Finding value in your words

With this post, I bid farewell to 2021 and welcome with joy and gratitude, 2022.

I became a writer on Medium not for the money. I was fully aware that the measure of success lay in building a small audience, giving them value, and (occasionally) making them them laugh. I wanted to use this platform to write about things I experienced and learned.

I was quite surprised at what happened this past year:

1. A researched piece I wrote about getting food poisoning from improperly cooked kidney beans in a slow cooker is raking in views. It’s not viral by any means, but at 14k views, I’d pretty pleased. Folks in the comments said it was the first time they’d heard of such a thing, others said it happened to them too, and two kind slow-cooker aficionados even made a 3$ tip via my Ko-Fi account!
2. The number of followers I gained seemed unreal. I went from 3 in June to 219 in December.
3. There are 4 amazing people out there who signed up to be emailed when I post. In an age where people are unsubscribing left-and-right, and cursing the heavens for getting unwanted email, these individuals actually volunteered to be notified? That makes me unbelievably happy. Also, if you ever unsubscribed from a service before, have you ever noted that there’s a drop-down option “I don’t recall signing up for this newsletter”? I mean, how weird is that?
4. Finally, 3 folks signed up to premium Medium through my link. To them, I say, Thank You for supporting me, and the other writers on Medium.

I’m not a daily poster because I know that’s the easiest way to burn out and to flood your inbox. The headlines will be curious, but not click-baitey. There will be references in articles requiring them. I won’t sell you anything nor claim to be an expert and make wild, unsubstantiated claims.

Thanks again, and see you all next year. Stay safe and wish you all happy holidays.