Writing Mistakes — Sharing The Secrets of My First 3 Paid Writing Platforms

Lessons learned from a newbie writer.

How do you make money as a writer if you lack experience and a writing degree? For over a year I’ve been trying to figure that out.

After evaluating this month’s earnings from three writing platforms, I felt compelled to write this story. Things are shifting in the writing world as competitors vie for authors and readers. If you’re trying to figure out how to get paid for writing, you might want to consider my data point.

My Journey So Far

For the past year and a half, I’ve been writing on Medium. I didn’t take it seriously until this spring. My goal was always to make enough money to pay off my Medium subscription which costs $50 per year. I had bigger goals initially, but I’ve had to scale back my expectations after reality set in.

Four months ago, after still earning only pennies on Medium, it was clear to me that I would need to expand my writing horizons. I decided to diversify so I signed up for Vocal. Vocal is very similar to Medium and many writers on both platforms cross-post their stories. But one aspect of Vocal that stands out is their writing challenges, which they run regularly. If you opt to join Vocal’s paid membership program, Vocal+, you can access more of their writing challenges. The first-place winner of these challenges usually earns a payout of thousands of dollars. I was able to use a special discount code to get half off of my first 2 months on Vocal+, so I took the plunge. Note that I haven’t earned a top place in any writing challenges to date, but I’m learning a lot along the way and getting more experience in both creative non-fiction and fiction work.

Then, 3 weeks ago I also joined a blog content company. They pay by the word. They have hundreds of blog post topics you can choose from, strict rules on how to write to the customer’s specifications, and you know exactly what you’re earning for every post.

After weighing the 3 platforms, I felt it was important to share what I’ve learned along the way. The results so far are not what I expected.

A Quick Summary of Each Writing Platform

Medium: they have millions of readers that are both paid and unpaid. It’s uncertain how many writers there are, but I believe the number is in the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands. Medium has been around for nearly 10 years and has amassed a considerable audience. The brilliance of Medium is that you can write just about whatever you want. Although the algorithm used to determine earnings is relatively a black box, from a high-level perspective you get paid based on reads from and engagement with paid Medium members. There are other ways to make money on Medium like subscription referrals and once-in-a-blue-moon writing contests, but the potential to make money in those areas is slim for the average Medium writer.

Vocal: they have millions of readers that are both paid and unpaid, but it’s estimated to be considerably less than Medium. I guess that they have ~1/3 of Medium’s base and they are growing. The number of writers is also less than Medium’s, although I have no hard numbers here. Vocal started 4 years after Medium. Like Medium, you can write just about anything you want on Vocal. Every story has to get approved first, however, and they are a bit more strict about what gets accepted. They also have a more clearcut formula for their earnings. You can earn based on reads by both paid and non-paid members. Vocal runs weekly challenges for their paid members that have bonuses that pay $500-$5,000 for first place. Second and third place also earn money. Readers can send direct monetary tips to the writers of their choice. Vocal also has a referral program.

Blog Content Factory: I’m choosing to be professional here and not share the name of this particular content generation platform as I’m a paid employee of theirs. But there are many, many online paid writing companies like this one. The one I work for has hundreds of writers, most of whom do this type of writing part-time to make some extra cash. This particular company pays by the article, and $0.02 — $0.03 per word. You do not get to write whatever you want — companies contract with them and ask for specific types of content. But you can pick and choose which topics you want to take on. You’re given very specific instructions and guidelines on how to write these posts, as well as a time limit. You know exactly what you’re going to make when you’re done. Sometimes there are bonuses for people who generate a ton of content (e.g. 100 posts a month).

The Earnings

Medium: over the past year and a half, I’ve written 47 stories and 60 responses (i.e. comments on other people’s stories). I’ve spent 100+ hours writing these stories. I’ve made a total of $21.48 in 1.5 years on Medium, with most of those earned in the past 3 months when I started to get serious and even completed a 30-day Medium writing challenge. Every story has been a creative non-fiction story and anywhere from 150–4000 words in length. All of the money was due to reads and engagement. None of the money was earned due to contests or referrals. The potential for money earned is perpetual in theory — meaning, you don’t just get paid once. Your stories can keep earning over time. Note that Medium doesn’t have a concept of tips or bonuses right now. I’ve paid Medium $100 for the 2 years of annual memberships that I’ve been writing for them.

Vocal: over the past 2 months, I’ve written 16 stories and “liked” (Vocal’s one method of internal engagement on their platform) at least a dozen other writers’ stories. I’ve spent 30+ hours writing these stories and several were cross-posted to Medium and vice versa. I’ve earned a total of $40.15 on Vocal+ in these past 2 months. Each piece was either a fiction short story, a poem, or a creative non-fiction post. Only $0.15 was due to reads. The potential for money earned is perpetual in theory — meaning, you don’t just get paid once. Your stories can keep earning over time. The rest was earned through Vocal’s bonus program. I earned bonuses for hitting random milestones for writing and likes. I earned one bonus just by signing up for their paid program for a 3rd month and, as a result, I’m getting the 3rd Vocal+ month free and $10 in bonus money. I’ve paid Vocal a total of $10 for 3 months of Vocal+ membership.

Blog Content Factory: after earning my way into their employment (you have to take a test and go through an evaluation period), I’ve taken on 6 different blog posts. In the past 3 weeks, I expect to earn $63 for those 6 posts. I’ve spent ~9 total hours on those 6 posts. Every piece was an informative blog post on what the customer wanted. Most were about new features of 2021 or 2022 cars. I’ve paid them no money and have earned $60 in base pay and $3 in bonuses. The potential to earn is finite. You only get paid for the posts you write that get approved — there is no potential to keep earning for those posts.

Summary Thoughts

Overall, I’m very surprised and confounded by these results. I’m making the most money from the content blog factory right now, although it’s finite. But the drawback is that I don’t get to write whatever I want. I have creative freedom within the customer’s topic of choice, but it’s very limited.

The dark horse is Vocal. I can’t believe how much I’m earning in bonuses. I keep saying this in the posts I’ve already written here about Vocal: I don’t expect to come out ahead and have Vocal paying me more than I pay them. But I’m starting to wonder if that’s because I’m jaded by Medium. Should we not live in a world where writers make out better by doing the grunt writing work for a reading platform? Vocal’s earnings have me questioning everything. And if I were to ever win a Vocal challenge, I might never catch up in Medium earnings.

Medium has been a major disappointment, but to be fair, that’s somewhat unfounded. All three of these platforms are not created equal and I know that. And my experiences on all three are not created equal, either. For instance, theoretically, I’m making more on Medium because the earnings are based on reads. On Vocal I’m earning through the aggressive starting bonuses, not reads. Those bonuses will dry up. And I’d prefer to be paid based on people wanting to read my content.

In addition, the blog content factory is finite pay. I have the potential to earn more on both Medium and Vocal. I just need to crack those algorithms first.

Where To Go From Here

The truth is, I’m not going to change my writing strategy in the short term. I still have so much to learn. I’ll tighten up my writing on Medium and Vocal, but I’m still going to write what I want to write at the end of the day. After another year if I still can’t seem to crack their algorithms, I’ll re-evaluate then if it makes sense to keep writing on their platforms.

I will also continue writing on the blog content factory because I’m learning a lot there about efficient research, SEO, conciseness, and speed. This route is not a long-term play for me, but I’ll enjoy it while I can and make the most of it. I enjoy getting experience in all facets of writing.

What are your thoughts on the different paid writing platforms? Share them in the comments!

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