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Don’t Monetize Everything You Post!

Posting free content might seem like a bad plan when it comes to making money online, but it’s actually incredibly important.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve decided to get serious about Medium. I’ve made money from writing before: I’ve published two novels (which are currently out of print; see my explanation in The Dreamspinner Press Controversy), written the occasional article for a blog or magazine (which might pay $10–20 bucks a pop, but are rare opportunities these days), and I’ve been paid a minuscule amount from platforms like Medium. I’m hoping to increase that amount – aren’t we all? – but I have a feeling I might’ve accidentally hit on the right formula, and I’m prepared to share the wealth (tl;dr at the end for the takeaway).

1. Post both short- and long-form content

I’ve always been a talker and I can write a lot very quickly when I’m fixated on a particular topic. Posting long-form content is great in theory because it means having more time spent on your page. Because Medium’s business model pays out by time spent reading, you might think writing only longer articles will net you more profits. Here’s why that idea is mistaken:

It seems like most readers will read an article in its entirety only if it’s in the 3–5 minute range. They’ll read half of a ten-minute article on average, and only a third of a twenty-minute article. The longer the article, the more likely you’ll have people click off halfway through, thus messing up your view-to-read ratios. My longer articles average around 15% of full reads, whereas my poems (which are, of course, much shorter) are at 50–75% fully read. Shorter pieces are more attractive to click on because they are less of a time investment. They might make you less money per view, but they get people to your page and reading your work. They also tend to get more claps, comments, and engagement from casual readers, whereas long ones only retain those highly invested in the subject. Short articles and stories are similar: low time investment, high engagement returns.

What Medium calls “shortform” content, or micro-posts of under 150 words, is not eligible for curation. It will not earn money for feed views regardless of whether it is monetized, and more often than not all or the majority of the story is included in the preview. It is best not to monetize micro-content. This brings me to…

2. Do not monetize everything

This advice seems counterintuitive: if I’m trying to make money, shouldn’t I monetize all my content? To this I say: no! If you want to reach a wide audience, it’s best to keep some things fully public. Free accounts and visitors to Medium only get access to a few free articles a month, and they won’t want to waste their views on your content if they don’t know if it’s 100% what they’re looking for. Keeping some content free will attract more views, and maybe even more follows. Those who like your free content might try out your monetized content if it turns out you are what they’re looking for. But they might only know that after trying out your free stuff.

Think of it this way: if I can read one more free post this month, will I spend it reading one short poem (two minutes of entertainment) or an interesting opinion piece (twenty minutes worth)? Posting some free “micro-content” attracts people to your page without forcing them to make that decision. That’s why I’ve decided to make all my poetry unmonetized. Not because I don’t think poems would make money (they have more views, reads, and claps than my articles!) but because they draw in my readers. I’ve gotten more followers from my poems than I have from my articles, and as I inch ever closer to getting the 100 followers I need to stay in the Medium Membership Program after December, I know this is a very valuable thing indeed. I’ve also made more money on my articles since I demonetized my poetry: if someone reads a poem for free, they might linger on your page and read something else from you. This is what people in the business world call “loss leaders”, the free or cheap product that makes people feel like they’re getting a great deal, even as they spend more money in your business.

3. Post quality, not quantity

There are so many articles on Medium saying you have to post daily, or even more than once a day, to make any money on Medium. If you can do this full-time, maybe go for it, but I doubt you’re producing top-notch work when you’re churning it out like a content factory. Write when you need to write and post what you need to post, and your readers will appreciate the quality of your work. Quality can lead to more time spent, more engagement, more claps and follows, Publication and maybe even Curation — and thus more money. Quantity might lead to more views, but fewer reads.

I’m lucky enough to have had a backlog of poems written in quarantine to post between my articles, so I have been posting daily for about a week. But a poem takes just as long, if not longer, to produce than an article like this. (A researched article with more citations takes longer, to be completely transparent.) This leads me to…

4. Post things you’ve already written

Not everything needs to be brand new work to make it on Medium. My first Medium article, #MeToo is Nothing New: Even James Joyce’s Ulysses depicts workplace sexual harassment, was originally written for the Dublin Review of Books. When they didn’t print it how I wanted it, I edited it and reposted it on Medium (always make sure you retain the copyright to your work!). You might have a bunch of monetizable content just waiting in your docs folder: old poems you never found a home for, stories you submitted elsewhere but were rejected, contest entries that didn’t win, drafts of published work that your readers might be interested in seeing, even previously published work from an old blog or Facebook post – there is so much work you’ve done already, why not queue it up on your Medium? As long as you haven’t posted it on Medium before, it’s new content!

5. Be generous with your Friend Link

You don’t make money from views obtained via your Friend Link, but, like the non-monetized content, it will draw in your readers. A way to monetize your content while also allowing those without paid accounts to access it is to share your Friend Link with friends and family. That’s what it’s there for. Will you make money off your friends and family this way? No. Do you need to? Not if they then share the monetized link to their friends and family, post on their social media, talk about your work and make a free account to follow you.

6. Promote yourself using that free content!

Post your links to all your social media. Your grandparents on Facebook might check out your articles and share them on their page. Share your work with any writing groups you belong to. Tweet links to your work. Share it widely. I know it feels weird to be so public, but there’s nothing shameful about promoting your work. Engage with people on social media, and let them know you’re on Medium; engage with people on Medium, and they might just end up checking out your work. It’s a time-consuming process, getting views, but once you have a core audience built up, and especially if you’ve drawn them in with free content, you can start making money quickly on platforms like Medium. I’ve more than quadrupled my Medium income in two weeks. It’s not a lot yet, but it all adds up.

TL;DR : In business, they call the free or cheap content “loss leaders.” Costco loses money on every $1 hotdog they sell, but it gets people in the door; once they’re in, they spend money. The same goes for online content. Make sure you have something free on your page to get them reading, and chances are they’ll check out your monetized content, too.

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