How I Use Google Traffic To Make Money With Medium
Non-paying views can make you money, too
Medium only pays you when paying members read your stories, so why should you care about organic Google traffic?
Someone asked me a very similar question recently as a comment to my article, 5 Types of Keywords I Use To Drive Traffic To My Website.
I responded with a quick message, then realized the answer might deserve its own article. Personally, I use Google traffic to increase my “on Medium” and “off Medium” earnings from writing.
Here’s the gist of how I do it:
- Gauge interest in topics
- Get external clients
- Build my portfolio
- Direct traffic from Medium articles to my writing website or YouTube channel (where my content is monetized with display ads and affiliate offers)
Also, although I doubt the conversion rate is huge, some of the organic Google traffic probably does convert into paying Medium members. I believe you get something as a writer when a non-paying reader converts to a paying member in the first 30 days after using your link.
Let’s dive into each one of the bulleted topics.
How I Use Google Traffic To Gauge Interest in Topics
In the online world, we can track everything.
How many people are searching for a topic? What search terms they’re using to find information about that topic? How popular is content related to our niche on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter?
All of these questions help us gauge interest in topics so we know what’s worth writing about and what we should dismiss (perhaps for later).
There are a lot of ways to track interest in topics. In this section, I’ll talk about how you can use Google traffic data as the ultimate indication of whether or not people care about your topic.
One thing that most new bloggers don’t know is that Google traffic data can be used to measure interest in topics other than search terms.
A lot of bloggers only look at the number of people who are searching for a specific keyword term, but Google traffic data will also show you when your niche topic word or phrase is mentioned on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
The key is using free Google tools to set up a custom alert that will let you know when your niche topic is mentioned.
With Google Alerts, it’s as easy as entering the word or phrase you want notifications about and then letting Google work its magic.
Now anytime someone talks about your niche topic, you’ll receive an email straight to your inbox.
You can also check topic interest with:
- Google trends
- Ahrefs
- Quora
- Exploding Topics
Once Google traffic confirms that a topic is popular, I write more of those kinds of articles. It’s not a bullet-proof plan, but it’s worked pretty well for me so far.
How I Use Google Traffic To Get External Clients
Another way that I use Google traffic to earn more money on Medium is to attract external clients.
If I write articles that get hundreds or thousands of views per month from organic Google searches, then that is thousands of potential networking opportunities.
Some of those views turn into private messages, Linkedin contacts, and business opportunities. Some of these opportunities turn into paid contracts.
In a very real sense, Medium is paid publicity.
You get paid to build your online portfolio across a number of different topics. When a potential client asks me for a sample of my writing, I send them to one of my websites and to my Medium profile.
This approach shows your:
- Breadth of work
- Professionalism
- Writing style
It’s a win-win situation, in my opinion.
You write articles that make you some money on Medium but that also attract external clients that also pay for your services.
Direct Traffic From Medium Articles to My Website
You can also redirect traffic from your Medium articles to your personal website (or other location), which is monetized with display ads and affiliate offers.
I generally stay away from direct affiliate links in my Medium stories, but there’s nothing wrong with linking to a related informational article on my website that includes affiliate links.
Check out the example of how I linked out to my website in the following article:
Not all of the traffic that comes through my Medium article will head over to my website, but some will transfer. And all of those readers who read my website article equal money from display ads.
Those who also click on my affiliate links and purchase something earn me an additional commission.
The steps are pretty simple:
- Set up a free or cheap website (I like cheap, self-hosted sites so that you can earn the most money). One of my favorite combinations is Bluehost and WordPress.
- Write an article on your website that is monetized through display ads and affiliate offers.
- Write a Medium story on a related topic.
- Insert a link in your Medium story to your monetized website article.
Simply plopping a link into your Medium story can work, but what works even better is giving the reader an incentive to click on the link.
Almost any incentive helps prompt the click:
- Get Conversion.ai with a free 7-day trial
- Click here for free shipping
- I read this awesome book about gardening this weekend
- This AI writer already made me $3,000
The important point is to give the reader a gentle nudge to click the link.
Tips and Tricks To Get Google Traffic
If you want to drive more organic Google Traffic to your Medium articles, you need to know a few ways to easily boost that traffic.
Here are my favorite ways:
- Find high-volume keywords. Medium has a high domain authority so Google ranks Medium articles better than smaller websites (like my personal websites). You can rank for more competitive terms on Medium.
- Use basic SEO: Place high-volume keywords in titles, headlines, content bodies, images, etc.
- External links: Remember to link to your website article on a related topic that is also monetized.
By the way, speaking of monetization, I just learned that Ezoic recently opened up to any websites with no minimum monthly traffic limits. I recently switched my writing website from Google Adsense to Ezoic and instantly saw a threefold increase in display ad earnings.
It doesn’t cost anything to join Ezoic, and I’m very happy I switched to the platform.
Final Thoughts
Traffic from Google is a long game approach to earning more money on Medium, but it’s an easy way to double your income streams.
If you already have a website, most of your work is already done.
Now, you just find good keywords, write Medium articles, and link back to your website. You’re already writing articles, so this is probably not much of a change.
Even if you don’t have a website or don’t want to start one, you can still network, build your portfolio, and get clients or contracts through Google traffic.
Thanks for reading!
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