I Made Almost $10,000 on Medium!
It took 2 years, 9 months & over 1000 stories
My calculations for 2023 are in and I’ve realised that since joining Medium in May 2021, I’ve earned almost $10,000 on Medium. That’s an impressive figure until you realise that it took 2 years, 9 months, and I’ve published over 1000 stories. For the past two years, I’ve been putting in an awful lot of hours, too.
Setting priorities
I spent around 35 hours a week on Medium during much of 2023. Two hours in the morning, two in the evening, and an hour checking messages throughout the day. Some days, I’ve prioritised Medium over my journalism work for magazines. I feel that needs to change.
When I started writing on Medium, the goal was to prioritise magazine journalism from 9 until 5, and fit Medium into my spare time.
The trouble is, I had slow periods at work and Medium snuck into my working day! I even started to think Medium could replace some of my journalism work. But in reality, I’ve been doing less pitching to magazines because I’ve been busy on Medium, and that might have been a bad move. I’ve also abandoned stock photography.
Getting back on track
This week, I’ve been focused. I’ve ditched Medium at 9am every morning and focused on pitching. I had a hit with an old client, who replied instantly to give me a £300 job.
I’ve since received three more jobs, got a new client, and the income from those three jobs equates to about three month’s earnings on Medium. This is how it should be. Medium is not supposed to be my main job. It’s a distraction.
But sometimes the jobs don’t come in like they have this week. Sometimes I pitch all week and only get one small job. Is that because I was distracted by Medium, I wonder…
A dilemma
I am actually in a dilemma. I’ve been straddling the fence of traditional journalism and Medium for a couple of years now, feeling like I’m failing at both.
Would jacking in the day job and committing 100% to Medium provide a decent income? Or would jacking in Medium and committing 100% to magazines enable me to recover my earnings to pre-pandemic levels?
It’s impossible to know without trying one or the other and I’m reluctant to abandon either.
Decline of traditional publishing
The truth is, the print industry was in decline long before the pandemic came along and crushed it. Magazines were closing, ironically because they were losing business to online competition, like Medium.
I’ve been looking for other outlets for my work ever since I went freelance in 2011. I had spells when I was writing blogs for a car hire business and an insurance agency.
My book publishing wasn’t very successful. I made a few thousand, but it wasn’t worthwhile for all the hours that go into writing and editing a book.
The allure of Medium
Articles on Medium do earn well occasionally, which makes it very alluring. But a quick reality check reminds me that most of my Medium articles earn less than $3.
And 25% of my Medium articles earn less than a dollar.
The $1000 article was a blip, not a predictor of future earnings.
My average hourly rate on here works out at about $2.50.
Year one
When I joined Medium, I wasn’t planning to write new material. I re-published my old magazine articles. Most of them flopped. Other writers were doing better by writing specifically for Medium’s audience on other topics.
So I started to write things better suited to the platform, and my earnings increased. A rant took off. I started to see the potential of investing more time in Medium. I wrote a lot of short form stories that year and earned $500 in my first 8 months.
I was advised to write longer articles to increase my earnings, so I started investing more time in the platform the following year.
Year two
The second year, I earned $4400, almost entirely by writing new material for Medium. I started spending 30-35 hours a week on Medium and was seeing higher earnings, but it was taking up so much time.
The trouble with relying on Medium is that the earnings aren’t consistent or reliable. You think if you publish more and engage more, it’ll be financially worthwhile, but the reality is, the benefit may be small, or non-existent. Your earnings may inexplicably sink.
It’s probably better treated as a hobby than a job.
Year three
So, here I am at the conclusion of my third year on Medium and I earned $4600 in 2023, for an estimated 35 hours work every week. I fitted my magazine work around Medium, but upon reflection, I think my focus has been in the wrong place.
If I’d spent those 35 hours in a minimum wage job in the UK, I’d have earned over $24,000 (£19,000) — that’s food for thought.
I’m not greedy, but is this really a good career move? 🙂
During the pandemic I lost a lot of clients and felt defeated. Medium gave me new hope. A social scene. Happy faces. A sense of community. It was addictive. That’s why I can’t stay away!
Try engaging more
Some people swear that to succeed on Medium you have to engage more. I do engage a lot, but not all day.
Others who spend a lot of their days engaging on Medium get 4x or 5x the number of comments that I do on their stories, but the strange thing is, they aren’t earning a full-time income either. In fact, some earn less than I do, despite getting more engagement on their stories.
There are exceptions, like the publication owner who’s accruing $3k a month on Medium, but he’s eligible for up to $900 a month as a boost nominator, and boosting two of his own stories every month might bring in an extra $1000. So it’s not a level playing field. I’d be doing much better if I had those perks, too!
Straddling two camps
For now, I will continue to straddle both camps but try to manage my time better, so I’m not exhausted.
In 2024, I want to be disciplined and get back to focussing on magazine journalism. But I will try to make my time on Medium as productive and enjoyable as possible, too.
I sometimes have to remind myself that before I joined Medium, I spent too long on Twitter, which doesn’t pay at all!
Recap
So, to recap, in 2023 I earned $4600 on Medium. Yes, it’s an impressive total, but not a huge amount when you consider the hours, the dedication, the high level of engagement, and the relentless daily publishing schedule.
Over two years and nine months, I’ve made almost $10,000 on Medium, for writing and publishing over 1000 stories, most of which were written especially for Medium. That’s no mean feat.
All that while, I was also trying to hold down a traditional publishing job working for magazines in an industry that’s slowly dying.
And my dad used to call me a ‘lazy good for nothing’.
© Susie Kearley 2024. All Rights Reserved.
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