A Medium Growth Strategy for those Who Don’t Earn Enough from Writing

With pennies per story it’s hard to keep going

As Medium grows and more people talk about earning money on Medium, the more new writers will join the playing field. This is great for readers — with an endless stream of niche content, tailored for any topic they want to read.

…but all the extra writers make it tough for new folks who want to earn money from their hard work.

Writing is such a speculative journey.

We’ve got to put in all the work, up-front. Then, we ship it to the world and hope our readers will respond in-kind.

On Medium, most variable are outside the writer’s control, which can make it extra-frustrating for well-meaning writers who aren’t earning.

Well, there’s a path for everyone. If you want to earn money from Medium there are two, distinctly-different paths. I’ll show you the road less traveled in a minute.

The first path is to play the game by the rules.

Medium will be your only source of income. You might have a link to your email list at the bottom, but you won’t include a call to action. You’ll submit dozens of stories to publications in hopes they’ll be accepted for the coveted top-slots on the home page.

This method works for many writers.

These folks get curated. They have influence. They make a lot more money then I do from my direct Medium earnings.

Then, there’s the second path.

This is the path I chose. My stories will most-likely never be curated again, which gives me a huge degree of freedom which the other folks aren’t allowed.

I won’t tell you which one to choose. My path is very frustrating some days and I’m just as jealous of the high-earning folks as anyone. In yesterday’s partner report, the top-earner from last month made $22K.

I have to do that over the course of a year.

The road-less-traveled for Medium earning

So, here’s what I do now. I write stories readers want to read. I know they’re relatively disposable. I look at these stories like long-form social media posts, not investigative journalism, or anything award-worthy.

The life of my stories is now numbered in days — three or four, tops. Then, the stories die, because they aren’t curated.

This means I need to get the most blood from the stone as I can, before my quarter runs-out in the parking meter.

I go all-in on my off-Medium publishing business.

I’ve got large plans for 2020. 2019 was largely an experiment for me. Now I know where I’m headed and the future is very exciting for both me and my tribe.

Since Medium has made it abundantly clear I’m no longer welcome on the curation side, I’ve taken it upon myself to build a loyal tribe away from the platform.

While I don’t have it all figured out, I do have a fantastic group of humans who enjoy my work and want more of it. These are the people I serve. And I write Medium stories to gather them together in one place (my email list) and deliver them the best experience I know how.

With email we sell our work on autopilot

This gives us more time to create the work we sell to our tribe. Automated email sequences help each new reader get a measured, tested experience.

• With email I can ask my tribe what they want — then give it to them.
• With email I can get instant feedback.

I don’t have to pay-to-play, as we do with social. Sure, I have business expenses, but the cost of email is pennies per user, versus the dollars or tens of dollars required to reach folks via social ads.

This not the path for everyone.

It’s the anti-hero approach.

I tend to break plates when I do the dishes. I’ve always looked at the rules as more of a suggestion than a hard line in the dust. When you break plates you get your fingers cut.

Be forewarned. My Medium income has been cut more than in half due to my long-game strategy.

But I’m building a tribe that will feed me far into the future. One where I don’t have to trade typing hours for dollars. During the process I know I will make less short-term income in exchange for the long-game of building a thriving tribe.

You can do this too, if you’re interested.

I built an entire 7-day course just for this purpose. Tap the link. Enroll in the Tribe 1K. I’ll show you how to get your first 1,000 readers (or your next 1,000) without spending a hot nickel on ads.

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.