That’s life. A high is usually followed by a low. I’ve been noticing that right at this moment. After a few weeks of high and steadily increasing view counts, they went down. Cut in half within a week basically. Why is that? Let’s explore!

It’s not the algorithm

I could blame the algorithm. But it’s not that. Despite one change in my stats last week, everything else has stayed the same. The number of views most of my stories get, my posting schedule, my topics (more or less), and my engagement on and off the platform have been similar. What else could it be?

Is it my writing then

…

I’ve been writing on Medium for 5 months now. Recently I also rejoined Vocal Media to crosspost some stories to that community. During the initial learning period on Vocal, I noticed a few key things that I believe Medium should adopt from Vocal. In the same vein, I explored Medium features that would benefit Vocal Media a lot. Here they are.

From Vocal

I came up with 3 key features that Medium should adopt from Vocal Media. Two of them are likey, one will never happen. You’ll see.

1. Challenges

Vocal is big on challenges. These are submission calls on a specific topic that…

A common question I get on how to start a blog is: What plugins do you need? That’s a tricky question. You might need none or only a couple. Others might need a handful or more.

But there’s one plugin (or type of plugin) that every WordPress website — no matter how small or big, how many views or how few — needs right from the get-go. It’s not the only one, but it’s one of the most important that many people forget or don’t even know about.

A caching plugin

A cache plugin will speed up your site, precache pages, reduce loading…

Lists are finally here. A great feature added to your Medium profile. I already tried out lists and have 3 use cases that you might like.

1. Categorization: Use lists to group your related stories together. For example, one list for all self-care posts, one for writing tips, another one for fun stuff, and so on.
2. Monthly recaps: Create monthly lists for your most popular posts or your favorite ones. It’s an easy way to recap your stories and get some more exposure.
3. Curate other people’s stories: Lists are not just useful for your writing, they can also be used to…

I don’t just use Medium. It has become my primary writing platform, but I make use of other platforms as well. For one, I have my blog. I also started writing on Vocal Media. I give you 4 reasons for that here:

1. Pay for external views: Unlike Medium, Vocal Media takes into account external reads when it comes to paying. You earn 3.80$ for 1000 views, external or internal. Or 6$ if you’re a Vocal+ member.
2. Bonus payments: Vocal has a small but still nice bonus system. You get 5$ for your 5th story, or 50$ for your 50th, for…

I’ve been doing Vocal Media wrong. And from what I can tell, I’m not the only one. Let’s deep dive into my thoughts about Vocal Media and why I think it’s still worth a shot.

I arrived when everybody left

I just read two stories on Vocal Media. The first by Laquesha Bailey is called “Why I Finally Cancelled My Vocal Media Subscription After 7 Months”. The second one “Goodbye Vocal Media” was written by Shamar M.

As you might guess from these two headlines, they’re not satisfied with Vocal Media. Nor should they be. In comparison to this platform here, Vocal has quite a…

I’ve gotten this question a few times now. “How did you manage to get almost 2000 Medium followers in just shy of 5 months on this platform?” My answer was “I don’t know”. Because to be honest, I didn’t. Until I thought about it some more.

Before my first post

It all started even before my first Medium story. I didn’t just write that first post and hoped for the best. Instead, I did a little research. By research, in this case, I mean I created a Medium account, became a paying Medium member, and started to read viral articles by high-profile writers. Why…

Sounds like a scam? I thought so too. That’s because numerous YouTube gurus tell you how to earn ten thousands without making videos.

You won’t. Most likely.

But these tips might lead to a valuable side income. I’ve earned over 2000$ in total this way. For as little as 4 hours of work per month. There’s a catch though. I’ll tell you upfront.

It’s hard to get in

What’s most frustrating about YouTube as a platform to make money on? Without a doubt, it’s the partner program's requirements. 4000 watch hours within 12 months and 1000 subscribers, this is the base requirement to even be…