So, why here and not, say, Medium

I have either blogged, maintained a social media presence, or both for the last 21 years. My online essay writing journey started with Blogger, then Wordpress, then Tumblr, where i just recently closed my account after 16 years on that platform.

I never envisioned or dreamed I would make money off writing on the internet. For me, my opinions, as admittedly uneducated as they sometimes were, would always be free. The internet, for a while, was my safe space, where I could speak my mind and discuss things in my life without concern for my well being or safety.

Of course, things changed along the way enough to toss the above-referenced notion out the window.

A few years ago I made a Medium account. This was prior to their partnership program so, again, no illusions about passive income there. I think I made about 4 or 5 posts during my entire time on that platform, including 2 or 3 I deleted in an effort to „start again“, before deleting it a week or so ago.

What happened over there this time is that I became more invested in the opinions and lives of others who wrote on the platform. A few of them even became members of the Medium partnership program and I read with interest their experiences within said program. I figured, once I decide to start writing online in earnest again, the experience of others might come in handy. Over time, and due to other life issues, I had no time to devote to writing anything meaningful on Medium, at least for the time being.

I started souring on Medium as a reader and potential contributor when the following started happening:

◦ The Medium „for you“ stream started recommending articles to me regarding topics I either was not interested in, or supported point of views to which I was vehemently opposed.

◦ My faves were no longer making the kind of money they were used to making on the site, due to various changes made in the site’s algorithm, and had started to leave (some of it may have had to do with what Medium‘s CEO considered „good“ and „bad“ blogs, but that is a story for another day)

◦ That „Boosted“ bullshit.

I think you all know where I am going with this.

I am not into recommendations, I am not into gatekeepers, I am not into emailing the hell out of some rando with „influence“ and asking him/her/they to „feature“ me somewhere.

In my previous pastime attempting success as an online musician (which I may return to next year), this practice turned out to be a waste of time and pissed off the rando.

Great job, no?

In my opinion, if you are depending on one person, thing or platform to generate all of your passive income, if that is your ultimate goal, you are doing it wrong.

I am probably being delusional about this, but I would rather folks just show up and read what I have to say, rather than either be told to or not be told to. If a network leads them here, so be it. If they like enough to subscribe, so be it. If they like things enough to send money, so be it.

While being recommended is nice, I am always concerned it might imply bias on behalf of the person recommending, and I would like my work to be approached with an open mind.

And, again, the excessive and needless gatekeeping.

No one should be limited in earning any kind of income on a platform that encourages such because someone doesn’t „like“ you.

Anyway, I didn’t like how things were being handled on Medium regarding how regular and consistent content creators were being treated.

So, I was over before I even began on that space.

There were other issues as well. I have goals coming up next year that required me to cleanse my social media space. Whatever account I could not make private I had to delete. This included my Medium account, my Tumblr, my Facebook page promoting my writing and music, et. al.

So, I am back to square maybe 2 or 3, with two semi-private writing spaces and several closed off, or almost closed off, socnet accounts.

And, for the first time, I envision myself making at least a modicum of an income online even if it is based, at least for right now, on staving off trolls and haters.

In my next post, I will lay out my posting policy, which should explain why I have all these subscription based guardrails around here, and how and why some of them may come down at some point in the future.

In the meantime, thanks for reading and keep on keeping on.