Dear Writer, Don’t Worry if Your Articles Don’t Pay Off Immediately
Because they might in the future
I made 1 cent on my first month of writing on Medium in December 2020.
Last month (April 2021) I made $141. Plus I got the $500 April bonus.
I am not saying this to brag. Heck, I am definitely not giving up my day job for it. I am saying this to the average, the new writer and myself: Don’t give up too soon.
Look at my pay summary above. I have by no means been a high earner for my first four months of Medium. But, from past articles building up (and a bonus), I have managed to accumulate a decent April.
Your articles, while they may not be making much money right now, can still pick up and build up more income in a few weeks/months/years time. Once you get curated, there’s no telling when your article will pick up leverage.
My example with stats
Take my article about 12 Simple Micro-Habits that are Helping Me Lose Weight. If you see the stats below, you’ll see that it was published on 8th March, peaked on 9th March and then flatlined to get approximately 0–3 views per day thereafter.
“Ok, that’s it,” I thought. This article was done and dusted.
Then, suddenly something happened. On 20th April, 6 weeks after the article was originally published, it picked up steam for no apparent reason.
I can’t explain why other than maybe Medium’s mysterious algorithm is suddenly promoting this article for some reason. I certainly haven’t been promoting it.
This article went from maybe earning me 5 cents a day, to earning $1–3 a day. as I am writing this, it is 8 am in Melbourne Australia on 8th May and this article already has 35 views for the day, with hours still to climb more.
And that’s the thing. Articles randomly get picked up later down the track, so long as they are curated.
What does this mean for you?
- Don’t write off your articles if they don’t pick up any momentum. They could gain traction in 6 weeks time (like me) or even in a year.
- I highly recommend doing a writing challenge on Medium. I challenged myself to write 30 articles in March, and those articles are still accumulating money. So I’m doing a new challenge now in May to get myself back in the game.
- Really focus on curation. To do this, I recommend you install the free version of Grammarly to ensure you have the correct spelling, grammar and punctuation. Submit to well-established publications (as they tend to get curated faster in my experience). Avoid writing about Medium (this article will not get curated).
- Really make sure that you include some actionable advice or key takeaways for the reader. They want to learn or gain something from you.
- Don’t give up on Medium too soon. After publishing a tonne of articles for only $38.53 in March, I almost gave up in April and I actually had two-week periods of not posting anything. But the build-up of all those old articles allowed me to earn still. I believe I can earn $1000 a month in a year from now, and you can too.
Final thoughts
Medium is not passive income by any means. In fact, there is no such thing as passive income at all. Medium is income that will build up over time. The article in my example took me approximately 2 hours to write, which included planning, researching, typing and editing. To date, it has earned me $20.95- definitely not passive or even a big pay per hour.
However, it is something that should hopefully continue to build so eventually I might earn $100 for that article. It might take a year to get there, but I think it will.
It will for you too.
The first article that earned me that 1 cent in December 2020 (and has built up to a whopping 10 cents now):
Some of my other articles about Medium:
