How I Wrote a $4000 Medium Article and What Happened Next

All the lessons, including all the mistakes I made

I wrote an article that went super-viral, earned me some serious cash and gave me a lot of exposure.

So how did it happen, and what happens once it happens?

This article aims to explore why it went viral (hint: it provided value that didn’t exist elsewhere) and more importantly, how a viral hit, one that continues to have traction and a ludicrously high Google ranking, actually changes things for you, the writer.

This is a behind the curtains reveal of the before, during and after a big hit, including how I missed out on some serious money.

This story might help you reassess what you’re aiming for with writing on Medium and what to expect if you “make it big”.

Let’s get into it.

First, let’s look at the article in question

This is the article that went viral:

‘I Bought a Year of Tony Robbins Coaching and Here’s What It’s Like.’

I’ve been contributing to Medium since 2016 but at the time of publishing, I hadn’t monetised my work at all. I didn’t even know how to do that.

Naively, I assumed that because I was paying a monthly membership fee, somehow the money would just turn up if I got the views. I didn’t think any more about it, nor did I care, I just wanted to write. This was a big mistake.

Lesson One: Be prepared.

I was caught unawares when the article went viral and missed out on a sizeable initial payment.

More on this folly later, including the facts and figures involved.

Firstly, let me explain my reasons for writing the article as it ties into why and how it went super-viral.

The “why” for writing it is why it went viral

Before I bought a year of Tony Robbins coaching, I searched high and low for a comprehensive review of the process, what it entailed, how it worked and what results I could expect. There was nothing online offering this information, no videos, no articles, nothing.

At most, I found a scattering of information, the sort of 3-line reviews you might find for a kettle on Amazon.

That wasn’t good enough.

I wanted to know details before I handed over thousands of pounds to a coach, but instead, I was forced to take a leap of faith due to the lack of available testimonials.

After the coaching had ended, over a year later, I decided to write a tell-all article so the information was finally out there.

I firmly believe my article plugged a glaring content gap.

In fact, I cannot believe somebody had not written something like this before, and this is why it went viral.

Lesson Two: Look for gaps in knowledge or information that you could plug.

A quick behind the curtains look at the writing process

The article took a couple of months to write because I dug through a year’s worth of notes. I wanted to include all my sticking points, the methodologies used and my personal feelings at each stage of the process, which was anything but linear.

The article needed to address everything I wanted to know before I bought the coaching, else my words wouldn’t have served their purpose. It had to be an exercise in over-sharing.

I wrote it mostly on the Medium phone app. I jotted down ideas and added endless notes that I later organised into readable paragraphs on a laptop.

I’m happy to admit I lost interest in writing it several times. I didn’t expect anyone to read it, for me it was a passion project I undertook for the sake of completion.

What happened when I pressed publish

I was clueless about Medium at this point, so I self-published the article and then submitted it to The Start Up once it was live.

If I had taken the process seriously, I would have submitted the draft version to The Start Up, or even tried to pitch it to one of Medium’s own publications.

Lesson Three: Don’t rush to publish an article as you might be selling it short.

At the time, I didn’t much care if it got picked up by a publication. No one read my work anyway. I’ve been writing on the internet since 2004 to silence, so why would I expect any different now?

The Start Up accepted it almost immediately. Thankfully, they are one of the largest publications on Medium and had been generous enough by making me a contributing writer the year before.

In the small window of time before they accepted the article, it was curated by Medium itself and another publication asked me if they could have it under their name.

It was at this point I figured it might be popular.

Going viral — Let’s talk money and views

It went live Feb 15 and straight away Medium began pinging me with notifications; someone highlighted a couple of passages, someone else commented or clapped. It repeated and gathered momentum. Within a week it got over 10,000 hits in one day.

Here are the stats for the first 2 weeks it went live:

As mentioned, regrettably, I did not have this article monetised during that initial peak.

Lesson Four: Always monetise your work.

I eventually put it behind a paywall on Feb 28 and on Feb 29 (represented by the furthest right of the above graph), it made $112.63 in one day, so goodness knows what the unmonetised 2 weeks would have earned me. I’m guessing somewhere in the region of $2000+.

I call this a “$4000” article but in reality, it’s probably more.

Side note: When I monetised the article, I asked Medium’s help-desk if I could receive the back-dated earnings from the 2 weeks when it was live without monetisation, and they flatly ignored my email. I guess that’s a no, then.

Here are March’s stats for the article:

Popularity tapers off, but bear in mind each day in the second half of March it was still earning me somewhere between $20-$30 a day.

Here are the full views and earnings for the article’s lifespan so far, February to September 2020:

Due to the initial peak, the graph suggests it didn’t receive many views after February, but it very much did. That is where the $3,576.94 earning have come from so far, after the peak.

It currently sits with a total of 104k views and 16k claps.

This article is also a Google wonder-hit.

If you type in “Tony Robbins Coaching”, it’s the first hit after the actual Tony Robbins site. This has helped it stay buoyant after all these months.

Lesson: SEO matters for the longevity of your work.

What happens to a writer after a viral hit

So what happens after you create a bonafide, evergreen, viral hit? The short answer is, not much. Everything goes back to normal.

The longer, less disheartening answer is things do happen.

I have experienced some residual benefits to going viral, nothing career-changing, but they are benefits nonetheless. Let’s take a look:

1) Medium followers and views

My Medium followers climbed from 100 to 1.1k in 6 months. In comparison, gaining my initial 100 followers took me 4 years.

Despite this follower increase, it has had little impact on my story views, leading me to suggest followers do not mean much.

However, after some investigation, it seems there is a tipping point. As Danny Forest pointed out, all the top writers on Medium have huge followings, normally 10k+.

Also, as of September 2020, Medium’s new configuration promises to promote an author’s work more directly to their followers, so this may compound the followers = views equation.

2) Follow up views and earnings

A handful of my stories have done well since the coaching article but they have all got traction through popular publications, such as P.S. I Love You.

These reads are separate from my followers.

Lesson Five: Publications matter.

To provide some sobering context, none of these articles have earned me one-tenth of the Tony Robbins article.

My second most popular article has 3.1k views, compared to 104k views, and has earned me $118. I’m not ungrateful for those numbers, but I believe it’s my best work and it is sitting in a very well-read publication and still has mediocre results.

Currently, the Tony Robbins article still provides the majority of my Medium income whilst all other stories hop along earning about $5-$30 a month.

As of September 2020, I’m set to earn about $90, which is beyond terrible for what I have enjoyed since February.

Lesson: Going viral once will not create a steady income from writing.

3) Social Media Following

I linked to both my YouTube and Twitter accounts within the Tony Robbins article and subsequently, both these accounts have increased by about 50 followers each. This is very little impact.

The Tony Robbins explainer video I made has also been viewed a few thousand extra times, but I’m not able to monetise my YouTube channel (too little subscribers) so it has made no odds to me financially.

Lesson Six: Medium popularity does not translate across platforms.

4) Other Opportunities

My former Tony Robbins coach was sent the article by one of his students and it prompted him to get back in touch with me. We now have a good friendship from this shared experience. He also hired me as his ad-hoc video editor which has provided me with some welcome extra income.

It’s also worth noting that the Tony Robbins coaching cost me £3700. I’ve made nearly all of that money back from the viral article alone.

Ironically, the article stated I made no extra income from coaching, but the video editing fees plus the Medium payments mean I am back in “profit” from my investment.

Of course, coaching should not be judged solely on monetary profit and loss, nor should writing on Medium.

Each story we write brings with it a honing of skills and experience to serve us in the long term and can open doors to new opportunities at any time.

Lesson Seven: The earning power of an article isn’t its only benefit.

Final thoughts and a summary of lessons learned

Let’s recap the lessons peppered throughout this article:

• Be prepared for people to be interested in your work
• Look for gaps in knowledge or information that you could plug with your articles
• Don’t rush to publish an article as you might be selling it short
• Always monetise your work (crucial!)
• SEO matters for the longevity of your work
• Publications matter if you want fresh eyes to look at your writing
• In the long run, going viral once will not create a steady income from writing
• Medium interest does not readily translate across platforms
• The earning power of an article isn’t its only benefit

If you’re hoping a big hit will establish you as a writer, I can surely say it will not, though it might be a stepping stone to a much longer path to success.

The successful writers on Medium work hard, plug at it continuously and brand themselves accordingly. They also run popular publications and have other writing ventures outside of Medium, including their own blogs and mailing lists.

Each of these writers have numerous viral hits to their name, and with each hit comes new followers and exposure. It isn’t about going viral once, it’s about consistency.

This experience has shown me that articles go viral if they are well written and provide value, especially if the value not readily available elsewhere. It’s maintaining this quality of work that’s the real challenge.

Find your own voice, hone your skills, be consistent with your efforts and write from the heart. Remember, authenticity always wins in the end.

Good luck, enjoy the process and if you write a viral hit, enjoy! It won’t change your life or career, but it might change your mindset, and like coaching, that in itself is worth thousands of dollars.

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