How to Maintain a Prolific Medium Publishing Schedule
Keep writing and earn more money
The new Medium payment model can be both blessing and curse. I like that we can check our live balance every day, to see how the writing progresses, but it’s also negatively-reinforcing on the down days.
It can be frustrating to write for 3–4 hours, only to find you’ve earned an extra $5 that day.
It took me a bit to realize this is not the goal. Money is never the goal, it’s a barometer — a consequence of doing your best work.
- We can’t eat money
- We can’t be a money when we grow up
- We can’t wear money when we’re cold
- …or spend time with money when we need a hug
Plus, the benefits of Medium come in the aggregate, not the individual days. As writers, we’ve got up days and down.
Medium is the long-game.
The idea is to serve your niche to the best of your abilities, and to continue serving them as long as you can — because you are the best one for the job.
If we’re supposed to ignore money what should we focus on?
Keep reading and I’ll show you.
How to ignore the money and maintain a prolific schedule
I get it. I write a ton about ‘how to make money on Medium,’ so this header will make me look like a total hypocrite. Stick with me, here.
If we want to earn money on Medium we’ve got to stop thinking about the money.
Like I mentioned — money isn’t a goal. It’s a result.
Instead, we’ll focus on building you a prolific writing habit. Medium is a great training camp for this. The writing here isn’t as critical as it could be if you, say, published a bad book.
On Medium we get to zig and zag. Try new writing voices. Take left turns when everyone makes a right. Let Medium be your safe practice space.
If you write a bad story, no one is going to shun you. Write a better one next time. The money (and your stats) will tell you if you’re on the right path. This is why the money matters — as a result of doing good work on a consistent basis.
If you want to become a better, faster writer, you’ve got to write daily.
I love writing on Medium, because the pace translates to faster, cleaner writing everywhere. While I’m currently in a different business mode, and not working on a book, if I were, I could finish an entire novel or book in less than a month.
This is all due to the calloused publishing pace I’ve developed on Medium, over the last year and a half.
You don’t have to write three stories a day either — or even two.
But I would try for one. Writing a single, daily story will keep your writing chops limber and Medium’s algorithm tickled. If you leave Medium for even a couple days your traffic will take to the toilet.
With prolific publishing comes a growing niche, more income, and a bigger audience next time you write something.
Instead of focusing on your daily stats (or stats every ten minutes), look at where you are this month versus last month. Where were you at this time last year?
I track a lot of my data. I’m just a nerd like that. I can look at last year and see I had 2,700 followers on this day. Today, exactly a year later, I have 7,300. This gets me excited about a year from now. If I stay anywhere close to on-track, I’ll hit five-digits.
This is the power of daily, prolific work. It accumulates to one hell of a pile over time.
Instead of focusing on the insurmountable task before you — say you want to write 300 stories this year — you focus on the work of the day, but ignore the daily stats.
I don’t know everything.
I don’t even know most things.
This is the way I attack my writing. Maybe it will work for you too.
But I do know one thing that’s served me well. Money isn’t a goal. When we do work that matters and help the people we’re meant to serve ( in a meaningful way) — the money comes automatically.
Scared money never multiplies.
- Commit to publishing every week day for two weeks.
- Make the decision to become a prolific writer.
- Take the weekends off if you wish.
This one decision will increase your Medium earnings, give you a larger portfolio of work, and will help you write faster.
When we give ourselves a daily production goal, our ability to do the work will rise to the occasion. If you want to earn more money on Medium, it’s time to make your publishing match your goal.
If you hit the two-week goal, try for two more.
If you can publish every week day for 60 days, you’ve got a permanent writing habit.
If you have time, write additional stories you can pre-schedule for the weekend… or keep writing on the weekend to reinforce your habit.
I write on my phone a lot. This helps me get down initial concepts while I’m not at my desk, then I’ll finalize the story once I sit. This mobile practice has helped me triple my writing output without adding much time to my day.
Prolific writing builds tribes
I started writing on Medium as an experiment. I’ve been building side-hustle internet businesses for 20 years. Before social. Before YouTube. Before Kindles.
The one thing I’ve seen that’s never stopped working (but has gone up and down in popularity), is content marketing.
Medium is a great place for writers to build a tribe of their best readers. When you own your email list you own your traffic. When you own your traffic you own your business.
With the right email set-up, you can sell your work, automatically, while you sleep. I do it. You can too. I’ll show you how.
The best time to build your email list is before you need it. If you wait until you’ve finished your product to build your list, you’ve lost.
…I have a solution.
I’ve got a free email masterclass for you. I hand-crafted the whole thing. It took me a couple months. I call the masterclass the Tribe 1K.
I’ll show you how to get your first 1,000 (or your next 1,000) readers without spending a hot nickel on ads. Pat students include New York Times bestselling authors. Yep, the ones you see in the bookstore (what’s a bookstore?)
Writing Medium stories is only half the equation.
If you want to grow your writing business you need email before you lose that valuable reader. Start your list before you need one. Once you need one it’s almost too late.
Guarantee your seat before I start charging an enrollment fee.
We’re waiting for you.
Enroll in my 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 these folks who want to make work that sells and sell work they make. When he’s not writing or thinking about writing, August carries a pocket knife and shaves his head with a safety razor.