Medium as a Side Hustle: Worth it?

Yes, it is, here is why

There are many ways to make money on the side One of them is Medium. Medium is a platform for writers to share their thoughts and ideas, but also a viable option for those looking to turn their writing skills into a side hustle.

But is it worth the time and effort?

Medium Partner Program

Let’s start by understanding how earnings on Medium work.

Once you have 100 followers, you can apply to the Medium Partner Program. If you’re accepted, you can then monetize your stories and accumulate referrals.

Money from stories depends on how long members spend reading or listening to monetized stories. But it also depends on the proportion of time members who read your story spend on their total reading time on Medium.

For example, you’ll earn more if someone reads your story for 3 minutes but that’s 50% of their total time on Medium than if someone reads your story for 10 minutes but that’s 5% of their total time on Medium.

Unfortunately, I didn’t find the precise formula for these calculations, but it’s not that important.

Then, you can also earn money when people sign up to Medium with your referral link. In this case, the calculation is easy. If the member signed up for a year, you get $2.01/month for a year. If he signed up for a month, you get $2.27/month while the member’s membership remains active.

Other Earnings

You may eventually earn money thanks to Medium, but not directly with the Medium Partner Program.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of ways to earn money this way:

• Publication payments: Some Medium publications pay writers for their contributions. These payments can vary widely, from a flat fee to a percentage of the revenue generated from the article. Also, getting published in a Medium publication can also help increase exposure and gain a following (so indirectly increase your earnings from Medium Partner Program).
• Selling products: If you have a product or service to sell, you can use Medium to promote it to your readers.
• Selling email lists and newsletters: If you have a large following on Medium, you can monetize your email list and newsletter by selling advertising space or sponsored content.
• Redirection to your own blog: While Medium is a great platform for reaching new readers, it can also be used to redirect readers to your own blog or website. This can be a way to build your personal brand and increase traffic to your own platform.
• Freelance writing opportunities: Writing on Medium can lead to freelance writing opportunities outside of the platform. By establishing yourself as a skilled and knowledgeable writer, you may be able to attract clients who are looking for writers for their own blogs or publications.

Calculating your Hourly Rate

Depending on your Medium-related income sources, you can more or less calculate your hourly rate.

Let’s take my case for example. It’s easy as my only Medium-related income source is from Medium Partner Program. So, my best month was $476.96. It includes $9.08 from referrals, so $467.88 from stories. I publish a story a day, so let’s say 30 stories a month, and spend on average 30 minutes to write a story (it depends a lot, but it’s an average).

467.88/30 = 15.6, so a story earns me $15.6 on average (some earn me $30, some $0.5, it depends a lot). In other words, I’m paid $31.2 per hour thanks to Medium Partner Program only (it’s a gross income, then you have to pay the taxes).

But this calculation is inaccurate because if I stop writing today, I’ll still earn money from my older stories. So my hourly rate is probably lower, but what I lose in this hourly rate ends up in passive income, it’s better!

I’ve calculated my earnings per day since my first day on Medium, and it’s $6.14. So if I stop writing now, I can still expect to earn this amount for a few days/weeks before it starts decreasing because the topics I talked about will eventually become outdated and people won’t read these stories anymore. However, if I continue to write, I can expect this average to increase over time.

In fact, the more you publish stories, the more your hourly rate increases because you can write less and still earn the same thanks to the fact that people still read your older stories. During my first month, this hourly rate was probably something like $3/hour with no passive income, which is very bad, but it was normal, I was just beginning and had no stories for people to read.

Optimizing your Hourly Rate

You have several ways to optimize your hourly rate.

The most obvious is probably to write trending stories. I said some stories earn me $30 and others $0.5, so I could just write stories like these earning me $30. Personally, I won’t ever do that because I just want to have fun on Medium writing about things I like, so I don’t want to force myself to write things I don’t necessarily want to.

Then you can optimize your hourly rate by implementing new revenue streams using your audience.

For example by selling them ebooks, courses, etc… The thing is, with this kind of thing, what you earn doesn’t depend solely on your efforts, but mostly on the size of your audience. So time is less important in the equation which allows you to optimize your hourly rate by having a large audience and offering them products. This also applies to product placements or affiliate products.

In short, once you have a large enough audience, you can increase your hourly rate quite easily.

So What Is the Limit to What You Can Earn on Medium?

While it’s possible to earn a decent hourly rate through writing on Medium, there is no guaranteed limit to what you can earn. Some writers have been able to make a full-time living through the platform, while others have struggled to earn more than a few dollars per month.

The amount you can earn on Medium depends on a variety of factors, including the quality of your content, the size and engagement of your audience, and your ability to effectively monetize your writing through the Medium Partner Program and other sources. There is also a bit of randomness I think.

Final Note

As I’ve explained, writing on Medium can be a good side hustle, but of course, you have to put in some work and effort before seeing real and significant results. Earning money on Medium is not a passive process.

That being said, with the right approach and dedication, it’s possible to earn a substantial income through writing on Medium. Whether you’re looking to make a little extra cash on the side or turn writing into a full-time career, Medium can be a powerful platform for building an audience, gaining exposure, and earning money through your writing.

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