Case Study: What Does It Take to Make $100 a Week On Medium? | Update #3 and #4
So how did I do my third and fourth (and final) weeks into my case study to make $500 in a single month? Did I reach my goal?
Well, that sucked.
Before I begin here is the previous installment of the case study:
I was supposed to write this Monday, but Monday was a bitch of a day, so here I am.
And in case that isn’t clear enough, I didn’t make my $500 goal or even double my $220 from September.
So how did I do?
As usual, I won’t bury the lede; my total MPP earnings for October were — drum roll please — 302.68.
My weekly breakdown looked like this:
Week 1: $53.83 Week 2: $96.69 Week 3: $98.23 Week 4: $53.93
I knew week four was going to be a disaster because all my stats fell off a cliff. Views, reads, fans were in the shitter, and it was all very abrupt.
Reading the Facebook groups, it became clear Medium was doing some tinkering as half the people had record-breaking views, and the other half — like me — experienced a free fall.
Usually, at this point in the case study, I would start crunching numbers, talk about my Rate Per Fan (RPF), and try to figure out why some articles massively underperformed based on their fan counts. However, since the clap system is dead, there is no need to go into all of that.
Instead, let’s talk some about the new system in place and what I plan on doing going forward.
First Impressions of the New MPP
My feelings on it are mixed. There seems to be a number of bugs to work out with the stats, and I don’t like the opaqueness of the earnings model.
You really can’t get any kind of hold of what your earnings might be because Read Time + Member Share aren’t metrics you can track.
Medium says as much in their FAQ section detailing the new MPP:
Can I use my daily stats to calculate that I earn $X per minute read or per word?
No, for a few reasons. First, Partner Program payouts are tied to the number of active Medium members, so we will pay more as our member base continues to grow. Second, your earnings are calculated based on a mix of factors, not a straight calculation based on word or time count. Third, your daily views and reading time are not the only input into your daily earnings. Other components of your earnings are lagging, meaning that it may take a while for you to earn for each view — it’s not as straightforward as translating daily reading into earnings.
I find that pretty frustrating.
However, if you’re going to keep track of one metric to guide your decisions and gauge how much you’re making each day, I’d look at Member Reading Time.
While you’re not likely to guess what you’re going to make based on one hour of reading time, it will tell you which of your articles are resonating the most with readers and what you should be writing more of and alternately what you should be writing less of as well.
How were my first two days under the new earnings system:
Oct. 28: $12.17 Oct. 29: $16.48
Each of those numbers, if they held over the course of 30 days, would earn me more than the $300 I made in October under the old clap system.
So, I guess I can’t be mad about that.
What’s interesting about those numbers is that they are being made off of 50 to 60 articles. Outside of 7 to 10 articles that are bringing in $1 or more, everything else is bringing in change.
It’s like my back catalog of articles is getting read by a few people each day, and that brings in some money, even if it’s just a penny each day.
Considering all the drama going on in my personal life and the fact that I haven’t been able to publish as much as I’d like, I think I could get that daily number to $20 o $30 a day with relative ease.
We shall see.
What’s Next?
Well, the original goal was to see if I could make $1000 in 90 days or my first full three months (I started with two weeks left in August). So if I were to go back that I’d need to clear $1000 in November. Since I didn’t make $500 in October, it’s a tall order to got from $300 to $1000 even with a new system in place.
With that said, I’m up for the challenge. I’m going to use this mini pay period as a data collection period and layout a more consistent plan on how I’m going to approach this monumental task on Nov. 1.
I can tell you right now — it involves a lot of writing.
A whole lot.
Oh and that’s the other thing, I didn’t make my publishing goals either for October. I published 49 articles instead of the minimum 60 I was aiming for, and while an extra 11 articles weren’t likely to help me make my $500 goal, they would have helped.
I’m going to have to at least double the 60 I didn’t hit if I want to have a serious shot of making $1000 in November, so we’ll see how it all goes.
Like I said, I’ll have the new plan up on Nov. 1 with weekly updates as I did with this case study.
Well, that’s it. I failed. And I will live to write another day.
’Til next time.
And as always: Happy writing.
This is How I Made $135 Dollars in My First 30 Days On Medium
Only seven to nine percent of writers make at least $100 each month on Medium. I did it in my first month. Here is what I did each week to achieve my goal, hopefully, you can use my journey to $100 a month to achieve yours.
If you enjoyed this case study check out my latest case study:
How to make $100 a week on Medium.
