I joined Medium because blogging got boring.
I have been blogging since Spring 2016 and I have to admit that the novelty has worn off. Blogging has been my creative outlet, but recently, I found myself getting bored of sticking to one type of blog post, specifically listicles and practical guides. At the time, I didn’t even know that I was looking for a new platform that would allow me to express my thoughts and ideas in a diverse manner. Naturally, I am curious and I knew I wanted something that would enable me to make my voice heard by people who might not have listened otherwise. I would be lying if the potential to monetize wasn’t one of the primary drivers for my decision to join Medium.
Curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back! —Proverb
👉 You can now find me on Medium! Here’s my account: https://medium.com/@sereneluna
Don’t get me wrong: I still love blogging on WordPress. It is a great way for me to share my thoughts and opinions with the world. I enjoy writing about my experiences, as well as sharing some of the things that I am learning along the way. But right now, blogging on WordPress is just not fun for me. I have tried to keep up with writing engaging content, but I just can’t seem to find anything worth sharing most of the time. I was always excited whenever I received a comment on my blog because it meant that someone had read what I wrote. Due to a lack of new visitors, I’ve been really feeling the burn lately and don’t want to do anything anymore. When this happens, it can be virtually impossible to put the same amount of energy into this blog like I once did. 🙇♀️
But It Gets Worse.
I also want to point out that there are only so many topics that I can write about before it becomes repetitive and boring. When you are writing on a weekly basis, it is hard to come up with original ideas that haven’t been covered before. It’s a shame that engagement on my blog is good but traffic and Domain Authority (DA) is pitiful. To be completely transparent, I don’t think I’ll be able to monetize anything on my site at this rate which is discouraging considering the money I’ve sunk into it. Oftentimes, this is a common problem for WordPress bloggers and I am feeling frustrated because of it. When it comes to blogging, I’m just not sure what I should do anymore.
Ideally, I want to find a writing space that allows me to grow and share my ideas with an engaged audience. Most of the time, I feel like I am not targeting the right audience on my blog which is incredibly frustrating. I do want to thank all you people who still come by and read my posts. You’re the reason why I haven’t given up yet and I really appreciate that. This blog wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for my loyal readers and followers! Thank you from the bottom of my heart! ❤
Now I find myself sitting here, wondering what exactly I’m supposed to do now. Do I just stop blogging altogether or find another way to make it fun? I feel like I’m in a bit of a slump and I don’t know how to get out of it. I’m sorry this wasn’t a happier blog post filled with unicorns, rainbows, and good vibes only. 🦄🌈
P.S. In case you didn’t know that I have a Twitter and Pinterest account, you can follow me on these platforms too by clicking here and here.
Thanks for stopping by! ♥
Sereneluna 
Ah, a bittersweet goodbye… Thanks for sharing on WordPress. We’ve only had an occasional chat in the comments, and it was nice talking with you. Sorry to see you go. That said, I’m glad you found another place to write what speaks to you and has a larger audience. And you get paid? Sweet!
I’ll be sure to look for your posts on there! (And visit here more often)
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Ah, but I’m not leaving WP any time soon or plan on retiring my blog. I am sorry if I had caused you some confusion. I’ll just need to change up the types of content I post on this blog, since I was getting bored with it. I honestly don’t know what kind of content to post on here….
In terms of monetization, yes, there is potential. I am curious to see if I can earn anything, anything at all on there. Enough to buy a cup of coffee is my goal – I just want to see if it can be done or if I am just daydreaming. 😅😆
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Ah. Probably should’ve not read the post as I was falling asleep. Lol.
Coffee money for something you already enjoy for free? Yes. 😆
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No worries! It would be nice to have some coffee money. I even have a little folder on my phone called “coffee money.” 😂
When I wrote this blog post, I guess was giving off doom and gloom vibes. This blog stays and I still love blogging. I’m hoping to consume a bit less and create a bit more. 🙌
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I have some questions actually –
1. I’m very curious to know about the earning aspect on Medium. If you could please share some information on that. I know people can earn basis views, basis members viewing etc. but what is the potential?
2. If there is some different kind of content that you’d want to post, have you tried doing that on here?
3. What is your final goal with the blog? Like is it for fun? Is it a hobby? Is it a side hustle?
Personally, I’ve seen a huge hit in my stats and engagement in the last 6-7 months..but that’s also because I have been spending lesser time on here. But it’s been fun and I kind of write about whatever I feel like, so it’s kept me going. Although I’d love to earn some money through this too. Just sharing my own personal experience.
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Hi Happy Panda! Here are my answers to your very thought-provoking questions:
1. To be fair, I’m a newbie on Medium and I don’t know much about the Medium Partner Program. I know that once we reach 100 followers, we have posted at least 1 article, and our country is eligible (countries that use Stripe for payouts are eligible), then we can apply. Most countries are eligible but there are a few that aren’t, such as India. Commission is based off of a variety of things and this is still something I don’t understand yet. I heard that it’s hard to earn money but at the same time, I know a Canadian blogger who made $25 a couple weeks ago, and she recently joined that platform. So there’s definitely potential there.
2. There’s family and extended family that read my posts on my blog and they can be quite judgmental. I shouldn’t care what they think but there are topics I can’t cover on this blog, especially health-related stuff and marriage-related stuff. Also, I have to keep my titles quite short on my blog because they just don’t look good otherwise. But on Medium, I can post longer titles, and now I can restrict certain posts by putting up a paywall if I want to – so that’s definitely something that appealed to me.
3. http://www.sereneluna.net is primarily a hobby blog. It has always been a hobby blog but I have sunk money into this blog. It would be nice to make some kind of return, you know? It doesn’t necessarily have to come from this blog – it could be any side hustle, really. But I enjoy writing and see potential there…. So I’m just seeing where this writing journey leads me ✍️
I hope I was able to answer your questions!
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I was able to make some money on Medium, but it required a lot of effort to do so.
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I believe you. I expect this little hobby to be challenging…. My goal is to make enough to buy a cup of coffee. ☕️💕
Do you think it is necessary to buy the membership? I rather not but at the same time, I feel like I’m missing out.
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I think getting a membership helps because it’s hard to build a community of readers if you can’t read other people’s stuff.
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I found a way around this so I can still engage with ppl who have locked their articles. I still can’t read them, but I still leave comments (it’s hard when I don’t actually know the context) and I can clap for them 👏 It’s harder commenting on an article I can’t read though. 🙄
One big reason why I didn’t buy the membership [yet] was d/t not wanting to dabble too much in something new. I don’t want to subscribe to yet another thing I might not be able to maintain or keep up with. If there’s any hope in this, I will try to earn a cup of coffee. If I can do that, then I might buy the membership. ☕️💕
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I hope it goes well!
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Thank you! me too! Hopefully it’s not a colossal waste of time, but I won’t know until I try! 🙂
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Take your time, Hilary.
I also created an account on Medium a few months ago but I haven’t started writing there yet, I feel so confused about it. Like managing my blog on wordpress has been tough for me recently, and I don’t know how it’ll be on medium.
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Thank you, Poorwa! 🙂
Oh wow! I didn’t know you have an account on Medium. That’s so cool! I hope that you do find the desire to post on Medium one day. I know what you mean about juggling and trying to figure out how to differentiate blogging from Medium. I find that my writing style/tone of voice is different on Medium and idk how to describe it. It’s interesting to say the least!
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I think many bloggers, including me, can identify with your post. I hope you find something that works for you and gives you joy.
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Thank you, Rachel. I’m experimenting with Medium and just got accepted into the Medium Partner Program. There’s a lot I need to learn but I’m curious to see where that leads or if there’s any potential on that platform. As much as I hate dabbling in various things, I feel stuck which is a sign I need to change something up.
As for WP, I think I’ll write less Listicles and more “free-style” blog posts like this one. I wrote this blog post spontaneously and for the first time, I actually enjoyed what I was writing ✍️
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I flirted with Medium in 2019 but ultimately ditched it and came back here. I just bookmarked your Medium page and I am looking forward to checking it out later.
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Sounds good, Melissa! Is there a reason why you ditched it? Did you get bored of it? Just a warning that I started putting up paywalls on some of my articles. I still plan on keeping a lot of them assessible, if they link back to this blog. But there’s a few topics that I want to write about which I can’t post here, d/t some of the people who read this blog. Some of the topics that I want to write about are sensitive and somewhat controversial.
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I ditched it because I could not get noticed/get any traction. Ultimately the small few loyal followers at wordpress won out. So I shut down medium and came back.
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BTW, I don’t read anything behind a pay wall and many others also will not. If people won’t even read a new York times article that is behind a payroll than they won’t read a medium article that is payroll locked. That is why the vast majority of casual and hobby writers end up abandoning medium and coming back to wordpress where they have an audience.
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Meant behind a pay wall up there obviously. Freaking thumb typing comments on phones….
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Yep. I took these things into consideration and right now I’m doing a trial and error to figure out what works and what doesn’t. One thing I’m working on is building my following first before putting up paywalls. Another thing I’m doing is leaving up articles for free until I hit a certain number of claps (haven’t figured out what the magic number is yet) before adding a paywall.
I posted a couple of articles that received zero claps so I know people aren’t visiting my profile on Medium to read my articles. They’re searching key words. Hypothetically, I’ve made a total of $0.04 on Medium but some of that didn’t have a paywall so I know it’s probably more like $0.01. But still… that’s more than anything I ever made from blogging! 😆 But in all honesty, doing surveys is an easier way to earn money.
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I’m sure whatever you decide to do will ultimately work out! All the best!
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Thank you! I’m sticking with both blogging and Medium and will see where this leads. I’m more curious about it, if anything. I figure that there’s nothing to lose by trying!
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Jump in with both feet!
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Yup! 😂🤣
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you only have been blogging since 2016! you are just an infant in the blogging world. lol 😉 😉 maybe you have just spread yourself out too thin since you are bored. but i know you are busy with life and one should not feel blogging is a chore. i see you have over 1200 followers, yet you dont get 100s of likes or comments. i see this on many sites and i feel most have a core group of people who visit and that number is much smaller than the number of followers. but if you have nothing to share, dont feel compelled to blog just to blog. if you only post once a week, so be it. it is not about quantity but quality. 🙂 what i do miss, are the people i follow who start to blog and then fade off and either i dont see them visiting, (why then are you following me if you are not going to visit) or rarely blog any more.
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I didn’t start blogging until Spring 2019. My blog sat dormant for a few years, collecting virtual dust. Accumulating 1200 followers wasn’t hard…. It’s just persistence, patience, work, and time. People want results fast and they get frustrated when they don’t get the results they want. Then they quit.
Yeah, it could be boredom. I’m finding it even harder to maintain lasting friendships online these days d/t petty arguments, disagreements, petty drama etc. so maybe this is a sign for me to do what I’m truly passionate about, which is writing. I got distracted and lost touch with what I truly enjoyed doing so perhaps that’s a place to start. Everything is just so unpredictable these days. Nothing is for certain.
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I could relate with you in the fact that blogging doesn’t feel fun anymore. I feel that more often now, so I’m trying hard to get blogging to be fun again.
I thought of joining Medium somewhere last year. But watching myself deal with the efforts and time blogging takes, I don’t think I was able to start anything new.
I’ll definitely check on your Medium blog from time to time ❤️
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It’s goody to know that I’m not the only one who feels this way! Blogging can be quite lonely. I’m also learning that relationships/connections can be quite volatile in the online world. If blogging was fun again, I would definitely write a lot more. I keep having to ask myself if I’m playing my writing too safe – there’s topics I want to write about but ppl might not like. Do I continue playing it safe or ruffle a few tail feathers and stick to what I truly believe in?
As for Medium, I’m currently at 460 followers I think. I’d really like to reach 1K on there before throwing in the towel. I’ll keep going, begrudgingly lol
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As a newly returned blogger, I find your POV interesting. It sucks that you feel a bit limited in your post options due to family/extended family. However, I can understand the resistance to facing off against traditional views, and then sharing a dinner table. Alternatively, your experiences dealing with this real-life situation may be a diamond waiting to be polished. I believe the topic is relatable yet underserved.
It sounds like you have some novel ideas to write about, but now your loyal readers may have to pay for them. This may be a hard sell. It’s worth a shot either way.
Good luck on your journey.
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Medium is definitely not a get rich quick source of passive income.
You make some great points – I find that not having a large following can make that hard sell so much harder. I’m hoping to establish some kind of following first, otherwise the journey might be lonely (and painful) one. Either that, or I might try and revive blogging. Im trying to remember what brought me to blogging in the first place. It used to be fun and I want to it to be fun again.
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Best wishes for the Medium!!
I once registered with the Indian startup tealfeed, but there we have to wait for them to approve the post. Sometimes they don’t even approve.
So, I wonder if there’s a similar story on medium?
Also, don’t be disheartened, there are multiple ways to reinvigorate the fun.
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The Medium app doesn’t work on my phone at all, so that’s frustrating. As for Medium, we can publish posts right away unless we submit them to publications. I haven’t been on Medium very much because I mainly used it from my phone – now I am forced to check it from a laptop. These days, I am trying to write for fun.
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I use wp app, but doesn’t write from phone. I always use computer. So I think I will be comfortable with medium site.
Best wishes to you hilary. Keep enjoying this.
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I kind of ditched the WP app on my phone. It is not the most user-friendly. So now, I find myself using the laptop for both Medium and WP. It seems to have increased my productivity a lot, so that’s a good thing, right? Still catching up on comments, but I have made lots of progress so far. Laptop for the win! 😄
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Sorry you’ve been feeling that way about blogging and I understand why you decided to join Medium. WP makes it difficult to make money. If you have plugins you can add AdSense and make some though but not too sure. I think Medium is definitely worth a try and who knows maybe you’ll end up making some money and if not at least you tried! I’ve seen some people post on Medium and then post the same thing on their blog. That might be easier for you since you don’t have to come up with separate posts and can continue to do both. Not too sure about that since I’m not on Medium but I’ve seen people do that and also I would hate to see you leave blogging since I always enjoy your posts.
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The Premium Plan I am on doesn’t allow me to use plugins, sadly. Also, I am really on the edge about what to do. I don’t plan to quit blogging yet, as it helps hold me accountable for my writing. I think I need to go back to my roots by remembering why I started blogging in the first place. I totally agree that it can be challenging to make money through blogging, but I did find your recent blog post about making money from blogging helpful! 🙂
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Yeah I’m on the Premium Plan too. Glad you found that helpful and yeah try to think about why you started blogging and what brought you here. That will probably help.
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Thank you, Pooja! This is excellent advice. I’ve been thinking a lot recently about why I first got into blogging and it’s given me some new insight into how to take my blog forward.
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You’re totally welcome and I look forward to seeing what direction you take your blog in!
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I just enjoyed some of your posts over on Medium to wrap up a meal without blogging here. I like how they are punchy and concise. Enjoyed the one about not letting someone live rent free in your head. Naturally I can’t comment on any though because I no longer have a medium account.
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Thanks for reading that article! Haha I was going to repost it here on the blog but didn’t get around to it yet… my plan is to post on Medium first and then share it on the blog so everyone can read and comment if they’d like. I’m still trying to get the hang of posting on Medium. There’s a bunch of things I still need to learn.
I’m currently editing a post called, “Don’t feed the bears” but idk when it will be uploaded. It needs work… the words aren’t flowing the way I’d like them too. Gah! 😖
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I look forward to reading this bear article 🙂
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I just uploaded it on Medium a couple hours ago. https://medium.com/@sereneluna/dont-feed-the-bears-41e15469da4a
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I am sorry that someone wished you bad karma and that it’s someone you had forged a bond with. But I am glad that you have this mature outlook about not messing up their peace by escalating the situation. I respect that you are taking the higher road.
I had a internet breakup of sorts that I talked about a lot on my blog last summer. It was really hard and I got blocked and that stung a lot. But I definitely got over it and started making “IRL” friends. I think it’s fine to have a few blogger friends but it definitely has to be supplemented with at least one close friend or close partner so that people are getting real support in the external world and they are not trying to get needs met with internet people. I have thst now and I feel really fortunate. Covid screwed me and a lot of other people over and I think a lot of people started forming deep social bonds over the internet, especially single people or people who were married but friendless outside of marriage. We all got our heads screwed by covid and we are recovering from that.
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Hi Melissa, I am replying to your comment at a good time, because I recently encountered an even bigger snake than the previous one. This one took my heart, tore it up into shreds, and spit it out! Ugh. I am having a hard time trusting people these days, including so-called internet and/or local friends. This one in particular, was 100x worse than the previous one because I had formed a close bond with her AND we lived in the same city. So yeah, I don’t really trust people know and am super cautious. A lot of her comments I kept on the blog, but she is unwelcome here. Names won’t be used, but basically, trust nobody. Learn from my mistakes.
We’ve come a long way since the pandemic and are now recovering from the social anxiety it caused. But we’re not out of the woods yet. All we can do is take things one day, one hour, at a time until we overcome it 💜
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Sorry to hear about the experience, hon. Some people can be trusted but it sounds to me like some toxic people have been attaching themselves to you. Probably because you are generally nice and helpful and like to engage in conversation. Those are the ones they target whether they are aware of it or not.
You can count on me to be supportive. The worst thing I will do is criticize your guest writers for saying something I think is stupid 😂
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We share a common trait of being blunt and abrasive, but only when it’s necessary. You’re good at calling out people’s BS and I really appreciate your honesty.
You’re actually the first one to point this out – tbh I noticed this too, Lately, I’ve been attracting a lot of people who appear to be friendly but turn out to be anything but. This one particular blogger claimed to be an empath. Yawn… she’s really not an empath. She’s pretty fragile (aka. soft) and emotionally immature.
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I have to say – I am a little suspicious of anyone who claims to be an Empath. It’s this weird hippie version of narcissism. Think about it – if they claim to be an empath then they are saying they are more special than everyone else. You know what I mean? One does have to be on their guard. There is a level of blog banter that is healthy (like us, I would like to think!), but then there’s folks who will come at you with just a little too much boundary crossing and if you pay attention you can see the red flags. And I am not saying that I have never crossed a boundary myself. The little quasi romance thing I did over a year ago was a boundary crossing. However. I learned from the experience and sure as hell wouldn’t go there again. I got into church volunteering and hosting meetups and stuff so that I could externalize my life and get away from the lonely toxic people. Besides the romance person, there was an additional blogger friend who turned out to be toxic in her own weird way and I ghosted her and never looked back.
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OMG I’m sorry, I missed this! I have terrible memory sometimes and don’t always realize that I’ve missed something. I couldn’t have said it better myself regarding people who claim to be empaths. Yes, exactly 100%! 🙌 You described her perfectly, esp. “a weird hippie version of narcissism.” This made me chuckle. They definitely have elevated levels of self-entitlement with a sprinkling of narcissism, that’s for sure. With her, I never knew which boundary I accidentally crossed because it always seemed like I was crossing some invisible line I didn’t know was a boundary (emotionally mature people wouldn’t bat an eyelash or call it a boundary), but apparently it was the end of the world for her, you know what I mean?
Update: I noticed that she proceeded to delete every comment I ever made on her blog, including every interaction/conversation. I left most of her comments on her blog, because Idgaf honestly.
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I haven’t heard of the platform Medium before, but it sounds neat! I hope you keep blogging whether here or on Medium, I love reading your content!
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Thank you! It makes me happy to hear that you enjoy reading my content. I haven’t been as active as I used to be in the blogging community d/t increased responsibilities (life happens) but I do enjoy blogging.
I highly recommend checking out Medium if you post content frequently and want to reach more people. There’s a big audience over there and as much as I don’t want to promote yet another social media platform, it’s more like a micro-bogging platform. The only reason I joined was the potential to earn some commissions. It’s literally pennies for me, but that’s still more than I ever made on WP (I have made $0 on WP btw).
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That’s really cool! I’m really interested and I can’t wait to check it out 🙂
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Awesome!
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