How Much I Earned In My First Month on Medium?
October’s earnings.
I’ve been writing and publishing for over eight months now, so I am not really new to Medium.
However, I recently joined the Medium Partner Program just last month and this is my first month of earnings on this platform.
During the first week of the month, I was sort of obsessing with the stats, keeping track of how much I was making every day.
For instance, these were my earnings the first five days of the month:
- On October 1st — $3.75
- On October 2nd — $6.79
- On October 3rd — $5.27
- On October 4th — $6.16
- On October 5th — $3.32
Then I told myself: no matter how many times a day you look at the figures the numbers won't change, focus your attention and energy on other things woman!
Sooo 26 days later this is my income for the whole month:
288.27 dollars. Ta-da!
To give you more context these were my stats, bear in mind that so far I have published 48 stories. I’d like to believe that if I had more posts then probably I would have bigger earnings, but who knows.
My views:
My reads:
Here are a few lessons I've learned:
Consistency
I've said this before and I will continue to say this one.
To be successful at anything, you don’t need to be different. You simply have to be what most people aren’t: consistent.
No one in Medium simply became notorious overnight. All of them consistently put in the effort and work to get there.
Build genuine engagement and experiment too.
So there are two super common pieces of advice about publishing here, that are also at times contradictory:
- Find your niche and work on building your audience.
And on the other side.
- Don't pick a niche, write about anything.
The funny thing is that both pieces of advice are valid.
Because as you might know what works for others won't necessarily work for you and vice versa.
So you go ahead and experiment, write about one specific subject or write about a variety of different topics.
As for me, I can tell you the first strategy has definitely worked for me. I write about pretty much navigating the dating realm, dating advice, and my dating experiences, and so on, those types of articles are the ones that people read the most.
Whenever I write about other subjects, as writing on this platform, or my earnings or other issues, folks don't read them as much.
So once more, it's all up to you, in terms of what you write about, whether that is sticking to a specific subject or going for a diverse array of topics.
Pubs
Pubs are shutting down, however, you can still submit your stories to them because you are more likely to reach a larger audience through them.
And if you don't like submitting to pubs you can create your own publication.
There are many reasons why starting your own publication on Medium is a good idea. It’s easier to grow and stand out as a writer being the editor of one or more. — Jessica Lynn
I created my own pub because I personally like much better the presentation of my stories in that format. I feel it creates more engagement because of the way of the layout.
Take breaks
It's OKAY to take breaks from writing, you certainly aren't obliged to write and publish daily, I am aware many manage to post pieces every day, but that doesn't mean you need to do the same.
I know plenty of testimonies and you probably know them too, about writers who tried to produce articles day after and day and they wouldn't do it again because it was too demanding and they didn't need that extra stress in their lives.
When I was experimenting I tried that strategy as well and it simply wasn't for me. For now, I am okay with publishing a couple of stories per week, in the future, I might do more, we will see.
To conclude
You already know the most important piece of advice which is: be consistent.
I don't believe anyone is making “easy money” here or on another platform, even though we see oftentimes numerous titles making that statement.
In reality, the vast majority have invested a lot of their time, energy, and effort to create the content you get to read daily.
Don’t believe and don't be fooled by the articles and their clickbait titles affirming the contrary.
Finally, find a pace of writing and publishing that works for you. You don't have to write every day, you don't have to publish every day unless that's what you want to do and is making you contented and not draining you.
Anything that is costing your mental health is not worth it.
Thank you for reading!
