I Finally Made Money on Medium — And I’m Super Stoked

Medium just changed how it pays authors, and that’s great for lesser-known writers like me.

Photo by Leonardo Baldissara

When I started on Medium, I was gung-ho on carving the blocks of my imagination into beautiful sculptures I could rocket through the tubes. It was great. I could write anything I wanted, and even get out all my poetry that I had spent years cleverly disguising as rap lyrics.

And I was going to get paid for it? No. Freaking. Way.

There was one problem. I didn’t.

Nothing I was putting up was getting many views, let alone claps. A few of my friends got to read some of my poems, so that was a win, but it wasn’t making any money.

It figures, I thought. Seemed too good to be true. Was too good to be true.

I gave up on making money. I was afraid no one would read my poetry behind a paywall, so I disabled it.

Fast forward to tonight.