Little Lessons From My 2nd Month Earnings on Medium
Stats, curation and reflections of a total newbie.
Hello there. I know what you’re thinking. Yet another story about making money on Medium.
Well, you’ve clicked on this story, so you might as well stick around. I’m writing this piece to keep myself accountable, but also to share what I’ve learned, and maybe you’ll find some use in it.
I’ve been on Medium for 6 weeks and during the first couple of weeks, I really appreciated reading how other beginners were doing on the platform. I gained a better understanding of Medium through their experiences.
So here is my detailed report on the month of July 2020:
Since beginning on Medium, I wrote a total of 9 stories.
I wrote 6 stories this month.
I know, not a lot by productivity gurus’ standards, but I tried to focus on quality and authenticity instead of just pumping content out there. Hopefully, I’ll learn to write faster. My goal was to publish 2 pieces a week, I made it to 1.5, but I’m satisfied.
Remember that consistency itself isn’t always continuous — the important thing is not giving up. For those of us who have full-time jobs or personal issues coming up, being realistic is important. My goal for August will be writing at least 10 stories to make up for what I couldn’t achieve in July.
I earned my Medium membership and a little extra.
This month I made a total of 6.62 $.
In June, I made 2.01 $ while only writing 3 stories.
It’s time to celebrate this little milestone! I exceeded the 5 $ mark, which means my Medium account now pays for itself, yey!
Stats and stories that did well.
At the very end of June, I published a piece that got curated, and that’s how my account took off.
I’ve also found a couple of Facebook groups that have been very helpful and supportive, and that’s how I got views and followers. I really doubt I would have reached this many people organically.
As you can see, views and reads spiked whenever I would publish a new story. At the beginning of the month, I was very active promoting my stories on Facebook groups, while towards the end of it I slacked off a little.
I was also curious to see how my stories would do organically, without fighting so hard for reads and claps. Apparently, I slipped back into oblivion. Oh well, it’s a learning curve and I’m still at the bottom of it.
Curation was surprising, but also not a guarantee for views.
Three of my stories have been curated this month:
The first one, curated in Mental Health, deals with my experience with anxiety throughout my career. It’s a very personal piece that I spent a couple of days perfecting.
The second one, curated in Self and Beauty, addresses my transition to natural hair as a young woman who went prematurely grey. It’s also quite individualistic, with lots of “I”s in there and personal opinions.
The third story actually got curated today in Relationships, after 11 days since publishing it. To all of you out there reading the dreaded “We are processing this story. Hang tight!” for too long, all is not lost.
Many of the stories about writing on Medium suggest that we focus on the reader, use plenty of “you” and “we” in our language, provide advice and useful information and not make it about ourselves. Nobody needs to read about our personal lives, right?
Well, it depends. All of my curated stories were deeply personal experiences, written with genuine emotion, that struck a chord with some people.
All the listicles and “advice” stories I’ve tried to write so far have flopped because I was trying to emulate other people’s style, rather than writing something that came naturally to me. Nevertheless, it was good practice offering clues about what works and what doesn’t.
In the end, I appreciate people speaking from their own experience, rather than blurting out advice like a self-appointed expert. Experts are nice to have, but they lack soul and compassion, and I’d rather learn a lesson from someone more invested in their writing.
I’ll stick to personal essays and see what curators have to say about it.
Useful tips and people whose advice made a difference
Here are some lessons I’ve learned and some tips I’ve tested while being on Medium these past 6 weeks:
- Respect the platform’s content style and format your story accordingly.
- Pay extra attention to your title and change it up until it’s appealing.
- Just use Grammarly already— it’s easy and only takes 2 minutes.
- Read, clap, and engage with at least 3–5 stories every day — you learn a lot while also gaining followers and networking.
- Submit your stories to publications — so far I’ve had success with Invisible Illness, Illumination, and Be Unique, all very welcoming places with great editors.
Facebook groups that I’ve found very supportive:
A note on using groups: be polite and reciprocate. If you want to be supported, extend the same courtesy. Don’t just leave your link out there without reading and clapping for any other stories in return. Unfortunately, there are way too many people behaving like that online. The FB groups above are amongst the most constructive, least spammy ones I’ve encountered so far.
People who have made a difference:
- Big shout out to Zulie Rane, whose Youtube channel actually got me started on Medium — I previously had no idea there was such a thing as the Medium Partner Program. Her videos are very useful and motivating, they take beginners step by step through setting up their accounts, submitting to publications, curation and much more. I’m sure she does a great job as a mentor too!
- Many thanks to Sinem Günel as well, her newsletter and Facebook group are both very informative. I especially love how she’s from Europe like me, and a recent member on Medium — she’s living proof that not only first comers can become top writers and that it’s never too late if you put the work in. I’m actually very tempted to join her academy!
- Lastly, I enjoy listening to Michael Leonard’s podcast — Inspire Your Success — episodes are mostly focused on freelance writing and writing on Medium. He speaks from his own experience but also brings very cool guests every once in a while.
I’m very excited about the future and what Medium has to offer. The money I’ve made so far is not impressive at all for what it can buy, but it is impressive to me for the wealth of wisdom it has provided in such a short window of time.
Here’s to a glorious month of August!