What It’s Like to Have a Medium Article Go Viral and What I Learned from It

When I hit publish on Eight Ways to Say ‘I’m American’ While Traveling Without Saying ‘I’m American,’ I knew it was good. I knew it had some of whatever is between your thumb and pointer finger when rubbed together. I knew there were some original ideas inside. I knew there were some well-known truths pulled apart and laid out to examine. I knew dunking on Americans would appeal to those from every other country on earth. I also knew it would be nearly impossible not to read for the Americans who found it. Like trying not to watch a car crash. I still didn’t anticipate what would happen next.

See, I also knew Monk Life: An Entirely New Way to Enjoy Life, the very first post I published to my Medium account, was wonderful. I spent weeks considering each word. Each detail and each comma weighed on the wordsmith scale in my brain. After sharing that first blog, I wrote and published another four deeply cared-for pieces. One about minimalist thinking, another about making a dog happy—along with 24 other activities that are always a good use of time. A lot of deep quarantine thoughts. A lot of chains of words that I’m still proud of.

In total, after signing up for Medium’s partnership program and publishing those first 5 blogs, I think I made around seven dollars. I had amassed around 500 total…