Summary

The author shares their experience of earning $1,525.68 in their first month on Medium and provides insights into the strategies that contributed to their success.

Abstract

The author, who initially started writing on Medium to practice their writing, was pleasantly surprised when their articles started earning real money. To maximize their earnings in the following month, they compared their higher-earning articles to the lower-earning ones. They discovered that newsworthy topics, quick writing, and being published or curated by Medium were critical factors in earning more. The author also found that articles with a length of 3-5 minutes earned the most and that they wasted time on unpublished drafts.

Opinions

Writing about newsworthy topics can significantly increase earnings, as these articles are more likely to be picked up by platforms like the Chrome news page and recommended to paying subscribers.
Spending too much time on wordsmithing and detailed data visualizations may not yield a good return on investment, as the earning potential of an article is largely determined by its topic and headline.
Being published or curated by Medium is critical for earning more, and writers should play to their strengths by focusing on niche topics where they can prove their credibility.
Articles that are 3-5 minutes long tend to earn the most, as readers may be turned off by longer articles that require a bigger investment of their time.
The author believes that they wasted time on unpublished drafts and could have earned more by forcing themselves to finish almost every article they start.

How I Earned $1,525.68 in My First Month on Medium

Simple tactics that could help you earn more money too

When I started blogging on Medium last month, I was only doing it to practice my writing. So I was very surprised when my articles started earning real money.

Since I wanted to give my self a better shot at similar earnings in the next month, it made sense to compare the higher-earning articles to the lower-earning articles.

Here’s what I discovered about the articles that were earning the most.

Newsworthy Topics Earn Very Well

Three of my highest earning articles — and the majority of my earnings — were from articles that discussed a “recent event.”

The newsworthy topics got picked up by places like the Chrome news page, which drove significant traffic, and made Medium more likely to recommend my articles to paying subscribers.

So I’ve started to keep an eye out for similar “newsworthy” article possibilities from places like Reddit.

Wordsmithing Didn’t Have Good ROI

My top-earning articles were written very quickly compared to my low earning articles. I typically spent between one and two hours writing them before hitting “publish.”

Some of my passion articles, which included detailed data visualizations, custom videos, days worth of effort, and multiple re-writes didn’t earn much at all.

Based on my experience, I think that by the time you’ve selected a topic and a headline, the article’s earning potential is nearly 80% determined.

Publishers and Curation Is Critical

I think this is a known fact, but I’ve noticed other writers find it difficult to get curated and/or published. I had much less difficulty, probably because my work credentials make it much easier for me than average.

So I would say “play to your strengths.” If there are niche topics where you can easily prove your credibility, it’s much easier to get more distribution than with more popular topics like relationships, marketing, etc.

Articles Earned $0.25 to $0.75 per “Fan”

I realize that Medium pays based on the amount of reading time now, and not the number of fans that an article gets. But that simple calculation is still pretty accurate.

Interestingly, the highest-earning article I wrote was closer to $0.25, while the moderately earning articles were closer to $0.75.

I suspect that reaching the $500+ earnings for an article does require meaningful off-platform distribution, which causes a lower fan ratio. But earning $100 — $500 on an article seems possible without getting picked up by Chrome, Twitter, etc.

Articles 3–5 Minutes Long Earned the Most

This doesn’t shock me, but I think it was helpful to prove that out for myself. I naturally want to write longer articles, since I enjoy writing for its own sake, and it’s harder to write shorter articles.

But I suspect that readers can be turned off by longer articles since it’s asking for a bigger investment from them.

My own pattern when reading articles is to skim the whole thing looking to see what the main insights are, and then read in more detail if I think the article is worth it.

Since longer articles tend to have more fluff, I usually skip them.

I Wasted a Lot of Time on Articles I Didn’t Publish

I published twelve articles over the first month, although I have 40 unfinished drafts. Realistically, I’m not going to finish many of those topics, so that time wasn’t well spent.

If I wanted to change one single thing to earn more, I would force myself to finish almost every article I start. There is a lot of opportunities to become more efficient, probably by ensuring that I go from start to publish in a single writing session.

Thanks for reading! If you found this article helpful, you can follow me to get notified the next time I publish on Medium.

I also do appreciate any comments, whether constructive or not. So please do let me know if you found this article helpful. I read every comment I get, even if I don’t always reply.