How I Made $555 From My Very First Medium Story

A step by step breakdown of everything I did so you can copy it

12.2k views. 356 hours of members’ reading time. 5.7k claps. Pushing towards 100 comments. $555 earnings. And still climbing two weeks after being published.

Pretty impressive for my very first article on Medium eh?

So how did I do it? And more importantly, what exactly did I do to get these numbers?

Let me walk you through everything so you might be able to apply some of these things to your own stories. And learn about some things you should and shouldn’t do based on what I’ve learned.

Always Meter Your Story — Go Back And Toggle ‘On’

This might sound like dumb newby advice that you’re not here to hear, but bear with me. This was my very first article on Medium, remember?

And the reason I wrote it was to simply qualify for the Medium Partner Program. I had my 100 followers (thanks to work I’d done elsewhere like Quora) but I didn’t have any stories or articles.

So I wrote this story below simply to qualify me for the Partner Program and for future payouts.

But of course, as I wasn’t part of the Medium Partner Program when I first put finger to keyboard on that story above, I didn’t have the option to toggle on ‘Meter Your Story’.

Then I noticed it was starting to get some traction and some views, so I went back and the option to ‘Meter Your Story’ was there for me to opt in to. Obviously, I turned it on and the rest is history.

Point being, you might not have metered some stories in the past or you might have thought some weren’t worth metering. No.

Meter everything, even if you have to go back days, or weeks later.

Use High Quality Images

Honestly, I think half the people who’ve contacted me privately have asked me about the images and how I created them. And if you look in the comments, many people are asking about the images there as well.

I think a lot of people get lazy and use some standard stock images from Unsplash because it’s easy, convenient, and one-click. That’s great, and it adds points of interest to your story, but are those images unique?

Do they really add to the story? Or are they just fillers?

I created my images on Midjourney’s AI platform. But it took me a long time to enter the keywords, change up some instructions, and play around with color compositions.

It was time well spent, so don’t always go the easy Unsplash option.

Publish in Big Publications?

Remember, this was my very first Medium story, so when I first published it, I wasn’t a member of any publications. I hadn’t applied to any because I had no stories. So I published my story on my own page.

Once I’d published it, I applied to a few travel publications like Globetrotters and Digital Global Traveler, and they accepted me. A few days after I’d first published my story, I added it to Digital Global Traveler, which is much smaller than Globetrotters.

Did adding it to a smaller publication work more effectively? Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve still only written four stories on Medium (at the time of writing this) so I’m certainly no expert on Medium’s Publication algorithms.

The main takeaway is that you don’t necessarily have to publish in big Publications to get traction on your stories.

However, you do need to one key thing.

Use Relevant Tags

Medium gives you five tags to use with each post. These tags let people interested in certain topics read stories that use those tags. Much like Instagram or Twitter do.

So you have to use your tags wisely. What does that mean?

It means you shouldn’t get too cute or vague with your tags. Look at the five I’ve chosen above:

• Culture
• Japan
• Japanese Culture
• Travel
• Digital Global Traveler

The first four are directly related to what I’m writing about. I didn’t go vague with something like ‘Asia’ or ‘Shocking’. I went with four that were specifically connected to my story.

The fifth, Digital Global Traveler, was a requirement of the Publication. That’s very common and I suggest you follow every guideline that Publications give you if you want to become regular publishers.

In short, use tags that have a wide reach and are directly related to the content of your story.

Your Headline Gets You Clicks

Many people misunderstand the word ‘clickbait’. Type ‘What is a clickbait title’ into Google and you’ll see that it’s a title that is misleading and created just for clicks.

Let’s face it, readers click on stories or articles because they’re intrigued by titles. Just because there might be a few strong words in a title like “Horrify” (as in mine), that doesn’t mean it’s clickbait.

Why?

Because my story follows on from the headline and outlines six points that I believe many Americans would be more than shocked by in terms of socially accepted customs in Japan.

My content matches my headline. There is nothing “misleading” about it. But it does pique the interest of the reader because they want to see these shocking, or horrifying things that are part of life in another country.

In short, stock-standard cookie cutter headlines like “10 Ways to Drink Water” won’t cut it.

Remember, you’re competing for attention. You’re battling for a few minutes’ of people’s time. You need to catch them with your headline, your subheader, and your first picture.

You need to give them the impetus and the push to read. Headlines with strong words work.

But the content of your story must match your headline. Do not deceive your readers willfully.

Keep Your Content Manageable For Readers

Initially, I had 21 points I wanted to write about. 21! Then I started writing all 21 out and I got bored by about number 11. So if I was bored by number 11, how do you think readers would feel?

I whittled it down to the six that I thought were most interesting and kept the story to between 4–6 minutes. I think if you’re starting out (as I was), asking readers to invest 10–12 minutes or more in your writing is too much.

Only hardcore fans will stick with you for that long on Medium.

So I got it down to a happy six points and, quite obviously, that worked out very well.

From what I’ve learned and experienced thus far, about 5–6 minutes is the sweet spot.

Remember, you get paid by member reading time. So even if you have a great article that’s getting good traction, if it’s only a one-minute read, then it won’t make you much dollar dosh.

Summing Up

I’d be lying if I said I knew my very first Medium story would explode like it has. It wasn’t even put up to make money when I first published it!

But looking back, and talking to a few people since, it’s obvious that some things worked effectively. And more importantly, they’re repeatable things that you can implement too.

I can’t guarantee that every story will take off like mine did, but this is how I made $555 from my very first story on Medium.

I hope that you can take these ideas and use them the next time you’re writing.

PS. I got a lot of help from Ayodeji Awosika and his Medium course so if you really want to dig deep on Medium and make it a winner, check out his work and his course.

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Good luck!