This Is How Much Medium Paid Me For My 250,000+ Views Story That Took Me 5 Minutes To Write

I started writing on Medium in 2017. Back then, it was more of a hobby and my first stories weren’t certain that great. They’re all about the topics of startup and entrepreneurship because they’re my primary strong interests. I was one of the early writers of Medium’s largest active publication, The Startup, and most of the first stories were published in the publication. Back then, I wasn’t in MPP (Medium Partner’s Program) and never thought I could earn money writing about topics I deeply care about. It’s only in 2020 that I enrolled in the program and started earning from my stories. My earnings the first month into the program? $17.29. At that time, I thought it was amazing to finally earn from being a digital writer. And I certainly never expected what was about to come next in the following 2 months!

How I Came Up With The Story That Got Me 250,000+ Views

One afternoon, I was drinking my espresso, an idea came into mind. So, my interests revolve in the topics of startups, technology, and entrepreneurship and I tend to naturally think of good ideas or revolutionary concepts that revolve around those topics. It took me just a minute to come up with a revelation about Elon Musk’s Starlink project(a SpaceX’s project) that will give people an awe once they read it. I’ve done little to no research and no study done, but that doesn’t mean I have no previous knowledge to the topic, because I do. Just knew people would love to read the story and thinking about it felt like an Apocryphon (knowledge that cannot be thaught). Something in my gut was telling me to write the story, fast. So, I picked up my Macbook computer and I started writing the story that took me only 5 minutes to get done. Then, I scheduled to publish the story at 6 AM the next morning. I closed my computer and went to sleep.

The view count the morning after? 35k.

No idea how it reached that amount of views very fast within a span of 4 hours and definitely have no idea how Medium’s algorithm works, but there’s one thing I knew certainly. It was destined to be written. It’s like the universe wants it to be written and I just happen to be the one to write it. If someone else wrote it, I’m pretty sure it would’ve gone viral as well. The story blew up on the web.

A day later, it reached around 80K. A week later, 140K. After 3 weeks, almost 240K.

A story that took me 5 minutes to write has now garnered 250k+ total views and 50 responses. Plus, it was featured in the Google Top News section for 2 straight weeks and was mentioned by the famous Youtuber and Podcaster, Lew Later.

As you can see below, the story was highlighted on Google’s Top Stories section along with the same line of articles from TechCrunch and Futurism.

And the screenshot and link below from a youtube video from a channel called ‘LaterClips’ by Lew Later where he spoke about Elon Musk’s Starlink and how it could change the planet. Throughout the video, he mentioned and referenced the article I wrote.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrzZ6wdfMj4&t=168s

Story Stats

Before becoming I writer, I always enjoyed reading books, hacking my computer, and playing videogames. I didn’t live within walking distance to any of my friends and had way too much time on my hands. Back then I never would have dreamed of writing an article that would get an insane amount of attention that would eventually get featured in Google News and get mentioned by a well-known Youtuber. At some point, Elon Musk must have seen the article, due to the massive attention it got. No doubt!

I’ve been on Medium for over 3 years, and I’ve been lucky enough to have a few stories that hit 100 viewers and readers each. Stopped writing back in early 2018 and only got back to it and have taken it more seriously only when the pandemic hit and we were put in quarantine. So, this was incredibly brand new to me!

Here are the current stats of the story,

More than 50% of the views came from news.google.com (Google News), 24% from email, IM, and direct, and only 7% of it came from Medium itself. See more below.

Member reading time as of October 2020 is 261 hours! Also as of now, the story has received a lot of feedback and comments from experts, enthusiasts, and researchers about the story topic. Some were happy enough to discuss further and some criticized the story.

So, how much did Medium pay me for a story that took me 5 minutes to write that amassed 250,000+ views?

With an average reading time of 2 min 58 sec per reader, Medium paid $755.30 in total in a span of 3 months. In the first month I got paid around $500, the following month around $200, and the third month, $55.30. I wish the traffic to the article was steady so the earnings were steady as well. Unfortunately, good things don’t last forever and this applies to your published Medium stories as well! Just always be consistent and be passionate about your writing.

Becoming a Medium writer is one of those things that feels within the realm of possibility for each and every one of us. People are curious because they want to know if it’s worth their time. So, how much do Medium writers earn and how do they make it? First, it’s important to note that Medium writers are able to leverage their following and make money off of a number of different streams of income.

But on Medium, writers make based on factors like reading time of each reader spent per story, on whether it gets published in a large publication (which means more reach and engagement), and if Medium decides to put the story on the topic recommendations. The story got critical mass readers even before it got published in The Startup (Medium’s biggest publication up to date) because it was recommended in both topics of Technology and Space by Medium and was featured on Google News Section which gets millions of viewers every day.

There are stories that have lesser views but higher earnings and other stories with higher views and lesser earnings. So, it’s fairly important to create a piece that will make an impact on people’s lives. Make this your brand and to focus obsessively on the quality of your article you are writing at the moment rather than publishing multiple average articles. Shoot for the impact, not the numbers. Remember, when I wrote that story, I wasn’t thinking of money at all!

Conclusion

So, this how the story I wrote back in June got more than 250k views in a span of few weeks which enabled me to earn $750. The view count obviously decreased through time and right now I only get 100–200 views for the story per day. The same applies to the earnings as I only earn a couple of dollars per day. Since then, I managed to write an article that only got 15K views and in all honesty, I haven’t been able to reach attention in my articles since the Elon Musk one.

Ideas are hard to come by, but don’t give up! What matters the most is the consistency of your writing and writing something that interests the most of your target readers. Mix it with quality, storytelling, and value, you will reach one day in the future where you will have very good and steady monthly earnings. One thing for sure though, you will never reach that status without consistency in your hard work.

I really hope this story has given you valuable insights that helped you in your writing and creative career! Any questions? Leave them below!