How I earned my first dollar on Medium?

No, I’m not going to tell you some fancy schemes. Rather, it’s as simple & hard-hitting as it should be.

Prior to explaining how I earned my first dollar on Medium, you should be aware of the backstory.

Before starting on Medium, I was doing a blog (I am still doing it but I haven’t written anything on it for quite some time) and that blog was only a kind of expressive outlet for me. Nothing else. Yes, I thought that one day I would make money from the blog but it never happened. My blog was not that famous, rather only a handful of people used to read and like my stories.

However, my audience/readers were loyal to me. Whenever I uploaded an article, a couple of my friends used to read it and a few of them were kind enough to give me positive feedback as well. Nonetheless, none of my articles went ‘viral’. Ultimately, I quit my pursuit of making money from my blog. I kept writing though. For the sake of my own self and my loyal readers.

As I wasn’t worried about making money from my blog, views/stats didn’t matter much to me. Although I kept checking my stats every now and then, yet they didn’t affect me. Or stop me from writing more.

Then in February 2020, I finally decided to make the shift. I made an account on Medium and I thought of giving it a try. And to my surprise, it worked out quite well. Far better than the blog at least.

Now, I have been writing on Medium for more than three weeks and I must confess that these three weeks have literally changed the way I produce and consume content.

When I joined Medium, I didn’t know anything about it. I knew that Medium is a writing platform, arguably the best one but I didn’t know anything else. So, my first article/story on Medium was the one, which I had already published on my blog. I wasn’t sure about leaving my blog and starting on Medium from scratch. Thus, I imported a couple of my articles from my blog and uploaded them on Medium.

It didn’t work out. I got zero views in the first week. ZERO. I wasn’t worried though because I hadn’t made the shift. I was still writing on my blog and I was yet to write my first story on Medium.

Interestingly, in those days, my blog wasn’t doing as I expected. I had hopes that in 2020, my blog would finally get the applause, it deserved. (I don’t want to sound like a self-proclaimed great writer. However, I am passionate about my work and I value whatever I write. I don’t say that I am a great writer but I do believe that whatever I write, I put my heart into it. So, I had great expectations.) Nonetheless, my articles didn’t produce the results, which I was looking for. Hence in March, I finally wrote my first story on Medium.

It did well. It did better than most of the articles on my blog. Also, it made it clear to me that I needed to leave the blog behind and start writing regularly on Medium. It felt inevitable. Thus, a couple of days later, I wrote another piece on Medium but it didn’t receive the same response. I felt confused. So, like most of you, I read about Medium to know this platform better.

I read a number of articles, watched a couple of YouTube videos and I got to know that I wasn’t doing things the right way. I wasn’t even a member at that time and wasn’t in the Medium Partner Program either. Moreover, I also got to know about Medium publications and this ‘curation’ thing. Eventually, Medium started to make sense to me.

In the latter days, I wrote a few more pieces and even submitted one(the following piece) to a publication. Fortunately, it got accepted in Epilogue and it really boosted my inner being. It was my first bit of success on Medium and it felt great.

Naturally, I kept uploading and a few more articles later, another piece got accepted in Illumination, another Medium publication. A day later, I got curated as well. That day, it felt like ‘I have done it!’

As of now, I have written a total of 22 articles and 12 of these stories are behind a metered paywall. So far, I have earned a massive total of 1.49$. No, I am not being sarcastic. Given that I didn’t earn a single cent from my blog in more than two years, 1.46$ means a lot to me.

Moreover, 1$ has a symbolic value. It’s all about taking the first step; getting started. Hopefully, next month I will be uploading another piece, How I earned my first 100$ on Medium because once you get started, sky should be the limit.

So, how I earned my first dollar on Medium?

To keep things simple, there are four important factors involved in it.

1. Write more, write better

You need to write more and you need to write quality content. Don’t worry too much about curation, sooner or later, your stories will get curated. It took me almost two weeks and 15 stories before my story(the following one) got curated. Thus, keep writing. Soon, you will get better and your stories will get the recognition, which they deserve.

2. Submit your work to Publications

You need to submit your stories to publications, Don’t be shy. Even if they don’t accept your story, don’t worry. Improve your content and submit another one. if not today, there will be accepted tomorrow.

3. Share your work through Social Media

You need to share your work in Facebook groups i.e Medium Mastery, Medium Magic, Medium Writers, etc. These groups consist of Medium writers, just like you, and if not much, these groups will certainly help you in getting more eyes for your content. So, keep sharing your content in these groups.

Furthermore, use Instagram and Snapchat to your advantage and let your friends know that you’re producing worth-reading content on Medium.

4. Forget your niche, just write

Don’t limit yourself, especially if you’re a new writer. You don’t need to worry about your area of expertise, rather you need to write more. Forget your niches and your target audience, just start writing.

So, that’s all. These four simple and doable steps are more than enough to get yourself started on Medium. And if you apply them the right way, it is quite likely that you may end up earning far more than 1.46$.

To conclude, the idea behind this piece was to give you guys some insight on how to get started on Medium. Because, even after 4 plus years of writing experience, I am of the view that I am just getting started.

I know that I have missed a number of important points i.e Medium Curation, Medium’s new model for calculating writer’s earnings, etc. Coincidentally, I am writing another piece, My First Month on Medium, and in that article, I will talk about all these things in detail. So, don’t worry, a lot is coming your way.