But why did I suddenly get paid for it now?

If you can read graphs, you know those 45K views didn’t all come last week. It looks like around 6–7K did. I don’t know how many claps and fans came from just last week cuz, ya know, Medium.

I am awar this article is popular, and I was aware it would probably get some views again last week, like it does every other September. Honestly, I would have put it up again on social media like I do every other year on September 11. But this September 11th, I spent the day mourning the loss of my grandmother with my family at her funeral, and it didn’t really feel right to fill my timeline remembering 9/11 when I really wasn’t remembering it that day.

Still, in came the views, and they came almost entirely externally and not from Medium, mostly from Google and other search engines:

So maybe you think none of this sounds weird at all.

But how is it that I made $44.51 on this article last week when I had never made a penny on it the rest of its life? How does that possibly make any sense? Where did all the dollars come from this time when a huge majority of its views came from off of Medium?

As with every other mystery on Medium, the answer is simple: I have absolutely no idea.

But since that’s not very helpful, here are a few other takeaways I noted from this entire experience.

1. Write good stuff, and people will find it.

You don’t need to play the Medium game. You don’t need to beat the system. Just write something worth reading, and people will read it.

2. It takes time to be successful on here.

Plenty of my articles only make a buck or two. But since I write 3-5 articles a week at Medium and have done so for 4 years, I have almost 1000 articles in my catalog here, several hundred of which are in the Partner Program and can make money any given week. And apparently, sometimes they do.

Stop thinking you will be an overnight success at Medium. Sometimes this stuff just takes time.

3. This graphic on the stats page remains entirely useless.

No clear topics yet after 45,000 views? Exactly how much data are you hoping for, Medium? This graphic has never been useful in the history of mankind.

4. Family first.

This September 11th, I spent time with my family instead of using part of the day to promote my work. That was always the right decision.

5. Patriotism remains a cheat code.

Americans love nothing more than getting all patriotic and #remembering and #thoughtsandprayers from the safety of their screens. I didn’t write this article for that purpose, but I benefited from it nonetheless.

Putting Medium and dollar amounts in a title also appear to be cheat codes, so I guess we’ll see if those work, too.

Here’s the article I wrote three years ago and earned $44.51 on last week. I hope it moves you. ■