Make Money on Medium

Consistency Matters on Medium — A Look at My Stats

40% increase in earnings. Tripled # of Views. Doubled # of Reads.

“I don’t post a blog post because I feel like it, and I don’t post a blog post because it’s perfect. I post a blog post because it’s tomorrow. And that idea helps the work move forward.” — Seth Godin

I’ve been on Medium for six months and a Medium Partner Program (MPP) member since June.

I haven’t earned much, but I’ve never put in the work. I wasn’t focused, and I expected miracles.

But I did something the past two weeks that, surprisingly, worked!

I was simply consistent.

I decided to follow the advice of, really, EVERYONE, and be consistent. Keep writing. Do the work, no matter what.

Here’s what happened.

My first attempt — June.

My first month in, I was excited. I put in the effort to write nine stories in total. I wrote about everything of interest to ME. I was, and still am, all over the place.

I wrote about the law of the universe, parenting, how I cured my lactose intolerance, losing weight, Medium, and introduced The Dozen, to name a few. This earned me $1.36!

Just $1.36.

Unlike many MPP members, this didn’t excite me. It felt like a waste of time. I put in hours trying to perfect my stories, and at the end of the month, I earn $1.36?!

So…

I stopped writing — July.

I was discouraged. I stopped writing altogether. I wrote one story and stopped visiting Medium for most of July.

I took a break from Medium.

Of course, I didn’t expect to earn any money. But to my surprise, I received this:

Excited but not consistent — August

I made $0.16 while on a break from Medium. THIS excited me, and I wrote about it.

Excited but not consistent, I wrote eight stories in August. I was constantly checking stats and earnings.

But it earned me peanuts again, $1.23. Less than my first month.

So…

I challenged myself to write daily for a month — September.

Again, I failed. I wrote nine stories. I received A LOT of feedback on one story from editors. Deep down, it discouraged me. But I didn’t admit it.

I made $1.88. Again, not very promising.

I stopped writing AGAIN— for three weeks.

Consistency — starting mid-October

I wasn’t happy with myself. I had failed miserably at the challenge of writing daily. I didn’t write for three weeks.

Then, something happened. Somewhere along the lines, I decided to write no matter what.

My first story was on October 13th, inspired by Eckhart Tolle. I then reflected on my failure as a writer with 10 easy steps.

I didn’t check ANY stats, and I didn’t check my MPP earnings until today. I didn’t want to be discouraged.

Starting mid-October, I wrote 14 stories. It’s the most I’ve ever written in one month. They weren’t long stories. They weren’t stories I had put in hours writing. They were mostly reflections and humor pieces that read between 1–2 minutes max.

Guess what the results were?

• A 40% increase in earnings compared to September. I earned $2.62 for the first time.
• Tripled my number of views. I got the highest number of views so far, with 855 views in October versus 246 views in September.
• Doubled my number of reads. The total number of reads went from 173 to 375.
• Slightly increased the number of fans from 62 in September to 67 in October.

Reflecting on what I did

I know $2.62 is nothing. I haven’t even hit the $5 Medium membership mark.

Yet it excited me because I reached this figure without putting in the effort to earn money.

This is the result of being consistent for two weeks. Just two weeks.

• I didn’t put in the effort to publish longer articles in large publications.
• I didn’t really network.
• I didn’t check stats.
• I didn’t analyze what worked.

But reflecting on my 10 reasons I failed at writing, I did do more than be consistent.

Here’s what I did, and recommend you also do

• I use a pen-name, so I avoided my fear of failure and fear of judgment.
• I set a time to write. I wrote in the evening after my toddler went to sleep.
• I saw writing as something that NEEDS to be done without adding it to my do list. It’s like eating, sleeping, or breathing. It was part of my daily routine. I didn’t have to remind myself to do it.
• I occasionally kept ideas for stories by adding them as story drafts, using the Medium mobile app. But other times, I just reflected on my day and always found something to write about. There’s no such thing as writer’s block.
• I stopped checking stats, MPP earnings, and notifications. This helped me focus on being consistent. I didn’t want to become discouraged, so I didn’t go there.
• It didn’t matter if I wrote for a publication or not. Some posts weren’t publication-worthy, so I didn’t submit them to a publication. I didn’t even add a picture to some.
• I focused on showing up. I did this to share insights and thoughts. I did this for you and me.

“Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.” ― Malcolm Gladwell

One thing I learned: I won’t get anywhere by sitting in the dark and not writing, so I might as well write.

Even if this was my bad writing, I’m ok with it.

“Eventually good writing will slip through” — Seth Godin.