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I Make Money on Medium as a New Writer—My Medium Income Increased By 365% in 3 Months

If you think success as a writer is based on luck — It’s not. You have to treat your writing like a business.

Bruh, this sh*t is hard!

I’m not even gonna lie.

It pays off but it’s not easy to do everything it takes to make money from writing on Medium (or any other writing platform for that matter).

Not easy at all — but it is simple.

So simple that anyone can do it — yes, even you — if you’re willing to put in the time and the work.

Time? Work?

Well, yes.

You didn’t think that all you had to do was open an account, join a pay wall program like MPP, throw up a few halfway decent articles, sit back and watch the views just magically appear, and get paid big bucks — did you?

For those of you who may not know— earning money on Medium or any other paying writing platform will require you to contribute much in terms of both quantity and quality of writing and engagement.

If you want success as a writer on Medium or any other writing platform, you must approach your writing like a business — because it is a business.

I’ve applied to a couple other platforms, but currently my only paying writing platform is Medium. So, I’m using my stats from Medium to illustrate why earning money from writing is not about luck.

Significantly Increasing My Writing Income Over 3 Months

As stated, I’m using my Medium stats and sharing my writing process that I use on Medium, but these techniques will work for writing on any platform.

I waited until now to write this story because I wanted to see if I noticed a pattern of success with some of my writing habits.

And, indeed, I have.

In three months (Oct 2020 thru Dec 2020), I have managed to produce an increase in my Medium income of more than a 365% from $7.46 to $27.24.

Now, this may not seem like much.

But, it’s not about the amount of money (at this point) so much as it is about the concept behind the consistent increase in income over the three months.

And it’s not as easy as you think to do this. I’ll show you what it took to achieve this, but first we’ll look a little deeper into the increase.

Let’s break down the math

October’s Earnings: $7.46 x 365% = $27.23

Remember, it’s not about the amount of money right now. That’s going to increase.

So, this is significant for a few reasons.

First, it shows that my income almost doubled from October to November. Second, it shows that it more than doubled from November to December.

And there’s still 4 more days in December to go (as of the time of this writing). So, this amount will be even higher for the entire month.

The question is: Will the increases continue to double or do even better?

Let’s speculate.

At the current rate of about double for increases each month, my income in another three months should look something like this:

• January: $27.24 x 2 = $54.48
• February: $54.48 x 2 = $108.96
• March: $108.96 x 2 = $217.92

Average monthly earnings of about $217.92 after consistently writing on the platform for 6 months is not unheard of.

I remember reading stories from other writers stating that it took them about 6 months to have their first $100 month. So, it looks like I’m on the right track.

What’s interesting to note is that based on observation, my income should increase at a rate that’s more than double each month.

So, if I keep up with my writing process and techniques, then it’s likely that by March my monthly income on Medium will be well over $217.92.

Why some months show $0 earnings

Now, you might be wondering why so many months show small, sporadic, little to none, or no earnings at all.

It’s because even though I signed up with MPP a year prior, I only started getting serious with my writing sometime in September 2020, as explained in the following story.

Now, let’s take a look at my process.

How I’m Consistently Growing My Income

I’ll tell you exactly how I’ve been doing it, and I’ll keep with the same habits to see if the trend continues in later months.

But, for now, let’s take a look at what I’m doing and factors that lead to my success that I control both directly and indirectly.

Factors Directly in My Control

1. Number of Stories/Articles
2. Titles and Subtitles
3. Quality Writing
4. Engagement (following, commenting, sharing, tagging)
5. Write for Publications

Now let’s explore each of these.

Number of Stories/Articles

I publish 3–5 stories/articles a week, which is 12–20 a month.

Some say that you need to write in a niche. I do not. I write in many topics on whatever I choose to write about at any given time.

Also, some say that you should share your work on social media. I have not done much of that. It’s something that I need to get into more.

Here are my stories/articles for the past three months:

So, you see. I’ve been very busy with writing, which is a must especially when you’re a new writer. You need to get your catalog populated. You can’t have lots of readers without lots of stories/articles for them to read.

And yes. Writing this much takes a lot of time.

But you can find the time if you have the desire to do so, even if you work a full-time job. I offer suggestions on how to do this in the story below.

Is it worth it?

You may be thinking that it is not worth it to do this much writing for three months to just now be earning $27 for a month. But, remember the incremental rate of the income increases.

Wouldn’t you rather put in the work up front to realize massive gains later?

And not just monetarily but also being recognized as a writer and possibly being picked up by even larger publications, or maybe even being offered a book deal as an author or ghostwriter? Or you could be offered a position as a writer for a television series or something of that nature.

The thing is — you should look at the bigger picture here, because that is what successful people do.

Titles and Subtitles

When it comes to my titles and subtitles, I take my time to craft them for clicks.

The title of a story/article needs to clearly show the reader what’s in it for them if they click. It should be interesting to the reader and make them want to learn more.

The subtitle should make the reader think or give them some more tidbits of information about what to expect by clicking and reading.

I spend probably 10–20 minutes on average on titles and subtitles. Not necessarily all at once. Many times I will rework the title and subtitle while I’m writing the piece.

Quality Writing

This is a must.

What’s the sense in writing something that nobody would care to read?

I write for the reader. I make sure that my writing is compelling and engaging and allows the reader to take away something. I also make sure that I put some of my personality into my writing, instead of making it like a book report.

Formatting is also important. I’m careful to not make my paragraphs too long, and I use emphasis like bold, italics, underlining, quotes, pics, embeds, etc., so that the reader doesn’t get bored by a wall of text.

Formatting also makes a piece easier to read and comprehend. And, it’s also easier on the eye.

Quality writing encourages engagement from readers. Check out this story by Nico Ryan on writing articles that people will actually want to read.

Engagement (following, commenting, sharing, tagging)

Now, this is HUGE, if you want to be a top writer on Medium or any other platform that allows for engagement.

Rule of engagement #1: It’s not all about you.

Being selfish and wanting people to only read your writing will get you not so far very slowly.

I engage with at least 20 writers a day through reading, following, highlighting passages in their stories/articles that move me, commenting, and clapping (if on Medium).

You need to engage with your audience and with other writers on the platform.

I actually enjoy reading and commenting on the work of other writers. It’s a big reason why I’ve learned some of things that I know about writing. And I don’t just read to get better at writing. I read to learn about all sorts of things, or be entertained, enlightened, informed, or intrigued.

Another thing is I often share other writers’ work, tag them in my own writing when it fits (as I did above), and I follow when I’ve found what they’ve written interesting.

And, I don’t just follow blindly just to try and get follow backs, although that happens often. People will follow you in return and take a look at your work and possibly find something that interests them that you’ve written.

I am currently at 719 followers in 3 months (as of 12/28/20).

Write for Publications

I am currently an accepted writer for 20 publications, and I consistently apply to write for more. I’ve even started my own publication, which is my first of others I plan to start.

Writing for several publications, as well as branching out to engage with writers and read stories/articles in different publications gets you noticed more. And, it is an opportunity for you to discover other writers and interesting pieces to read on various topics.

I also follow a lot of publications and go through them regularly to see if any of them may fit an idea for a story/article that I’m considering writing.

Factors Indirectly in My Control

There are a few factors to my success that are not directly something that I control, but certainly I do indirectly.

Platform Algorithm

No one knows for sure how a platform’s algorithm uses data. But, it seems to me that my engagement and writing consistency on the platform have triggered the algorithm to put my work in front of more people via their feeds or through distribution.

The more you engage and the more stories/articles you write, the higher the odds are that some of them will do really well and maybe even go viral, with the help of the platform algorithm.

People Sharing and Engaging

When you write something interesting, people will comment, follow, etc., and sometimes they will share it on or off the platform, which is a plus because it invites more views. This in turn feeds more data to the algorithm in your favor.

Search Traffic

Some of the traffic to stories/articles come from outside of the platform where you published. Search traffic from Google, other search engines, and social media sites can send traffic your way.

This happens with pretty much all stories/articles and is also picked up as engagement by the algorithm.

The Takeaway

Well, that’s it.

As you can see, success as a writer is not based on luck.

It’s earned through work, consistency, and engagement, which leads to exposure and pleasing the algorithm queen of whatever platform you’re writing on.

My income grew by 365% over three months because:

• I got serious with my writing and I started showing up to work on my writing every day and posting 3–5 times a week.
• I did my homework on how to write what people want to read.
• I published 12–20 stories/articles each month.
• I monitored my progress and adjusted my output toward my goal.
• I engaged with my audience and other writers.
• I joined several publications and had my work accepted in them.

The bottom line is one of my favorite quotes by Grant Cardone:

Do what others refuse to do. Let the rest do whatever, while you do whatever it takes. If you want to be in the 1%, don’t do what the 99% do.

Facts.

I’m curious to see how much my income will have increased at the end of next month (January), using these same tactics.

I’ll post an update then.

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