How Indie Writers Can Make a Killing on Medium without Selling-Out
There’s a better way than running the treadmill of locked posts and curation
Making money from locked posts is a great side income. I’ll be the first to admit it. Since I’ve started doing this, I’ve been nothing but pleasantly surprised with the extra cash.
But there’s an even better way for writers to make a killing here.
And you don’t have to rely on locked posts or selling your soul for claps and read time. This method isn’t for the feint of heart or for those looking for a quick fix. This method is cumulative — taking months, even years to set the flywheel in motion. This is hard, but rewarding work.
Once the flywheel’s in motion, your opportunities are limitless.
As a content creator you’ve got a huge opportunity on this platform. The audience is big — and growing. Medium is still in its infancy as far as some of the bigger players go. You’re in at the ground floor and it’s really exciting.
Most indie authors have no idea Medium exists, really!
It may feel like you’re a small fish here, but look at the biggest accounts on Medium, the top writers have hundred of thousands of followers, not millions as they do on other platforms. This means you’ve entered the arena before it’s over-saturated. You could not be here at a better time.
Most indie authors on Medium don’t fully-understand the secret I’ll share.
As indie writers we’ve got three big income options for us with this method. Medium is the perfect platform for building all of them. In a minute I’ll share each option in detail, but before that, we’ve got to pinpoint the key linchpin that ties this X-Factor together.
The secret sauce is your email.
If you stick with me, here, I’ll show how you can make a fantastic living as an indie writer, without hiring a team of assistants or ever stepping foot in an office again.
(Tap here to enroll and get your first lesson instantly)
Why email?
Email is the great equalizer — the final frontier. With email, you compete at the same level as the big publishers. It doesn’t matter if you’re an indie author with your first book, tenth book, or no book. We all get the same treatment in the queue of our reader’s in-box.
We’ll use the power of targeted Medium posts to grow your audience.
Instead of running the hamster wheel for a few pennies per locked post you can use unlocked posts to grow your email list (I go into this deeper in my free course below).
No, you won’t make a dime off these unlocked articles, so I think it’s best to write both locked and unlocked posts. Your locked posts will bring in additional subscribers, but not at the rate as the widely-read articles. We don’t want to trip over dimes to make dollars. Email makes the dollars, but it’s a loooong game. Patience is a must.
There’s greater income in the long-game.
Email for indie authors is a long, hard game. It takes sweat and work to build a list, write all the content, test your copy, and build your personal publishing empire. But once you create everything it’s done. Save for a few minor tweaks, you create the work once and sell it forever — automatically, versus the endless stream of article-writing with locked posts.
Growing an email list is not selling out.
This is smart business and you are a smart business owner. Even if you want to stay a one-writer shop. You’ve got to own your platform. If you depend on someone else’s platform for all your income, you financial life can be snuffed overnight. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Amazon, even Medium can shut you down for any reason they choose — taking you entire income stream with it.
When you own your list you own your life.
Although email is not for everyone — which is a good thing, since there’s enough competition already — it may be for you. You’re already a writer. You’ve got the hard part licked. Now all you need to do is use your superpowers for good. Not that I’m judging your current intentions.
When you own your email you give your reader the perfect, measured experience.
Email is really hard. I cannot say this enough. We all start our lists at zero. We nurture and grow them over time. We build solid, lasting relationships with our readers and occasionally we sell them our writing. Once the momentum starts it’s easier to grow. The first one hundred subscribers are the hardest. It’s like getting a freight train started from a dead-top.
Once the train is moving it can take up to a mile of track to stop it.
The same is true for your email momentum. You’ll get a trickle of subscribers here and there. You’ll build a small list, then a larger list, then a full-time income, then a killing. There’s a process. You can’t skip steps. But you’ll get there if you’ll willing to do the work. Start with the Tribe 1K course below.
(Tap here to enroll and start your indie publishing empire)
Your three big income opportunities
As an indie writer you’ve got three big income streams at your disposal. You won’t have to leave your yacht or your summer house in France. All you need is an internet connection and a whole lot of discipline to create valuable content for your readers.
These income streams make up your value ladder.
These three keystones are listed in order. As the owner of your publishing business you’ll build a value ladder for your readers. This method works best for non-fiction writers, but fiction writers can adapt this framework to serve their readers too.
- Sell books — Amazon won’t sell your books for you. There are more books listed today than ever, without adding additional readers. It’s not anyone’s job to move your books, but you. No one’s coming. Email is the best way an indie author can sell more books, consistently, without having the stress of depending on others to promote our work. Books are the entry level into our value ladder — the lowest rung, as they are the least-expensive.
- Sell courses — Courses are the next level on our value ladder. Still hands-off and distributed automatically to our readers, like books, courses offer a huge income boost. A certain percentage of your readers will want MORE than you offer in your books. You’ll serve these raving fans by developing valuable courses, taking them deeper than you go in your books. It’s just as hard to sell a $12.99 book as it is to sell a $699 course. And we’ll do it all through email.
- Sell coaching/mastermind groups — Here’s where we get personal. Coaching/mastermind/inner-circle groups are the Cadillac of the value ladder. You can even make a level above that if your willing to personally mentor one or two people at the very top. With coaching, you create a recurring-income package, where the reader buys direct access to you, either through a monthly call, a group Skype session, or a twice-a-year retreat. Here, we’re talking $5k, $10K, even $25k per person. These are labor-intense and your most-valuable readers will pay for the privilege of hand-holding.
But, this is a lot of money. I’m not comfortable asking this much?
This is your time to shine. You can ask for as much money as your comfortable with. As long as you provide more value than the fee you ask, the sale won’t be as hard as you think.
Most of your readers will be priced-out of your mastermind group. That’s a good thing, because you can’t serve most of your readers in this capacity. There are too many people.
We stack so much value on our books, courses, and coaching, that each level feels inexpensive to the buyer, based on the value they receive in return. Make sense?
I get it. Maybe you feel gross even thinking about adding a course or mastermind group. That stuff is for the sleazy internet marketing people, right? Not at all. Only sleazy people with no integrity sell sleazy stuff. You’ve got serious integrity. You have nothing but respect for your readers. You’ll create nothing but real value, with their best intentions in mind.
Even if all you sell is books, email is the perfect, automated system for selling both your new and back-catalog books on a consistent schedule.
We need more writers like you to get your work in front of more readers like us. We’re waiting for you.