Brand New To Medium? Here Are Some Questions You Might Have

Based on actual questions I got recently

Just signed up to Medium a few hours ago and don’t quite get the lay of the land yet? It’s okay, we’ve all been there before. When I first started out, I had the same exact questions.

I put together this story to help answer some of those questions.

Let’s kick off with this one…

Are you getting money for your articles?

This is a fun question. This was my biggest burning question just before I got started with Medium. The short answer is — yes.

But before you run off to quit your day job and start writing, you need to understand a few things. I think the best way to think about Medium is that it’s like YouTube. There are celebrity-level writers who have been here since the platform really started taking off circa 2015. Those are the ones making $20k+ monthly with single articles pulling in up to $6k each. While I don’t have much data here, I suspect these are mostly outliers.

The key here is not to delude yourself.

Most people I personally know make less than $100 per month. This is a much more realistic goal to target. Nobody starts playing baseball assuming they’ll hit a home run the next day, week, or month. It takes years of practice.

Writing is one of those things where it’s about the journey, not the destination. And the intangible benefits greatly outweigh however few bucks you might make from Medium here and there.

Where can I find out more about “locking/unlocking”?

The answer to whether you should lock or unlock your posts really depends on what your goals are. If you lock your posts you might be able to make a few bucks. But if you care more about views than the ability to buy a Starbucks latte, you should keep them unlocked so that anybody (even those without a Medium subscription) can read them. If you’re doing this for money, you might want to consider locking them and focusing on creating really awesome stories that get a large number of claps.

To find out more about the pros and cons to locking/unlocking your posts (aside from your own trial and error) I would suggest reading about other people’s experiences on Medium as well as asking questions in various Facebook groups.

What is “curating”?

This is one of the main ways you’ll get views on your story. Medium has it’s own set of curators who read and select the best articles. They’ll share your story via additional promotion. The best part about curation? You don’t have to do anything special.

Just write an amazing story.

And chances are you’ll get curated.

And when you say writing every day, are you talking about publishing every day, blog-style?

You’ll see advice ranging from “you should write every day” to “you don’t have to write every day”. the reason for this disparity is it really all depends on the rest of your life and schedule. when I started writing, I went all-in and then a month or two later got burnt out. So I stopped writing for a few days and came back stronger than ever.

If you already have a consistent writing schedule — do that. If not, I’d experiment to see what works best for you.

It’s more important to be consistent than to write daily. Just know the more you write, generally, the better your results will be.

I saw a post that someone wrote 50 articles in a month (!). Is this madness, normal, playing the odds that a few may be read/make money?

I saw a post where someone was doing 3 articles daily — or 90 monthly. This guy was making a couple of bucks per article and got an occasional double or triple. He made $1k in the last couple of months.

If you can sustain this rate, good for you. You can definitely brute force your way to money — if that’s your thing.

In my first couple of months, I was averaging 2–3 hours per story. I would read about how one person spent 5 minutes on his post and wonder if that was really true. I am not sure I can even type that fast.

And I type pretty fast.

So to answer your question, my guess is the latter. There is no such thing as “normal” when it comes to posting frequency on Medium because how you participate on the platform is 100% dependant on what you’re trying to get out of it.

What are the rules/ethics on posting previously-published articles (small industry-specific publications) on Medium/LinkedIn?

If you have an existing blog and you want to post your blog articles to Medium, Medium has a tool for you to import your existing blog posts without cannibalizing your SEO.

If you wrote this article for someone else, I’d check to see what the terms and conditions were for that publication as to whether you own the content or they do.

Is writing your main income-stream?

Not for me at the moment. In fact, the funds are going into my Coffee Fund until further notice. I currently have a lot going on with digital marketing in general, which makes more money than writing at the moment. But I do enjoy writing and posting here on Medium, which is why I’m continuing to write.

How do I follow you?

Good question! I’m glad you asked. Currently, I write for my own publication on tips related to self-improvement and productivity:

and this publication I created recently for new Medium writers (like you!):

You can follow either or both of those publications, or me in general (Joann Kuo). Just look for the “Follow” button:

Do you pay for your membership?

I do.

I signed up for the $5/month plan once I committed to writing in Month 1. I didn’t know how long I would do it for, or even if I would enjoy it. Suffice to say I am still writing and recently tried to switch over to the annual $50/month plan only to find out there’s no way to do this at the present time. slightly annoying but I figure it’s just a few bucks.

If you know you’re all in, I’d go ahead and sign up for the annual plan now.

Can you update articles after publishing (trying to upload pictures from mobile)?

You can.

In fact, I suggest you refine and improve your already-published stories. Not because they’re necessarily bad, but because you’re always learning and improving. And if you can make what you put out there better, you should.

As for uploading pictures from mobile, this is something I’ve not done and probably won’t do for some time. I prefer to do the majority of my work at my desk via a laptop.

And that’s pretty much it for now…

I hope you found this story useful. Please do let me know if you have a question that’s not here — and I’ll make sure to add it!