How to Earn More Money this Month than 92.7% of all Writers on Medium

It’s time to be the quiet winner, instead of the loud complainer

There are plenty of Medium articles about Medium. We like to complain about the new-ish publication strategy on the home page. We like to whimper about the lower payments, the ultra-fancy publications at the top, the fewer curations, and the digital sound of no hands clapping for our articles.

…but complaining will only get us so far.

As a Medium writer, you’ve got a choice. Are you in or out?

While everyone is out crying-foul, giving reasons Medium should change its practices, and generally being grumpy over their lack of some pie — you can become the quiet winner — one of the top earners on Medium. It’s not that hard.

It’s time for you to earn more money that 92.7% of all writers on Medium.

Are you ready?

In the August income report, as with most months, only 7.3% of ALL writers in the Medium Partner Program made more than $100. This mean 92.7% of all writers made less than a hundred bucks!

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather write for a little more than pocket lint.

…it gets worse too. The report also positively-lists that 57% of the writers who wrote one or more articles in August, made money. However, the flip-side means 43% of the writers who wrote one or more articles in August made NOTHING!

Let’s say there are 200,000 active Medium writers. Only 14,800 made a hundred bucks or more, while 86,000 writers made ZERO dollars. Not. One. Cent.

We can do better.

I’ll show you how. Fancy publications or not.

Write articles worth reading and write them every day

I repeat this a lot. I won’t stop repeating this. If you want to earn a reader’s attention on Medium, you’ve got to write a lot. No one’s coming to save you. Medium is a business. They’ll promote the stories they feel will earn them new paying readers.

If you want to earn new readers and keep old ones coming back, you’ve got to stand in the window every time a reader looks through it.

How do we stand in the window?

We dominate our niche. We use popular tags that accurately-reflect our content. And we continue to write multiple pieces in the same niche. We choose our niche wisely — one with many readers who interact with the content.

There is a lot of junk-writing on Medium. I’ve written my fair share too. Not everything I’ve written has been well-received. But I return to the desk every day and I try to get better with the next story.

Like it or not, the fire-hose of the Medium content stream keeps spraying — whether you post a story or not.

Your Medium stories will continue to earn for you, long after you write the, but you’ve got to keep writing new content to be seen. If you stop writing, it’s easy to fall-off the algorithm wagon. And it can take a hot minute to earn your way back on.

I’ve experimented with this.

Stop writing for a week and see your income cut in half… or worse. The drop is quick. This is the game. It’s your choice whether or not you want to play it. But please, publish articles worth reading, no matter how often you write. Junk content won’t earn you money and it clogs the pipes for the rest of us.

Use the escape-arrival framework

I got this idea from a world-famous marketer named Frank Kern. This is a framework that will not only change the life of your writing, but will also make your publishing business a lot easier to promote to clients (you can use this framework for non-fiction books and courses too).

Every article you write should transform the reader.

Show her the current situation she wants to escape from, then show her the life she’ll arrive at, using your teaching to improve her life.

Let’s take this article as an example.

Your current situation is: You represent the under-appreciated 92.7% of all writers on Medium. Using the information I’ll give you in this article, your new life will become the top 7.3%. The later half is the arrival.

Simple transformation to understand, right?

As a writer, it’s my job to deliver on the title of this story. If I don’t deliver as you hoped, you won’t finish my story. And you probably won’t return for more.

Allude to both the escape and arrival in your title.

Show the escape in your introduction.

Deliver the arrival by the end of your article.

How can we ignore a compelling transformation? I can’t. If you uncover a solution to a pain I have, I can’t help but read your story. You gave me a hint I can leave my current situation and arrive to a better place. I’m in. Sign me up!

Titles matter a lot.

Good content keep them reading and coming back for more.

Don’t duct tape a kickstand on a dead horse

I’ve seen many writers suggest re-posting old, unsuccessful stories. The hope is the second time around you’ll get curated and become a Medium zillionaire overnight. Not only does Medium discourage the practice, but it rarely works to your benefit.

If your article didn’t stick, leave it be.

Write a new one. Change your attack. Use a better title.

When you’re starting, you have no idea which of your stories will earn and which won’t. Some categories are more-engaged than others. There’s a lot of math involved, but your personal data is king.

Once you’ve got 20–50 stories on the docket, look at your numbers. Which topics earned you the most claps and reads? Views don’t matter. We need claps and we need reads.

Yes, this self-review process will sting a little.

Your readers won’t always care how much time you put into that pet story of yours. She cares about her escape-arrival, not yours. Remember, we need to get you into the top 7.3%, not the bottom 92.7%. The bottom is easy. To stay at the bottom, do what everyone else is doing. Do as little work as possible. Rinse. Wash. Reload.

The bottom is crowded and sweaty.

The top smells great (like when you first open the dryer after a fresh load of towels).

Write more of what already works for you and fewer stories about topics that didn’t work. There’s no point in trying to force people to enjoy your pet project. Leave the pet project for your special journal. Give readers content they already want to read.

Let’s get your first $100. We need you in the top 7.3%

If you have a great day, write MORE

Write long enough on Medium and you’ll run across a few hockey-stick days where your traffic goes nuts.

When you’re blessed with a few of these days, write more. Don’t take a day off. Reason-being is you’ve got this big boost in traffic, which means more people looking at your stuff.

They’ll be more-likely to see your posts in the “from your network” section on the homepage. This is where your most-recent stories get in front of your readers.

Let’s say you’ve got an old story that has a huge boost on one day (this happens a lot). If you don’t have new content, you don’t give yourself the added juice to promote your latest post too.

A big day might feel like a great day to stop writing, but it should be a trigger to write more.

I can’t think of a good time to write less on Medium, unless your mental health needs it.

We all take days off Medium.

But if you want to become (and stay) part of the top 7.3% of Medium writers, you’ve got to keep those days off to a minimum.

Don’t trade hours for dollars

The best money made on Medium, is made off Medium. We’re talking about your publishing business — specifically, building a list of customers (a list you own and control.

Someday Medium won’t work anymore. For whatever reason. Maybe the payment model will change. Maybe someone will create a better place to write and earn. Maybe you got kicked-off, because you hurt someone’s feelings.

When you base your entire writing business off someone else’s platform, you don’t own your business.

When you own your email list you control your destiny. It’s a ton of work. A lot. Most writers will not build a list, because of how much work is involved. But maybe you will.

When you sell your writing via email, you earn while you sleep. You no longer trade hours for dollars. You write an email once, add it to the queue, and the it doesn’t matter if you wrote it three years ago. The subscriber who got your email today feels like you wrote it today.

It’s time to make your Medium writing work for you.

If you build your reader’s list now, you’ll have a pre-built, rabid audience ready when you launch your next book (or re-launch your last books). This should be a list you own (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.