Skip to main content

Writing Success Comes from Volume and Quality in Balance

Our success is up to us.



Success, as a general term to describe the results that constitute a success in a writer’s mind, as it meets or exceeded our expectations. And volume is how many articles/content pieces it takes for each writer to succeed with various levels of quality involved.

Each writer will have their personal goals and ways to measure the results achieved through writing an article. Each writer has differing perspectives on what constitutes quality with a finished product. With these important variables in mind, let’s explore how many articles it might take with a theoretical estimation based upon experience and what I’ve seen in my decades-long online writing journey.

Most writers can’t expect to attract a lot of views when writing only one article a month, or 12 a year. They may be able to stay in the game at the base line level and maintain some trickle of income, yet it isn’t the volume needed to reach that level of success to maintain. Still, we must first appreciate the levels of maintenance we’ve achieved so far.

My Writing/Creating Online Experience


For instance, I am in this mode, writing an article around once a month as I focus on work, family, and homestead; this without having a large following, with a journeyman build up, slowly and steadily, around 11 years later a small built-up presence writing online, making videos, etc.

Some bad results I can blame on the content I express getting shadowbanned, yet mostly I haven’t had a large build-up because I’ve never had the volume needed to establish a profitable presence online to maintain. Medium is known for how sharply income will drop when not participating heavily in writing and reading articles on Medium.

There have been seasons where I spent writing 10 or more articles each month, but mostly I’m in maintenance mode, writing or creating content about 12–15 times a year.

Still, at Medium with this strategy in play for around a year, 111 monthly views and 36 reads for 21 days of November. This amounts to .30 cents.

Now, what if I wrote an article a day and share it on all my platforms, what type of results would come?

I realize many have done this on Medium, as this is a writer’s platform where writers tend to share strategies they’ve used to get better results, and I appreciate the tips and stories of experience shared.

Writing Everyday for a Year Goal


Writing everyday or much more for long periods of time, is an interesting experiment that can help us stay motivated in life, showing ourselves capable of having discipline if we make it a matter of honor and integrity.

I’ve seen mostly a month of writing every day, but I’ve heard of people doing it for a few years. With some decent marketing, this volume of articles would result in drastically different results than 12–15 per year!

365 articles vs 15

Writing 24 times more articles in a year would get what results? Would I have 2664 views for 21 days instead of 111? Does sound about right.

What I’m trying to express is the possibility of getting to that next level depends on our willingness to create volume with a certain level of quality (length, research time, diction, syntax, content, formatting, etc.).

I would estimate this type of effort would see significant monetary results; this would vary according to the type of views on Medium, if I could get any paid subs on Substack/Patreon, affiliates on blogs, donations, and shared revenue from platforms.

I probably make about $7/month with my low-maintenance production, so times this by 24, it would be $168/month, which is in the ball park. This could then be built upon to reach higher levels, etc.

To build up an online presence and following, writing, publishing, and marketing an article each day for a year would get a writer on their way to making a living or a substantial side income within 10 years. It would take this type of volume plus quality to do it.

What is Holding Us Back and Quality’s Involvement?


It just seems that writers, including myself, think making money with their writing, music, videos, and podcasts, isn’t going to happen in significant ways; thinking…there is some secret passage way to these results, when it may be more so the volume they are putting out.

Quality is subjective, but there are some universal objective characteristics that define quality as well.

Essentially, if a writer is producing something a certain amount of people consider to be quality, this is the measure needed for the creator to maintain and improve upon these results.

Some people call it a niche. It is the final draft of your content that naturally finds a niche within a larger system that knows almost everything through AI and the sum of human knowledge online.

Technology is where the written form is found, yet it can and should be printed.

If it takes two days for each article, then do one article every other day, this would probably net similar results, especially if the quality is improved by the longer creation time.

I think this effort comes with a willingness to publish more thoughts and views to a larger audience, or what could be said, to get past the natural intrinsic guard to reaching the level of success needed to make a living…

The writing adventure continues.

Conclusions


Plugging along and maintaining is better than dormancy and deadness, but it doesn’t allow for enough growth to build an online presence with writing. Writing one article a day for a year will theoretically improve results 24 times the results of a 15 article/yr production.

I’m grateful for the presence I’ve been able to build and don’t take it for granted the support I’ve received through the years. Thank you and God for the good results.

Notwithstanding that all things are made possible by God and His will be done. Overall, it is up to us to write and publish, our success is up to us.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Is Writing on Medium and Vocal Worth It?

Honestly, the writing site, Medium, is my favorite from the user friendly and quality aspects with reading and writing. I like the concept, the pay structure, how it works in theory. Why then, am I not writing there anymore? Deleting my Medium writing account wasn’t an easy decision, and I’ve had some times of regret in losing what I considered the best compilation of my articles online, yet, overall, it was a good move for me. When it comes down to what matters, where we write makes a difference in our identity as a writer and person. Medium continued to show me that it had much different values than I did as a conservative Protestant Christian. That is the main reason I’m glad I’m not there anymore. Yes, it is a shame that I had to delete hundreds of articles, all chronologically published, representing my work in a professional and quality way on their excellent writing and publishing site. And, the yearly membership fee really wasn’t very much, around $60, and I probably made aroun...

A Guide to Winter Fishing on the Oregon Coast

When it comes to finding the perfect winter fishing destination, the Oregon Coast won't leave anglers disappointed. The mild weather coupled with an abundance of fishing locations and fish make Oregon's coastline a perfect place for winter fishing adventures. What's the Weather like on the Oregon Coast in Winter? The average temperatures in the winter on the Oregon Coast are around: high 51° F and low 42° F . Other weather factors include high wind gusts up to 80 mph and the bulk of the annual rainfall of 75" coming down from October to May. Basically, the wintertime weather on the Oregon Coast is rugged enough to filter out the fair weather visitors, yet mild enough to welcome anglers looking for some of the best fishing in the world without the crowds. Types of Fish to Catch and Where Weather is mostly a secondary consideration for anglers visiting the Oregon Coast; their first consideration focuses on the types of fish there are to catch. I...

The Following Leaders on Medium

I remember one distinct moment during a career development course at a community college I attended 21 years ago when the professor asked us to stand up and do an exercise.  She asked the class to separate themselves into two groups; those who thought of themselves as leaders on one side of the classroom and those who thought of themselves as followers on the other.  This question came without warning at the beginning of the class, so we didn’t have time to think it through. The result was probably more sincere because of this suddenness.  For some context, the class consisted of about 30 students, mostly young adults under 21 YOA; I was about 21 years old. An interesting thing happened.  An Important Life Lesson in Social Perception The vast majority of the class went to the leader side of the class and only two of us went to the follower side. I was one of the followers along with another young man. How awkward; then the professor focused on us followers and ask...

3 Ways Small Brick and Mortar Businesses Can Leverage their Websites

Not every modern business is tech-savvy and proficient with digital marketing; in fact, 36% of America's small businesses don't even have a website ; and many of those that do, have nothing more than a lonely website in the shadows. While this is a good start, this type of strategy isn't going to attract many website visitors. The good news is, it doesn't take a marketing genius to start gaining traffic to a business's website, yet it does take some time and effort to develop and execute a viable digital marketing strategy. In an effort to help, let's examine 3 ways small brick and mortar businesses can leverage their websites. 1. Optimize the Website's Sales Funnel: The first thing businesses need to do is optimize their website's sales funnel to make conversions . For brick and mortar small businesses like retailers, restaurants, event centers, etc., gaining a visitor's email is a conversion; for small businesses offering professional se...