Earn $50/Day Writing on Medium

Many Medium writers talk about their financial success. Some discuss it a week or month at a time. I found their insights into Medium’s payment program helpful for increasing my Medium income.

Several great writers discuss their income and explain how they did it. The first names that come to mind are Brian Rowe, Shaunta Grimes, and T.S. Johnson. All three are at different points in their Medium careers which makes their insights quite valuable.

Personally, I chose not to talk about my financial success for several reasons. One, I do not like to talk about money. My parents raised me to value people by their character not their net worth. So I am naturally unable to discuss money without feeling weird about it. Second, I do not think I have anything to add to the conversation.

 The three writers I mentioned, contribute more to the Medium community on Medium income than I could provide. So why duplicate already existing content?

However, I do have some general insights to add to the conversation based on my experiences. Here we go!

There are a core group of tools you need to earn a decent wage on Medium. Although it might look cool in your bio to have a lot of followers, there are different metrics that matter, if you want to get paid.

You see the report each month.

There are some real earners out there (five figures per month, six a year). It’s quite possible to do well on Medium. But the earnings come with a cost of entry.

You’ll need to write your face-off. On a consistent basis.

Small Percentage Make Over $100

Most writers on Medium do not make a lot of money. There is a small group of us making over $100 a month, which is not enough to feed your family. Each month, only 7–9% of writers earn over $100. Luckily, I have been in that club for a long time. Well, not so much luck but hard work.

If you want to make money writing on Medium. You need to write A LOT!

The $100 club is not the most depressing part of being a Medium writer. It is about half of all writers who make NOTHING, which has to be very discouraging. I do not want to add to their discouragement by proclaiming “I made $250 just last week.”

You need to write consistently

I went on vacation and took a week off. I had a few articles in the queue, but my reads dropped dramatically.

Yes, Medium is a bit of a treadmill. You’re either in it or not. That’s personal preference. You can write as little or often as you wish.

You’re in competition with 200,000+ other writers. Think about that. If you slack-off for just a minute, you’ll lose your momentum. Same as any other social platform (and Medium should be treated as such).

Write every day. Try to post every day.

The writers who write and build audiences are the ones who earn.

You need to link to your previous articles

Your old articles will disappear after a few days if you don’t remind your tribe to read them. You’ve got to market yourself on Medium just as much as you have to market yourself in the rest of the world.

If you want your old articles to keep earning, you’ve got to keep reminding us to read them.

Something like 60-70% of the content on Medium has no traffic, so it’s important never to let people forget about you. I like to link to 3–4 older, successful posts per article.

You need to write articles people want to read

Sure, it’s cool you got that think-piece off your shoulders, but if I don’t find it interesting, you won’t have my attention.

Articles that solve immediate problems win.

We like to read stuff about money, safety, relationships, productivity, politics, and fun.

Show your reader how you can offer a transformation from where she is now, to where she’d like to be after reading your piece. If we can’t tell that by reading the title, you won’t get many reads.

You need to get curated

Everyone loves to talk about curation. Those who don’t get curated say it doesn’t matter. Curation matters. If you don’t get curated you don’t get the views necessary to make your article profitable.

There are a few exceptions, but if you want your old stuff to keep earning a few bucks a month, you need to write content worthy of curation.

This is accomplished by writing a lot.

Sometimes you get curated sometimes you don’t. But you keep writing every day. In aggregate, you’ll get some curations that do very well and keep the money coming in.

Your titles matter, a lot

Like any good advertisement, your title is the reason why read or skip your article. Spend as much time on the title as you did writing the piece.

Don’t use the first title that comes to mind.

Write 10–20 titles before you choose one.

Use the sub-titles too. They’ll show-up in the feed and help the reader choose if she wants to read your piece.

Keep your titles positive.

Multiple posts per day won’t necessarily get you more claps

If you spam the feed you won’t boost your ratings much. Keep it constant. Write every day, but don’t try and pump five articles into the morning stream.

You won’t get the reward for your efforts and your readers will probably be overwhelmed, especially the ones who sign up for your email notifications.

You need to keep going

There’s no magic bullet here. Most writers flame-out after a few months of hard-trying.

I got lucky early, but if you want to hockey-stick your Medium income you need to write. All the time. Every day. And post on a continual basis for a long period of time.

They change the rules often.

…but they can’t change you coming back for more. As long as you keep showing-up, there’s a good chance you’ll make $50 per day after writing a few months.
You’ll grow your readership.