I've had some good months and some less-good months. I am still trying to support myself on here, which should be possible because I'm not looking for a fortune and I know I'm a good writer. I've been doing it my whole life.

December was my best month: $1,764.88. But last month was my worst in ages: $671.36. I am at a loss. My best-performing-ever story, How You Drink Your Coffee Shows Who You Are, which I wrote in November, has made me $154.17 so far this month. In total, it's earned $829.20. It's nothing but a piece about coffee! It's had 13.6K views and the lifetime member reading time is 308 hours and two minutes. I imagine it'll die down at some point. I have some others that have done well. But take Pregnancy Is for the Poor: I think it's pretty good, but it's only had 311 views and has earned less than 20 bucks.

I probably would do better if I wrote only politics or only humor or only memoir or only lifestyle. I can't do it. I can't do a niche. So what happens is, someone reads my piece about politics and thinks, "Great, politics! My favorite!" And then they read a piece about my life. Someone else reads a slice of life and thinks, "Oh, I love this!" And then the next thing they read is political and they hate it. So my niche is "people who like to read a variety of stuff and never know what they're gonna get."

I'd like to get back to what I was making in November. Something did change then. I've never once been boosted, which kinda sucks. I don't think Medium really loves the kind of writing I do. But if I'm going to switch to writing about wellness and self-help and hustle culture and tech, why even be here? This is supposed to be enjoyable, and I am here for the good writing. At some point, I'm not going to keep hitting this hard if my kind of writing isn't valued here. Jessica Wildfire has almost completely abandoned this site for Substack. I've dipped a toe in there.

Some readers value me, though. I have 15 referred members and usually gain about one per month. That earns me $33.01 each month. I have no idea how I compare to others, but besides gaining a referred member about once a month, I always gain a good number of followers. Last month was 275. Last July was 523. The rest have been in the middle. I get a handful of email subscribers each month, too. Seven last month. Nineteen in October.

I hope Medium values me. I like it here. I just believe I deserve more -- and so do you, Susie!