Summary

The article outlines the author's journey to earning their first $5 on Medium within a month by leveraging the platform's partnership program, understanding its algorithm, writing quality content consistently, and promoting their work both on and off Medium.

Abstract

The author shares personal insights into how they successfully earned their first $5 on Medium in one month. They emphasize the importance of joining the Medium Partnership Program, which requires active posting, a follower base of at least 100, and a Medium membership. The article delves into the mechanics of the Medium algorithm and the significance of writing engaging, long-form articles that resonate with readers and meet the platform's criteria for wider distribution. The author also stresses the necessity of consistent writing and strategic promotion, both within Medium through community engagement and externally via social media and other platforms. By implementing these strategies, the author was able to generate income and views the experience as a testament to the potential of Medium as a lucrative platform for new writers.

Opinions

The author believes that understanding and working with the Medium algorithm is key to increasing visibility and earnings.
Quality content is paramount; articles should be well-researched, relevant, and lengthy to maximize reader engagement and profit.
Consistent daily writing and regular publishing are seen as critical factors in maintaining readership and maximizing earnings.
Engaging with the Medium community by interacting with other writers and their content is an effective strategy for gaining initial attention and building a network.
Off-site promotion through platforms like Discord and Twitter is advocated for expanding reach and attracting more readers.
The author finds Medium to be a practical and motivating platform for new writers looking to monetize their work, highlighting the scalability of income with effort.

How I Earned My First $5 Writing on Medium in One Month (And How You Can Too)

Have you always wanted to write for Medium Do you often see Medium writers, and wonder how they got there?

Earning money from Medium can seem rather daunting.

However, with a little bit of effort, it can be made much more simple.

In this article, I’m going to detail exactly how I have made my first bit of money through Medium, and how you can too!

Medium Partnership Program

To first be eligible to start earning money via Medium, you will first need to join the Medium Partnership Program. Joining is rather simple, the few requirements being that you have posted an article within the last 6 months, have 100 followers, and are a Medium member.

Image displays the information page for Mediums Partnership Program

Understanding the Medium Algorithm

Understanding how the Medium Algorithm works is crucial for understanding precisely how to make money.

Most social media algorithms work by first distributing content using a ‘seed group’, which means that it works by first distributing the article to a small group of people, and then measures user interest to decide whether or not the article is quality enough to get recommended to more & more people.

Medium uses this, in addition to their new Boosting feature to decide which articles are quality enough to deserve more visibility.

Writing Quality Articles

Writing quality articles is paramount to your success on Medium, as detailed in the previous paragraph, because of how Medium Boosts and the Medium algorithm works.

Writing quality, boostable articles usually entails:

— Writing about trending, relevant topics

— Writing about topics people want to read about

— Writing long, well developed articles to maximize profit

Understanding Reading Time -> Income

To truly get the best amount of money, your writing has to be long, and still entertain the reader. Some strategies I’d advise to help you earn more money is to ensure your articles are directed at your reading demographic, and study articles that you find interesting yourself.

To help you earn the most profit from each article, focus on creating a promising headline, and ensure that Medium says that your article has a 4–5 minute read time.

Having good images to help ensure your article is smooth to read is also important.

Writing Consistently

Writing a little bit every day is a great way to hone your skills, and publishing a story at least once daily (or at least as close to it as possible) is a great way to help you maximize your earnings.

This is one of the more important aspects, as you lose major readership on times of hiatus.

This means to help you maximize your earnings, having a consistent writing pattern is crucial.

Promoting Your Medium Blog

Promoting your blog on Medium can actually be made quite simple! When I first started, my articles barely got any attention. I remember my first article didn’t get a single clap, nor a comment. It was quite demotivating, but understanding how to market your articles effectively is crucial to your success.

In Site Promotion

For those starting out, interacting with other people and other peoples articles is crucial to getting your first bit of attention on Medium. Just by following others, and commenting on other peoples articles, you can make friends, and help yourself network.

Off Site Promotion

Another great way to promote yourself on Medium is to promote your articles off-site. For example, there are plenty of Discord and Twitter groups that will let you post your articles for feedback.

On Using The Above Strategies

Through using the strategies I have listed above, I have managed to earn my first $5 through Medium. It’s a lot more motivating once you get started, and start seeing the money pile up.

This is my first months earning reports, listed below

Earnings (Total from articles for my first month)

Conclusion

I was very happy when I saw that my earnings totaled up to some actual money, even if it wasn’t that much. Overall it wasn’t exactly as hard as I thought it was going to be, and I really like Medium as a platform because the amount of income that you can earn scales to the amount of effort you put into it.

That is what makes Medium a great platform for writers who are new to the game, and need help getting their writing out there. It can be quite challenging at first, when you are weighing the pros and cons of each platform, but I think writing online is a great way to make money, and is still actually practical, even if you haven’t had much time to get started.

✨Remember to 👏 and comment💬 to share your thoughts and views✨