Getting A Slice of Medium’s $500,000 Revamped My Love For Writing
And easy treasure troves to increase your chances of success on Medium
At this time last year, if you had asked me whether I thought I could ever make significant money from writing, I would have said no. I do not possess special writing skills, I do not feel gifted, and I do not even have an established writer to mentor me.
In the last twelve months, however, I have made four figures from writing on Medium alone.
This is what I think: If I, an ordinary person from a third world country can make money from writing, you definitely can, too.
The reason for this article is that I feel there are nuggets within my writing journey that can help you on your own journey as a writer, especially if you are just starting out.
When I decided to really write on Medium in February 2020, my first article was the Psychology Behind Never Feeling Good Enough. I wrote that article for myself, to serve as a reminder that I am good enough and that I have something to share with the world.
However, I fail. Often.
I want to share my journey with those that come after me that might need this blueprint but I forget that I am good enough. I forget that I have a message to share with the world. I let my doubts, fears, and insecurities silence that voice. I forget that my authenticity is a gift I can share with others so that they can find their own.
Today is not one of those days.
Last week, as I checked my email, I was stopped dead in my tracks. I thought, “No way that this could be real! It must be spam mail!”
It turns out it was real.
Medium decided to give away half a million dollars to the 1,000 writers who made the most impact during the month of April. Considering that I received the bonus, I presume that means I was one of the top 1,000 despite publishing only 3 articles that month.
I still sometimes feel like I am not good enough to be the one to share advice on how anyone can succeed on Medium. However, going by my surprising financial success on the platform, and the fact that Medium selected me as one of the top writers for the month of April and awarded me $500 (came down to $350 after taxes) for that, this is how I pay it forward.
The two most common questions I have been asked since I shared this news with my friends are:
- How do I get started on my writing journey on this platform?
- What strategies can I use to make significant money writing here?
So, without any further ado, let me answer those questions from my perspective after successfully growing my earnings over the last couple of months.
Ready? Let’s get into it.
1. How do I get started?
I recommend you join the membership program right away. In my case, that $5 allowed me to binge on what other writers on the platform were putting out. And also gave me the determination to ensure that I write enough to recoup it back.
Treasure trove: The platform’s help centre has answers to any technical question you could ever think of asking.
2. Pick two or three topics
When I first started, I wrote about anything and everything. I found that my stats were not consistent. I assume this is because my following was overly diverse depending on what topic I had written about.
Now, I write mostly about love and relationships, and sometimes mental health and the psychology of things. I have seen consistent growth in my numbers whether my articles are curated or not.
Treasure trove: Your homepage. Look out for the stories that resonate the most with you and find the similarities among them. Find your own writing voice while learning from those who inspire you the most.
3. Quality
Curation, now called distribution, is important for helping you get more eyeballs on your articles. When an article is distributed, Medium keeps pushing it to its members via email so it will earn you money well into the future.
Treasure trove: Thankfully there are guidelines that will help you ensure that your articles are up to par. You may start with this one.
4. Write consistently
Nothing beats quantity, especially in the beginning. Overcome your fear of hitting the publish button and put your writing out there more often.
Treasure trove: Your inner ninja. Just do it. We are all winging it out here until we make it. Just do it.
2. What strategies can I use to make significant money on this platform?
Here is what I did;
1. Follow the guidelines on what makes a good article
According to this article by J.J. Pryor, there are 1,385,000 new articles posted here monthly. Of course, I love the guy and hope you will use this mention to check out his profile. But really, with such huge numbers, you have to try to stand out from the pack.
I highly recommend Casey Botticello’s articles and publication of the Blogging Guide to help you familiarize yourself with what works and what doesn’t.
To learn how to improve your headlines for more click-through, I highly recommend Cynthia Marinakos. I also use a free online tool called Co-schedule Headline Analyzer to ensure I use only effective headlines.
2. Submit your work to publications
When you observe the people who stand out in the topics you want to write in via your homepage, note down the publications in which their articles are published.
Many times, these publications still accept new writers. Use their guidelines for onboarding new writers and start publishing your work there.
Mine is accepting new users, you can check it out here;
I used to gun for being published in the big publications that have over 500,000 followers. However, my articles would get lost in the sea of all the other articles they publish.
I have found that medium-sized publications such as The Yard Couch ran by Isaiah McCall and Hello, Love ran by The Good Men Project are better homes for my articles. They have a more engaged audience and enable my articles to reach more people.
3. Stats
Do not dwell on stats, but if you have to, do it meaningfully. I use the Medium Enhanced Stats Chrome Extension.
The extension shows a graph displaying the total views across all of your Medium articles, stats for both Medium stories and Medium responses. Some of the measured stats include views, reads, read ratio, fans, claps, fans-to-claps ratio, and a count of the total number of stories or responses published. It also highlights the days when you publish articles with a black dot.
Casey Botticello wrote a detailed article about the extension here.
4. Writer’s block
Nothing beats frequency and consistency, especially in the beginning.
However, many writers suffer from writer’s block. I find Shaunta Grimes PSST method extremely helpful. PSST is an acronym for Premise, Story, Subheads, Takeaway. It allows you to create the shell of the article so that your work is more than halfway done right at the beginning.
She shares the PSST Framework in more detail within this article.
5. Relax
This is the most important of them all.
In the beginning, it might seem like things are not working. Please give it time. My observation has been that when the views start climbing, they have a tendency of staying there.
For context, in January I wrote and published 6 articles, February published 4, March nothing, April 3 articles, and I have published 1 in May so far. But I have steadily earned over $500 each month, even when I did not write.
You will get your best ideas when you are actually out there living life, note them down. Relax so that inspiration will come to you often and so that you can have a fresh perspective on things whenever you sit to write.
Trust the process.
And now your thoughts…
What advice would you give to yourself if you had to start over in your journey of writing on this platform? Let me know.
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