100% Curation Rate — 8 Articles — 3 Weeks On Medium — 250 Followers — Made 10$

What has my experience taught me about Medium, curation, and earning?

First of all, I’d like to thank Medium and its crew for unleashing the writer in me. Also, a big thanks to all the editors of publications for publishing my pieces and having me onboard as a writer.

I self-published my first article on the 6th of September. At that time, I didn’t know what curation was. I learned about it and what it actually meant from a YouTube video by Zulie Rane. It was also because of her that I am a writer on Medium. I was surprised to see that my first ever piece was ‘Chosen for future distribution’.

What a feeling! I was really on cloud nine. I kind of knew I could write kind of well, but this totally came out of the blue. It was then published in Predict. I wrote 7 more articles, all of which were curated and published in good publications.

So far, I’ve written personal anecdotes, science and tech reports, and wellness articles. I am still in the process of finding my niches for my onward journey on Medium. I am considering choosing 2 or 3 areas to write about. I am also planning on writing 10 to 12 pieces a month. Let’s see.

What can curation do to your article?

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about curation and its benefits. All my articles were curated. Although it’s an achievement in itself and I am certainly proud of it, the views and reading time didn’t impress me at all. It could have been due to not having a truckload of followers like some writers have here on Medium. It could have also been due to the choice of topics and the quality of my writing and presentation.

Only one of my eight articles-Important Things to Keep in Mind When Dating an Introvert-did all the magic, both in views and reading time. It has also earned 98% of all my earnings so far (10 dollars). It was chosen as one of the top 10 articles of the day by Dew Langrial at Illumination.

So, in my humble opinion, curation, albeit a proud factor for the writer, does very little to increase an article’s virality. Perhaps curation will lend a helping hand only when a writer has more than 1 k followers, chooses a common topic that clicks with everyone, and also publishes the story in a highly reputable journal. When all these three factors blend in well with some well-needed luck, curation may help to push everything a bit further. This is only my speculation.

What about the bucks?

I am hoping you know how Medium calculates reading time and pays its writers. Have a look at this informative piece to find out more about it. It more or less comes down to 1.5$ to 2.0$ per 60 minute reading time of an article by internal viewers (Medium members). This holds true to some extent for articles that do quite well, like one of mine did. I am sure there are many viral articles that may have shot through the upper limits of the algorithm. But yeah, more or less, this is how much you will make per hour of one of your stories' reading time. Have a look at this wonderful piece by Rajesh Vairapandian, where the writer has broken down the money-making process in an easily understandable manner.

So, if you are looking to make it big on Medium, you have to consider that it’s quite possible but only with time, quality of stories, luck, and patience.

Say, an article with an hour’s reading time fetches you 2$. And it goes viral enough to keep up the reading time to an hour a day for a month.

This is unusual because the traction tends to get weaker after the first few days unless the article goes crazily viral. On some days, the reading time could be 5 hours, and on other days, 5 minutes.

So, say your article, after all the ebb and flow, ends up with 30 hours of reading time after a month. In theory, this would fetch you 60$ for that article after 30 days. But in reality, the numbers could range anywhere from 0$ to 1000$.

Why, you may ask?

It is dependent on how much time a particular reader spends reading your article among other writers’ articles he has read in that month. It’s all quite complicated. Just be happy if you get about $2 for every 60-minute read of your story.

How lucky or efficient could you be to consistently release viral article beasts week after week? It all depends, right? If one story of yours made 60$ a month, then you’d have to write at least 2 such stories every week to hit the 500$ a month mark.

Is being a writer all about earning money?

For me, it certainly isn’t. But I am going to keep evolving as a writer on this wonderful platform and see where that leads me. Writing is a wonderful journey and I firmly believe that every story is a viral story for someone or a few souls. I am happy to be able to influence, inspire, and uplift the lives of my fellow humans directly or indirectly through my stories. Such is the power of virtual platforms like Medium.

All my articles that were curated

Finally, I’d like to thank all my followers without whom I would not have spent time writing this story. You made ‘Partner Program’ a possibility. You also made hope a possibility. Thank you all.

Final thoughts

Keep writing. Be patient. Keep your coffee strong and large. It is a highly competitive platform. So, you have no choice but to be different and creative. But with time, consistent effort, and a bit of luck, you will reach your goals on Medium sooner than you think. Good luck.

Please do not hesitate to write to me should you have any queries about everything that’s written here.