How I Organically Went From $95 to $1750 in 4 Months on Medium

Spoiler alert: none of my stories went viral

You know, I was about to start this story in the usual manner, by telling you something along the lines of,

“This is another one of those stories about Medium earnings, which I’m sure you’re tired of, but I couldn't help but share with you…”

But no. Since you’re here, you want to read about how much a Medium writer can earn, so let’s go right ahead and skip that BS.

I was kinda reluctant to write this story because I’m a super private person and revealing the exact amount of money I make from one of my income streams felt a little weird.

However, since I was a beginner writer on Medium myself only some months ago, I decided that if my story could help even one of you improve your writing game and increase your earnings, I should give it a shot and write it.

To be clear, this story isn’t about:

• Me boasting about my earnings.
• Me trying to sell you a Medium course (although I don’t think there’s anything wrong with selling such courses).
• Me describing how one of my stories went viral.

Instead, with this story, I’m gonna simply explain what worked for me to go organically from $95 to $1,800 in 4 months here on Medium, and what didn’t, in hopes that you will draw some inspiration that might help you in your own writing journey.

So, let’s dive right in.

How It All Went Down

I actually discovered Medium in May 2020 and published my first story a couple of days later. To my surprise, it was instantly curated (distributed), and I took it as a good sign to continue publishing.

(Note: this story was actually self-published, but later I added it to the Hello, Love pub.)

Unfortunately, I continued publishing, taking no time to actually study the platform and learn more about curation(now distribution), publications, and which formating style/topics worked best here.

As a result, I went on to publish 15 or so mediocre stories that didn’t do so well (even though most of them were curated/distributed).

So, it wasn’t until late August/early September that I started taking Medium seriously, and I’m proud to say that I went from $94.59 to $1,750 in 4 months. I didn’t write like crazy, I didn’t publish every day, and I didn’t lose any sleep. It all happened organically.

Now, because this article refers to the earning period between September and January, and you might be wondering what my recent (February) earnings look like, here’s a screenshot of them as well:

As you can see, February was a great month for me as well, even a little better than January.

Now, let’s see what did/didn’t work for me and what the hell do I mean by “organically”.

So, by “Organically” You Mean…?

Most of the success stories about Medium are all about a writer explaining how one or two of their stories went viral. They usually start with something like this:

“I’ve been writing on Medium for *insert a number* of months, and none of my articles did well. Then, suddenly, one of them went viral. I couldn’t believe it. So, here’s what I did…”

The thing about viral articles is that they make you a couple of thousands for two, maybe three months, and…well, that’s it. It doesn’t prove anything. One viral hit doesn’t mean anything. And you definitely can’t explain why it went viral.

If you keep getting viral hits, however, that’s a different thing. That clearly proves you’re a great writer with a unique voice.

Okay, I don’t mean that if you don’t get viral hits you’re not a good writer. You know what I mean. We’re just discussing viral hits right now.

In my case, I didn’t get any viral hits. I didn’t have any commissioned articles. All of my earnings came directly from the Medium Partner Program and they grew(along with my views and followers) slowly but steadily. Or, as I like to say, organically.

Here’s what worked and what didn’t work for me.

What Worked for Me: Writing (Almost) Every Day

When I decided to start taking writing on Medium more seriously, I was lucky enough to have a lot of free time on my hands — and the time needed to be able to write daily.

I didn’t aim for a specific amount of words every day, because I knew that would put a lot more pressure on me and hurt my creativity.

Plus, besides writing here (I also write articles and blog posts for a couple of clients) I’m also a freelance translator, and the amount of words I need to translate every date (and consequently the amount of free time I have) varies depending on the orders I get.

In other words, I tried not to focus so much on the number of words I wrote every day (it could be 500, 800, or 1,500 words), but on the fact that I actually sat down and wrote something. That was enough for me.

Now, the “almost” part simply means that I didn’t push myself to write when I was super tired, was in pain, or didn’t feel very well. I mean, have you ever tried to write an article while having a migraine? Believe me, you shouldn’t.

What Didn’t Work for Me: Publishing Every Day

I usually write 1,000–1,500-word articles, and most of them are super detailed and are written after a lot of research.

When I tried to give it a go and try publishing an article every day for a week, well, let’s just say it didn’t go well.

I felt a lot of pressure, and that pressure hurt my creativity, made me anxious, and kept me from enjoying writing as much as I usually do. As a result, almost all 7 articles I wrote during that week, were a flop.

Of course, publishing every day would have been easier if I aimed for shorter articles, but I’ve found that (in my case, at least) long articles (anything above 1,000 words) tend to do a whole lot better than shorter ones.

Now I publish an average of 15 stories per month.

What Worked for Me: Contributing To Small Pubs

Because a picture is worth a thousand words, this section is gonna be all about screenshots.

So, long story short, all my most successful articles are in small publications. Let me give you some examples.

This one is in Hello, Love (currently followed by 16.1K people).

This one is also in Hello, Love.

This one is in Curious (currently followed by 35K people).

And this one is in Books Are Our Superpower (currently followed by 6K people).

You’ve probably heard it before, but I’m gonna say it again: you don’t necessarily need big pubs to gain views/money/followers.

Examples follow.

What Didn’t Work for Me: Publishing in Big Pubs

Pretty much all of Medium’s big publications have published multiple of my articles: The Ascent, The Writing Cooperative, Better Marketing, P.S. I Love You, The Startup. Oh, and I also have one in Mind Cafe.

All of them, and I literally mean ALL of them got few views and brought me little to no money at all.

For example, this one was published in Better Marketing (currently followed by 122K people):

This one was published in The Ascent (currently followed by 161K people):

This one was published in The Writing Cooperative (currently followed by 233K people):

And this one was published in P.S. I Love You (currently followed by 282K people):

The truth is, because I love writing and I’m not doing it just for the sake of making money, I’ll continue submitting to most of these bigger pubs. But, since I still have to pay the rent and my articles have done much better in smaller pubs, I will contribute more to them.

Note: I actually find it soothing that big pubs don’t equal many views/big earnings. If you’ve been rejected a lot by them recently, no worries! Your articles can actually do much better if you submit them to smaller pubs.

What Worked for Me: Doing Things My Own Way, as Best as I Could

As I mentioned above, when I first started writing here, I read a lot of success stories and writing advice from other Medium writers.

Some advised to write every day, some advised to write whenever you felt like it. One article emphasized the importance of publishing every day, and another the importance of increasing your followers by following a specific number of other writers every day.

What I'm trying to say is that everyone will offer you different pieces of advice, and it’s up to you to see whether you’ll follow them. Just because something worked for someone else, doesn’t mean it’s gonna work for you, especially when it comes to online writing.

Try different things, see what works best for you, and stick to it. Don’t aim to step into somebody else’s shoes. Do things your own way, as best as you can— it’s the best strategy.

Which brings me to…

What Didn’t Work for Me: Reading Success Stories

Although I’m generally not a competitive person and usually other people’s success inspires me, I gotta admit that, a couple of months ago, I reached a point where success stories disheartened me and even made me question my writing skills.

One thing I ALWAYS advise newbie writers is to NOT overdo it with the success stories. Read a couple of them, get inspired/motivated, and move on.

Don’t read them every day. Take a break. Otherwise, you’re bound to start comparing yourself, become overwhelmed with money-related thoughts, and hurt your writing game in the long-run.

I really hope some things I wrote here will help you in your own writing journey — and remember, everyone has their own. Keep writing, keep reading, and don’t give up. If I can earn four figures per month by writing here, so can you.