How I Earned 40 Dollars without Curation on Medium
My First month on Medium
Though this is a common topic of discussion, I thought to share my experience with Medium, thinking that it will help someone to improve themselves.
I started to write on Medium on 30th April 2020, as I found Medium as a good platform to share my ideas, views, and opinions. I was thinking to start a personal blog and before that, I thought to give it a try on Medium. I was able to earn $40 in my first month of Medium and here are the five things I believed to be the stepping stones to earn more.
1. Be Consistent
I am a member of Medium for less than two months. From the day I joined Medium, I wrote continuously on whatever topic that came to my mind. This includes the poems, my life experiences, social issues, and other articles. I published a write up every day from the day I started and this sum up to 30 articles at the end of the first month.
I am not a specialist in any subject. However, I always research my topic before writing. During the lockdown period, I researched Covid-19 and wrote a few articles as many others. Also, I wrote about country-specific issues like the Easter bombing in Sri Lanka and some Buddhist teachings. As the first step, I shared the articles that I am familiar with and comfortable to share.
The introduction, body, and the closure are the three parts of an article I am cautious. An attractive introduction, concise body, and a memorable closure are determining the success of an article. At the same time, I try to make my message clear and use simple language. Most of the time I read my articles in the eyes of an outside reader, before publishing and make adjustments to deliver an understandable article.
I usually write a quick draft of a few sentences and then build the story around the main idea. If it’s a poem I write whatever comes to my mind and then fine-tune it accordingly.
Writing is a practice as many other skills. The more you write better it will be. Therefore, it’s important to write continuously to maintain the views and claps, which eventually lead to better earnings.
2. Write a Good Content
I think our articles or poems should be something worth reading. That doesn’t mean all my write-ups are perfect and precious. I know that some of my articles are not up to the standard. However, this is not a competition and I can always improve. I always run the grammar check and re-read my articles at least three two times before posting. Most of the time my husband reads my articles before posting and make corrections accordingly. It’s recommended to have a third party opinion to write-ups, as it provides good insight into different perspectives.
As I am new to writing, I still study about effective writing. I read about improving my writing skills and follow online videos to deliver a good article. The readers are investing their time to read our articles, expecting to get something to themselves. This may be an inspiration, entertainment, or good thought. Whatever it’s, our responsibility as writers is to deliver something worthwhile, which compensates the time they are spending on. Therefore, I am always cautious about the usefulness of the content to the prospective audience.
3. Attention-Grabbing Topic and a Matching Picture
As you have seen, Medium is sending an email weekly, ‘Medium Weekly digest’, shared with thousands of Medium members. This email includes many articles from different writers. Most of the time I read a couple of articles from this email.
When I am choosing articles from the email notification, the selection is solely depending on the topic of the write-up and its picture. Hence, it’s important to have an attention-grabbing topic rather than an obvious boring topic.
An eye-catching picture also has a positive impact on the story and grab the attention of the readers. I have seen some pictures are kept repeating in my Medium home page, as many writers pick them more often. It’s good to avoid those common pictures and find a unique, more relevant picture that adds value to our writings.
No matter how good our work, it’s not effective until reaching the right audience. I have observed that attention-grabbing topic with a relevant picture attract more claps and views compared to the others. As I think, it’s good to spend some time to add value to our authentic work through attention-grabbing topic and an eye-catching picture.
4. Write for Publications
There are many independent publications in Medium. Most of the publications are willing to add new writers. Those publications have given instructions on how to join their publications in their respective pages. It’s essential to find a few publications with a considerable number of followers. Higher the followers better the reach of the article. Some publications have less than a thousand followers while few have millions. Be cautious about the number of followers in the publication before sharing your work with them. I have come across publications that have fewer followers than my profile, hence we need to be cautious.
Most publications are requesting to share the draft articles with them. They only publish our work once reviewed. As of now, I’m usually sharing my articles with three publications, namely ‘Illumination’, ‘Journal of Journeys’ and ‘Spiritual Tree’. Those three publications are having a considerable number of followers. There are many talented writers in these publications and I enjoy their articles as well.
Some of my articles were reviewed and rejected by publications several times and it’s normal. You can always publish them on your page if publications are not willing to take it. However, we need to keep in mind to improve our writings day by day.
5. Interacting with other Writers
Medium is also kind of a social media platform. The more you interact with other writers, the better the results. I read the work of other writers daily. I always clap them and most of the time write a comment too. As per my understanding, claps are a recognition and comments are an encouragement. I am happy to see encouraging comments on my write up and I know other writers are no exception. Hence, I always leave a positive comment as an encouragement of their hard work. I am confident that most of the writers are coming back to my profile whenever I read and leave a comment, though I don’t keep track of them.
I had less than 50 followers at the beginning and I kept following people. 10% is the accepted ratio of followers turn up. If you follow 100 people, out of that, 10 will follow you back. Hence, you need to follow people actively to increase the follower base of your account.
I have seen some writers own very insightful articles, with minimal claps. As per my understanding, the reason for this is the fewer number of followers and minimal interaction. Hence, the interaction with others is essential as much as writing an insightful article.
As I mentioned earlier, I am not an expert in writing. However, within this short time, I realized that Medium is a good platform to share my work and to reach a plethora of other writers. It’s kind of developing yourself while helping others to develop.
If I sum up, I usually write one article or poem a day, I try to write a good content, I try to come up with an attractive topic with a picture, I write for publications and I read the work of others. These are the five essentials I do to reach more readers and gain more views.
I am not a full-time writer but every day I’m brainstorming the topics and gather information to deliver my next write up. If you are consistent and willing to improve, I think Medium is a good platform to start with.
By following the above, I earned $40 in my first month of Medium and I am confident it will double this month. Below are a few of my articles and poems, which gained a satisfactory number of views and claps during my first month of Medium.
Enjoy reading and writing!