have told tales of venturing to other platforms to boost income, like Newsbreak or Vocal… So I said, “Why not?”
I signed up (free and easy) and copy/pasted a few articles over to the other platforms. Then, I forgot about it…
Over at Vocal, the roar of the crickets overwhelmed the deafening silence. I’m not a reader there so I have no idea how to improve that (nor have the time).
Over at Newsbreak, a few articles really took off. I’m not a huge reader there either, and don’t know the platform. However I was pleased to see that I could get double the writing pleasure from the same effort. Right?
Not so fast…
I must admit, doing news stories is exiting, and got my “reporting blood” flowing again. I’d wake and check the headlines. Then, instead of writing about productivity or self-improvement, I chased news…
And there was plenty to chase, from the Queen of England getting Covid to Russia invading the Ukraine.
But what I didn’t see coming was how much writing news would affect my writing for Medium.
Suddenly I was no longer adding to my reserve of self-help and business articles that I could turn into a book, I was writing articles that were exciting in the moment, but probably wouldn’t mean as much down the road.
After all, “breaking news” soon becomes old news. But sharing insights about life can last a lifetime.
In all my efforts, the only “news” article that really took off was one I wrote near the beginning of the experiment, when I was still writing only on Medium… Here it is:
https://medium.com/the-mood/omicron-has-one-unusual-symptom-to-watch-for-8713e88f197c
This story broke 8K views and earned about $200. However, most of the dozen or more of my other “news chasers” earned only about $5 a piece, which comes out to less than $10/hour chasing news. Not good.
Another point: it’s better to attract than to chase.
So, needless to say, writing insights about life and business is my focus again. Instead of chasing news, I’m heading back to the “evergreens.”
“Evergreen” articles stay “green,” or relevant, throughout the year (and often for multiple years).
This is the best investment I can make as a writer, because the return will continue past the excitement of a breaking news story.
And while I may not always be able to resist the temptation of reporting breaking news, writing to find stability in an unstable world seems more worthwhile in the long run.
Cool discovery: There was one article that took off both on Medium and Newsbreak, where breaking news crossed with an evergreen story… Here it is:
https://medium.com/the-mood/omicron-has-one-unusual-symptom-to-watch-for-8713e88f197c
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https://medium.com/the-mood/omicron-has-one-unusual-symptom-to-watch-for-8713e88f197c