3.6K Views, $0.91 Earnings

Is Medium writing a Feasible Side Hustle?

Medium writing as a Source of Income

Many of us like to have an additional source of income. After all, similar to buying stocks, diversification is usually a good thing. It reduces risk and increases the chances of success as well. Who knows? Maybe your medium writing will take off and you can cover 50% of your expenses with it. That has always been my dream since I first started Medium. That’s what fueled my motivation to write and also my 30 Days Writing Challenge.

So, is it possible?

High Views, No Earnings?

Recently, I came across an article by Sanidhya Samyak regarding his high views and low earnings. I’m glad that I’m not the only one. I remembered scrolling through my old articles and was excited to see that I have an article that generated over 3.6K views. This was my most viewed article and hence I had high hopes for it to generate the most money. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

It is somewhat bitter-sweet. It feels good to know that people are viewing and reading your article. Yet, it is also disappointing when you don’t get rewarded monetarily. Yes, I do write because I like writing. But I also writing hoping to make this my part-time income generator. Being a college student, it always helps to have something additional to cover my living expenses.

Understanding How Medium Works

I don’t think I do. If I do, I can probably game the system and earn some good cash from it. But I have some good intuition in terms of how Medium works and how money is generated.

From what I understand, Medium pays writers based on how much time Medium members spend reading your article. As you can tell from above, most of my views came from external views (almost all actually). And, likely, these readers who clicked on my articles are not Medium members. Hence, they are probably using the two free articles they have the view Medium articles. Thus, I’m not paid much by Medium.

Reads, not Views

In addition, on top of attracting Medium readers to view my article, it is also important to not just attract views but also reads from my audience.

Reads are an indication of audience retention.

Should I Stop Writing?

Since it seems like I’m going nowhere. Should I stop writing? While some of the statistics are indeed demoralizing, it is nice to see that at least I’m getting views. And during my 30 Days Writing Challenge, I noticed an increase in income. Currently, I have made about 15 dollars from my 30 Days article! While the amount is still small, I don’t think I will be stopping anytime soon. I hope I’m getting closer to figuring out the type of content that works and hopefully generating some income off it.

It is nice to have a working side hustle!