How lovely to meet you Philip. You had me at your profile: Philosophy, Buddhist, ancient history, psychology and a wonderful wife.

I love your reasons for being here - i started to write as part of "a voyage of self-discovery" and in particular to help me to heal wounded parts of myself. I came with no expectation of earning any money and it took me some time to learn all the ins and outs of Medium. I have found it to be a truly supportive space to write and have formed some wonderful friendships here.

On the whole I don't like to give "advice" but you have asked for ideas so forgive me for what follows. Take only what is useful and discard the rest. I shall limit myself to 3 things:

1. It is not impossible but it is hard to make a decent income here on Medium, at least in the short term. First you have to jump through the hoop of getting 100 followers before you can join the MPP Medium Partner Programme. Then you have to work on getting eyes on your work. Your income depends on people reading what you have written but given the sheer volume of outstanding articles, outstanding writers and astronomically high new posts ever day . .. it can be hard. But don't give up.

My suggestion would be to let go of the desire to earn money and focus on the voyage of self-discovery and on making connections. The money will take care of itself in the long term.

2. It is a good idea to spend some time searching for articles on formatting and in particular, you may want to think about adding a picture to the start of each of your posts. It's just the way things are done here.

3. Spend some time writing an About Me page for your profile. Again you can search Medium for tips on how to write a great About Me page.

That is more than enough for today.

Wishing you all the very best on your Medium journey, A🙏💚