Here’s What a $1000 Medium Article Looks Like

My first 4-figure article didn’t happen overnight.

I’ve been meaning to write this article for a while now. I planned to write it as soon as I realised I’d earned $1000 from a single article on Medium, but I didn’t. Consequently that same article has now earned $1298.67.

Here’s the history of this particular article (and since the title promises to actually show you what it looks like, here’s a screen shot, although you can of course, just go take a look).

The first thing you might notice is the date: May 15, 2017. No wonder it’s earned so much, you may think. It’s been up on Medium forever. There are a few interesting things to note about that. Firstly, it hasn’t been on Medium forever. This is an article I imported from my blog, The Savvy Solopreneur. However, using the import function on Medium causes the article to display the original date of publication, not the date it was published on Medium. I wasn’t even writing on Medium in May of 2017. I imported this article around August of 2018, as far as I remember, but that’s not when it started earning either.

I originally imported the article and DIDN’T put it behind the paywall. My intention was to build a bigger audience, and drive traffic to my blog. I imported it and got on with my life. According to my stats this article was ‘distributed’ not long after that, in late August, 2018. I wasn’t paying attention to anything Medium-related back then, but I assume that’s when it got curated (in Productivity, the only category it’s ever been curated in). Because, yes, back then you could get curated even if your article wasn’t behind the paywall. As I understand it, that doesn’t happen any more.

Fast forward to September 2019, more than a year after import. That’s the point at which I realised this article was getting a reasonable amount of traffic. I decided to put it behind the paywall to see if I could earn a few bucks. By this time, I was writing fairly regularly on Medium, and even earning some money, though not enough to get excited about. Still, I decided it couldn’t hurt to throw this one behind the paywall and see what happened. What happened was that it earned a few cents, and then a few more, and then a few less, right up until December 2019, when this happened.

No, I don’t know why it happened. I guess it got some Medium promotional love. Here’s what I do know.

Here’s where the traffic is coming from

It’s mostly internal, which is why I think the Medium love is what’s doing it. But it’s 19% external, with some traffic coming in from Facebook and Twitter, where I’ve seen it shared a fair bit, and some from LinkedIn, where I haven’t (but then I don’t spend much time over there). The LinkedIn traffic is perhaps worth noting in terms of what works for different topics. LinkedIn is a very ‘worky’ place. This is an article about productivity. It makes sense that it’s gained a little traction over there.

I don’t know where the email, IM and direct traffic came from. Maybe someone influential mailed their list with a link, or shared the link directly in other ways. It wasn’t me. I’ve only recently started mailing my list with links to my articles, and my list isn’t big enough to generate that kind of traffic.

Here’s why I think it’s popular

It follows the basic rules. It’s fairly well-written, grammatically correct, and covers a topic people are interested in. The title is descriptive, and the article delivers. It has a high quality relevant image, that’s attributed to the artist. It’s one of those listicle type articles that online users like, complete with a number in the title. I’ve had previous success with those types of articles, in all kinds of topics, though not $1000 level success.

Beyond that, I don’t know why it’s popular. It took off, plain and simple. Some of my other articles are doing well too, but they’re a long way off 4 figures, and I frankly have no idea if I can replicate my success with this one when it comes to future articles.

Just in case you’re interested, these are my next most popular articles, up in the respectable 3-figure range.

Here’s what I’ve done to capitalise on it

When an article goes viral, you should always capitalise on it. I went back and checked the links, especially the one to my blog. They still work. I kind of knew the one to my blog was working, because I started to see traffic coming in from Medium, directly to that article. I added a link to my Kindle book on productivity, and unsurprisingly, when reads of the article spike, so do sales of the book.

I also added a few more articles on productivity to the bottom of that one. Again, unsurprisingly, I started to see more views and reads on those articles too, especially on the days when extra traffic flooded in to the main article. Lastly, I checked out my readers interests. There were no real surprises there.

But I certainly know which topics I can write on in the future that will appeal to my current readers and followers.

And here’s how I’m celebrating

I’m getting up every morning, putting my butt in the chair and my fingers to the keyboard, and writing some more words. Thousands of ’em. No champagne, no fireworks, no spending spree. Just more articles, more submissions, more pitches. I’m celebrating being successful at this writing gig, by writing some more. I may have stopped briefly to give myself a pat on the back, but really, if I want my writing to be one of my top few priorities in life (and I do) it’s important to spend more time building on success than I do celebrating it.

And lastly… key takeaways (that you can use)

Write curatable content. This piece would never have gained this traction if it hadn’t been curated and promoted within the Medium ecosystem.

Write in popular categories. This piece was on productivity, which is a hugely popular category. I’m not saying you can’t go viral with a travel essay or even a poem. But it’s statistically unlikely.

Write useful and shareable content. Remember that almost 20% of traffic was external, and a lot of that came from shares on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It’s also likely that the article was shared via email, or in other direct ways. People simply don’t do that unless the content is useful.

Be patient. I hear of people giving up on Medium all the time. That’s fine. But don’t take your content down. It can just sit there doing very little for a long time, then suddenly start making money.

Monitor your content. I left money on the table by not putting this one behind the paywall sooner, and then again (possibly) by not updating it quickly enough with a link to my book and other articles when it did become successful.

So there you are. The somewhat fuzzy and long-winded success story of my first $1000 article. I’d love to think it’s not my last. If you’d like to know if I manage it again, feel free to join the community and follow me.

Want to make more money from your writing? Check out my list of freelance markets that pay.