Summary

A writer from Nepal achieved Top Writer status on Medium within 10 days, despite being ineligible for the Medium Partner Program and thus unable to monetize their work.

Abstract

The author, Bilizmaharjan, from Nepal, attained the status of a Top Writer on Medium in March 2022, after writing five stories within a span of 10 days. Despite previous success on the platform, including gaining over 600 followers in two months and some stories receiving 5,000 views, the author was unable to monetize their work due to Medium's Partner Program not being available in Nepal. Motivated by the love of writing and the desire to prove their potential, the author aimed for and achieved the Top Writer status, primarily aiming for the 'Writing Inspiration' topic but ultimately receiving the accolade in 'Writing'. The author's success was a personal victory and a statement to Medium, showcasing that writers from non-Partner Program countries can produce valuable content. The author plans to continue writing on Medium regardless of financial incentives and hopes Medium will eventually include all countries in their Partner Program.

Opinions

The author believes that a writer's primary job is to write, not necessarily to make money.
Writing is a passion for the author, who states they would continue to write even without payment.
The author sought to achieve Top Writer status as a form of recognition and to demonstrate their writing ability, rather than for financial gain.
The author is critical of Medium's Partner

I Became A Top Writer In Less Than 10 Days And Made $0

Number of stories written: 5

I am now a Top Writer on Medium.

At the beginning of March 2022, I decided that it was time to level up my writing.

I’d been writing on Medium for a long time, gaining over 600 followers in just two months. (As a beginner, that was huge for me.)

Some of my stories had gotten 5k views in a small amount of time.

Even though I had been doing well on the platform, I wasn’t making any money.

That’s because I am ineligible to join the Medium Partner Program. I’m from Nepal — one of the many countries Medium doesn’t support in the program.

Screenshot by author. (Partner Program article here)

So the question, for me, was whether to continue writing on Medium or leave the platform.

What is a writer’s job?

To write.

See, as a writer, making money should not be the only goal. I am a writer because I love to write. I don’t do it for money or fame or some other reason.

I always say that I would keep writing even if I weren’t paid for it.

So I decided to continue writing on Medium.

But to level up my writing, I decided to achieve a ‘Top Writer’ status on Medium by the end of the month.

Why become a top writer?

I had read a lot about becoming a top writer from fellow writers Kristina God and Abena Talks.

But I never tried to achieve it.

Since I cannot make money on Medium, I wanted to do something else to prove my potential.

So, the first thing that came to my mind was achieving the top writer status on a topic.

There are two reasons why I wanted to achieve the top writer status:

To see if I could really do it.
To prove Medium that writers from countries besides those eligible for the Partner Program can also write good stories.

How did I do it?

I became a top writer on Medium 10 days after setting the intention.

Here’s a screenshot of my profile:

To be completely honest, I did not intend to become a top writer in Writing. Instead, I was aiming for the topic Writing Inspiration.

Medium must work in some weird ways as it gave me the status in Writing. But, to be fair, I had also used the Writing tag in each of my stories.

I can only speak for myself as I don’t know how this stuff really works. I wrote five articles consecutively and used similar tags in all of them.

That’s it. That’s how I got the top writer status.

Surely, other factors must be involved, like readers’ engagement, claps, responses, etc.

As I said, I don’t know how this works. But it worked for me.

What next?

I proved my point to Medium and other writers like me — ineligible for the Partner Program — by becoming a top writer.

I’m not going to write stories to achieve the top writer status anymore. If it happens, great. But, I will not be doing it intentionally.

I will be writing stories on Medium, even if it never includes my country for the Partner Program.

Medium has given me the platform to explore my abilities and connect with other writers. Additionally, I have learned so much by reading people’s stories and experiences.

Overall, Medium has made me a better writer.

It would be great if somehow Medium changed its policies and allowed writers from all around the world to earn money here.

I hope Medium appreciates our efforts and listens to us.

Thanks for reading my story.

Good day to all.

If you like my work, please buy me a Ko-fi. Any amount will be appreciated.

Check out my eBook How to Build Side Hustles & Make Money Online.

Thank you.