How to Earn $20 More for Each Medium Story You Write

A little focus and persistence will have you earning in no time

I see the results daily. “Wee I made my first $1.75 this month,” or “woo hoo, I earned my first $12 after writing for three weeks straight!”

These early numbers are always a little disconcerting.

The Partner Program is very enticing. You’ve got writers who like to talk about earn over $1,000 a month (ahem), and you see no possible way how you’ll get there after earning 16 cents last month.

I get it.

The playing field is rough.

There are hundreds of thousands of Medium stories that get published each month. The home page is only so big. Readers’ capacity for content is only so large.

Most new writers end up getting lost in the shuffle while they chase the numbers they want. As most of Medium is outside the writer’s control, there are some things we can do to make our work stand out and start earning.

There are a few things I do to help dominate my niche.

Maybe they’ll work for you too.

Make $20 more per story

I choose a niche —

Many writers don’t do this. There are both generalists and specialists on Medium. I’d recommend being a specialist, because you’ll have a much easier time building your own tribe of readers when you focus on helping one group of people.

I try to build a following —

When you clap and engage with other writers’ work, you’ll stand-out and get seen by other readers. Yes, engagement takes time. Honest feedback takes time. Clapping takes time. Everything on Medium takes time.

But if you don’t have followers you won’t get claps and reads. When you don’t get claps and reads you don’t earn money.

I try to write stories people want to read —

I look at my stats (a lot). I look way back to a year ago, and I look at the stats this week. I find all the topics people enjoy reading. I write more of those and less of the ones they don’t want to read.

Medium is a free-for-all. Because of that, some writer think they don’t need to focus on the reader. Well, if you want to earn money from your Medium content, it’s best to give people what they want.

I use relevant tags with a high-engagement rate —

Not all tags are equal. Some tribes engage a lot more than others. Just like some personality types tend to express their opinions better than others. You’ve got the same dynamic on Medium. You might love writing about recipes, but if the recipe people are readers and clappers, you can write a hundred stories a day and you’ll still make $1.75 a month this time next year.

I constantly refer to my old stories to keep them alive —

We earn $20 more per story over time. Medium is the long-game. You might find new life in something you wrote years ago. The key is to keep adding to your body of work, and all the pieces together will rise with the tides.

Maybe you earn five bucks this month, but next month your story earns $50. Don’t trade time for money. You can keep your old stories alive by rotating the ones you link-to in your latest content.

I write my face off —

I publish at least 2–3 stories most days. Sometimes five. Sometimes one. I write every day. If I don’t publish on a daily basis to keep growing my engagement, the traffic on Medium will drop like a hot rock.

We’re all competing for attention here. Those who keep writing maintain it. I write every chance I can get. When I’m done writing I write some more.

I built my tribe since day one

The real money isn’t made on Medium. This should be a place to help you grow your tribe — a platform you own. We just happen to be lucky to get paid for the privilege.

Medium earns money from our writing labors. But they own the platform. If you leave you can’t take your followers with you. This is why we build our own list.

You need a way to get a hold of your tribe. You need traffic you own. If you don’t own your traffic you don’t have an indie publishing business.

This should be a list you control (instead of relying on social media or some other big-business platform). Tap the link below. Enroll in my Tribe 1K indie email masterclass. I’ll show you how to get your first 1,000 subscribers (and your next 1,000) without spending one hot nickel on ads.

We’re waiting for you.

Enroll in my Free Email Masterclass. Get Your First 1,000 Subscribers

August Birch (AKA the Book Mechanic) is both a fiction and non-fiction author from Michigan, USA. As a self-appointed guardian of writers and creators, August teaches indies how to make work that sells and how to sell more of that work once it’s created. When he’s not writing or thinking about writing, August carries a pocket knife and shaves his head with a safety razor.