Lessons From Making $500+ In 7 Days With One Medium Article
Headlines Matter
Going viral isn’t new to me.
I’ve gone viral more times than I can count on one hand.
But something was different this time…
I typically write about AI, Machine Learning, and Data Science, but after my burnout in July this year, I vowed to drop my niches.
Something unexpected happened.
I went viral on Medium.
There's a major difference between your article going viral and going viral on Medium.
Medium’s partner program pays writers based on engagement from Medium members.
Lots of tech folks read Medium articles…
Many of them are not members.
This explains why I can write a tech-related article that generates more views and greater average read times than another article targeted at people on Medium but still earn much less.
See for yourself…
This whole experience has completely changed my perspective and approach to Medium.
Here are a few things I’ve been thinking about…
Who do you write for?
You must target your writing.
The outcomes you achieve on Medium are based on who you write for…
Are you writing for other writers, people keen on self-improvement, tech nerds, etc.?
There’s no doubt some niches are more popular than others on Medium.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean the people consuming the content from those niches are paying platform members.
If your goal is to get exposure, that’s great — you can certainly get a lot of views from popular topics.
But if you’re trying to make money from writing on Medium, that’s not great.
You want to target people who pay for the platform.
This means you must think differently about the content you’re creating.
Here are a few things to ponder:
- What type of person pays for a Medium subscription?
- Why do they pay?
- What problems do they have?
- What publications do they read?
The stats we get from Medium are nowhere near proficient enough to answer these questions.
My super simple bootstrap solution is as follows:
1. List a few topics you’re passionate about — ideally, things you’ll create content on.
2. Find top-performing articles in those areas.
3. Check the likes and comments to see who engagement is coming from.
4. View profiles and reading lists of people who’ve engaged with popular posts — the more, the better.
5. Partition them into personas (i.e., Inspirational Ivy, Business-minded Bob, Technical Tim)
6. Create targeted content for each persona
You want to get as much information about the people you’re writing for as possible…
The more you know about your reader, the more targeted you can be with you’re writing.
Bonus Tip: You can also create articles answering the questions readers ask in the comment sections of popular articles. This technique works because most top writers don’t read their comments.
Headlines matter
This is the first time I’ve made $500+ from one article.
This is also the first time I reviewed the headline for an article before publishing it.
The provisional title for “Don’t Just Set Goals. Build Systems” was —
“How To Build Systems To Achieve Your Personal Goals.”
There were ten other headlines on the shortlist, but I was stuck between the headline I decided to use and the provisional one…
So I phoned a friend.
She lectured me for a solid 15 minutes on why she thought the headline I eventually went with is better than the provisional one.
I took her advice…
There is not a single top writer that does not emphasize the power of headlines.
I’m starting the see why…
It makes people click on your article!
We all subconsciously know this, but how seriously do we take it?
Here are a few articles to help you up your headline game:
- Three Super Simple and Quick Techniques to Write Better Headlines — Ayodeji Awosika
- A 9-Step Formula to Write Highly Clickable (But Not Clickbait) Blog Headlines — Zulie Rane
- Tim Denning Writes Headlines Every Day (And You Should Too) — Taylor Foreman
Write from your heart
I wrote “Don’t just set goals. Build Systems” on a whim.
The inspiration was my frustration.
I was frustrated about some things I didn’t achieve this year and knew all my optimism about 2023 would not be realized unless I changed something.
This took me to a place of reflection.
It was my reflections that birthed that article…
You’ve got to be into the stuff you write about.
Readers can sense when you’re writing for trending topic sake.
During the 1960s, much of the talk in America was about the Cold War…
This meant lots of pro-American propaganda was being pushed in the media to emphasize to the American people why being brought up in America is better than living in communist states like the Soviet Union.
It was a trending topic.
Can you imagine if Martin Luther King jumped on the bandwagon?
I’m not saying he wouldn’t have got the views — he probably would have.
But I am questioning whether it would have had the same impact as his I have a dream speech…
I doubt it.
Not only would it have tainted his message of freedom, equality, justice, and love, but it likely would have lacked the same vim we got from the things he was passionate about.
MLK only ever spoke about subjects he cared deeply of on record —
“The time is always right to do what is right.”
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
This is one of the reasons people are unsure whether MLK was a republican or democrat to this day — even though his influence disrupted the political arena immensely.
You don’t need to become MLK or any other top influencer…
Just take a leaf from their book.
Talk about things you care about passionately —
YOU DON’T HAVE TO PICK A NICHE TO DO THIS...
Final Thoughts
My greatest revelation from this experience is that doing well on Medium means being deliberate.
Some people may get lucky — congrats to you.
But the true veterans of the platform have meticulously planned and created systems that allow them to execute consistently.
To replicate their success, you have to do the same.
Thanks for reading.
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