Medium

Why You Should Repeat This 10 Times to Make $500 a Month on Medium

Rinse, Repeat

Can you make money on Medium?

Yes, you can. But the question on everyone’s mind is ‘How much money can you make writing for Medium?’

From the annals of Medium history, there was a time when it was a lot. Based on stories of all the top writers who have left the platform because they are no longer earning six figures a month, God bless their souls. Just teasin’.

It was at the height of the pandemic when I started to write again on Medium. It was all because I received an email, a payment notification that I earned $1.66 ($1.41 after taxes) for a story I wrote in 2017. I was grateful for that moment, and I still am.

I took it as a sign. It was the best decision I have made in the last two years.

Does Medium pay writers?

Medium pays any writer who is part of the MPP or Medium Partner Program and it also pays through their referral program.

Affiliate Disclosure: If you’re new and you sign up using my link, I get a few dollars.

I never had any problem receiving payment, and they pay on time. Usually, I receive it on or before the 7th of each month. What I earned in March; I’ll receive in April.

In March, I’m happy to share that I more than doubled my pay from February.

March 1 — March 31

$266.35

Feb 1 — Feb 28

$114.07

How to make money from Medium

To get started

1. Apply once you’ve met the eligibility criteria (see below).

2. Get accepted, celebrate.

3. To start earning, publish stories with the meter my story box checked.

4. Earn money when Medium members spend time reading your work.

5. Boost earnings through Referred Memberships.

6. Get paid monthly.

All information is on the Medium help page.

You can sum up what Medium.com asks from every writer who wants to earn money with these words. Rinse, Repeat.

Medium monetization is built on publishing a story, gaining followers, and staying active.

Rinse, Repeat.

It is clear that it doesn’t promise how much you can earn, everything would depend on you.

Repeat 10 times to make $500 a month on Medium.com

Photo by Cesar Galeão: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-holding-brown-rope-3253501/

My goal is to make $1,000 a month. Putting out our goals in public makes us accountable. Ask and you shall receive. It isn’t impossible but it will take a lot of work.

I have done the work, but it is time to do it ‘smart.’

To make $500 one has to make at least $16 a day.

The questions you could be asking are ‘how to make that happen?’ and ‘what does it look like?’ I mean, we need to visualize it to understand what it takes to earn $16 a day on Medium.

Shout out to Martin van Soest, who wrote this Medium Earnings Chrome Extention. Follow him, and use his Chrome Extensions.

Earnings Info Releases

Putting your money where your mouth is

medium.com

Now I know what it looks like. On March 28, 2022, I earned $16.23, from 1,112 views, 430 internal views from Medium paying members.

Remember, we are paid based on the reading time of Medium members only.

That’s what it takes to make $16 a day, to have at least430 members read my stories.

But if you have been on Medium for a long time, you know that most of the time, you will get less than those numbers.

This is why I believe that it is important to study what your numbers are saying, the clues are in there and it's available to you 24/7, it’s time to get cozy with your stats page.

Rinse and Repeat

Another way at achieving $500 a month is to write 10 stories that earn you $50 each —Rinse, Repeat.

The question is, ‘Is it possible to earn $50 for a story?’ The short answer is yes, and even more, ask S M Mamunur Rahman, he wrote this story that made him $20,000, he deserves every penny of it. Congratulations and well deserved.

And you know where he published it?

ILLUMINATION of Dr Mehmet Yildiz.

If you are starting and looking for a publication to submit your stories, look no further, it is one of the Medium publications that help new writers, myself included, even today many of my stories find their home in ILLUMINATION.

This month, I have one story that made over $50, and this is what it looks like.

This is what it takes, 1,500 views, 1,400 are Medium members.

Let’s do the math: If I have 10 stories like this one, then I will earn $500 in April.

Actionable steps to earn $500

If there is one story that helped me in March is the one from Hogan Torah, one of the funniest writers here. I started reading more of his stories after I read his story on death and this crazy story about a ‘Woman Sees This Picture of Her Boyfriend And Immediately Calls The Police,’ a story that paid him over $1,000.

But it was this story, his no-fluff advice on how to write headlines, you may think out loud, not another one, but hear me when I say, this changed everything for me. Thank you, Hogan.

Read this article 2x. Start writing better headlines. As a bonus — I wrote this one, ‘A Quick Google Search Will Tell if You ‘Slay’ Your Headline.’
Read this article 2x. Start using better pictures.
Rinse, Repeat.

Finding your niche

Sadly, it’s true. And if you find one, stick with it. Rinse, Repeat.

All the writers here who are making money have a niche. True Crime? Politics? Humor? How To Make Money on Medium:)? name a niche, and there is one or a few nailing that niche.

If only my personal essays make money, I would love to continue writing them but it’s not my niche.

Medium.com found me my niche, and it happened when I first wrote a story that made me $265 and is still making me money up to this day.

But I didn’t want to be stuck in that niche, so for almost a year, I didn’t write a follow-up, until this year.

And in March 2022, I had my $50 story.

Does it mean you only write for money?

It means keeping your sanity as a writer trying to figure out how to make money on Medium.com.

From the beginning of this article, I said — ‘You Only Need to Repeat This 10 Times To Make $500 a Month on Medium.’

I only need 10 stories about my niche, and for the rest, I can write about anything.

It is finding the yin to the yang of writing in Medium.

Making money from writing isn’t opposed to wanting to become a good writer. Without money, you would become an angry writer, and then all you will write are ‘rants.’

How do you make $1000 a month on Medium?

The short answer is to do twice the effort in making $500 a month. ‘You Only Need to Repeat This 20 Times To Make $1,000 a Month on Medium.’

I’ve done the math, to make $1,000 you have to do at least $33 a day, I have yet to make that much in a day, so I have no idea. (I will update once I have done it.)

Last year, the most I made in a month was $745.51 all because of the $500 bonus. Yes, Medium.com gave bonuses last year, I got $1,150 in total bonuses in those four months. Thank you!

If and when I make my first $1,000, I’ll share it with you.

How do you make money on Medium in 2022?

The same way as it was in 2021.

Is it easy? I would be lying if I said it is easy. It is hard work, but it is possible to make money on Medium in 2022.

The better question is ‘How much effort are you willing to put in as a Medium writer?’ It will take a lot of hours of writing every day until you find a smarter way of doing it. Rinse, Repeat.

Now I know I don’t have to publish every day, but I will keep writing every day.

There is a big difference.

I love writing, and now that I ‘unlocked’ the Medium code, I’m free of the constant pressure of making money as a Medium writer.

Lessons I learned from March 2022

Never give up.
I have a total of 300 stories that made money in March. You will be surprised how your past stories will bring in fresh readers. But only 35 stories made over a dollar. While I’m grateful for every cent, if only I wrote better headlines from the get-go, those articles would have made more money.
A very small percentage of your stories will give you the bulk of your monthly income, my top 5 stories in March are responsible for 50% of the total money I made.
It goes to show that I only need to write at least 10 stories from my niche to make at least $500 (Let’s make it happen in April 2022.)
Interact with your fellow writers who happen to be your readers. Nobody knows me from Adam, and nobody knows that I’m an introvert. It was hard for me to constantly reply to all the comments, but Jan Sebastian had it right from the very beginning, read it here. Rinse, Repeat.
Share your stories on social media, for now, my focus is on Twitter, and I learned how to repurpose my content using Twitter Threads.
Self-publish on your profile, or start your own Medium publication even if you are the lone writer, my $50 story was self-published.
But submit most of your stories to other publications. In March I have stories published in The Startup and Coach Tony’s Better Marketing. It gives you access to their thousands of followers; I know I gained more followers because of these two publications.
Take the wins, not everything is about the money. Write better stories to be Medium curated, try to get those top writer badges, and grow your follower count. Rinse, Repeat.
Be a good Medium citizen. Be nice to everyone.

I learned today how to pay back my fellow writers. I was always confused between fans and followers. Thanks, Casey Botticello. The fans are the readers who gave your story a clap, and whenever your story has 10 fans you get an email from Medium. Now I visit each of their profiles and read one of their stories. Rinse, Repeat.

Recap

March 2022 was my turning point. Like many, I was asking myself if writing on Medium.com can become a viable income stream?

It is, and I only need to do it smarter.

I can’t overemphasize the need to write better headlines, the more you practice the better you become.

Never quit. One day you’ll find out why you are writing.

Medium is the start of many possibilities. In the last two years, I have published over 1,000 stories, which means I have written over a thousand headlines.

I noticed I write faster. Before, it will take me days to finish one story.

Stories don’t have to be great, good is good enough.

Before, when someone asked me, can I write a script for a YouTube video, I used to say, I don’t know how, but isn’t it what I do now, create content?

I have become confident in trying other ways to generate income from writing because writing opens the gate for content creation.

Final words.

There is no one-size-fits-all on how to make money as a Medium writer. It is possible and you must believe that it is possible for you, that is the first hurdle you must overcome.

There is no shortcut, you have to do the work. Rinse, Repeat.

Let me leave you with these words:

Don’t panic. Think carefully. Write clearly. Act in good faith. Repeat. — Margaret Atwood’s words of advice.

My top earning stories in March 2022

Thank you to all my readers, fellow writers, and Medium.com. I’m grateful.

Leave your comments below, if you have any questions, I would be happy to help, AMA (Ask me anything) about Medium.

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