Summary

The article outlines a three-step strategy for new writers on Medium to achieve significant earnings through consistent writing, self-analysis, and strategic use of tags and visibility.

Abstract

The author of the article shares insights on how new writers can maximize their earnings on Medium by following three key steps. The first step involves writing frequently on a variety of topics to build a presence and back catalog. The second step emphasizes the importance of analyzing one's own work to understand what content resonates with readers, including the strategic use of tags to increase visibility. The third step is about committing to the process, treating writing as a daily discipline, and continuously learning from one's own experiences to refine and improve content strategies. The author also provides a personal account of their earnings and the effort involved, equating their word count to writing multiple novels, to illustrate the potential rewards of dedication and consistent effort on the platform.

Opinions

The author believes that writing on diverse topics and maintaining a high volume of output is crucial for early success on Medium.
They advocate for a systematic approach to content creation, where writers should analyze their past work to identify successful patterns, especially in terms of tagging and engagement.
The author suggests that a deep understanding of keywords and SEO, often perceived as complex or tedious, is actually an enjoyable and essential part of online writing success.
They assert that consistent daily writing and engagement with the platform are necessary to achieve substantial earnings, debunking the notion that Medium is a quick way to make money online.
The author shares their personal success story, including financial gains and the fulfillment of impacting readers, to motivate and guide aspiring writers on Medium.
They emphasize the importance of being active and visible on the platform, suggesting that visibility is a key driver of early traction and success.
The author's perspective on writing every day and treating it as a serious endeavor underscores their belief in the value of hard work and dedication in achieving one's financial and impact goals on Medium.

3 simple steps to big earnings as a NEW writer on Medium

In one of my recent posts, I mentioned that when I was starting out, I studied what tag combinations were working best for me.

Someone asked me to expand on that, and that got me thinking again about my own wider process for early earnings success when I was just starting out as a new writer on Medium.

And I think it really came down to the following 3 simple steps.

Try my 3 steps and I bet you’ll be feeling pretty confident, too. (Licensed under the Unsplash+ License)

Step 1 to early earnings success on Medium

Step 1 to early earnings success on Medium is to write a lot and write on a bunch of different topics.

There are two simple reasons for this:

By writing a lot, you’re building a presence on the site and starting to build a back catalog of stories that have the potential to pay you forever.
By writing on a bunch of different topics, you’re casting a bunch of lines into the lake to see where you can get a nibble.

I wrote on a ton of different topics at the start, from hockey to politics to investing to health with varying degrees of success.

By publishing a ton while also reading and commenting on other people’s stories (and following folks with similar interests to me), I was, by default, popping up on a lot of other people’s screens.

If you want to get early traction on Medium, you need visibility.

To get visibility, you need to be very active on the platform.

Step 2 to early earnings success on Medium

Step 2 to early earnings success on Medium is to study your own work.

You need to figure out what’s working, figure out what isn’t working, and then zero in on the areas that give you a better chance of success.

That means taking an objective view of what you’ve published so far.

Ask yourself questions like:

What headlines drew people in and convinced them to click?
What topics drew the most interest and which didn’t?
Which images did I choose, and would they catch my eye if I were scrolling through the app?
Which stories did I structure best to keep people engaged?

Now let’s look at one specific example.

One of the biggest factors in getting your posts in front of people on Medium is tagging.

You can select up to five keywords for your story, and those affect how your story is distributed across the site.

You should always use ALL FIVE TAGS on every post you write.

You’re limiting your odds of success otherwise.

About 3 months into my Medium journey, I decided to literally sort my stories from highest to lowest views, and then I wrote out the tag combinations I used for each.

I looked at tag combos that worked, I looked at the number of followers each tag had, I looked at the interplay between tags I chose and what tags Medium would suggest if you searched for that tag.

Here’s what that page looked like in my journal:

It looks chaotic, but there was a process there if you can believe it. (Author’s image)

If you’re not willing to put this much thought into your online endeavors, you may not get as far as you want to go.

If you are willing — and actually enjoy it in a nerdy way I do — the sky is the limit.

There is no magic formula for success.

I certainly didn’t receive any kind of decoder ring to reach thousands of dollars in earnings per month on Medium.

It was simply a process of study, learn, adapt.

I know a lot of people’s eyes kind of glaze over when I start talking about keywords and SEO, but you really do need a basic understanding of this if you’re ever going to succeed.

And it’s not as complicated or boring as you think — in fact, after I dug into it a little bit I actually started to love thinking about keywords and SEO.

Here’s an affiliate link to the keyword tool I use for Medium and YouTube.

Step 3 to early earnings success on Medium

Most importantly, you need to decide if you care enough about succeeding on Medium to do the actual work.

Yes, you can learn a lot from reading articles like this one, but at the end of the day, it’s up to you to study your own work like a scientist.

You develop a hypothesis for why something did or didn’t work, test it, weigh the evidence, and then test again until you get the results you want.

But more important than that, you need to get your butt in the chair every single day and WRITE.

Too many people come to this platform after being sold the lie that it’s a fast and easy way to make money online.

The truth is you CAN make $1000s of dollars per month the way I have, but it takes consistency, effort, and TIME.

Over my first 13 months on the platform, I earned around $22,000 Canadian dollars — but that required being active on the platform almost every single day.

It required me to write 300 posts, each averaging around 1,000 words.

Recently, I did the math and my word count on Medium over the course of a year was the equivalent of writing 3.3 full-length adult novels.

So yes, it is work.

But if you ask me, it’s totally worth it.

Every single morning, I get to wake up and see how much money I made while I was sleeping, and that’s extremely gratifying.

And every day, I get to see the impact my writing has on people in my comments and DMs, and that’s priceless.

If all of that sounds appealing to you, perhaps Medium is just the platform you’ve been looking for.

Publish Every Day project update: Day 72

I want to see if I can make enough money to retire from commuter life within a year by publishing every single day on different platforms and investing my earnings into passive income stocks.

How much I need to retire: $250 CAD per day

What I earned on Day 72: $46.37 (writing) + $0.64 (YouTube) + = $47.01 total

Publish Every Day project total earnings, Day 72

Publish Every Day project earnings by day, Day 72

What I published the last few days:

This post about how I’m turning my side hustle wealth into even more money
This article about 1 Arnold Schwarzenegger fitness hack to stay fit over 70
This tweet promoting my latest YouTube video:

This post in my email newsletter:

One reason you'll succeed (or fail) making big money writing online

It was such a simple but effective way of putting it, I nearly fell over when I heard it. It's the key reason anyone…

www.publisheveryday.com

Read my top 5 trending stories:

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