How to Make $1000 Month After Month on Medium
Note to self.
It is human nature to want more. And wanting more isn't bad as long as you don't do anything illegal or hurt anyone, especially yourself.
At the beginning of my writing journey, I was happy to have a platform to write about my feelings. It felt the world was ending, so might as well pour out everything and be part of the time capsule, that if and when after a thousand years, a more intelligent life form discovered our planet, they can read all about my Grindr dates, which I think now I have overshared.
The world didn’t end.
I had some wins in my writing journey, and now I want more, not because I need more in life, but to have enough, so I can continue to choose this path, that of being a writer.
My Medium earnings.
Not to brag, but I did earn more than $2,000 already, and it is the biggest paycheck online I received, but that happened in one year, and the big part of it came from the Medium bonuses.
Arigato, Money!
I tried a lot of ways to make money online. Nothing worked until Medium. It is proof that it is possible to make money online, even if you aren't selling any product or working for someone else, especially now that I am in my 50s. Finding a regular job doesn't excite me.
But I have yet to live off what I earn as a Medium writer. In September, I ended up with $115, and after taxes, that will be less than $100.
This isn't a rant.
I need to do it wisely if I want to reach my goal to earn $1,000 a month, because a $1,000 monthly paycheck will be sufficient for my needs, and if I can work fewer hours, instead of being on the computer for more than 8 hours a day, then I can say I am living a life that I want.
So, let's get to my AHA moment!
This is the screenshot of my highest earning story thus far, it has made me $243.49, and it was unexpected because it was born out of my frustration about my weight gain, of which I would like to share with you;
I am still working on it.
Today, I looked at the stats to see what can I learn from it. I only need 4 stories with the same virality to earn $1,000 a month.
🐜 Let us do the Medium Math!
While the story got 3,800 views, only 3,000 are Medium members. The story has 59 hours and 20 minutes of reading time.
If I divide $243.49 with 59 hours/20 minutes or (3560 minutes), I will get;
$0.068 per minute of reading time.
But a slight caveat, checking my other stories, some go as low as 2 cents per minute.
Breaking it down further, to get to $1,000 a month, I would need 16,666 minutes if each minute is paid 6 cents.
And if I write each day for 30 days, a story would need 555 minutes of reading time.
And if each reader will read 2 minutes, I only need 278 people, reading for 2 minutes, each day for the next 30 days!
278 Medium members x 2 minutes x 30 days x$0.06 = $1000.80
That's it?
Now I'm back to being excited because I know I can do it. If I could write a story that was good enough to be read by 3,000 people, I am sure I could write a good story that 278 readers will like day after day.
By breaking my goal into smaller pieces, it looks attainable. It is hard to set out big goals at a time when the world remains uncertain, but life has to go on, and I want to leave you with these words.
Think small.
The story that earned me $243.49