How I Doubled My Medium Income and Broke the $100 Club in 30 Days

How you can write less and make more.

Truthfully, I didn’t think I was going to write this.

I think Medium income stories often distract from other, more valuable content on this platform. However, I’ve promised myself that what I write will always be authentic and transparent regardless of what I’m writing about.

Including one monthly story about my progress on Medium counts towards this.

Sure, it can be a bit of a sell-out. The other day I read someone saying that they don’t take people writing about Medium seriously (even though they’d already published stories Medium themselves).

Luckily, I’ve never really cared too much about what other people think about me. If my words help one person on this platform, that’s enough for me.

Let’s dive into the numbers, then.

A bit of background and juicy numbers.

I joined Medium in August 2020, but I only started writing on the platform seriously in November 2020. That made January my third proper month here.

This makes me far from an early adopter, yet I still managed to reach the top 7% of earners last month.

If you’re reading this and starting your Medium journey in 2021, know that the best time to start is right now.

In January 2021, I made $157.80. I published 14 articles, which was three less than in December and November, showing that you don’t need to pump out content every day if you want to increase your earnings.

Let’s dig a little deeper into how I doubled my earnings this month from December so that you can apply these strategies on your Medium journey too.

A breakdown of the best performing stories

Let’s dive into my three highest-earning stories this month and why I think they worked.

I’m going to keep it short: one of the best ways you can learn what works on Medium is by studying others' work. Feel free to take a look at what worked below, and make up your own mind.

• 5 signs you’re secretly miserable at work: In January, this earned $17.89. I think it worked because of the title and structure of headings and subheadings.
• 5 quotes from Elizabeth Gilbert that will transform how you see your creativity: This earned $19.22, and to date, has now made over $20. It had a bright, eye-catching title image and some Canva graphics the editor very kindly added.
• How I achieved a 90% curation rate on Medium: This earned over $50, making it the best by far. Other than the topic, I think the clear formatting and short paragraphs helped its readability a lot.

What changed for me this month?

Again, I’m going to keep this short and sweet. The truth is, there’s no magic hack or trick to increasing your earnings on Medium. It’s a combination of things over time.

• I made my formatting clearer by focusing on short paragraphs and plenty of headings, subheadings, and lists.
• I spent more time writing my headlines. I probably wrote at least 10 for every article. I asked myself if I would click on the headline I’d written.
• I spent more time editing and learned to cut out useless words and paragraphs.
• I made actionable takeaways clearer, making it easy for readers to boil down the articles' information.
• I became more experienced writing on Medium: I learned more about the topics readers want to read, built relationships with editors, and added to the stories I’d already published in previous months.

The number one thing you should take away.

Medium isn’t a get rich quick scheme. I know you’ve probably read this countless times, but hear me out.

It’s nice to be compensated for your work, but if you want to make Medium a viable income stream, you must play the long game. And you’re only going to do that if you genuinely love writing.

If you want to be earning 4 figures a month, it could take you over a year to get there.

I’ve already built up a catalog of stories, and each month I gain more confidence writing for the platform. This was my first $100 month, but I am very far from where I want to be and very far from the maximum effort I will put into writing here to see results.

I haven’t even published 100 stories yet, for crying out loud.

3 months in, and I’m enjoying writing for Medium more every day. Writing here feels right to me right now. I’m not rubbing my hands together or quitting my job just yet, but one thing I know for sure is that I’m going to keep going.

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