How to Make $100 on Medium Consistently

An outline of the steps I take every day to be a top writer

As I enter my third month to make $100 in a row on Medium, I wanted to share some tips that I think could help you. I’m sure there are other ways to make three digits, but I will tell you what I do.

First, let me say I’m not a great writer. I know there are a lot of other writers better than me. I still make a mistake every now and then.

Second, that leads me to this point, you don’t need to be a John Grisham or a J.K. Rowling. Yes, they are very experienced writers but they were once where you are now.

Third, you have to believe you’ll make a $100. If you don’t believe you’ll make it, that $100 will be far far away.

Early on I set a goal to double my income every month which I did for four months in a row. My most recent month was a good month but I fell short of doubling my income. One month is missing as I switched accounts.

You need to make the time

We all have the same amount of time in a day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So if you want to write, you need to block out your writing time in your schedule. Personally I prefer to write in the morning with a goal to have my article finished by noon. Some days my article takes a little longer since I have other commitments.

You may have a busy schedule but you need to think where can you find the time to write? Do you need to cut back on social media? Can watching a movie on Netflix wait until you have written your article? Do you really need to watch 2 hours of news when a lot of it gets repeated over and over again? We all have the time but you have to learn to use your time wisely. It is too easy to get distracted and spend hours on social media or another area when you should be writing instead.

Have a niche

Some people just write and do well. For me, I look at my metrics. I know what articles do well and which ones don’t. I try to focus on the articles that do well but I am also very flexible and change it up from time to time. For me, I write about money — stocks, cryptocurrency, and real estate, as well as writing. For me, these articles do well and some better than others.

Some people may disagree and can write and do well monetarily. For me, I try to stick to what brings in the money but do go off topics occasionally. Most likely your current followers want to see similar articles on those topics and you have to keep them happy.

Focus on longer articles

Let me add that there isn’t one way to write since I have tested a few different articles. I know writing a longer article will do better than a shorter one. You get paid by the reading time. I am not saying to ignore your view count or your fans, but the reading time is what brings in the money.

I have written long articles around 1000 words and then a few articles with 400 words. The 400-word article will get you some money but not a whole lot.

So if you write poems or haikus, then that’s great. Just don’t expect to make the big bucks. You never see Tim Denning write a poem so I know he does very well income-wise from this platform. Plus his 111,000 + followers doesn’t hurt.

If you really want to make money on this platform, you need to write longer articles. This means you‘ll need to spend more time writing the article as well as editing the article. So make sure you have the time to do this.

Write often

If you have a large following, you could get away with writing a couple of articles a week. However, if you’re a brand new writer, you need to write more often. This will help build your followers as well as increase your reading time from your fans.

You may need to write three to four articles a week to really see a change in your income. This doesn’t guarantee that some articles could be flops and not make you a lot of money.

Some writers can crack the system and get an article that takes off. I haven’t written one of those articles. Some articles I have written have done well but none of them have gone over $100 in a month. Maybe one day I’ll get there.

Engage with your audience

On top of writing your article, you need to engage with your audience. This can mean responding back to your readers when they leave a comment on your article. I try to respond back to everyone who leaves a comment. Once I do that, I try to check out their platform and read what they wrote. I don’t have time to read everyone’s work but I try my best every day.

Yes, I said every day. Your reader wants to know you’re a real person and not just trying to get someone to read your work. You see this when people drop links on your article on Facebook and then they run away. I see these people.

In most cases, you can tell when someone has read your work and they leave a comment on what you wrote. Also, they may clap. These are two easy ways to see if someone checked out your article.

Drop a private note once in a while

This one took me some time to figure out since the tool is not staring at you in your face. I have left a few comments on articles if there was a grammatical mistake or a way to help someone with formatting.

Personally, you shouldn’t blast someone publicly in a social media group or in the comment section. It doesn’t hurt to leave them a little private note that there was a mistake somewhere or you want to leave a personal comment.

I didn’t figure out the private message tool until I had a few other writers who left notes on my article. Some of the writers are Meg Stewart, Connie Song, Tony Young, Jr., Gayle Kurtzer-Meyers, and Stephen Dalton. Basically, I’m still a baby when it comes to writing on Medium. We all have to start somewhere but building a community of writing friends along the way doesn’t hurt.

Have a list of possible writing topics

Occasionally, I see writers run out of ideas for their articles. After you have written a few or even a lot of articles, there are times when you can’t think of what to write next. On my phone, I keep a running list of articles that I want to write about. If I don’t have an article planned for the day, I’ll look at my list to see if there’s a topic I want to write about.

If you don’t have a list, I recommend that you create a list. Spend a few minutes to think about some possible topics. Before you know it, you could have a dozen topics to choose from.

Once you have the list, prioritize the list on topics you want to write about. Since the topics are in the notebook on my phone, I can easily cut and paste the topic to move them around.

At the beginning of each week, I try to figure out what I plan to write the following week. I don’t always do this but try as best as I can.

Follow the trending topics

This past week was different for me as several hot topics popped up. Tesla announced they wanted to split their stock and then Biden announced his running mate. The article on Kamala Harris was not my normal writing topic but I wanted to capitalize on this information since the announcement could be a hot topic.

Trending topics usually do well as people are searching for information. The information may last a few days or even a few months. It’s hard to tell what topic will be relevant for a few months.

The article I wrote on Tesla stock split may not be popular next month but the article on Kamla Harris could be. Sometimes you have to take a chance and hope for the best.

Write in publications

I have seen some writers say to get in a publication and others say not to get in a publication. I agree with those who say you need to get in a publication. Approximately 90% of my recent articles have been published through a publication. I make that a goal as I start writing my article.

If for some reason the article gets rejected, I usually have a backup publication I can submit the article to. A few times I’ll try to rewrite the article to what the publisher is looking for. I was able to do this with one or two publications but usually, the article just doesn’t fit what the publication is looking for. It stinks but it’s not a complete loss. Your article can be published on your site or another publication.

My reason to get your article in a publication is because there are more readers specifically looking for certain topics. The article you wrote should fit into the theme of the publication. So make sure you see what the latest articles the publication has produced. You may have to search to see what was published in the past. Make the publication work for you and not against you.

Summary

At first, I thought about writing a short article but this ended up a little longer than I expected. This wasn’t a planned article today but sometimes you have to go with your feeling when it comes to writing.

These tips may or may not help you but I’m pretty sure they could help boost your earnings. Nothing I have written is a masterpiece. I follow a basic routine and write. A little bit of discipline and consistency will go a long way for you.

Do you have a routine that you follow consistently?

Tom Handy is a top Writing, Finance, Investment, and Bitcoin writer on Medium, and the father of two kids. He retired from the Army and sits on several non-profit boards. You can find him on Twitter @tomhandy1.