I May Stop Writing Tarot Pick a Cards

Ever since the beginning of August, I’ve noticed that my earnings on Medium have gone down 75%. This was devastating to me as someone with a rare sleep disability that makes almost all jobs physically impossible for me to do.

I count on Medium as my primary source of income. The ads on my blogs only earn about $1-3 a day. That doesn’t mean click on ads to support me if you read the blog instead (this would be click fraud if you aren’t genuinely interested in the ad on its own). However, things are looking grim for me.

Medium saved me when all I had left was a few hundred dollars in my bank account. But sometimes platforms change and you need to pivot away from them.

That means I’m probably going to reduce my tarot pick a cards to just one or two a month from my normal eight to twelve starting in the next week or so.

I know this is likely to be disappointing to my regular readers.

Why This Is Happening

Although I’ve worked on diversifying my income, it’s not been easy. It’s taken a few years just to get this far after becoming suddenly disabled following a head injury. I wasn’t planning on becoming a writer or a tarot reader. I actually finished graduate school to become a teacher (but that’s physically impossible for me to do now).

I like working as a tarot reader though and I especially enjoy creating text pick a cards. It’s been my niche on Medium for a while and it’s a lot of fun. I ultimately cross posted my stories on this blog for those who can’t afford or were not interested in a Medium membership.

Now according to CEO Tony Stubblebine, Medium has changed its algorithm and payment distribution. I assume it’s for the best, and I’m certain other writers are doing great now and deserve it, but I’m no longer considered a writer of quality.

To be honest, this hurts me on a deep emotional level. When my earnings started to tank, I thought I was doing something wrong.

It wasn’t until I read recent news about the platform and some comments from other writers that I learned what was happening. And that this decrease in my earnings will likely be permanent.

Unlike most writers on Medium, my earnings are relatively consistent month-to-month and story-to-story. What I see is what I get when it comes to my stats.

Coincidentally, I actually did write longer quality articles like Tony suggested would do well with the changes and my read stats are similar to stories before the change. Yet still my earnings are down 75%.

But I can’t control what Medium chooses to do. I can only control what I do — and that’s to pivot elsewhere.

My Body Is Weird

The future for me is uncertain. Fortunately, I’ve made a lot of investments in treating my poor health in the past few months and I’ve made some promising improvements.

I’ve been too weak to work more than a few hours a day or be under camera lights. This is why I’ve struggled to do private tarot readings or create video pick a cards.

I’ve burned out from overexertion and almost fainted numerous times. It’s weird to just lay in bed for hours with nothing to do because even listening to music is exhausting when that happens. Really not a fan of the vomit comet either.

However, finding ways to cool my body down and discovering that I was iodine deficient (from only using sea salt instead of iodized table salt) has changed things almost overnight. And it’s come when I needed it most.

My Non-24-Hour sleep disorder is still uncured, and I have no idea when I’ll be awake or asleep each day, but I no longer feel miserable all the time.

So I’m optimistic despite this sudden and necessary pivot away from writing tarot pick a cards. Nothing can stop me now. Not time or Medium falling out from under me.

Here Are My Plans

I hope that my current Medium stats are a temporary glitch. However, I have to be prepared for the very real possibility that my writing is no longer valued by Medium in the same way it was before. And unfortunately, my ad-supported free tarot pick a cards on this blog will also be affected.

I’ve already opened up private tarot readings on Etsy. I’ll also be preparing to shift to video tarot pick a cards on YouTube.

I had always wanted to do this and my text pick a cards at the same time, but I’m still in recovery and building my stamina. If my tarot pick a cards aren’t valued by Medium, I’ll have to place my attention elsewhere where my work is valued and still earns enough to pay my bills.

Hopefully I’ll still find the time to write as much as possible, but I still wanted to prepare my regular readers for what’s likely to be a drastic change.

I’m not going to lie: this is pretty scary. And of course, I’m watching to see if Medium actually blooms despite this worrying development.

Either way: I’ll manifest my future in some way. I hope you’ll be with me with me when I do!

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