Some Riches Reaped From Other’s Medium Writing
(Disclaimer: Please Keep Reading To Avoid Misunderstandings)
Did you know that if you are a Medium subscriber and read other writers’ work regularly through the website or downloaded app, you can actually make money from others’ words?
For real! A new loophole in the Medium app allows for you to earn extra money from other’s published works.
Just kidding. Sorry I could not resist.
I recently saw a Youtube ad claiming you could make money on Youtube from other people’s content. I was not sure about the ad’s credibility(maybe there was some way to reap the benefits from others’ Youtube content creation, even if twice or thrice removed). In some ways, money does grow on trees.
Medium does not really have such a feature(as far as I can tell). Apologies again. But from what I have seen from a couple of years using this great platform, there are benefits others’ words can bring that are far more meaningful and enduring than quick cash. Here are a few that come to mind.
Enhancement of Perspective
Is it not awesome that platforms like Medium offer writers from around the world a chance to share insights and views about countless topics? Multitudinous perspectives and backgrounds are illuminated. Just take a look at publications like Cantor’s Paradise, where writers can submit works expounding on insights and principles from numerous viewpoints in mathematics or philosophy. There are also forums/publications like Interfaith Now where numerous religious and spiritual perspectives can be explored. Whether or not you are even following publications, the Medium topics and feeds will allow you to easily access countless new articles regularly. How wonderful to help enhance one’s perspective. And what benefits does an enhancement of perspective bring? Well, there really are too many to name here! But remember that writing itself is a process of expanding horizons, sharpening one’s viewpoint, and unearthing new kernels of truth.
Support (And Challenge) To Viewpoints
If we look at various insights, points, and premises we value from our own unique point of view, we can see these almost as pieces of the puzzle. They fit in certain places and do not fit in others. The regular following and reading of topics, publications, and writers on Medium allows for a regular opportunity to find works that support — or challenge — one’s views. Peruse articles about self-awareness and you are bound to find articles that support your most strongly held convictions about self while also discovering works that lead you to question them.
The regular browsing and visiting of works across the Medium sphere is bound to bring you to new premises and frameworks you would have never considered otherwise, forever putting much of your views into a wholly new light. For instance, what is this about doing the M.E.D. (minimum effective dose) of fitness, healthy eating, and lifestyle to keep one in optimum shape through middle age? How do I better move the needle in the right direction as I enter 40-hood in the next few years?
Inspiration (And Foundation) For New Content
The novel Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys explores the life of the fictional ghost-like wife of Mr. Rochester from the 19th-century classic Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. This is just one example of how a fictional world from literature can be revisited and excavated ever more deeply by readers, writers, and scholars from across time periods. Also, this is but one instance of common themes related to social and cultural issues, spirituality, and the human condition can be that can be explored from numerous backgrounds and points of view — there was not just one overarching narrative from which to consider Bronte’s classic. In some sense, no work or narrative is ever complete or even hardly even started. There is always more to add, and even always whole new frames of reference to bring to the discussion.
And this is a cornerstone of Medium’s purpose:
“Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Our purpose is to spread these ideas and deepen understanding of the world.”
What if through regular engagement with numerous medium works you are able to find pieces that speak out directly to you, inspiring and pressing you to consider unique ideas and whoe new angles on the matter? With proper reference to the work, how great if you are able to compose a whole new article to enhance discussion about the main points and insights? Sometimes, your interaction with other writers’ works might not just inspire you to produce the next link on a topic’s chain. Like the contrasting fantasy worlds produced by both C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien(very symbolic of their deep fellowship that often brewed together with rivalry), your interaction with Medium works may inspire you to produce whole new discussions and diverging content altogether.
Networking and Lasting Connections
100 million readers. Medium boasts one hundred million readers coming from multiple corners of the world. Each writer brings their own unique perspective, background, and whole world of stories. How amazing is that? If you take time to immerse yourself deeply into the Medium sphere, you will come to admire not only the insights and skills inherent in works but amazing real people producing them. You will deep-read their words, highlight their most resonating points, and craft your own responses. Soon, they will start to offer the same back to you. As you commit to following and engaging with more real-life writers(and communities through publications), your audience of followers and article perusers will also grow.
As ever-developing technology brings us new wonders like ChatGPT or even more sophisticated automation, the truth remains that we humans are not changing much. Each of us is on our own unique brief earthly journey, striving to make sense of our own story and find greater levels of personal, mental, and spiritual fulfillment while also simultaneously being players in numerous larger social groups striving for the same. How wonderful that platforms like Medium allow so many millions to interact as readers and writers, engaging in dialogue and sharing to enrich one anothers’ points of view? How awesome if this interaction reaps fruits that readers and writers dream of like a larger audience, supplemental income, prospects for professional or recreational writing projects, or book deals? Medium offers opportunities for all of these, even the book deals! Is it not even more amazing if you find lasting friendships or bonds with readers and writers you interact with here?
Disappointed? Or Delighted?
After you have taken the time to consider my points, are you disappointed or pleased? My profound apologies if you are disappointed. Honestly, I hope most are pleased and delighted! Although many around the web and whole world offer invaluable advice for making money online, don’t we hear too little about the other immeasurable benefits that can be reaped from a craft or pursuit?
The priceless benefits to Medium reading and writing do spill over to money-making, mind you. We have explored but a few of those benefits, but think about how they might place one in a better position to earn green. Expanding horizons and finding support or counter-support for one’s viewpoints can become the primers for a lucrative career in professional writing. And if you are able to constantly network and build connection with other writers — as well as finding inspiration from their work — might that indeed be a real money tree that you are planting to soon yield greater dividends? In fact, a writing community can be a key resource and deeper support network if you ever find your writing life(not to mention possible writing revenue) to have reached a road block.
