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.

Why I Have Cancelled My Medium Membership and Concentrate on Substack

 

Photo by daniar ainun on Unsplash

 

 With the drastic decline of Medium, which began in November 2024, I found that my visibility on Medium was almost non-existent. Six months ago, I decided to start publishing my newsletter on Substack and occasionally sharing the same articles on Medium.
 

As readers of my newsletter know, I mainly write about politics and social issues, which are extremely important to me. As our democracy is now in serious danger of being destroyed by a fascist wannabe dictator, I feel an urgency to inform people that we may soon lose our rights and freedoms.
 

My Medium statistics revealed that my posts were receiving very few views and even fewer reads. I was earning only a few cents per article. In early May, I cancelled my Medium Partnership Program membership, realizing it was a waste of time and money. But to my surprise, Medium charged me my membership fee in June, even though I had cancelled it. I decided to give Medium one last chance and remain on the platform to see if my stats improved.
 

During the first two weeks of June, I published four articles, which I had also posted on Substack. For the articles I posted on Medium, I had a total of 50 views, while on Substack, I had 1583 views. I earned 36 cents for my articles on Medium. My posts on my Substack newsletter are free, so I naturally did not earn any money; however, I did receive one paid subscription, for which I am thankful.
 

For the first two weeks of June, on Medium, I got 60 new email subscribers and 14 new followers. Interestingly enough, all of the new Subscribers and all but 2 new followers were from India. Apparently, people from India are not interested in American politics, and I can’t say I blame them.
 

There are a couple of people I subscribe to on Medium who write about politics and publish a couple of times a day. I have noticed that their articles were not widely distributed, and the ones I read appeared to have had no interaction. This would mean they also would not have made any money from their articles. I honestly don’t know why they continue to publish on Medium if no one reads or even sees their work.
 

From my observations, those articles that seem to get the most attention are technology articles, and those articles geared to new writers on Medium wishing to make money by writing online. I feel that either Medium readers are not interested in the possibility that America is becoming an authoritarian state, or Medium chooses not to allow people to see such articles. Regardless, I feel that continuing to publish on Medium is a waste of money and a waste of my time.
 

I feel a little sad that I may be abandoning the few people left on Medium, whom I have followed and supported in the past, but hopefully, I will see them here on Substack. I may not earn much money on Substack, but at least here I am not invisible.

 

Hi, I’m Cato. Please help support my dad’s work by giving him a donation.

Please help support my work.

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.

The Grass isn't Always Greener on the Other Side,

                                               Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash 

 I wrote an article about people moving to Substack just three days ago. I was considering growing a subscriber list to earn a little money or reposting my Medium articles on Substack to improve my Medium statistics and earnings. I thought the grass might be a little greener on Substack. It didn’t take long, but I learned my lesson.

In the past few days, I have republished some of my Medium articles on Substack and have seen only a few likes and one follow. One person has subscribed to my newsletter. I wasn’t surprised, though, as it had only been a few days.

But more importantly, I realized that I would have to accumulate many subscribers to earn anything near what I am presently earning on Medium. I asked myself, “Would I pay money every month to read my articles?” “No way!” I also asked myself, “Would I pay $5 per month to read the work of just one writer”? Once again, the answer was no.

I would think for a writer to earn a substantial amount of money, they would have to be a damn good writer with a large and loyal following. I think I would have to write a great deal more and put in much more work to earn even a little money on Substack.

I don’t honestly think I would gain any benefit on Medium by also publishing on Substack. It would only mean more work for me, which I am not willing to do. I write as a hobby and to keep my mind active. I don’t intend to have another career as a writer, nor do I intend to get rich writing.

I earn a modest amount of money writing on Medium without being a slave to the platform or working too damn hard. I may complain at times about my earnings and stats on Medium, but hell, I have it quite easy here. I have also met some fantastic people on the platform who share my interests and genuinely support my work.

I had the itch to see if the grass was greener on Substack, and I found out it wasn’t. I realized that writing on Medium isn’t that bad and that I should be honest about my writing and my expectations.

I may still repost some of my articles on Substack, but with no expectations. I will probably rejoin the Friend of Medium program next month, too. Maybe I will push myself to work a bit harder, too. I might be able to make my own grass a little greener. Hey, I can’t say I didn’t try.