How I Made $14,000 and Gained 6,200 Followers in my First Year on Medium

No, I didn’t write every day.

On October 30, 2019, I published my first article on Medium — and I wrote it because I had a message I wanted to share. It was my story of how I quit my job at Google to start my own company, only to find out about the truth of entrepreneurship — that it’s not as glamourous as the media paints it to be. No, it’s a rough and lonely game, an emotional rollercoaster riding straight into the unknown.

Today, a year later, that article has amassed 50,000 views.

People tell me I was lucky to have my first article go viral, but I like to think otherwise. The article was honest, raw, and vulnerable, and above all, inspiring and relatable. It told a story, and that’s why people began sharing it.

The further it spread, the more messages I received on Linkedin from fellow entrepreneurs thanking me for being a formidable voice of truth in a sphere that is muddled by overly-flowered talk.

Within a few days, I was a top writer in the “Inspiration” category. Within a month, I had made my first $89.65 on Medium. But it only took me a moment to recognize the signs and realize that the very creative outlet I had been searching for all these years was finally spotted; I realized then and there that what I genuinely love to do, and want to do with my time, is to write words that would inspire growth in others.

“In order to find the treasure, you will have to follow the omens… Learn to recognize omens, and follow them.”

— Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

I’ve been writing consistently for twelve months now, and the results have been incredible. From amateur to pro, I grew from zero articles to over 145 — of which, 97 were published on this platform.

My writing on Medium has since been viewed by almost 500,000 people. It has made me over $14,000 in extra income ($13,808 to be exact), helped me grow a newsletter from zero to 1,500 subscribers, and build a following on Medium of 6,200 followers. And that’s within my first year on Medium.

Now I want to share with you exactly how I did it.

But before we jump into it, it’s crucial that you understand these six universal truths about Medium:

1. You cannot control virality. Stop trying to write articles that will go viral, because virality is not something you can control. Yes, I know, viral articles will make you a lot of money, and sure, you can optimize to increase the chance of virality (add numbers in your headline, share intimate personal stories and weave into them credible sources), but the truth is, you never know when an article will go viral. Your sole objective then should be to publish quality content, frequently.
2. Just because one type of article does well, doesn’t mean a second will. My second viral — and most successful article — on Medium was a listicle of quotes. It’s sitting at 191,000 views. I wrote four more articles similar to it, and none of them have exceeded 10,000 views.
3. Just because one article is rejected from a publication, doesn’t mean it’s bad or that it won’t fit in another. Every single one of my articles that were rejected from one publication (because they weren’t “original” enough) was accepted into another and selected for further distribution.
4. Getting distributed (or “curated”) is the key, but sometimes non-curated articles will do even better — nevertheless, if your goal is to make money on Medium, then you must write to be curated. Once an article is selected for distribution, and as people continue to read it and clap for it, the algorithm will continue to spread it around — which means that it will continue to draw in potential earnings for you. An uncurated article, however, might do extremely well over a few days, but it won’t travel that far in time because the algorithm will not distribute it further across the platform. Therefore, if you’re writing on Medium with the intention of making money, then my advice is to learn the art of the curation game and play by those rules.
5. You have to play the long-game and compound your portfolio if you wish to build a constant stream of income. Last month, I published only 3 articles on Medium. It had been over a year since I last took a holiday, so I decided to travel and take a break from writing for a good three weeks. Still, I managed to earn $783.09 from Medium in October. But I didn’t earn this from the 3 articles I had published, I earned this from the bank of 90+ articles I had published over the year. In fact, the articles published in October weren’t even among my top 10 best-performing articles that month. That’s the power of compounding — you build yourself a portfolio that continues to pay you dividends over the long-run. So if you want to make money on Medium, you have to play the long-game.
6. The Pareto Principle always applies. My top 5 articles sum up to $9,500 in earnings, which means that these 5 articles account for 68% of my total earnings on Medium. In order words, 5% of my published work on Medium (5 articles out of 97) has brought in almost 70% of my income. Most likely, the same will be true for you.

So, how do you grow on Medium? First, dedicate your initial three months to learning the rules of the platform and figuring out how to play the game.

Take a look at the graph below. The left axis and the blue bars highlight the number of articles I published every month on Medium. The right axis and the red bars showcase the monthly income I made from Medium.

As you can see, it took me a total of 25 articles across three months before I began to see a significant spike in my earnings (which arrived in February). That’s when I went from $313.39 in January to $1,535.86 in February. And this spike can be attributed to one article that went viral — my best performing article thus far that has made me a lifetime earnings of over $4,500.

If you’ve ever had an article reach those numbers before, then I’m grateful we both got to experience this wonderful sensation that flows from virality. It’s both, humbling and exciting to have your work touch so many people.

However, as I mentioned earlier, you cannot control virality. What you can control is how you structure and optimize your articles — which helps you increase the chance of virality. And after studying top-performing articles, following the work of the most successful writers on the platform, and testing out my own ideas, here’s what I’ve learned:

Not all types of articles do well on Medium. So, if one of your primary objectives for writing on Medium is to build your writing voice and create a new revenue stream for yourself, then the smartest way to go about doing so is to write plenty of articles that have a high chance of being selected for distribution.

And while there is no magic formula you can follow, here are some guidelines:

1. Focus on the quality of the work you produce. Don’t just ramble on in a given piece, have a structure in place. Start with a strong attention-grabbing introduction, develop your narrative with the use of subheadings, and end the article with a compelling conclusion that relates back to your introduction. It’s much more effective to publish 2–3 quality pieces per week than it is to publish one average piece every day.
2. Make it personal and tell a good story. Medium is a story-telling platform — don’t forget that. The goal is to either share a story that’s personal and relatable or to scatter little snippets that relate back to your own experiences. The best stories are the simplest to understand. They move people. They express vulnerability and embody a human-like conversational tone. They are short, straight to the point, and void of unnecessary confusing details.
3. Backup your arguments with research and credible sources. If the introduction is what captures attention and the story is what sparks emotions, research is what gives you credibility. Curators want to see that your piece has been well-researched and backed by reputable sources before they select it for distribution.

Truth is, if you want to do well on Medium, you have to play by the platform’s rules and get your articles curated so they can be distributed. You want to leverage the algorithm to work for you, not against you.

Unfortunately, this also means that you will be limited in your creative expression. But the way I see it, that’s a blessing more than an issue. It provides clarity and focus: The articles I published on Medium are written with the intention of being selected for distribution. Most of the time, they’re presented in the form of listicles because as you can see from the screenshot below, five out of the six top-performing articles have numbers in their headlines.

And when I want to express myself creatively, as I please, I publish articles on my personal blog instead.

So instead of complaining about the downsides of Medium, embrace their guidelines and leverage the platform to work in your favor. Play their game on their platform, and create your own rules on yours.

The fact that you can get paid to write whatever you please is a privilege in and of itself. I am so grateful to have discovered Medium because to have made an extra $14,000 of income in this marvelous year of surprises that is 2020 is truly a blessing.

Second, track your output, and measure your progress — doing so will discipline you, help you stay motivated, and provide you with raw data so that you can make better decisions moving forward.

In a meta-analysis of 138 studies comprising 19,951 participants, professor Benjamin Harkin and his colleagues concluded that monitoring your progress toward a goal increases the likelihood that you would achieve that goal and that the more frequent the monitoring, the greater the chance of success.

As he explains in the Psychological Bulletin report: “Progress monitoring had larger effects on goal attainment when the outcomes were reported or made public, and when the information was physically recorded… The findings suggest that monitoring goal progress is an effective self-regulation strategy.”

For a writer, this knowledge is gold.

When you track and share your progress, you keep yourself motivated. The tracking allows you to see your evolution unfolding before your eyes and the sharing allows people to praise you not on your results, but on your process.

Tracking my progress is one of the three strategies I use to keep myself motivated to write. I’ve built myself a dashboard on Google Sheets named “Growth Tracker” to track and measure my progress; I do it for three reasons:

1. It keeps me motivated and inspires me to keep going. When I don’t feel like writing, I look at my Growth Tracker. When I see how far I’ve come, and recognize all the effort I’ve already put in and the growth I’ve experienced thus far, I get back on my chair and write. Sometimes, your growth can be your own source of inspiration.
2. It helps me stay disciplined. There’s nothing more satisfying than to publish an article and then log it onto your sheet. It gives you a sense of accomplishment and reinforces your sense of discipline.
3. It helps me make better decisions (because now I have data to work with). Just as how your stats on Medium highlight which stories did well and which didn’t and provide insights into what’s resonating with readers, tracking your work on a spreadsheet offers data that can help you make better decisions moving forward.

Here’s what my Growth Tracker looks like:

If you want to see the needle move, start tracking your progress and stop sharing your goals — start sharing what you’re actively doing, and stop sharing what you want to be doing.

Third, don’t aim to write every single day; instead, aim to be consistent with your writing and publishing schedule.

“You must publish every day” is advice that is thrown around a lot on this platform. Yeah, that doesn’t work for me. As you can see from my growth tracker above, I publish anywhere from 10–15 unique articles a month, with 12 being the average. Sure, I could do better, and yes, in the months when I slowed down, my earnings took a hit. But at this point, I’ve found the balance between quality and quantity and it’s working well for me.

Writing can be tedious sometimes, and yet, it’s your art of choice. Allow yourself the pleasure of toiling with the language of love. Why burn yourself out for an extra few articles a month? No, you don’t have to write and publish every single day. Instead, aim for consistency.

Work mindfully, not mindlessly.

I blocked out four slots on my calendar that are now dedicated to writing. This habit has turned into a routine which is now a ritual: Wake up, stretch, meditate, make coffee, and write. In a way, this allows me to only focus on what I can control — publishing three articles per week. Every extra article becomes a bonus for me to celebrate.

The message: Do what works well for your mental and emotional health. Find a routine that works well for you, and always aim for mindful consistency.

Finally, adopt “The Picasso Mindset” and create a system that allows you to sustain it.

In all his 78-year career, Picasso produced about 147,800 pieces: 13,500 paintings, 100,000 prints and engravings, 300 sculptures and ceramics, and 34,000 illustrations. If those numbers don’t speak of his determination and mindset, these famous eight words he once said will solidify it:

“Give me a museum and I’ll fill it.”

This daring attitude of “give me a museum and I’ll fill it” is what I call “The Picasso Mindset,” which exemplifies the will to be prolific. And it applies to any artist or creator in any creative domain.

If you want to thrive as a writer, painter, musician, or maker, there is one foundational rule you must live by: Produce more work. Write more. Paint more. Make more. Create more.

This idea has also been echoed by two great modern-day thinkers. In his book, Deep Work, Carl Newport explains that “if you wish to thrive in the new economy,” you must cultivate “the ability to produce at an elite level, in terms of both quality and speed.” And in The Originals, Adam Grant writes: “If you want to be original, the most important possible thing you could do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work.”

Perhaps less than 10% of Picasso’s creations have received praise, but it was only by producing the other 90% that he managed to create those masterpieces. The same applies to you: The more work you produce and publish as a writer, the higher chance you have of creating a piece that will generate viral buzz around it.

That’s because the more content you produce, the more you hone your skills, the more likely you are to carve out masterpieces.

But the only way to become prolific is to build a system that makes it easier for you to find your rhythm as soon as you sit down to write. This system should help you channel your creativity through higher productivity and connect different ideas to carve out new ones.

When it comes to writing, building a system is paramount because the truth is, the magic doesn’t happen in your writing; the magic happens in the system you build yourself to support your writing.

And once you build a system, you can become prolific.

As James Clear famously put it:

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

In this article, I share the eight apps and tools I use, and how to use them to shape a system that makes it easier to write. These tools are helping me become a better writer. And I believe that every writer needs these (or a version of them) in his or her toolkit.

In a nutshell, success on Medium — as with any other creative domain — is part art, part science.

In 2020, I made writing my “one thing.” I began to see myself as a writer and treating myself as one. I built a writing system, blocked out 3 hours per day to write, and promised myself to publish at least 3 articles per week (on Medium and my personal blog). Most importantly, however, I became a student of the craft of writing, and little by little, day by day, I practiced and improved.

The result? Fast forward less than one year later and I’ve gained 6,200 followers and earned over $14,000 on Medium. Yes, hard work does pay off, but also, you must play it smart.

Truth is, success on Medium is part art, part science.

The art part requires you to bring forth your personality, enthusiasm, and authenticity. The science part requires you to study the process, learn from the best, hone your skills, and strategize.

If I hadn’t written that initial story in the exact manner in which I personally express myself, it wouldn’t have sounded genuine. Maybe it wouldn’t have spread as quickly as it did. And yet, if I hadn’t taken the time to test and fail like a scientist, and study the work of others, maybe I wouldn’t have been able to grow as fast as I did on this platform.

So my advice to you is this: Be yourself. Find your voice and stay true to it. Leave a piece of you in every story that you publish. Let your personality shine through words. Don’t try and replicate the work of others, that inauthenticity can be smelled from miles away; instead, study, learn, and practice.

I’m so grateful for all the growth I’ve experienced on this platform, for all the readers who continue to read my work, and for all the kind souls within this community that continue to inspire me to keep writing.

And to you, fellow writer, I say: Write on.

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