My initial reason to blog was that I thought it would help me write more regularly. I read that writing daily would help me find my “voice”, and that it would help me figure out what my “passion” is. I wanted to write things that others would find useful, inspiring or entertaining. I have no interest in writing for money because the whole marketing thing takes “unappealing” to a whole new level.

I started my first blog on Writing.com. I didn’t want to start yet another thing that I would later abandon. I wanted to know whether I could write consistently on it before creating a “real” blog. I started publishing on it twice a week from last August until this past January. Since I was faithfully publishing posts twice a week for five months, I decided I was ready to start a niche-less free blog on WordPress.com.

When I first researching the whole blogging thing, I could only find advice for those who wanted to do it for money. Since I didn’t want that, I figured I could ignore certain rules. I haven’t followed even the “textbook” rules, such as adding images to posts.

I’m vision-impaired and have no interest in spending a lot of times searching for images when I could spend that time researching and writing. I’ve been putting images on my Medium stories, but I still don’t plan to add any to my WordPress posts. If my reason for blogging included profit, I’d follow all the rules.

You said: “This story is for serious writers who would also like to do a bit better at earning their pennies on Medium without resorting to cheap tricks that take them far from their real love: words.” I found myself repelled by much of the blogging/marketing advice I encountered. I don’t want to worry about a niche.

I have no interest in or patience for “games” or “tricks”. I’ve always believed that if you do enough work at something, you get rewarded for it in some fashihon. I’d rather have the fulfillment of knowing what I wrote blessed someone than earning a few dollars for writing something trivial.

I discovered Medium through stories I found when doing research for my blog posts. Occasionally I’d run out of free stories. In early August (2020), I decided the subscription was worth it because of the quality of the content I found here. I discovered the Partnership program two weeks later. What an amazing surprise!

I want to add to the conversation I’m finding on Medium. I want to write stories on all the subjects that interest me. I don’t want to worry about sticking to a specific topic. I’m interested in a lot of things, but I don’t know enough about any one topic.

Thanks for the suggestion to tweet a highlighted selection. It never occurred to me to do that. I thought there was a limit of 140 characters, so I was more inclined to tweet a link to an entire story. I checked out Reading Rhombus and followed it. :)