How I Made $23 on Medium in My First 15 days (and You Can Too)

Everything I’ve learned in a nutshell.

I started writing on Medium a few months ago. I published a few articles and quit. Mostly because I got too excited and started neglecting my life entirely. I wasn’t even looking to make any money. I just wanted to start writing again. But I realized I wasn’t ready.

I joined Medium again in August after learning more self-control or so I’d like to believe and discovered the Medium Partners Program. I thought long and hard. I took 17 days to make up my mind, be brave and apply for it.

That month I earned $23. That is in less than 15 days - I had made $23. That too with less than 10 articles published. I was still learning the ropes of Medium.

My most personal story earned me the most. It earned me $11.59 in those 15 days. It also gained me the most followers. Its the story given below.

So what did I learn from my first month on Medium? Here are some tips that I would like to share with you:

• Find someone who has already achieved what you want to achieve on the platform. Read their content to learn from them. For me, that was Asad. He makes hundreds of dollars every month. His articles motivated me and helped me understand Medium better. I’m lucky to have found him. There are many other successful writers on Medium who share their stats and strategies. Read and implement.
• Find your group of people. Medium is not your average blogging platform. It’s a community. You can make friends here with people whose articles you enjoy reading. Read, clap and comment from your heart. You will see people returning that courtesy. I have a group of people whose articles I read regularly because they are good writers.
• Long articles are good but short are better. 3–4 minutes is ideal. Some articles can be shorter and some longer. But try to keep an average of 3–4 minutes.
• Make sure the paragraphs in your articles aren’t huge. People need breaks while reading. Shorter is easier to read.
• Read. Find more people branch out. Spend at least 30 minutes reading, clapping and commenting on articles from different people on Medium every day. If not every other day. Or at least once in every three days. The more gap you give the more time you need to spend on the platform to meet more people. To get exposure and to learn as well.
• Join publications. This was probably the hardest part for me to understand and navigate. I published articles in different publications and on my own too. I found that some publications have great communities. I also learned a lot while joining publications and editing through them.
• I’ll say this once. Don’t write to earn money. Write because you enjoy writing. It should excite you. The money is a bonus. It’s the added excitement and the instant dopamine hit. Put the process at the top.

I’m not an expert on Medium. Not yet. But I’m doing good for a beginner. I’ve read many articles that people don’t earn much during their initial days. But so far I’ve made a decent amount for a beginner even for the month of September.

Stay tuned to find my September earnings and learning’s.

Authors note: I’m trying my hand in different writing topics as the stories I read here and their authors have been inspiring me.