Summary

A software engineer wrote a $500 earning article on Medium in under 30 minutes, focusing on humorous Linux commands, and continued to refine it post-publication, leading to its viral success.

Abstract

The author, a programmer and non-native English speaker, leveraged their interest in writing to create content on Medium. In just three months, they crafted an article titled "7 Terminal Commands That Will Just Make You Smile," which earned $500. This piece, which took less than half an hour to write, targeted both technical and non-technical audiences by including detailed instructions and humor. After publication in the "Better Programming" Medium publication, the author enhanced the article with GIFs and a YouTube video to increase engagement, extending the average reading time. The article's success was unexpected, and the author admits there is no guaranteed formula for replicating such success on Medium, emphasizing the importance of continuous writing and improvement.

Opinions

The author believes in the power of content marketing, as evidenced by their strategic use of an odd number in the article's title to attract more attention.
They value the importance of audience targeting, aiming to make the content accessible to both professionals and newbies.
The author emphasizes the significance of visual elements, such as screenshots and GIFs, in making articles more engaging and easier to understand.
They acknowledge the role of editors and curators in enhancing the article's appeal through feature images and subtitles.
The author suggests that the time spent on an article does not directly correlate with its success or readership.
They advocate for continuous learning and improvement in writing, even after an article is published.
The author maintains that there is no definitive strategy for creating viral content on Medium, and success can sometimes be serendipitous.

How I Wrote a $500 Article in My First 3 Months on Medium

I kept working on it after I hit publish

$500 isn’t a huge amount of money. What if I told you I spent less than 30 minutes to make it?

I’m not writing this article to boast. Other writers’ tips and stories inspired me when I started out on Medium. So, here’s my story about what I’ve achieved in three months on Medium.

A Little Background

I’m a programmer and a non-native English speaker. I’ve been working as a software engineer for almost ten years. Recently, I’ve been pursuing an interest in writing — I’ve always enjoyed reading, but haven’t written too much.

I’m still a new player on Medium who started writing several months ago.

How I Wrote a $500 Piece

Since I’ve been practicing my writing skills on Medium, I think even more about the stuff I read online.

One day, I was reading a non-English article about funny Linux commands. I thought it was amusing. We don’t use these commands in daily work, but they provide a moment of humor for users. I thought why not write a similar article with Medium style? I needed more practice writing anyway.

So, I made this piece in less than 30 minutes:

7 Terminal Commands That Will Just Make You Smile

These tutorials don’t always have to be practical

medium.com

Using the content marketing skills I’ve learned on Medium, I put 7 in the title. (An odd number in the title attracts more attention). Since the previous article I read was for professionals, I wanted to expand my audience to newbies or non-technical readers. So, I included detailed instructions about how to install these command tools on operating systems, such as macOS.

I experimented with every command on my Mac. If it’s not available on Mac, I tried it on a virtual machine. For every listed command, I accompanied it with a screenshot.

I submitted the article to Better Programming and forgot about it since I didn’t put too much effort behind it. Better Programming is a Medium publication for IT professionals, such as software engineers. This article wasn’t super technical, so there was a possibility it wouldn’t get accept. I figured I would post it on my page if it didn’t get picked up. Why not give it a try?

Surprisingly, Zack Shapiro(Better Programming’s editor) accepted and published it quickly. An editor added a lovely feature image and subtitle with a bit of humor: These tutorials don’t always have to be practical.

Medium curators distributed it amongst software engineering and programming articles.

The number of reads and claps began to snowball.

How I Continue to Craft It

About two days later, I reread this piece and thought about how I could improve it.

The article wasn’t long with only 300 words. How could I improve the average reading time?

Make it more attractive.

Screenshots weren’t enough, so I decided to make GIFs for each command. I hadn’t created a GIF on Mac before and found a handy tool called LICEcap through a Google search.

I even inlined a YouTube video on the page. My goal was to make the article easy to read — the average reading time was 1 minute 2 seconds.

Continue updated to 1000$ several months latter

What I Learned From It All

I took an existing idea and targeted it perfectly to my audience.

I produced a piece quickly and then continued to edit it after hitting publish — using a workable strategy for this type of article.

Another thing I learned is excellent illustration is a must to go viral.

Final Thoughts

How can you reproduce this? Honestly, I don’t know.

I learned something from this piece, but I’m not sure how to clone its success. There’s no ultimate success formula for Medium articles. All we can do is write more and better.

I’ve written other articles that take way more than 30 minutes, and with much fewer reads. You’d think the more time you spend on an article, the bigger the payoff, but that’s not always the case.

From the beginning, I write because I enjoy it, not to earn money. I’ll continue honing my craft and will be better than yesterday.