How to Start on Medium If You Are a Beginner
A 4-week action plan to make money on Medium.
Whether you want to make a career out of writing or just want someone to read your stories and practice sharing your work in a public space, there are specific steps to take to make your Medium writing dreams a reality and get eyeballs on your work.
I did it.
It wasn’t nearly as hard or time-consuming as I thought.
The only difficult part is showing up every day. But once you establish a writing habit and get comfortable with sharing your work — the biggest challenge for me — the showing up part gets easier with regular practice.
Now that I’ve established a daily writing schedule, my writing muscle is strong, and I’m able to spend more time elsewhere, developing my other online businesses. I will never abandon Medium entirely, but it’s important to have several revenue streams since the online world, social media platforms, are constantly in flux.
Medium has gone through several changes and will continue to evolve.
The importance of starting an email list and learning SEO has never been more critical. Medium can become one revenue stream if you give it time and put effort into becoming a better writer — Medium is the perfect place for that.
Below are the four steps I took to increase my follower count and make an income on Medium that has increased each month with consistent writing and publishing.
Writing every day has made me a stronger writer. I’m able to create content faster for my other blogs after nearly a year of posting on Medium.
There is no better time to start sharing your work.
Begin with these four weekly steps below.
Week One
Step One
- Sign up for a Medium account and the Medium Partner Program.
- Write a profile.
It is super easy to sign up for a Medium account, here are the steps:
Sign up using an email address.
- On the Medium homepage, click Sign up in the top-right corner.
- Choose Sign in with email.
- Enter your email address and click Continue.
- Go to your inbox and open the verification email.
- Click Sign in to Medium in the email to be redirected to Medium and signed in to your account.
Once you have an account join the Medium Partner Program. The subscription fee is $50 a year or $5 a month.
Here is a link to sign up for the Partner Program, it takes all of ten minutes.
Write a short paragraph, only a sentence or two, to describe who you are. What kind of writing will you bring to Medium? Make sure you add it here, so your audience knows by clicking on your profile in which topics you write. Your profile is at the top of your page, beside your photo. Write two or three sentences describing who you are as a writer.
Here is mine,
Mine needs a little work, I haven’t changed it in a while, but it does describe what my interests are.
Be creative here.
If you have a website, add a link to your website in your profile.
You won’t have any followers to start, but after you share your first post, you will begin to gain followers.
Week Two
Step Two
- Write what interests you.
What do you love? Write about that.
If you are a beginner and want to give this a good shot, but you don’t have a ton of experience writing online content, write what you know.
Everyone has a story. Every person who has survived childhood has something to share. Lean on your life experience to figure out what to write about.
Do you have an amazing green thumb with a thriving garden in your backyard? I bet people would be interested in reading about your experience and success as a gardener.
I know a woman who makes several thousand dollars a month, in google ads, from her relatively new blog focused entirely on succulents.
There is a topic for everyone.
When first starting focus on what you know and back it up with research. Link one or two articles to your story to give authority to what you’ve written. When you link to a third party to back up your ideas, your audience automatically knows you did your homework, and you aren’t just making stuff up. This give you credibility as an author.
Week Three
Step Three
- Publish your first post by May 1, 2020.
Two weeks from today, let’s say May 1, because there is nothing like starting a new goal on the first of a new month, publish your first post.
Publishing my first post was the hardest challenge for me; don’t let it be for you. 300 plus posts later, I’m not sure why I was scared to publish.
Here is the hard truth, people will judge you.
That is part of putting yourself out there, but what is the cost of not putting your writing out into the world? What are you losing by not sharing your work, and is the price worth it? How badly do you want to be a writer?
If you want it, you have to be OK with sharing your work in public. That’s how you grow as a writer. You’ll receive critical (valuable) feedback and reaction from a built-in audience.
Through regular publishing, you will get a better idea of what resonates with your audience, when you have one. The stories people respond to, even if the response is from only one or two people, write more of the stories that get a response.
Don’t discount an audience of five, everyone has to start somewhere. Even if you have five followers, those five people are the start of your tribe — loyal fans. Cherish them.
By regular posting, you will add followers. I guarantee it. Consistency wins on Medium.
Week Four
Step Four
- Make a goal for yourself.
My goal was to write at least one post per day for three months.
If you make a plan to post at least one post per day, I think you will be surprised at how far this one goal will take you. In 30 days, I increased my follower count by over 300 people, and started making money in the first month.
Come up with a time frame that is reasonable for you.
Mine was three months. I was going to write every day for at least three months. After those three months went really well — I saw more growth and progress than expected — I changed my goal from three months of writing to six months. Then nine and so on.
My income keeps increasing, so I’m still here writing, plus, I really enjoy it, and I’m becoming a better writer. Unexpected wins keep me going.
If I can find success here, you find success also.
If you haven’t posted on Medium yet, make your first post date for May 1, 2020. If you have already posted on Medium, make a different goal for yourself; increase from one post a day to two posts a day, or try to double your follower count in a specific time.
Next week, I’ll have four more steps to follow. Post any questions in the comments.
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.
