How Getting Personal Helped Me Get Paid on Medium

A happy report on April earnings

Andy Spears
2 min readMay 1, 2023
Photo by Unseen Studio on Unsplash

April was my best month in terms of earnings on Medium since July of 2022.

Every month, I tell the tale of the top 5 earning stories.

I tend to write about consumer issues or education policy or sometimes, some short fiction.

But in April, I took a new turn. I started writing more personal stories about my journey with alcohol.

This serves two purposes:

  1. It’s a bit of a journal for me, reminding me of where I was — and where I don’t want to go back to.
  2. I’m hopeful that reading about this journey is helpful to others facing similar struggles.

A funny thing happened as I began to open up here on Medium.

People started reading. And responding.

The engagement has been strong — and it has even meant more reads for some of my non-recovery stories.

While it is nice to earn a bit of money here on Medium, I love the site because I can write what I want and build connections with other writers.

It is nice, though, to find a thread of writing that earns both views and income — and has the added bonus of introducing me to new friends.

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Andy Spears

Writer and policy advocate living in Nashville, TN —Public Policy Ph.D. — writes on education policy, consumer affairs, and more . . .