How to Turn a $1.50 Medium Story into a Profitable Writing Business
…even if you’re a new writer with few followers
What do all the top writers have in common with you? They all started with zero followers. As we add new writers to the Medium platform it can get increasingly tough to make a dent in the steady stream of endless content.
I hear from newer writers frequently. They mention single or double-digit earnings for an entire month.
While your earnings can be improved with frequent, consistent publishing, you can still build a great business off tiny earnings from your Medium stories.
In this story I’ll show you how to take whatever niche you support, turn those stories into little recruitment offices, and slowly build a thriving writing business on the back-end of your Medium content.
Not only can you apply these principles to other platforms (LinkedIn, news sites, IG and Facespace) — you can build your little writing business without spending a penny in ads.
Everyone has jumped on the ad-wagon lately.
While ads are a highly-accelerated way to grow a business (and the right decision once you get to a certain size), you can also lose your face if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing. This content formula is a lot more forgiving (and each piece of content will continue to work for you, longer than a temporary ad).
Most readers won’t make it to the end of this story, but I hope you do. If you’re struggling to find your sea legs on Medium, I hope this story helps.
The riches are in the niches
Not only can you build a thriving writing business off a small audience, but you can also dominate your little niche to help prevent someone else from taking your readership.
Even a low-earning story can work hard for you in ways you may not recognize at the moment.
1. Start with your endgame —
What do you want to accomplish from your writing? What does average, daily life look like if you could have any writing business you want?
Not Lambos and a yacht, but what does your daily working situation look like? Where will you work? What kind of writing do you want to do to earn a living? Who do you want to serve? Are you willing to sit alone for long hours now, in order to earn what you want later?
All these early questions are important.
Writing is no joke. This is a blue-collar vocation that requires a ton of daily effort if you want to make it work. There are many more options to earn a quick buck if that’s all your after.
If however, you can’t imagine a life of doing anything besides writing — this might be the plan for you.
2. What’s your back-end?
Whether you want to teach a new skill, become a consultant, sell fiction or non-fiction, get paid to speak, grow your own content agency, become a ghost writer, manage other peoples’ social media, or the hundreds of other places writers thrive — decide what you want to sell. Even before it exists.
If you know who you want to serve and the work you’d like to sell to earn a living, then you can move to the next steps. You don’t need to have a product yet. In fact, your tribe will help you create it (if you ask them).
But you do need to know what your writing business might look like before we can design the front lobby.
3. You need a ESP —
Your email service provider (ESP) is the core of your writing business. Your email list will become the hub, around-which the spokes of your content will feed a steady stream of new readers into your writing business.
Using a landing page, a great free offer (your Easy Invite), and an automated email sequence, you can build your writing business, get more clients, or sell more books, all on autopilot — using your steady stream of Medium stories to help encourage new readers to join your tribe.
4. Publish every day —
Instead of trying to use your Medium stories to earn a couple bucks a month, put your writing to work a lot harder for you. Every story you publish should target the niche you intend to serve.
At the bottom of every story, include an invitation for the reader to get your Easy Invite. This should be a solution to the reader’s problem, not a self-serving statement, like ‘join my list.’
When we publish daily, each piece we write becomes a little recruiting office for new tribe members. Even if you get a couple new readers per day, if they join your tribe these folks can be worth thousands of dollars over their customer lifetime.
5. Don’t focus on the daily stats —
Watch your progress in aggregate instead. Note your baseline today. Maybe you have zero subscribers. Maybe 100. Watch your progress monthly. The daily stats will rise and fall. There’s a lot on Medium that’s outside your control. But you can control your message and your daily publishing schedule.
For every $1.50 story you write, you can earn a couple new readers on the back-end. Depending on your writing business model, your tribe will feed you long-after the pennies you earn per story on Medium.
Every story will work hard for you. I’ve got pieces I wrote over a year ago and they still gather new readers today.
Think of how many little recruiters you’ll have if you publish daily. I’ve got almost 1,000 stories written on Medium. I started with one at a time, in 2018. Don’t think about these huge numbers though. Think about your daily output. Publish at least one story per day, in your niche.
Build your tribe before you need it
No matter what kind of writing business you want to build, you’ve got to promote your work. No one will do it for you. As a commercial writer, it’s your job to tell the others.
Not only should your Medium stories recruit new readers, but you’ve also got to build an automated email sequence once someone joins your list.
Everyone starts with zero subscribers.
The best time to build an email list is before you need it. Once you build your product and you’re ready to launch your business — starting a list then is almost too late.
Don’t open a store with an empty parking lot.
I’ve got just the thing for you…
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. Past students include New York Times bestselling authors. Yep, the ones you see in the bookstore.
Your email list will help you build a legacy writing business.
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.