How I Made 5,613.47 on Medium in January

What you need to hit four figures a month from writing and have the same amount land in your bank account.

The best and only thing that one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration. — The War of Art

I’m just trying to help you

It doesn’t concern me at all when people poo-poo these I-made-X-amount-of-money posts. Most who do turn around and write one. Men write about income all the time, and it’s normal — more ‘acceptable.’

I’m changing things. Send me a snarky email. It means I’m on the right path.

This past month I made close to $6K from Medium alone. It isn’t about “Ha, look at me, I’m so great.” I’m an average writer. I know I’m not Jenny Offill or Jane Austen.

What I do have that many don’t is,

persistence.

This is about showing you, you can make money as well. If you want to. If you are willing to give up some things, mostly rigid mindsets stopping you and getting in the way of your dreams.

When I started writing on Medium over a year ago, these how-I-made-enough-money-from-one-story-on-Medium-to-pay-my-mortgage-for-a-year posts made me take the leap. Made me say, “F*^k fear. Screw judgment. Bye resistance.”

I’m taking the chance, and if I’m not good, if people think I’m a terrible writer, if no one sees me, then I’ll keep elevating my writing until they do.

January’s Stats:

• 20 stories published
• No big publications except one story in Illumination and one in Curious
• Published mostly in my own publications, The Write Path and The Happy Spot as well as The Partnered Pen
• 1000+ new Medium followers for a total of 8.5K
• $5,613.47 earned in January

Here are some changes you may need to make to keep pursuing your potential

1. Don’t complain *and* don’t beat yourself up

My earnings have increased steadily, but not as fast as I want.

Once again, in December, I wanted to stop writing. I was feeling sorry for myself, not making the 10K a month I think I should be making. I vented my frustration to a successful writer on this platform, and he said, “keep writing, concentrate on the writing.” I felt stupid for complaining and took his advice (the same advice I continually give my readership, but sometimes we need a kick in the a** from someone we admire). I wrote. And had one of my highest earning months.

So, I keep writing.

2. Procrastination will kill your writing dreams

Don’t let procrastination stop you from starting.

We don’t tell ourselves, “I’m never going to write my first blog post.” Instead, we say, “I’m going to write my first blog post tomorrow.” Riding shotgun with procrastination is rationalization. There is always something to do, a family member who needs help, laundry to clean, a meal to shop for and cook. We don’t just put off our lives today: we put off our lives until we die.

Start today. Got to Medium. Sign up for an account. Join the Medium Partner Program. Write something and hit publish. See what happens. You might just surprise yourself.

You may have a totally different life a year from now.

3. Be you — then you won’t have any competition

You are the only you. Everyone has a bit of genius in them. Everyone is creative.

If you write, you’re a writer.

Whatever you believe in — God or the universe/energy — (I believe in the latter) she or it endowed each of us with our own unique genius. We are all creators.

I’m a humanist, I believe each individual has value.

Genius is a Latin word. The Romans used it to denote an inner spirit, holy and inviolable, which watches over us, guiding us to our calling.

A writer writes with her genius: an artist paints with his; everyone who creates operates from this sacramental center. It is our soul’s seat, the vessel that holds our being-in-potential, our star’s beacon and Polaris. — Steven Pressfield

When I am honest, myself, and confident in my writing and potential, I pen my best, most authentic, and readable posts. Basically, when I don’t try to be someone else, except for me.

Lean into who you are. Don’t try to be anyone else. They are already taken. As much as I want to write like Jenny Offill, I can’t.

I can be the best writer for me.

4. Agitate a problem — make your readers think

I have a knack for this, and probably why I should have been a trial lawyer. I grew up challenging my authoritarian father. It’s encoded in my matrix — the tracks laid down long ago. I have no problem sharing opinions, even ones that might not be popular.

This is good.

When you have a strong opinion about something, that is a clue you need to write about it. It means you are interested in it, and chances are your passion will translate to the reader.

Positive comments thrill me, but I also like negative ones. I turned an answer to a negative comment from a reader into an entire blog post, and it is one of my highest read posts about relationships — because I believed strongly in my response. People are touchy about divorce because every human can relate to loss.

It means I hit a nerve when readers react, share, comment, question. It tells me I hit on something interesting, that people are different, and that is the beauty. Just don’t take negative comments (or positive ones for that matter) personally.

People are entitled to their opinions, and the nasty ones say more about that person than what you wrote.

5. Reinvest in yourself and your writing career

I’m a big believer in education, formal and non-formal. Reading a book a week is the secret to not running out of ideas to write about. There is just too much content that I can’t get to write about all the things I want to write about with only 24 hours in a day.

After I pay myself, then my bills, I invest in further knowledge.

I have invested a lot of money in my writing career — online courses, editors, writing classes, marketing courses. I took a writing class at UCLA that cost me a good chunk of money, but it has come back to me ten-fold in all the ways I’ve grown as a writer and the money I’ve made from writing.

I’m a better writer and marketer because of these courses.

With part of my January earnings, I’m purchasng a standing desk. The amount of time sitting at my desk is negatively impacting my health. The pandemic sealed the deal on not moving as much as I used to. Sitting for hours a day has wreaked havoc on my body; it is time to invest so I can keep writing.

6. Writing is the means for catharsis. You have to have thick skin to write. It’s OK to unabashedly want to make money from your work

It doesn’t matter to me what you believe about my story or how I make my money. I wrote a piece about how my ex-husband handled his divorce from me, and the nasty comments rolled in — negative comments equal engagement. I made a large chunk of money from that story, and any residual pain from my divorce — although I don’t have any — was released after I penned that story, the cherry on top was the money I made from it.

Sweetness. I unabashedly love money.

Money makes me sleep well at night, and a solid 8 to 9 hours of sleep is one of my top priorities.

Money is essential for buying experiences — a course, a hike for three months on the Camino de Santiago, a trip to another country, freedom to be able to afford those things and the time to enjoy them, as well as freedom from worry about not being able to pay bills or for an emergency.

Since trying to make money and saving a lot of it, money keeps coming to me. Have respect for the money you make, and you’ll make more.

7. Beware of sabotage by those closest to you

“The awakening artist must be ruthless, not only with herself but with others. Once you make your break, you can’t turn around for your buddy who catches his trouser leg on the barbed wire. The best thing you can do for that friend (and he will tell you this himself, if he really is your friend) is to get over the wall and keep mutating.” — The War of Art

I read a comment on a Medium-centric Facebook group from a woman who said her husband is not happy she is writing stories about her past. The story in question was one of an experience she had before she met and married him.

I rarely comment on Facebook posts. But I wrote, “tell him they are your stories to tell. You are a creative — you must write.”

I sympathize with this woman.

The moment I signed up for that writing class at UCLA, my husband had an affair, was resisting sharing parental duties for our toddler, and I had a hard time giving the class what it deserved — what I deserved.

If someone wants the best for you, they want you to follow your dreams.

Sometimes, those closest to us act strange when we start to write. I have a theory on why this is. My theory is everyone wants to be a writer. Everyone. “I’m a writer,” sounds high-minded, glamorous almost. Oh, look at me, I’m a writer, I get paid for words I make up in my head and put into coherent sentences. People read my thoughts because they are so original.

That is my theory. When someone asks the question, “What do you?” There is a lot of romance and allure when the answer is, “I’m a writer.”

Little do they know how much work is involved compared to how much you’re paid.

Resistance from other people prevents us from doing our work. Don’t let that happen.

“If you find yourself criticizing other people, you are probably doing this out of Resistance. When we see others beginning to live their authentic selves, it drives us crazy if we have not lived out our own.” The War of Art

If you read my work, you know I write about the same practical ways to make it on Medium. I’ve been here for a while.

Here is a small recap in case you’re new to my writing.

• Headline — I have written about headlines a lot, I can’t stand the word. In the online world, until you have name recognition, take the headline as seriously as you do anything — more. It should be unique or emotional, or both, preferably. A good title piques curiosity. Make sure your title delivers on what it promises. Here are some of my headlines that did well.
• My Husband’s Mistress Canceled the Food Order for My Daughter’s Sixth Birthday Party
• My Husband’s Mistress Can Keep My Husband, but I Want the Anthropologie Dress Back
• How My Lawyer and My Husband Taught Me The Gift of Non-reaction
• Jeff Bezos Ruined My Grocery Store
• How I Write and Publish a Blog Post a Day
• The One Book That Will Change Your Life
• Four Myths about the Electoral College and Three Ways to Get Rid of It

They are all specific, tell a story and are intriguing.

The word “mistress” is emotional. The One Book That Will Change Your Life — this is my highest read post (168K views and counting). It won’t work now because Medium is “cracking down” on clickbait. Whatever that means. I might try this again, though, and see what happens. Medium can’t stop me from adding “The One” in a title. It just might not get curated. Big deal.

• The lead — After the title, your first three sentences — or the lead — is the most important part. Make it compelling. You have to grab the reader and try not to lose him/her by writing a compelling intro. Ask yourself, would I keep reading after I read the first sentence, the second, and so on. Agitate the reader with stats, opinions, problems they want the solution to. Ask a question your audience is burning to know and make sure you answer the question later on down the post or close the loop. The title is a recap of what you are now getting to in the text.
• Write with the reader in mind — After you write, read aloud with your reader’s cap on. You are now the reader. Not the writer. You were the writer when you were writing, but now read as the reader would. Is it helpful? Is it entertaining? Does it have flow? What about structure?
• Quantity leads to quality — No matter what any writer says, consistency leads to quality. The quantity of your content is more important than any single piece you write. Focus on quantity to get to quality. When you’ve become a better writer through all the words you’ve written, take it up a notch. Take a class, hire an editor, but focus on quantity first. Build the muscle, so it is less likely you quit. It will be harder to continue if you don’t figure out how to sit in the chair every day.
• Forget claps — Claps aren’t indicative of success anymore. Read time, engagement (comments) is what you seek. A few stories of mine with few claps have made me the most money. For instance, readers don’t usually clap for posts talking about sex, for example.
• Forget stats — In the beginning, don’t worry about stats, curation, claps — just write. I rarely look at my stats, and they keep moving in the right direction — UP! Do you know why? Because I write. A lot.
• Just write — Just write first. Once you build the muscle — this takes a while — you start doing more of what works. You will grow a readership by just writing. Your audience will let you know what content they want more of.
• Get through the hard part first — You have to get through the toughest part — it’s not the writing part that is hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write.

“What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.” — Steven Pressfield

Summary

I don’t think twice about posting these kinds of articles. They relate what is possible. I’m not interested in the audience who has a problem with what I share or earn or teach.

Or those who don’t want to hear about possibility.

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Jessica is a writer, an online entrepreneur, and a recovering type-A personality. She lives in Los Angeles with her extrovert daughter, two dogs, and two cats.