Summary

James Julian, a professional writer, shared his experience of earning a substantial amount on Medium within his first full month of active publishing, detailing his strategy, earnings, and insights on the platform's potential for long-term income.

Abstract

James Julian, a seasoned writer with a background in newspaper journalism, began his journey on Medium in late August. By maintaining a high output of content, he managed to accumulate a significant number of views, reads, and fans in September. His efforts translated into tangible earnings, bolstered by the US-Canadian exchange rate, and he provided a breakdown of his earnings per view, read, and hour. Julian emphasizes the lag in Medium earnings calculations and the long-term earning potential of articles, likening them to employees that continue to generate income over time. He also offers advice on how to succeed on the platform and invites readers to support his work through membership or tips.

Opinions

Julian is optimistic about the earning potential on Medium for early-stage creators, especially given his own successful start.
He believes that the high output of articles is key to gaining traction and earnings on the platform.
Julian values the long-term earning potential of articles on Medium, suggesting they can continue to bring in revenue after the initial publication.
He acknowledges the benefit of a favorable exchange rate, which significantly increased his earnings when converted to Canadian dollars.
Julian is transparent about the financial aspects of writing on Medium, providing specific figures to illustrate his earnings and the time investment required.
He views referred members as a valuable source of recurring income, as they provide a monthly payout as long as they maintain their Medium subscription.
Julian encourages reader engagement and support, highlighting the importance of claps, memberships, and tips for writers' success on Medium.

I made hundreds on Medium in my first month

How much money can you expect to make if you’re an early-stage creator on Medium? The number might surprise you.

I started back on Medium in late August and I went pretty hard on the platform. Over at my main account James Julian, I published close to 60 articles from late August through September.

That is obviously a very high output, but the reward for doing that was that I actually did pretty will in my first full month on the platform.

In September, I managed to rack up 7,667 views, 1,939 reads, and 308 fans:

I’m a professional writer and had a long newspaper career that required producing on deadline, so I write pretty quickly.

I estimate it takes me about 45 minutes to write an article on average.

I also had about a week in August where I was active, and you can see those views here:

Here’s what I earned for September:

I wasn’t expecting to get any referred members at any point in this journey to be honest, so picking up two in my first full month was a nice surprise!

Referred members are people who sign up for a Medium subscription through your link. The beauty of these is that you keep getting paid every month as long as they remain members.

Living in Canada, I’m also benefitting from a great exchange rate at the moment. With the US dollar surging and the Canadian dollar in the tank, I actually made $477 CAD in my first full month.

I did some math to determine how much I made by different metrics. I determined that, in my first full month, I made:

4.6 cents per view
18.26 cents per read
$7.75 per hour

A couple things to keep in mind…

Medium earnings lag

You may get a bunch of reads and views on a story, but it can take up to two weeks for Medium to calculate exactly how much you made on a particular day.

So you may find two weeks after publishing that you have a day without many views, but your earnings on the story have a huge spike.

I assume that’s because they are recalculating what you actually earned based on your reads and engagement.

You really won’t get a full picture of what your story is earning until the following month.

Articles live forever

Back to my “hourly wage” for a sec. Even with the exchange rate where it is, that’s still about $10 an hour, which is well below minimum wage.

However, the stories that I’ve written are not done!

My hope is that, over time, they’ll keep adding up.

I look at my articles as my little employees that I send out into the world every day.

Some have gone out to work and earned quite a bit of money, some might come home with 2 cents.

The point is, there’s still going out every day.

Once they’re out there, they can potentially return money for a long time to come. As I add more employees, they compound together.

How I did it

This article has been focused mainly on what you can earn as an early-stage creator on Medium. If you’re interested more in the how of it, please check out this article: How I became a top 6% money earner on Medium in 23 days.

Thank you so much for reading this article! If you enjoyed it, please do give it a clap or two so others can find it!