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Summary

The article discusses the effectiveness of Medium writing courses in teaching writers how to make money on the platform, ultimately questioning their ability to guarantee success.

Abstract

The author reflects on their personal experience with writing on Medium over two months, expressing initial excitement about the potential to earn money from their writing, influenced by successful Medium writers like Shelby Church. Despite participating in free 5-day Medium writing courses and considering paid courses, the author remains skeptical about the promise of these courses to ensure financial success or a larger following on Medium. The article emphasizes that while writing courses can improve writing quality and increase the chances of curation, they cannot teach the unpredictable nature of virality, which is a significant factor in financial success on the platform. Instead, the author suggests that consistent writing, quality content, curation, and selecting the right publications are key strategies to increase one's chances of success on Medium.

Opinions

  • Medium writing courses, while informative, may not lead to financial success or a larger following as they cannot teach the unpredictable nature of virality.
  • Success on Medium is largely determined by the virality of stories, which is not a skill that can be taught through courses.
  • Writing more frequently increases the chances of a story going viral, but it does not guarantee virality or financial success.
  • Quality writing that is easy to read and understand, and has been checked for spelling and grammar, is likely to be better received by the audience.
  • Curation can expose a writer's work to a wider audience, but it does not directly translate to more money on Medium.
  • Choosing the right publication for a story, which may not always be the largest one, can lead to more engaged readers and potentially more success.
  • The joy of writing should be a primary motivator, as financial success on Medium is not guaranteed and can be misleading based on the experiences shared by a small percentage of successful writers.

Are Medium Writing Courses Worth Your Money?

Can you really be taught the skill of making money on Medium?

Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash

I have been writing on Medium for the last two months now. When I started my journey I was intrigued by the idea of being able to share my thoughts with readers from all over the world and potentially make money from my writing. I toyed with the idea of making writing one of my consistent side hustles because, like many new Medium writers I had watched Shelby Church’s YouTube videos where she revealed that she had made over $6000 on a single story on Medium.

When I joined the platform I was keen to learn all I could about Medium and in particular, how I too could make it on the platform. I watched YouTube video’s and read hundreds of articles on Medium about writing and making money on Medium. And like many new writers I have come across many Medium writing online courses designed to equip me with the necessary skills to make it on Medium.

In the two months of writing on Medium I have not been able to make over $100, well heck I haven’t even made $50. My first Medium pay out was for $0.80 and I was happy about it because I had never made money from blogging. In an attempt to better understand Medium I began contemplating paying for one of the Medium writing courses offered by so many established writers on Medium.

Free medium writing courses

Before I spent money I decided to do a few 5 day free Medium courses. Most Medium writers who teach Medium writing courses offer a free 5 day email course designed to give you a taste of what’s to come in the paid course. I would encourage any new writers to sign up for those courses because they offer a lot of insight on how Medium works.

The free courses usually briefly cover topics such as publishing stories in publications, what tags to use in stories, where to get images for stories and how to grow a following. All this information can seem very foreign when just starting on Medium so I found the free 5 day courses very helpful in providing the basic essentials about writing on Medium.

Since I found the free 5 day courses useful I started considering purchasing a full Medium writing course. These courses tend to run in the hundreds of dollars because they contain more in depth material and some even give you direct access to the established Medium writer responsible for creating the course.

Although I do not doubt that the Medium courses offered by established writers contain valuable information about writing and making it on Medium,

I do doubt that these courses can provide a blueprint that will automatically convert into a larger following and more money on Medium.

This is because writing a great story does not always equal more read time, having a large following on Medium also doesn't mean more people will read your stories and from experience curation doesn’t equal more read time.

So although Medium writing courses can offer you guidance on how to improve your writing, improving your chances of curation and being accepted into big publications this will not equal success on Medium. This is because success on Medium largely hangs in the balance of your stories going viral.

Unfortunately, going viral isn’t a skill that can be taught.

No one can provide you with the recipe that ensures that all your stories go viral. It is because of this that I decided against purchasing an online course designed to equip me with the skills to make it on Medium. I am constantly trying to gain more knowledge about improving my writing and one day being able to write a post about how I made thousands of dollars on Medium. Till then I will aim to keep writing because I enjoy it and the prospect of one day going viral excites me.

So what should you do instead?

There are a few rules to apply to your writing to increase the chances of making it on Medium. And again, this isn’t full proof because going viral is not an exact science. But, from reading countless articles about writing on Medium I understand that there are things one can do to increase their chances of going viral. And these are:

Write and publish more

The more you write and publish the higher your chances of going viral, its basic math really. If you only write once a week the chances of blowing up are slim when compared to someone who writes three times a week. But, you could be a writer who writes once a month or hardly ever writes on Medium like Shelby Church and next thing your one story could blow up making you thousands. So even though writing more increases the chances of going viral it does not equate to going viral.

Write good quality stories

This goes without saying, good quality writing is likely to be better received than bad quality writing. The great thing about writing on Medium is that the platform doesn’t require writers to have any previous experience with writing. Technically you could still earn money even if the quality of your writing is atrocious. But, good quality writing which refers to writing that is easy to read and understand and has gone through a basic spelling and grammar check is likely to be better received by your audience. This will most likely result in your readers reading the full story which would equate to more reading time and ultimately more money.

Aim to get curated

I know earlier I mentioned that curation doe not equal making more money on Medium. However, curation does open you up to a wider audience which would increase the chances of going viral. Getting curated is not as hard as I thought it was when I first started writing on Medium. It’s all about following Medium’s curation guidelines, writing well and where possible including references to support any assertions made in your writing. This elevates your writing and increases your story’s chance of getting curated.

Find the best publication for your story

The best publication does not mean the largest publication. Finding a good home for your story can open you up to that publication’s following which can equate to more readers. Big publications are great but due to the sheer volume of stories published everyday, your story might get forgotten. So rather than just aiming for the biggest publications aim for publications that are a great fit for your story.

The niche publications are great because the followers of that publication are probably very interested in that topic and would read the stories published. This will probably result in your story being read and shared by the right people. I recently wrote a historical story titled, “Her African Buttocks were Exploited for Europe’s Entertainment” and by placing the story into a publication dedicated to history my story was shown to readers who enjoy history and therefore would actually read my story. It has been my most read story to date.

It is important to remember that even after doing everything right on Medium your stories might still not do well. This is why it’s important to enjoy writing. The joy should motivate to write even on the days when it seems like nobody cares about what you write. There are so many stories on Medium about writers making thousands, but remember that that is a very small percentage of writers on this platform. Although that may seem bleak, find excitement from knowing that nothing precludes you from being one of those writers making thousands on Medium.

It’s also okay to not care about the money made, it’s okay to just write because you enjoy writing. The Medium writing courses are great if you just want to be more knowledgeable about the Medium writing platform but if your goal is to make thousands then you might want to reconsider spending your money. Navigating Medium isn’t heart surgery, you can take the time yourself to learn the ropes and produce consistently good quality writing. Eventually you could have your own thousand dollar story to share.

Medium Writers
Writing
Writing Tips
Making Money On Medium
Writing Courses
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