How I Doubled My Earnings While Writing Less and Having Fewer Views this Month
My views were low but my bank account was not.
My views have been comically low for all of December. I’m not sure if it’s just a me-thing, or if other writers have experienced this as well. It truly doesn’t bother me or keep me from writing, but it is hard to avoid looking at the numbers. The statistician in me likes to look at the available data to see any patterns.
What works? What doesn’t work? How can I bridge the gap?
It’s December 20th as I am writing this, and I’ve only published 6 articles so far this month. Last month — also my first month on Medium, I published 17 articles and made $33.
December isn’t even over and I’ve already hit $44 for the month.
While this number is still relatively small in terms of making a living (as I’ve been reminded by friends and family), it still shows a proof of concept for me. Something I am doing is working. Who wouldn’t want to maximize their profits while doing what they love?
So — how was I able to work less and make more? I believe these factors contributed greatly:
I got my first referred member
I was so shocked by this notification. I’ve always included my personal “join Medium” link at the end of each article with no real hope that anyone would ever use it. But alas — an anonymous person was kind enough to join Medium with my link, giving me $2.50 every month indefinitely (unless they cancel).
How cool is that?
More email subscribers
December marks my second month on the platform and I have steadily gained a total of 6 email subscribers. I know this isn’t a lot, but it is very meaningful to be building a community of supporters who truly care about my writing. I have found the writing community to be very supportive and welcoming on Medium.
My advice to gain more email subscribers and referred members is to always include a call-to-action at the end of each piece you write. You can take a look at the end of this article to see how I have formatted mine. I do make tweaks to it depending on the article, but it is a great place to sell yourself to your reader — especially to those who make it to the end of your work.
You have to sell yourself — because if you don’t, no one else will.
I had one curated story
I didn’t find that this story out-performed my non-curated stories, but I do believe this helped me to reach a new audience. It is also a confidence-booster to be recognized by Medium and helped me to keep going even though my views were dropping.
I would recommend reading up on Medium’s curation guidelines. Also, check your statistics for all of your stories — you might have been curated without even knowing it! You can tell if a story has been curated if you go to your statistics, click on a story, and see ‘chosen for further distribution’ under the title. Example below:
Repurposing old content
When I first started writing on Medium at the end of October, I put out some of my best work (in my opinion). I had no real understanding of how the platform worked and published longer stories from my soul.
I recently deleted one of my first stories (copied and pasted it into a new draft first, of course) because I wanted to give it new life with my new followers and because I am now in the partner program. It was also my first curated story. It had decent reads and about 250 claps but had only earned me $.02 as most of the engagement happened before I made the partner program.
So I deleted it and republished it with Illumination. To my surprise, the article was also featured in their Curated Collection series. It is by far my longest story, an eight-minute read, and is doing very well.
It hasn’t been picked up for curation this time around, but I am still happy I decided to give this special piece new life.
I have also found reworking titles and cover photos to be helpful when I find a story isn’t doing as well as I thought it would. Give it a try before you feel defeated about low views and reads-time on an article that you poured your heart into.
My best performing article this month
If you’ve been debating whether or not to post an ‘About Me’-style article because it feels somewhat intrusive and vein, I’d urge you to reconsider.
This article allowed me to introduce myself to a larger audience of readers and connect with them on a more personal level.
Keep it short and sweet while still packing it with plenty of information about yourself. Write about things that will prompt people to comment on your post with follow-up questions. It also generated a few story ideas for future articles as well based on the topics people found most interesting about me.
I had more responses to this article than most of my other stories, and I felt more connected to my readers in the process.
I would recommend contacting the publication About Me Stories and submitting yours as soon as possible!
Writing follow-ups for my most popular stories
This is something that I have not implemented yet, but plan to. I have a handful of stand-out articles that have over 500 views that I plan to do follow-up stories on. Always thinking ahead and strategizing is key when working for yourself.
I told my friends and family about my writing
I’m not sure if I’m alone in this, but I was a bit shy and hesitant to share my writing with friends and family in the beginning. Writing is so personal — sharing myself with strangers feels easier to me than sharing with people I know in real life.
But I’ve since overcome my fear of judgment and shared my writing with some people I know and trust. They have even shared it with people they know and I’ve been asked to do some freelance work!
A few of them also want to join Medium using my link. It’s a win-win. If you too have been hesitant to tell those closest to you, I encourage you to open up and share your work. Writing is a career that requires supporters — so why not include those who want you to succeed most?
Side ventures
I also started a YouTube channel this month. The barrier to entry is far more challenging than it is for Medium. On YouTube, you need at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time.
For someone who doesn’t want to share her YouTube channel on her personal Instagram or Facebook, this seems like a steep hill to climb. But I love it. I love using Medium as a place to connect with readers and link my Youtube so they can see me in real-life. It is like having a conversation with someone.
I mainly focus on motherhood and beauty, but I also love to just chit-chat about life. If you want to get to know me on a more personal level, grab a coffee and get ready for the day with me! It would also mean the world to me if you would like and subscribe while you’re there.
If you’ve made it this far, I greatly appreciate your readership. You can (tentatively) anticipate new stories from me every Wednesday and Friday (and sprinkled in between). Please consider leaving a clap or a comment, it supports my writing.
You can also subscribe to receive an email from me when I post a new article or when I just want to reach out to my readers. Thank you.
If you liked my story and would like to become a member of medium to read more, feel free to use my referral link: