Exactly How I Earned $146.49 in August 2020

This broke my streak of my income going up every month

In August 2020, I wrote 34 articles that earned between $.14 and $22.99. A few older articles earned $.01 or more this past month.

This was my third month earning over $100 a month. Normally I share my articles on Facebook as well as Twitter. On Twitter, I changed my tags to see if I would notice a difference. Additionally, I tweeted less compared to July as the tweets went from 1305 to 839. Most of the tweets are sharing my articles.

This past month, I spent a lot more time responding to comments from my articles. Currently, I have 982 followers which is about a 200 person increase from the previous month. I haven’t keep an accurate count of this number.

All but one article was curated last month. I try to get all of my articles curated if possible. There were times my articles were rejected so I used a second publication.

My August Medium Analysis

My income was lower for me this month. In July, I earned $158.56 which is $12.07 less than the previous month which was $146.49. In July, I published 28 articles which was less than the number of articles published in August (34). All but one of my articles in August was curated.

On Twitter, I have met several other Medium writers. I’m not sure if Twitter has an effect on my reads. As a writer, you don’t know where your audience is coming from. Some come from Medium, which has paid subscribers as well a non-subscribers. Other visitors could come from social media. Then you have readers who find your article on a search engine such as Google.

Personally, I don’t chase after top-performing topics such as sex which performs well on Medium. Most of my articles are on writing and investing which are not the very best performers on Medium. These topics do have a strong support of followers though.

These are my best-performing articles for the month of August.

Articles that earned $10.00 or more

Make Your Millions in the Next Cryptocurrency Bullrun earned $22.99. The article was published on August 5, 2020, and curated under The Capital. This article has 707 views, 433 internal views, and 274 external views. The reading time was 10 hours 18 minutes. Tags used for this article were Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Altcoins, Stock Market, and Finance.

I Left Quora After Painfully Making $1,000 earned $18.51 for a total earnings of $60.17. The article was published on June 26, 2020, and curated under The Ascent. This article has approximately 2,100 views, 1,800 internal views, and 264 external views. The reading time was 33 hours 51 minutes. Tags used for this article were Medium, Writing, Writing Tips, Money, and Quora.

How to Make $100 on Medium Consistently earned $13.02. The article was published on August 16, 2020, and curated under Illumination. This article has 438 views, 379 internal views, and 59 external views. The reading time was 8 hours 45 minutes. Tags used for this article were Writing, Writer, Blog, Blogging, and Writing Tips.

Articles that earned $4.00 or more

I Wrote for 61 Days Straight earned $4.96. The article was published on August 3, 2020, and curated under Better Marketing. This article has 365 views, 249 internal views, and 116 external views. The reading time was 3 hours 0 minutes. Tags used for this article were Writing, Writer, Habits, Goals, and Family.

10 Powerful Tips to Help You Invest in 2020 earned $4.19. The article was published on August 3, 2020, and curated under Data Driven Investor. This article has 132 views, 101internal views, and 31 external views. The reading time was 2 hours 29 minutes. Tags used for this article were Investing, Investing, Stock Market, Stocks, and Finance.

Articles that earned $2.00 to $4.00

You Need to Know How Did I Double My Earnings 4 Months in a Row earned $3.86 for a total earnings of $14.60. The article was published on July 1, 2020, and not curated. This article has 585 views, 444 internal views, and 141 external views. The reading time was 9 hours 14 minutes. Tags used for this article were Writing, Writing Tips, Medium, Writer, and Writer on Writers.

You Lose Credibility When You do this as a Writer earned $3.57. The article was published on August 11, 2020, and curated under 2 Minute Madness. This article has 302 views, 282 internal views, and 40 external views. The reading time was 2 hours 20 minutes. Tags used for this article were Writing, Writing Tips, Attitude, Writer, and Personality.

Learn How 2 Kids have more Invested than Millions of Americans earned $3.34. The article was published on August 22, 2020, and curated under Data Driven Investor. This article has 120 views, 114 internal views, and 6 external views. The reading time was 2 hours 17 minutes. Tags used for this article were Children, Kids, Stocks, Stock Market, and Investing.

What You Need to Know About Apple’s 4 for 1 Stock Split earned $3.25. The article was published on August 4, 2020, and curated under Data Driven Investor. This article has 247 views, 108 internal views, and 139 external views. The reading time was 1 hour 37 minutes. Tags used for this article were Apple, Investment, Stocks, Stock Market, and Investing.

6 Easy Ways I Made Money as a Freelance Writer on Quora earned $3.20 for a total earnings of $7.08. The article was published on July 28, 2020, and curated under Freelance Filter. This article has 214 views, 141internal views, and 73 external views. The reading time was 3 hours 49 minutes. Tags used for this article were Writing, Writing Tips, Writer, Freelancing, and Quora.

Articles that earned over $2.00

When You Rely On One Platform You Have Already Lost earned $2.95. The article was published on August 21, 2020, and curated under Publishing Well.

You Should Watch Out for Scams During the Coronavirus earned $2.81. The article was published on August 22, 2020, and curated under Illumination.

The Latest Tesla Stock News You Need to Know earned $2.43. The article was published on August 14, 2020, and curated under Data Driven Investor.

5 Ways to Raise Your Kids to Be Millionaires earned $2.35. The article was published on August 25, 2020, and curated under Ascent.

Why I Quit a Freelance Job After 4 Days earned $2.31. The article was published on August 25, 2020, and curated under Illumination.

5 Secrets to Share Your Articles with Little to No Subscribers earned $2.25 for a total earnings of $8.71. The article was published on July 26, 2020, under Noteworthy — The Journal Blog.

How I Became a Top Guide on Google earned $2.23. The article was published on August 19, 2020, under Better Marketing.

7 Things You Should Do to Write Every Day earned $2.17. The article was published on August 24, 2020, under Illumination.

Articles that earned over $1.00

9 Ways To Earn Passive Income You Need To Know earned $1.96 and curated under 2 Minute Madness.

As a Writer, You Need Your List of Topics to Be Successful earned $1.94 and curated under Illumination.

The Top 10 Habits of Millionaires You Need to Know earned $1.88 and curated under Making of a Millionaire.

The Best Stocks to Invest in August earned $1.88 and curated under Data Driven Investor.

3 Ways You Can Invest for a Great Retirement earned $1.86 and curated under Data Driven Investor

Writing is Only Half the Battle earned $1.71 for a total earnings of $8.36 and curated under Better Marketing.

Five Reasons to add Rental Properties to Your Investment Portfolio earned $1.68 and curated under Illumination.

1 Secret Military Tip Leads You to Success as a Writer earned $1.65 and curated under Writer’s Blokke.

How I Plan to Make Millions in the Cryptocurrency Market earned $1.55 for a total of $49.58 and curated under The Capital.

You Need to Know One Secret the Army Teaches earned $1.54 and curated under 2 Minute Madness.

10 Solutions You Need to Know for Your Cryptocurrency Exit Strategy earned $1.50 for a total of $8.93 and curated under The Capital.

5 Powerful Ways You Can Make Money as a Writer earned $1.48 and curated under Illumination.

The Unorthodox Mind of an Investor to Make Millions earned $1.46 and curated under The Capital.

The 7 Top Robinhood Stocks Millenials are Buying earned $1.34 for a total of $5.61 and curated under Data Driven Investor.

Why You Should Absolutely Make Friends With Your Fellow Writers earned $1.28 and curated under Illumination.

The Writer’s Guide to Getting Rejected 100 Times earned $1.26 and curated under Better Marketing.

5 Lessons from the 2008 Crash Helping Today earned $1.24 and curated under The Capital.

You Need to Know How Your Analytics Lead to Writing Success earned $1.24 and curated under Publishing Well.

What to Do When Your Articles Get Rejected earned $1.00 for a total of $4.18 and curated under Better Marketing.

57 articles earned less than $1.00

All but two of the articles that earned less than $1.00 were older articles and published before August. I expect a recent article published last month will cross the dollar mark in a day or so.

About the author

I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying. Michael Jordan

In a former life, I was an analyst trying to understand the cause and effect as well as a prediction of what could happen. As a writer, this makes me sit back and think about my writing, the cause and effect.

In the Army, I was an intelligence analyst so writing here is not the same but the metrics involved are where there is some similarity. Or maybe it could have been the hours I played Monopoly, Stratego, Strat-o-Matic baseball, chess, and checkers as a kid. I always try to analyze why something happens and what I can do to get better.

Some thoughts come to mind:

What actions did I take to earn less in August compared to July?

Do I need to tweet more articles?

Do I need to write and publish more articles?

Do I need to focus more on past topics that have done well?

Do I need to venture off in a different area?

Do I need to create my own publication?

Over the past week, I am experimenting a little with my writing, so will see how that turns out in the September update.

Lastly, thanks to everyone who took part and read some of my articles. I try to make my articles educational as well as informative.

Tom Handy is a top Writing, Finance, Investment, and Bitcoin writer on Medium, and the father of two kids. He retired from the Army and sits on several non-profit boards. You can find him on Twitter @tomhandy1.