I Made $150 My First Full Month on Medium

And became a top writer in 3 categories

Wait. I think I did this wrong. I think I’m supposed to write all about what I learned first and then tell you what I earned at the end. Oh well. I’m doing things on my own terms here and it’s working just fine.

You know the song “Dirty Little Secret” by The All-American Rejects? Are you singing it in your head now? Good.

I’ll tell you my little blogging secrets.

If you sang that to the tune of “Dirty Little Secrets” you’ve passed my test and now I will share how I broke into the three digits as a Medium newbie.

I joined Medium in early January and started in the Medium Partner Program towards the middle of the month.

Last month, I earned $18.61 (USD) from writing 17 articles in the roughly two weeks I was part of the partner program. I was pretty proud of that. Still am!

In February, I wrote every day. As shown in the picture below, my earnings for my stories alone were $97.98.

Then there was the kind soul who used my referral link and got me an extra $2.27. I’m 99.9% sure it was my mom. Mom, could you just fess up already? This charade is getting old.

The other $50 came from winning a short story contest hosted by a truly awesome publication. Heck yes, I’m counting that in my earnings. I made it on Medium so it counts in my Medium earnings.

I don’t want to link the winning story because I feel weird linking things to another publication when this one was kind enough to publish my story.

My winning article was about my dog’s love affair with Feral Fawcett, our feral cat friend. Feel free to go find it if you’re in need of a dose of adorable animal pictures.

This number is astounding to me. I feel overwhelmed by how kind (most) people have been and the (mostly) positive feedback I’ve received.

However, I was told that I shouldn’t be writing articles giving writing advice and that writing on Medium doesn’t make me a writer.

So, obviously, I had to write another article on writing. Thank you for your feedback, but I’m going to do whatever the heck I want.

Here are my five biggest tips for making the Benjamins on Medium, or whoever is on your $100 currency.

1. Write for publications

Find publications you enjoy reading, support the writers in that publication, and ask to write for the publication.

This was a game-changer for me. Originally, I was writing my stories on the bathroom wall at a local Dennys diner. I figured people would have plenty of reading time in there after eating a “Grand Slam” for breakfast.

But I wasn’t gaining any traction. No one ever put money in the metal tip jar, only sanitary napkins. Now that I think of it, that might not have been a tip receptacle I was sifting through.

2. Earn top writer tags

How? Excellent question. The three I earned are in Parenting, Satire, and Humor. I totally get the parenting one as I have several “#1 Mom” mugs to prove I am clearly crushing this mom thing.

The other two, no idea. But my best guess would be that I increased my chances of earning them by consistently using these tags. Like constantly. I wrote them on Post-its and stuck them all over my house.

3. Interact with other writers

You aren’t going to get very far without spreading the love. Even if you don’t have any love in your heart, you must pretend you do. Clap (50 times…no one wants a one clap) and comment on articles you enjoyed reading. I clap 100 times on everything I read. I know it only registers 50 of those but you can never be too cautious.

4. Figure out who you are and what you want your writing to say about you

As Derek Zoolander once said, “Who am I? I don’t know.”

Don’t be like Derek Zoolander. I mean, you can be really, really, ridiculously, good-looking. You can also open a “Center For Kids Who Can’t Read Good and Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too”.

But you need to know how what picture your writing paints of you. You should probably also already know how to “read good”.

Take me for example. When you read my stories, words like “hot mess” and “raging lunatic” may come to mind. If so, I’ve nailed it. I’m all about authenticity, after all.

5. Take constructive criticism like a champ and learn from it

You don’t have to agree with or believe everything everyone tells you on here. It would be insanely weird if you did.

Did you actually believe me when I said I was qualified to have a top writer tag in Parenting?

I’ve faced rejection from a publication more than once. I’ve gotten feedback that stung worse than Botox lip injections. But I learned from it.

Being new means there’s a lot to learn. If more experienced writers and editors are generous enough to give you feedback, the very least you can do is reflect on it.

If my riveting advice changed a single thing about your approach to writing on Medium, here are some more nuggets of wisdom for you.