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What 3 months did to my creator career
Hey Reader,
Can you believe we're only 3 months away from 2024?!
A few months ago, I wrote about how a cancer diagnosis in my family has made 2023 a big challenge for me personally, and looking back, it feels like time has just flown by.
But hey, I'm not here to complain - I'm reaching out to encourage you to make the most of the next 3 months because if we're honest, that's still a lot of time to work on your goals and dreams. 💪🏻
Over the course of my writing/creator career, a lot has changed within 3-month sprints.
When you're focused, 3 months can lead to incredible changes.
Take my earnings as a writer and course creator as an example:
2020 was my first year as a full-time writer and creator.
Within 3 months, my earnings from Medium's Partner Program went from a few hundred dollars to mid 4-figures.
After launching my signature program Medium Writing Academy in June, it took me 3 months to go from a few hundred dollars to making over $6,000 in a single month. 💸
I'm sharing this to encourage you to take action.
You don't have to wait for January to work on your goals. Start *now* so you can be proud of yourself in January 2024.
The Power of Pubs 🗞
One of the many factors responsible for the steep increase of my earnings on Medium are publications.
You can think of Medium publications as online magazines for specific topics.
My friend Zulie Rane describes it perfectly in her post What is a Medium Publication?
Most publications are open to submissions from multiple writers, but some serve as a home for a single author’s stories.
A reader recently shared the following question in response to my last email:
Here's my reply:
My #1 recommendation for new writers on Medium is to contribute to existing publications in their niche. 👋
Publications can help you reach the right audience much faster than on your own.
Established publications have built-in audiences.
When your story is published in a publication, you have the opportunity to reach the audience of that particular publication even if you have zero followers on your profile.
You can create your own publication too but I wouldn't recommend that unless you have a strong argument for it. A good reason for creating your own publication is that you just can't find a Medium publication focusing on your topic/niche. That's unlikely but possible.
In most other cases, submitting to existing publications is the way to go.
I recently announced that I'll be responding to questions from readers (just like the one above) regularly.
If there's a question that's been bothering you in your journey as a writer or creator, hit reply, and I'll consider it for the next newsletter. 📨
I'm not only a huge fan of publications as a writer, but I also have the honor of being an editor for one of Medium's largest publications on all things marketing.
I joined the editorial team a month ago, and we learned a lot during that short period.
Last week, we hosted a live event to share our most valuable insights on:
- 👎 Why most writers get rejected by publications
- 🚀 What Medium's new Boost program is (and why it's so powerful)
- 🔎 And how we select stories for a Boost
You can watch the replay here 🎬 or read the recap here 👓.
As Better Marketing, we're able to highlight exceptional stories with a Boost Nomination.
If a story gets Boosted, it typically gets an average of 500 extra views within the first week and has a chance to be picked up by the algorithm for much broader distribution (depending on how the initial audience has engaged with the story).
The Boost Pilot manager, Ariel Meadow Stallings, recently published an in-depth post sharing details about the program.
If you're a Medium writer, this piece is an absolute must-read since it might change which publications you work with.
If you're not publishing on Medium yet, save the story, so you can check it out when you're about to start writing.
| Learn More about the Boost Nomination Pilot |
Big love from my screen to yours,
Sinem
PS. When I started to write online, I felt like experienced creators had their shit together all the time. I thought they'd never mess up or make mistakes.
Now that I'm one of those experienced creators myself, I can promise that's not true. We mess up - a lot.
If you want proof, take a look at the first three minutes of my talk at Medium Day - we entered the session not knowing that we already had participants listening to the conversation and had a casual chat until the actual talk started. Kind of embarrassing but also really funny. 🤷
Write • Build • Scale with Sinem Günel
I help you write confidently, build your audience, and scale your income. Subscribe for first-hand insights and actionable strategies to turn your ideas and knowledge into a thriving digital business, so you can make money doing what you love.
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