7 Ways to Earn an Extra $100 from Your Medium Stories this Week

You may not like #3, but it works like Superglue on fingertips

Medium feels like the Wild West some days. You write a story one day — it hits. You get a ton of claps and reads. Your write five more — crickets and seagulls.

As a new writer on Medium, it can feel overwhelming.

You work hard to publish the best story you can — spending hours writing, revising, maybe researching. In return you get a big bag of nothing. It happens to everyone.

When you’re new, the big bag of nothing happens a lot.

But that well-crafted story doesn’t have to die with your lack of Medium reads. Maybe there’s nothing wrong with the story at all — could be an algorithm thing. Or perhaps your audience isn’t big (yet).

There’s a better way.

You can still earn money from your Medium stories. I’ll show you seven different methods to keep your writing working for you — even while you sleep.

You don’t have to trade keystrokes for dollars.

Writing is one of best vocations on earth. When done well, you can create a piece once and have it feed you for life. There aren’t many professions that can say the same.

I’ve got seven different ways you can make an extra hundred bucks from your Medium stories this week. We’ll add to the work you’re already doing, for a little boosted income.

You can use these strategies repeatedly. The key is to try one at a time. Get one of the steps working for you, and don’t stop. When you choose a second strategy, then you’ll have two new strategies. Then three.

It’s time to turn your Medium stories into little oil wells (vegan oil wells, if you’d prefer that metaphor).

Seven ways to make a Franklin with your stories

1. Publish multiple stories per day — Most week days I try to write three. For some, this is out of the realm of possibility. But if you learn to write faster and pre-plan your work you can get a lot more done in less time. The more stories you’ve got in the kitty, the more chances you’ll have to snag a read.
2. Use emotional hooks — Your subject lines have got to be spot-on. If your story isn’t compelling enough to click, among the sea of a thousand others — you won’t get the reads you need to make a hundred bucks. Think click-bait and dial it back a little. You can’t lie about your content. That would be stupid. But you can provide intrigue. Post a question in the reader’s mind, but answer the question with the content, not the title. If I see an article titled “Carrots Cause Cancer” I don’t have to open it. All I do is avoid carrots — done. Instead, if I see “This Really Common Vegetable Might Kill You Next Year,” you bet your sweet cheeks I’m clicking. See the difference?
3. Build an email list, starting yesterday — If you want to escape the content treadmill you need an email list. Period. We’ll talk more about email in the last section of this story, but your email list (over time) will be much more profitable than your Medium reads. Medium content is great for quick-cash. Email is the long game. You need both in your writing portfolio to grow a sustainable publishing business. Put a link to your email list in every story you write (please don’t call it an email list, or a newsletter though — not to your readers. We don’t want anymore newsletters and no one wants to be on some list).
4. Promote old, popular stories — Don’t bother trying to prop-up your duds, but it’s a great idea to link to your older stories. I’ve got one I wrote more than a year ago and it still earns me $20-$50 a month, for doing no work at all. Occasionally, I’ll link to it in a new story, to keep the momentum going. [To make these little story cards, go to the story you want to link to, copy the web address from the search bar, paste that address in your new Medium story, and hit ‘enter.’ If you don’t hit enter it won’t work].
5. Create your first information product — This doesn’t have to be fancy. You can create a PDF document in a day, using free tools, or basic MS Office. Host the product on a site that does all the delivery and payment processing for you. I like Podia (but it’s not free at all). Include links to that product in your Medium stories and your email sequence. I have one product that pays all my annual business expenses every month — like clockwork. I’ve made thousands of dollars off a few hours work. You can do this too. As long as the value of your product exceeds the sticker price, you have a customer. Provide some kind of transformative experience from where she is now to where she wants to be — boom, you’ve got a sale.
6. Look at the components of your stories that work — Don’t just study the subject matter of the stories that work, but also the components of the titles. I’ve found a few in my own that, when used consistently, have provided predictable results (you’ll have to find your own, they’re different for each writer). Write more of the titles that work and fewer of the ones people don’t read. It’s simple, but most writers ignore this — reinventing the process with every story.
7. Treat your Medium writing as a vocation, not a hobby — Publish daily. Stay active. The platform rewards people who use it and punished those who stay away too long. I took nine days off a few months ago and my income was chopped in half. Give yourself a weekly/daily/monthly story quota and hit it. If you want serious Medium income you’ve got to treat your writing process just as serious.

…but yeah, you need an email list

Number three is the most-important item on the list — by far. Sure, the Medium partner income is great, but that’s a pebble in the pond. Once you establish an email list you can make a lot more income — automatically.

You’ll have more time to do the work you love — your writing. And you’ll have to spend less time promoting it, because your automated email sequence will do all the heavy lifting for you.

Most writers won’t take the time to do it right.

So, you have an advantage from the get.

I developed a free, email masterclass for you. It’s called the Tribe 1K. I’ll show you how to get your first 1,000 subscribers (or your next 1,000) without spending a hot nickel on ads.

Guarantee your seat before I stop being so generous.

Tap the link.

Join thousands of authors (even some NYT bestsellers you’d see in the bookstore) who’ve enrolled before you. Enrollment only takes a couple taps. You’ll have your first lesson before your shift at the gas station is over.

We’re waiting for you.

Enroll in my Email Masterclass. Get Your First 1,000 Subscribers

August Birch (AKA the Book Mechanic) is both a fiction and non-fiction author from Michigan, USA. As a self-appointed guardian of writers and creators, August teaches indies how to make work that sells and how to sell more of that work once it’s created. When he’s not writing or thinking about writing, August carries a pocket knife and shaves his head with a safety razor.