How To Roll With the Punches and Still Make Money

Plus 50% off all my success kits

This year is less than three weeks old and I’ve already had to pivot a few times in terms of how I’m going to be operating as an online writer and what I’ll be doing to keep my head above water, financially speaking.

Everything is changing. My main writing platform, Medium, is in flux, reportedly due to having to do a huge spam purge. Social media platforms are imploding left, right and centre.

If you’re a writer, or online creator of any kind, here’s my advice right now.

Stay flexible in approach

People are saying Medium is broken. I’m not convinced (yet). For now I’m following the advice of

Walter Rhein

to focus on quality over quantity on the platform, and submit mostly to publications run by Boost nominators (here’s a list of those for the Medium writers out there).

If your writing landscape is changing, try to stay on top of the changes and work with them rather than just railing against them. Maybe it’s time for a change of platform. Maybe it’s time to use your current platforms differently. Maybe both, to be honest, which brings us to the next point.

Don’t be scared of exploring new platforms

I’ve written before about how I’m now focusing on three main platforms, but nothing is set in stone. You have to be prepared to move on. I’ve also written about how I’ve weathered the changes in the online writing landscape over the past couple of decades and survived in spite of it all. Medium was once ‘the new Squidoo’ for me. I guess one day something will be the new Medium.

I only use TikTok as a consumer, not a creator, but watching US creators this week trying to move their audiences to Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and various other apps (all of which have their own issues to be fair) has been an education.

As I touch on in this article, TikTok was paying more per video to creators than most other platforms (with the average price for a sponsored TikTok video around $2,700), and many were making a full-time income there, which the US Government (or more specifically the Supreme Court) seems largely unaware of, or unconcerned by.

On a related (if much less important) note, I jumped onto BlueSky this week. I’m hoping it will be an alternative to Twitter/X where I have around 9,000 followers and almost zero engagement.

It certainly has a similar vibe to Twitter in the very early days, so I look forward to getting started over there, though I’ve yet to put up a single post (follow me, anyway, if you want to – things will liven up on my profile soon, I promise).

Be open to new opportunities

Someone commented on a Medium article of mine this week asking if I would be interested in submitting original articles to a site she works for. A year ago that would have been a hard no. I had more work than I could handle, mainly working for a content marketing agency.

That work dropped off due to AI stepping in a while ago. But just recently it’s dipped again (due to AI stepping up its game, perhaps?). Either way, I’m looking for sites that want proper, journalistic, human-generated writing, so I got in contact. We’ll see how that goes.

If anyone knows of more solid, revenue-generating opportunities (that involve writing, not crypto, direct sales or taking my clothes off - none of which play to my strengths) feel free to share.

In short:

Nothing is certain. Change is inevitable. It’s survival of the fittest - by which I mean (much like Darwin) the most adaptable - in 2025 and beyond. How are you prepping?

Oh, and I mentioned 50% off all the success kits. Here you go (discount baked in at these links – no coupon code required):

• The Freelance Writer’s Success Kit

• The Busy Blogger’s Success Kit

• The Affiliate Marketer’s Success Kit

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Some thoughts from others I’ve been enjoying this week

• Behind the Scenes of Earning $500/Day in Passive Income from Writing Books by

  Deni Sahaya

• Why Substack Can Be Your Author Platform by

  J.R. Heimbigner

• I Found Two Questions Writers Should Ask Themselves In A Killer Book by

  Linda Caroll

• How to Build a Good Strategy to Maximize the Power of Both Medium by

  Walter Rhein

• 4 Ways To Fast-Track Your Substack Growth and Substack by

  Jari Roomer

• A (Really) Bad Idea Might Just Be What You Need by

  Veronica Llorca-Smith

What else I’ve been up to this week

Listening to: Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport (I’m putting aside just 20 minutes a day for this so it’s taking a while - somewhat fittingly)

Watching: My fave US TikTokers before they disappear

Working on: A new strategy that embraces and works with the changes I’m seeing right now

Taking time to: Walk in nature, eat healthy food, use my optician-recommended hot eye mask (just 20 minutes a day - while listening to above audio book), get some microgreens and sprouted seeds started to support that better nutrition

This week’s Medium post

(Friend link, as always, so you can read for free if you’re not a member.)

• How To Make Sure Your Finances Look Completely Different One Year From Now (with a simple three-step plan)

That’s all for this week. If you’re reading this online and you’re not subscribed yet, feel free to subscribe to get future posts straight to your inbox.

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