FREELANCING
Here’s How I Make an Extra $100 on Many of My Medium Stories
It’s fairly easy.
First of all, no it’s not clickbait. I will detail my method for making an extra hundred bucks on ONE article. I took one old article on my Medium account and turned it into an extra hundred bucks today. Then, I did it again.
(Actually, I earned more than that, but I’d rather keep the juicy details of my private income, well, private.)
So, the technique is easy and in the spirit of writers-helping-writers, I’ll tell you how without a single thing from you in return. Mostly, because I am still in the grind of my writing career and have yet to diversify into passive income streams. (Though, Shaunta Grimes has me planning some thanks to her latest focus: income streams.) I am at this writing thing all day every day, and I have big financial goals that don’t seem to be met with any one site. It takes multiple income streams. Right now — the money’s on News Break.
For today, let’s unpack this method one easy step at a time.
FIRST, you’ll have to get in. This is the longest step and it may take you some time. Apply for a News Break Creator Profile. They’ll read over your application then approve or deny you as a creator. Yes, you’ll have to sign a contract and agree to their terms — both of which will detail your payment terms.
So far, I’ve made thousands. It’s worth your time to investigate this income stream!
Now, bookmark this page if you want to come back to it after you get approved. Or…read on and let’s do this.
Now that you’re in, here’s how to recycle one of your Medium stories to earn over $100 in 5 easy steps — and this can be done in a single day.
STEP ONE
Choose the right Medium backlog story. Here’s what you need to look for:
- Long-form stories that are non-fiction articles. Preferably, with good research and an evergreen topic. (Casey Botticello’s got us covered on evergreen content if you’re not sure what that is, exactly.)
- Stories that have H1 / H2 / headings. You want a story that has multiple headings followed by other headings making multiple salient points. Basically, a well-structured article that can be broken into smaller parts.
- If the article is about a place or story that is of local interest to a particular state or community in the US — even BETTER. You’ll make more money off these.
- Make sure the story is published in a publication that has returned the rights to you. Some pubs hold the rights to your pieces for 30 days, for example. If you are unsure, reach out to the editors to find out.
STEP TWO
Open 3–4 tabs on your browser for Google Documents and open a new / blank document on each.
Take each “section” in your article: heading + supportive subheadings and the paragraphs — copy/paste into your Google docs.
You should have a Google doc for each section that makes a valid, core point, followed by a few supportive points. (Get where I am going with this?)
STEP THREE
Go to Pixabay, Pexels, or Unsplash and choose pictures for your “mini-article” and give each one of your mini-articles new titles using Headline Analyzer.
News Break prefers titles that are borderline clickbait — meaning GRAB the readers hard with your headlines. They need to be tight, concise, and very clickable titles. This makes or breaks your work on News Break.
Now that each mini-section is ready, it’s time to flesh them out.
STEP FOUR
Place H1 and H2 headlines in your mini article, adding in some structure. Flesh out an intro and conclusion. Your article needs to be over 600 words which isn’t hard to do when you start off with a block of it already written. Fill in any areas that need expanding or transitions. Move parts around if you need to do so to create the appropriate flow in your article. Well-paced and concise writing with subsections performs best on News Break.
It’s just a matter of developing your idea into:
- Intro
- Make your points that pertain to the title (in subsections to make it more readable)
- Conclude
- Run spell check, grammar check, proofread and perfect your piece.
- Use a feature image plus any other relevant images or videos within your article.
Important notes: Check all of your links. Make sure they work and are still relevant. Remove any links to Medium or other paid content sites (otherwise your work will be rejected by News Break.) Remove ALL profanity or sexual references. (Otherwise your work will be rejected by News Break.)
STEP FIVE
Copy / Paste your new article into the “new article” portion of your creator profile on Newsbreak.
Add a Follow widget and possibly some links to your previous News Break stories to steer readers back to your other articles (much like we do here on Medium — but again NO Medium links are allowed in News Break articles.)
When you are ready, submit your article and mark it as a local article if it is pertinent to one area. Newsbreak pays higher for these articles.
Do this for each of the new mini-articles.
Congratulations. Where you once had ONE article on Medium earning a few pennies or dollars, you now have 3–4 articles that Newsbreak will pay you for — and then they stick around to earn residuals on both Medium and Newsbreak. In my onboarding, and NDA was a part of the deal so pardon the lack of screenshots in this article. But you’ll have to take my word for it.
You can turn one article into an extra hundred dollars or more on Newsbreak.
Turn your content into multiple pieces on the same general topic by using this method and:
- Bring in waves of followers who enjoy those topics.
- Reuse your material to earn more money.
- Do a small amount of work a few times each week to bring in some much-needed income.
Best of luck, dear writers. We are all in this together!