How to Keep Your Old Medium Posts Alive and Earning Passive Income
Your old stories may disappear if you don’t follow this strategy
I try not to scroll through my Medium Partner dashboard too often. The top payouts always feel great, since they’re listed from most to least. But I hate scrolling all the way to the bottom.
Without counting, I’d say roughly half of my 500+ articles don’t earn a penny each month.
This makes sense. I can’t have all my content available all the time. There would be no room for the 200,000 other writers who publish consistently. There’s definitely no room on the home page.
The good news is the dead stories don’t stay dead, because I don’t allow it.
If you want to earn consistent money from Medium, you’ll need to give your old posts some CPR as well. The process isn’t hard. But you’ve got to make the commitment.
I don’t want to waste my time writing stories no one sees. My time is very valuable to me. Therefore, I make sure my old stories don’t die. I want them to earn as much passive income as possible.
So I use this little trick…
Choose a theme for your new story
I like to choose a theme for my new story and link to three older stories in the same article. Just like the article box above.
I’m always surprised how few writers know how to make these sweet boxes.
You can always link to text, but these boxed posts stick-out much better, since they pull your graphic with them.
How to make a link box:
- Go to the article you want to link-to and copy the web address at the top.
- Past the link inside your new story, where you want the card to go.
- Hit the enter key. If you don’t hit enter it won’t make the card.
That’s it. Medium encourages it too, because it keeps your readers on the platform longer. By choosing a theme and linking a 3–4 old posts, I can keep them alive long-after I wrote them.
As indie writers, we’re in charge of promoting our work. No one is coming to save us. If we don’t tell readers we’ve got more to read, there’ll be a good chance the non-earning story list will grow.
Don’t include too many links
I like to use 3–4 max. If you add ten different links you’ll confuse the reader with over-choice.
Also, if you wrote a bad story that no one liked, don’t bother trying to make it a hit. Instead, I sort through my list and only promote the stories that have done well.
Most of the stories I promote have been curated, so they’ll get the added juice in each category.
If you really want to be bold with a certain story, add a single link card. Force all the traffic to a single story.
If you link to too many posts there’s no way your story will get curated. Some writers try to make ‘the best of’ stories as way to revitalize old work. I think it’s best to be more subtle.
You’ll have a better chance at getting curated and your old posts will come along for the ride.
Create a publication
If you own a publication, you’ll have direct access to email your followers with ‘letters.’ Regular writers don’t get this privilege.
Through letters you can send periodic emails to remind readers of some of your best stories, especially if you wrote them a year ago.
You’ll get a nice boost from people who already appreciate your work.
Not only can you use email to boost your old stories, but it’s a great way to earn additional passive income, by building a list of your best fans.
Your tribe will feed you for life if you treat them well.
When you’re ready to earn more from your email list I’ve got something for you…
I built a five day email welcome sequence challenge for you. I hand-crafted the whole thing, by hand… with my hands. It took me months to build this challenge. I call this project One Welcome Workweek.
This is the same welcome sequence framework that covers all my living expenses, automatically.
As you work through the five day challenge, I’ll show you exactly how to build a welcome sequence that not only builds trust and engagement, but sells your best work while you sleep — automatically — so you’ll have more time to do the work that matters most. And you’ll increase your deliverability with the major email servers — all with one automated sequence you can write in a week.
This isn’t your grandmother’s ‘nurture sequence.’ That old way of thinking doesn’t work anymore. Your email welcome sequence must work a lot harder for you if you want to sell your work.
Guarantee your seat in the One Welcome Workweek Challenge.
We’re waiting for you.
Join the One Welcome Workweek Challenge Here.
August Birch (AKA the Book Mechanic) is blue-collar course-creator, marketing coach, and author from Michigan, USA. As an email marketing expert for writers and creators with 20+ years experience, August runs an international publishing business, with customers in more than 110 different countries. He helps indies make work that sells and sell more work they make. When he’s not writing or thinking about writing, August spends time with his beautiful wife and handsome son, makes things with his bare hands, carries a pocket knife, and shaves his head with a safety razor.
