How to Give Medium Everything You’ve Got and Get into the 7.1 % Who Make It

6 qualities you will need.

Medium is a great place to earn some extra cash or even a full-time income. Some writers make more than 5K per month. In a world where freelance writers are often exploited for ten cents a word, Medium is a great place to make a real income.

Medium is the first-ever platform where writers can finally blog and get paid for doing what they love.

However, only 7.1% of the active writers earn over $100 per month. This percentage seems small, but given Medium’s growth, the absolute number of writers making more than $100 per month could be higher than that figure.

I’m not going to sugar coat it for you, Medium fam; I love you guys, so here is the honest truth. If you want to make it on Medium, you have to write a lot of words. And you have to write a lot of words consistently.

If you’re not willing to do that, stop reading this now.

It won’t help.

I’ve been on Medium for a little over a year, and if my writing can earn me a part-time income, your writing can as well.

Medium offers you many things, but one great thing about Medium is you can learn how to write well while publishing to a broad audience and grow your readership.

You can use the platform to establish better writing skills as you go on your Medium journey.

When we share our stories publicly, we get feedback, which makes us better.

Think of yourself as an apprentice, you are learning on the job, and you might get paid for it.

Do you really want to be a paid writer?

Writers want readers.

If you wanted to just write without exposure, you could write in a journal. And that is fine.

But if you’re reading this, you probably would like to get paid if you’re sharing on Medium. Maybe not, but most likely. Extra cash is always nice. If you weren’t a writer, you wouldn’t be reading this post. You want people to read you, and to do that, you have to treat Medium like a job you love.

You love it here.

And here is what you need to possess to get into the percentage of writers who make over $100.00 per month.

My last payout was close to 3.5K, and I’m aiming for 5K per month by the end of this year. If that means I have to double my output, then that is what I’ll do.

There are about 30,000 writers on Medium, and that number is growing.

Here is what you need to be one who earns.

#1. Patience.

Medium is a slow burn, very similar to Pinterest in that way. It takes time to find your footing and what works best for you. Gaining traction and engagement can take a few months.

Every writer has a different Medium experience depending on many factors; no two are the same.

But what does work is racking up a large number of quality stories under your “stories” list in your profile. Below I have 910 stories under my “Published” list.

Not all are stories; some are comments; I have to edit and “unlist” comments so they don’t show up under my “Published” queue.

The number of stories I’ve written minus comments totals 889. This is number 990, in just a little over a year.

I estimate about 5% of my stories drive 95% of my income.

Once you publish a story, it doesn’t mean it stops earning after you post. It can keep earning a week, a month, or even a year later.

My highest earning story was published in November 2019.

It didn’t gain real traction until the next year and has made over 4K.

You have to be patient.

You never know which story will take off, but you’ll have a greater chance of one taking off if you write many stories. The odds are in your favor. Once one does, you’ll think it took no time at all.

The compound return of writing a lot of content seems to be relevant when it comes to Medium — earnings add up and compound over time.

#2 . Tenacity.

You’re going to need a lot of tenacity to write the amount of content you need to earn on Medium — the quantity of your content is more important than any single thing you write.

When you write daily, you get better.

Some writers think writing is a talent, not a skill, but I’m not of that thinking.

Writing is a skill that can be nurtured, and to nurture it, you have to get as many words on the page as you can, and they reshape what you have written. This can take many drafts. Sometimes up to ten.

The more you have to work with, the easier to sculpt into something worth reading.

Start with jam-session writing, a stream of consciousness, or Morning Pages. Then sculpt those words: delete, rearrange, write sentences over and over again until they are clear and concise.

My first 30 days on Medium, I printed each story, read it aloud, walked back and forth in my living room with a red pen in my hand, cut out extra words, highlighted sentences that dragged and stumbled, and then rewrote them again and again until they made sense.

When you do this, you sharpen your writing, hone and craft your voice, and get better.

#3. Writing Chops.

The higher the quality, the greater your chances of curation.

Curation is still what makes the biggest impact on whether your piece is read.

When an article is curated, it is shared across the topics in which it’s curated.

The more topics the post is curated in, the more people will see it.

Those people interested in and following those topics will have a greater chance of finding your work.

So follow Medium’s clear formatting guidelines. Cite photos and format your stories the way Medium likes.

Make sure to check for spelling and grammatical errors. The headline is important; make it impactful, emotional, and unique. The same can be said of the first sentence. Make the first sentence scream with creativity and intrigue, so readers want to read your second sentence and so one. Don’t bury the lead.

You will have a better chance of being curated, and readers will have a better chance of stumbling onto your work.

#4. A willingness to grow despite rejection.

Be OK with rejection and failure.

They aren’t rejecting you, some content doesn’t land. Not every story will make an impact, even when the curation gods shine down on you.

This is why patience is so important as a writer on Medium.

For whatever reason — timing, the title, the content — not every story, even when you pour yourself into it — will get attention.

I write a lot of stories that land with a big thud and garner no engagement. So what if a story doesn’t get more than a few hundred claps? It isn’t the end of the world.

When that happens, I suggest you go back to the story and look at the headline. It is usually in the headline where things went wrong. The headline matters more than probably any other single part of a story. You want readers to click the headline; if they don’t, there is no chance of them reading your story.

Don’t just throw up any headline, put some thought into it. It has to grab the reader, entice them. Come up with four or five different headlines and choose the one you’re most likely to click on if you were the reader.

#5. Persistence.

It took me a while to gain traction. My first viral story didn’t take off right away, not until a good 4 to six months after posting it.

But once you have a story go viral, it will feel like it took no time at all.

Your second viral story will come sooner if you keep up with consistency. It is about momentum and engagement.

Medium rewards engagement, so if you’re publishing daily content, it stands to reason something will eventually take off. You’re increasing your chances with consistency, persistence, and patience.

Don’t give up; that viral story could be the next one you write.

#6. Curiosity.

The world plus your perspective is yours to write.

There are many subjects to parse and drill down on. Nearly everything has already been written about, but not by you.

Again and again, I’m working on something, and before I get a chance to post it, someone has written something similar. Post your spin anyway.

If you have trouble thinking of what to write, pick up a book, listen to a song, or go for a walk. You will come across something that interests you.

If you read a story from another writer and the topic inspired you, write about the same topic from a different angle.

Write an extended post on a negative (or positive, it is easier for me to write about something when I disagree with someone, because I usually have a strong feeling as to why I disagree) comment from one of your readers. If you don’t have any readers yet, write about a topic that sparked a lot of engagement on someone else’s post. If many readers are commenting on something specific, it is a sure sign that other people will be interested in that topic also.

Everyone takes/borrows/steals from other writers.

I’m not suggesting to plagiarism here; I’m saying writers inspire.

That is what we aim to do. If you have a different take on something another well-known writer has said, write about it.

Inspiration is everywhere if you’re present and keep your eyes open. There is so much going on in the world right now; write about something that sparks your curiosity or your ire; if you write it with confidence and clarity, people will read it.

Write on.

Join my email list here.

Jessica is a writer, an online entrepreneur, and a recovering type-A personality. She lives in Los Angeles with her extrovert daughter, two dogs, and two cats.