Medium: My Rise and Fall

In April 2025, Medium paid me $4,127.20 for writing about my experiences living abroad. By October 2026, my monthly earnings had fallen to $1.60.

Quite a business model, eh?

For a while, I thought I'd finally figured out how to make a decent living doing something I genuinely loved. I was attracting thousands of readers, had built an audience of more than 17,000 followers in just over a year, and was earning serious money from my writing.

Oh, and here's the thing...

I wasn't making that money writing articles about how other writers could make money writing online.

I was actually earning it by writing about my own experiences and observations from more than 25 years living abroad, particularly the cultural differences and American habits I'd come to question along the way.

Then, in July 2025, my readership collapsed almost overnight. The income followed.

Medium: My Rise and Fall is my firsthand account of how I found an audience, developed a writing process that worked for me, and watched much of what I'd built disappear within a matter of days.

I share actual earnings figures, Medium dashboard screenshots, and examples of articles that earned thousands of dollars alongside others that barely earned a dime.

I also describe what happened afterward, including my frustrating attempts to replace that income and some of the rather expensive lessons I learned along the way.

This isn't another book promising to teach you how to make $4,000 a month writing online.

I couldn't promise you that even when I was doing it.