Writing Articles that Build Legacy
Creating lasting wealth on Medium that can escalate for a lifetime
If there’s one thing I know about Medium, it’s that the first month can really feel like you’re playing a losing game.
Every day the stats will remind you of how much or how little your latest article is performing for the day.
If you’ve published a story that day, you’ll receive a few fans for that story. If you’ve put out nothing, you may receive absolutely no love for the day.
No income all day.
The sucky thing about gaining fans in the early days is that they come slowly, and there’s not many of them.
So when you’re only receiving fans for the one story you’ve put out for the day, each day can potentially only earn you a few cents.
If you’re a writer that’s experiencing this, all I can tell you is to hold on. Things get better the more you keep going.
The longer you write, the more you’ll start experiencing ‘Legacy Claps’.
Legacy Claps
Legacy Claps are the most beautiful part of any Medium writers journey, they signal the beginning of recurring royalties.
Royalties mmmmmmm.. The sexiest word in any writers vocabulary.
The fact of the matter is, stories that age well are great investments!
The longer I spend on Medium, the more I’m starting to see the tangible, longterm value of each story.
Most of us habitually focus on the short-term. We are blinded by the intense feeling of rejection that comes when a story is barely seen by anyone in its first day.
Because of this, the site is inundated with stories telling us to ignore the money.
“Put it to the back of your mind! Write for the love and forget about it!”
But we’re here now.
We migrated here from our un-paying blogs and we learned the potential. I for one am not going to lie down and let everyone else make the dollars because I’m too scared of failure.
When it comes to the financial lifetime of a story, the day it’s released doesn’t matter when it comes to thinking in terms of legacy.
Stories that Stand the Test of Time
In my experience so far, only curated stories have held any legacy for me.
I’ve been finding that curated stories that don’t do well in the first week will trickle money into my account over time. The only exception to this are curated stories that were only relevant for the moment in time that they was written.
Stories that are curated are often noticed long after being written. They’re more likely to show up in search results, as long as people care to search the topic that you’ve written about.
This is only my experience, others have different tales of curation.
That’s why I believe stories are an investment. They take time, and if you’re really committed, they take money.
Investment
Some writers will pay a proofreader to give their stories a polish before they go live, and I’m beginning to see the true wisdom in that.
If you’re thinking in terms of legacy, paying an editor a one time fee is nothing compared to the potential cash-flow over the lifetime of the article.
Besides the financial investment, true legacy articles take time. There’s the time it takes to research an article to ensure what you’re about to write has demand.
No smart business person creates and launches a product without first doing extensive research into whether anyone actually wants it.
Why should writers be any different?
True legacy articles cover topics that are being Googled constantly.
I started my publication because air travel is a passion of mine, but also because the research showed that flight review websites are among the highest trafficked by travellers all over the world.
There’s a demand for flight reviews from both the consumers, and the companies making and flying the aircrafts.
The early days of my publication have been modest, but I’m looking down the road at the legacy publication I hope it will become.
Starting next month, I’ve decided to make a pledge.
My Pledge
I’m committed to growth and to building legacy.
About 80% of my fans each day are from legacy articles, meaning that only a handful of people are clapping for articles released on the same day.
I want my legacy earnings to increase exponentially in the future, and to ensure that, here is my pledge.
Starting next month, I will commit 100% of my earnings to paying an editor.
As time goes on and earnings grow larger, I will scale this back 10% a month until I reach 50%.
I believe that this is an investment that will increase my curation rate, and lengthen the life of profitability for my stories.
My current earnings are super low, so not every article will be able to receive the star treatment.
Because of this, I will only have the most researched and timeless articles edited. Articles that cover topics that will stay relevant forever will be given the red carpet.
Those which are only relevant for a short time, such as the article where I give my impression on the Cats trailer, is not one I consider a legacy piece.
This is my plan for growth and domination.
Do you feel that this strategy could apply to you? Let me know, I would love to discuss this plan with my fellow writers.
If I’m truly committed to long term growth, then both the time and financial investments will be worth it.
Who’s with me?
