It's Been Awhile, But I'm Still Here

 

Mount Denali May 2025

It's been quite a while since I posted on this blog, but don't worry, I'm still here. I took the vacation of a lifetime in May, when I took a cruise and land tour of Alaska with my husband. It was magnificent, but a little tiring. It was well worth it. When I returned home, I had to make a few decisions about my writing. 

Before I left on vacation, I was just getting started putting in more effort on my Substack newsletter, and pondering my future writing on Medium, trying to decide what I wanted to do with my YouTube Channel, as well as how much effort I should put into this blog. Well, I've finally made up my mind what to do.

My original purpose in starting to write online was to earn a little extra money, and that hasn't changed much. My main focus is not making a lot of money, but enough to pay the expenses involved in writing, such as Internet fees, electricity, and grammar software, when I can afford it. Even if I can't make any money, I'll keep writing, but maybe not that enthusiastically,  ha ha. 

Writing on Medium, up until last January, spoiled me with earnings well over a hundred dollars a month. Then, drastically, it all changed. Medium wasn't distributing my work and most other writers' work, so people could read them. Then, Medium decided to pay about 1 cent per read for each article read.  This dramatically reduced almost everyone's earnings to a mere pittance. Writers left the platform in droves. A few weeks ago, I decided that I'm not going to publish every day or more, when no one can see my work, in hopes of earning a few cents. I am still on the platform, but no longer a paying member or contributor.

I have been spending more time writing my Substack newsletter. I offer my subscribers the choice of a free or a paid subscription. The paid subscription does not include any special benefits, other than the ability to show their support. I also accept one-time donations. I feel that what I have to offer in my newsletter articles is more important than earning a lot of money.

I also recently started a YouTube channel, where I can share some of my Substack videos or anything else I want to say. I never thought I could be able to do this, but once I started, I enjoyed it. I know I will never make any money, as you have to have at least 1000 subscribers to your channel to be able to monetize it. I currently have 33😂.

As I had previously said, I spend the majority of my time writing on my Substack newsletter. I predominantly write about politics and social issues, with a liberal leaning. I don't offer any "breaking news" or "investigative reporting", but what I do offer are my thoughts and opinions on what is happening to our country, from a gay, retired senior citizen - an average American like you. I feel it is important for people like me to get the word out, so we can save our democracy. Making big bucks from the newsletter is less important.

Finally, I am getting to this blog. Like I have said, I haven't spent much time on here, and I apologize to those few followers I have for not being more productive. I have decided that since politics is my main focus on Substack, I will use Steve Sovie's World, for everything else I want to share. Occasionally, I will share some material from Substack and my YouTube channel. If you notice, the title of this blog is Steve Sovie's World, while both my Substack newsletter and YouTube channel are titled Stepehen Sovie's World. My Substack link is Stephen Sovie's World. My YouTube channel is Stephen Sovie's World.

I hope you can visit each of my sites and subscribe if you like what I have to say. And if you are feeling generous and can afford to, please consider making a one-time donation or becoming a paid subscriber on my Substack newsletter.

I apologize for any mistakes you may have found in this post.  I used to use Grammarly Pro as an editing software, but I can't see paying the high price they are asking for. Hey, I'm on a fixed income!

Thank you for reading.

I Think It’s Time to Move On Over to Substack

It may not be the answer, but it beats stagnating on Medium

Photo by Handiwork NYC on Unsplash

It’s already been over two weeks since Medium began its death spiral; things haven’t gotten better; they’ve gotten worse. At the beginning of January, my reads and views more than doubled and tripled compared to previous months. But my earnings rapidly declined to where they are now, about 2 cents a day.

Every writer on this platform experienced the same devastating earnings and was searching for some answers that never came. Medium staff sent out a few emails that created more confusion. According to Medium, they were working on eliminating scammers, spammers, and other non-genuine members. This didn’t explain the extreme drop in earnings, though.

I cut back on publishing stories in hopes the situation would change for the better. They haven’t. In the past few days, my reads and views dropped significantly. My earnings amount to 1 cent per day.

What is annoying is the change in the number of notifications I receive daily. I now receive over a hundred notifications each day. The vast majority of these are “also highlighted” notifications. But I am getting more and more followers from people who haven’t read or interacted with my stories and have not published anything. I am also getting more replies to my older stories, asking me to “please read my work.” They must have escaped Medium’s spammer net.

I moved to Medium after spending years writing blogs that made little money and attracted only a few followers. I put in a lot of work and got little in return. Now, I have come to a complete circle on Medium. I have tried numerous strategies to increase my readership, including starting a newsletter on Kit in hopes of increasing readership. Unfortunately, most subscribers ignored my newsletters and didn’t open the emails.

I now see only three options left for me. Firstly, I can stay on Medium and do nothing but wait, hoping to survive on this site. Secondly, I can try to make a go at publishing on Substack. Or, as a last resort, I can return to my blogs, where I continue to maintain my custom domain. For now, I have decided to move over to Substack.

I am uncertain whether or not any of my followers or subscribers on Medium would see value in spending money for a paid subscription to my articles. Subscriptions to my Substack newsletter, Stephen Sovie’s World, are free. Hopefully, if enough people subscribe, I can offer a paid subscription in the future.

I apologize to my followers who have stuck with me for all the confusing changes I have subjected you to in my efforts to make my content more available and profitable. Once again, I am asking you for your support. If you would like to continue to read my articles, please subscribe. Thank you.

I’m moving to Substack. Please join me in Stephen Sovie’s World newsletter.

How I Became Obsessed With Google AdSense

Something I am not proud of

Photo by Greg Bulla on Unsplash

Sixteen years ago, while living in Malaysia, I started writing a blog using Google Blogger. I monetized my site using Google AdSense and began earning a little money—not much, but I was happy. Then, suddenly, Google notified me that my account was canceled because of policy violations. They did not explain what the violations were.

After numerous emails with Google, I learned that many suspicious clicks on my ads originated from the same ISP. A short time later, I discovered that a friend was trying to help me earn more money by frequently clicking on my ads whenever he got bored.

I contacted Google to explain this finding and requested that my account be reinstated. Almost immediately, I received a reply from Google informing me I had been banned from AdSense for life. I got a life sentence from Google!

Ten years later, I have moved from Malaysia and am now living in New York State. I thought maybe after ten years, I could contact Google to have them reconsider my account. Within minutes of contacting them, once again, I was told I was banned for life.

I gave up the idea of monetizing my blog with AdSense and subsequently moved it to Medium, where I have earned more money than using AdSense.

Like an idiot, I created another blog with Blogger where I share my stories after they have been published on Medium. And, not learning my lesson, I applied for a new AdSense account. But this time, I used a different Gmail address, with my home address in the US, not Malaysia. It worked.

I added AdSense to my blog, carefully following Google’s directions. Not surprisingly, it didn’t work. I got a message saying my “Site needs attention.” They didn’t say what attention it needed, though. After several more attempts, I was notified that my site was verified, but they couldn’t find my AdSense code. They told me to “Please fix the issue.” I have been trying to fix the issue for over two months!

If anyone who has dealt with Google knows, it is impossible to contact their Customer Support. The only option is to use the Google Community, where other Google users can help. I have not been able to get any answers from this option.

The question is, “Why am I doing this?” I have spent hours and days trying to solve my problems with AdSense and add it to my blog. I don’t understand why. Even if I succeed in adding AdSense ads to my blog, I don’t have enough followers to earn any more than a few cents a month. I can earn more money on Medium in a day than I could with AdSense in a year.

I know Google is a huge and powerful conglomerate. They could care less for a nobody like me, so why should I care? Sometimes, I feel like Don Quixote fighting the Google windmill. I don’t like to be told I am banned for life. I don’t like to be treated as though I am nobody and my concerns are unimportant. That’s why I haven’t given up—yet.

I know anyone reading this must think I am crazy. Maybe I am. I realize I am obsessed with this problem and should be embarrassed, but I’m not giving up until the last minuscule thread of hope is gone.

I feel the same way writing here on Medium. My reads and earnings are down, and they continue to decline. But I am not going to let Medium defeat me. Like with AdSense, I won’t give up without a fight.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed reading this article and wish to subscribe to my Newsletter, click on my photo below.

Yes, Anyone Can Write on the Internet

But not everyone will succeed

Photo by Benjamin Dada on Unsplash

When I retired more than ten years ago, I moved to Malaysia to be with my now-husband. Since I was not allowed to work, I searched for ways to occupy my time. While surfing the Internet, I discovered blogging. According to the articles, anyone could be a writer and start a blog, and the best part was that you could make money by blogging. This was precisely what I was looking for.

Of the many blogging platforms, I chose Google’s Blogger, primarily because it was free and because Google said it was the most user-friendly. As a person with absolutely no technical skills, I knew Blogger was perfect for me.

I immediately went to work creating my new blog. Thanks to Blogger, it was easy. I didn’t even have to know any coding or SEO—I didn’t even know what it was at the time. I was well on my way to being a writer and blogger, or so I thought.

I had so much fun writing blog posts about life as an expat in Malaysia that I decided to start a couple more blogs. This is when the problems started.

My Malaysian blog was moderately successful, with a good following. I even earned a few bucks. I was quite proud of myself and considered myself a writer, so writing my new blogs would be a snap. Unfortunately, nobody followed or even read my new blogs. I was writing for a nonexistent audience.

I ran into more problems. When you use Blogger, Google Analytics comes with it. This tool analyzes your website and notifies you of any problems that are found. My website had numerous problems, according to Google, but I had no idea what their analyses meant. To make matters worse, Google doesn’t tell you how to fix the problems. It’s like going to your doctor, and he says you are sick but doesn’t tell you how to get better.

I still have one blog on Blogger today, and I still have the same problems with Google. My biggest complaint with Google is that it is impossible to contact customer support. They’re so big they don’t care.

Today, I write predominantly on Medium, where I don’t have to know HTML, SEO, or any other technical skills. I can be a writer here on Medium, but that doesn’t guarantee I can be a successful writer. I still have to work hard to promote my work and engage with other writers.

The Internet may be correct in saying anyone can write or, for that matter, anyone can paint. It’s what you write or what you paint that makes the difference. You can write your diary or paint your house; neither one makes you a writer or painter. The lesson to be learned here is not to take everything you read on the Internet too literally.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed reading this article and wish to subscribe to my Newsletter, click on my photo below.

Self-Promotion is Like Self Abuse,

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But it has to be done.

Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

When I was a child, I was taught that talking about yourself was considered bragging and thus discouraged. I always felt guilty talking about my accomplishments, and I still do today.

Because of my upbringing, I had a difficult time promoting the blogs I created after retiring. I thought once I wrote and published a post, that was it. It didn’t take long to realize no one was reading my posts or even aware I had a blog. I was even too shy to tell family and friends.

I soon discovered that writing a blog wasn’t hard; it was promoting it that was. That’s probably why I never earned any money. Then, I started writing on Medium in addition to my blog.

For the past couple of months, I have been wracking my brain for ways to promote myself and my articles. I then read a story by Adrian CDTPPW, in which he describes the stress he encountered in his efforts at self-promotion. His story is worth a read for all of us:

I have been going through similar experiences to promote my work. I have tried sharing on X, only to have one or two people read the articles I shared. Now that X is going down the tubes, I will no longer share on that platform.

I have had a little better luck with Facebook, where I have switched to the Facebook professional mode. After sharing my articles, I am getting a few reads. It’s not great, but every little bit helps.

I also started a newsletter, separate from Medium’s newsletter, where I share my previously published Medium stories with people who have subscribed to it. My newsletter is sent out once a week, unlike Medium’s subscriber notifications, which are sent out as soon as an article is published. So far, the results have been rather disappointing.

I have recently started promoting my articles and newsletter on LinkedIn, Bluesky, and Patreon, even though I am not too optimistic about getting good results. I’m sure there are other avenues for promotion that I haven’t discovered yet, and I’m sure I will give them a try, too, sometime in the future.

Adrian was right about self-promotion being stressful. But unlike writing a blog on WordPress or Blogger, writing on the Medium platform makes promoting our work somewhat easier. Don’t get me wrong; you still have to promote yourself if you expect to be successful. I compare promoting articles to trying to sell ice to Eskimos—not easy!

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed reading this article and wish to subscribe to my Newsletter, click on my photo below.

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Sharing Your Stories on Linkedin

Is it worth it?

Photo by Abid Shah on Unsplash

In my continuing quest to get more eyes on my stories, I have promoted my work on Facebook, X, and my personal blog. Some time ago, I heard that some writers use LinkedIn to promote their articles, but I never gave it much thought.

I rarely get views from using Facebook, and I think I’ve only had one view from sharing with X. I recently started a newsletter with Kit in an attempt to gain more readers. So far, that has not been fruitful. I’ve also changed my Facebook to the Professional mode.

It wasn’t until I received a great comment on one of my stories by one of our noted authors, Tyler Lubben BBA, who said he had used LinkedIn and gotten good results.

I’ve had a LinkedIn account since I was employed as a Cytologist, but after retiring, I rarely, if ever, used it. I have thought of promoting my stories there, but they didn’t seem to fit in with all the medical and hospital posts. To this day, I still get job offers, even though I have been retired for over 10 years.

Since I am retired and not interested in returning to work in my former career, I decided to close my professional account and open a new one devoted to promoting my Medium stories. I only created my new account yesterday, so I’m going to have to wait a while to see any results.

I’d love to hear from anyone who has had any experience using LinkedIn to share their work.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed reading this article and wish to subscribe to my newsletter, click below.

I Have a Hard Time Promoting My Articles,

Maybe I should try something different.

Photo by JJ Ying on Unsplash

I don’t know about you, but I have difficulty getting people to read my articles. If people can’t see them, they can’t read them. I share my stories on Facebook, X, and my blog, Steve Sovie’s World. I also tell my friends whenever I publish something they may be interested in.

I hardly ever get any results from sharing on X. Using Facebook, I see a little better results, but nothing great. I recently started a Newsletter to promote my stories within Medium. So far, I haven’t seen any results. For some reason, people click on the Medium subscribe icon instead of my huge Newsletter subscribe image.

When I tell my friends that I write on Medium, they say they have no idea what Medium is. No one I have ever talked to, either in my family, my neighbors, my long-time friends, or former colleagues, has ever heard of Medium. Why is that?

I consider most of my friends to be well-educated and informed, and many of them are avid readers. But they have no idea of what Medium is. Therefore, I not only have to convince them to read my articles but also to join Medium to do so. Convincing people to shell out money to read is the most difficult part.

After some thought about this matter, I have decided to change the way I promote my articles. While I promote my stories, I will also promote Medium. If people make the connection between my stories and Medium, they might be enticed to join Medium. It’s worth a try.

I would love to hear your thoughts about what I have written and what I intend to do.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed reading this article and wish to subscribe to my newsletter, click below.

What Genre of Writing Succeeds on Medium,

It may not be what you think

Photo by Thomas Kelley on Unsplash

When asked what they like to read, people say fiction, nonfiction, science fiction, mysteries, poetry, etc. Naturally, their favorite authors are those who write in their favorite genre. When writers, especially novice writers, join Medium, they try to emulate their favorite authors or try something different.

We all remember how excited we were to tell family and friends that we started writing on Medium and how they asked, “What’s that?” We then explain how Medium lets us write about anything we want.

After we’ve been joyfully toiling daily to produce what we think are masterpieces of literature, we realize something. No one is reading our stories. We search the Medium site for answers. We see all kinds of advice. We need more followers. We need to publish more often. We need to engage more. Reinvigorated, we get right to it. And still, no one reads our work.

We begin to look around and see who the more successful writers are, the ones who get the most attention and earn the most money, at least according to them. We discover a new genre of writing that only some people outside of Medium have ever heard of: writing about Medium itself!

We begin to realize that most of those articles we searched for advice are very popular. We also realize that the one article we wrote about our questions or frustrations with Medium was our most popular and lucrative article. A light goes on. Why not devote all my attention to writing about Medium?

To hell with becoming another Hemingway, Grisham, or King. We can become famous writers in the new writing genre called Medium. So, now, when friends ask what kind of articles we write? We can proudly say, “I write about Medium?” And then laugh all the way to the bank.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed reading this article and wish to subscribe to my newsletter, click below.

What Am I Really Doing on Medium?Am I wasting my time?

Photo by Andrea De Santis on Unsplash

I often get ideas about what to write in the middle of the night. Sometimes I remember the ideas, and sometimes I don’t. Last night, I woke up at 4 AM to pee, which is not unusual for an old guy like me with BPH. What was remarkable was that instead of an idea popping into my head regarding an idea to write about, I was thinking, why do I even write on Medium if no one pays attention to my stories?

I don’t know why I suddenly started feeling down about what I was doing. Perhaps it’s because I have spent a good deal of time in the past couple of weeks creating a newsletter. Like many on this platform, my readership and earnings have declined dramatically. Last year, at this time, I had about 200 reads daily; today, I am lucky to get 10.I attributed this to the inability of the Medium membership, especially my followers, to find what I publish. I thought using a newsletter would help my readers find my stories.

Creating the newsletter was quite tiresome, as I knew little about web design and the technology used to develop and maintain a newsletter. However, I was quite proud of myself for completing this project. But then, after sending my first newsletter to my Medium subscribers, I began to have second thoughts.

Would my present subscribers unsubscribe once they receive the email with my newsletter? Would they delete it without reading it? Would it end up in the spam folder? Did I waste a lot of time for nothing? I’m not sure.

Soon after sending the first newsletter, I received a strange, if not rude, comment on one of my stories. The commenter basically told me that my stats were low because my work wasn’t very good, and I could improve my reads by following him and reading his stories. I didn’t know how to react. Before I deleted him, I checked his profile.

He joined Medium this month and had a few hundred followers and maybe ten articles published. What was striking was that each of his stories, which could have been better, had over 1.5K claps.

I began to think of all those articles I had read that had accumulated hundreds of claps within the first couple of hours of publication. Many stories I have found as fascinating as dryer lint have also had over a thousand claps. The writers often have fewer followers than me, which causes me to wonder about my followers. I know I shouldn’t compare myself to other writers, but I am human and can’t help but question what is wrong with me.

I used to follow and subscribe to many people, but I no longer do. One in particular is a very prolific writer, publishing several times daily. I tried to read as many of his stories as I could but soon lost interest. He seemed to always talk about himself in a braggadocios manner, but somehow his stories lacked feeling. He was more of a publishing machine than a writer sharing himself.

A few writers I enjoyed reading and getting to know disappeared after continued disappointing results on this platform. One writer I used to read faithfully and commensurate with is now rarely seen. She used to be a faithful follower and reader. Others I came to know have left for reasons unknown.

I publish in only a few publications I like and feel comfortable with, and I self-publish my political articles. I have writers I follow and subscribe to, and I make it a point to read most, if not all, of their articles. I won’t mention their names because I don’t want to drop names to get a few views. But they know who they are.

They may not always write masterpieces, but what they write from the heart about themselves and what they do. Reading their stories is like having a beer or cup of coffee and shooting the shit with a friend. I’ve gotten to know them and let them get to know me. I consider them to be friends. This is what I would miss if I ever left Medium.

I have done everything I can, within the limits of my ability as what others would call a writer. When talking with friends, neighbors, or family members, I cannot bring myself to say, “I am a writer.” But I cannot find a way to make my work interesting enough for people to read. I thought creating a newsletter would help, but it’s probably just another misadventure, like my futile attempts at writing blogs on WordPress and Blogger. Maybe someday I’ll learn.

I’ll continue sending my newsletter until my free plan runs out. Who knows, maybe things will pick up. Being an opinionated old fart, I probably won’t be able to swallow my pride and throw in the towel. So, I’ll stick around and rethink what I am doing on Medium. Thank you for allowing me to vent and wallow in self-pity for a while.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed reading this article and wish to subscribe to my newsletter, click below.

I Will Soon Be Sending Out a Newsletter to My Subscribers.

                                           Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

I am working on creating a weekly newsletter to send to my subscribers. My newsletter will contain the articles I published in the previous week and possibly a photo or some interesting tidbit of what I have experienced in my everyday life.

My newsletter will be free to subscribe to. That’s right, it won’t cost you a cent. It will be a weekly newsletter, so I won’t clog up your email inbox.

Once I have finished tweaking my newsletter, I will be ready to send it to my current subscribers. For new subscribers, I will include a link to subscribe at the end of my future articles.

My newsletter will not be hosted on Medium but by Kit.com. Once again, it will be free to subscribe to. At some point in the future, I may try to monetize it with a donate button or an affiliate ad, but it will always be free for my readers.

If any of my current subscribers do not want to receive my newsletter, please unsubscribe to receive Medium email notifications. I will be importing the current list in a couple of days. Whatever you decide to do, I thank you for your past support. Wish me luck!

I've Been Doing a Little House Cleaning on Medium and with My Blogs

                                   Photo by Mark Hang Fung So on Unsplash

I know it’s not spring, but I’ve been doing some spring cleaning the past few days — not in my house, but on Medium and with my blogs. I have been thinking about doing it for a while, and after some hesitation, I finally did it.

For over 15 years, I have been writing and maintaining personal blogs on another platform using custom domains. Although my blogs never earned much money over the years, my stubborn pride prevented me from giving them up. As anyone who has written their own blog knows, blogging is a tough endeavor, almost always destined for failure, at least for amateurs like me.

About a year ago, I discovered that Medium writers could redirect their blogs’ custom domains to their Medium blogs. Before realizing this feature existed, I had been publishing articles on my Medium blog and then republishing them on my websites. I thought if I could point my domain to my Medium blogs, I could save some time and trouble, as well as benefit my stats on Medium and my websites.

I linked two of my oldest websites, Steveso Thinks and Stephen Sovie’s Blog, to my Medium publications of the same names. I published an article on Medium explaining what I had done and settled back to see if it made a difference.

One issue I did not realize I would have was that pointing my custom domain to Medium prevented me from doing anything with my websites. I couldn’t publish anything solely on my website. I couldn’t even access it. I was still paying yearly for my custom domains but could only publish on them through Medium.

I saw no difference in my statistics, so it made no sense to continue pointing my custom domains to Medium. I decided to return to publishing on my blogs on both platforms. But it wasn’t that easy. I managed to unlink my domains from Medium quite easily but could not access my websites.

Each of my custom domains is registered with a different web hosting site, and I have been wracking my brains out about this for two days. Since I am not familiar with the intricacies of setting up and maintaining domains, I am lost.

I can probably fix the problems with my websites if I want to spend a lot of time and effort on customer support on each one, but I have decided it’s not worth it. After careful consideration, I have decided to swallow my pride and let go of my two long-held websites with their custom domains. Instead, I have created a new blog on Blogger, Steve Sovie’s Blogs, where I can republish some of my Medium articles from my publications there. Maybe I will purchase a custom domain at a later date, but as of now, it’s not a priority.

I doubt anything I have done will affect the performance of my Medium blogs or other writing. I don’t expect my new blog to be a success. I just want another site to share my work on and to preserve the memories of my past blogging adventures. I’m never going to stop writing and I’m never going to stop trying.