Medium FAQs for the New + Seasoned Writer

Everything you need to know to earn lots of dough on Medium.

Updated May 19th, 2022

This is a long read. It covers a lot of what you need to know about making money on Medium. This FAQ is a product of 2+ years on the platform. Do yourself a favor and do your homework before you jump on trends or blindly follow the advice of others. I am constantly learning every day and sharing my findings with readers. 

Still have questions? Sign up for a tier to get 1on1 access with me.

Welcome to Medium! Whether you’re two Medium days old or have been here for years, there is always something to learn. Start (or return) to the foundational basics of Medium. The algorithm in ‘Medium land’ is always changing. If you want to make an impact, supplement your income, and grow your audience, do yourself a favor and start with a thorough study session.

This January marked two years for me on Medium. I learn something new every single day about Medium, so I know a lot of stuff that the newbie won’t.

Through trial and error, experience, and the chance to analyze my stats and earnings over the course of two years, I know I can help you take your writing to the next level.

Let’s break it down and take it slow. Hopefully, this FAQ (or frequently asked questions) will help get the ball rolling and help you to feel more comfortable here. It isn’t as scary as it seems — promise!

Need a Friend Link?

Much of the info will be within this article, but I will also link to other articles to give you the most thorough answer possible. If you’re not a member and want to read more, let me know. I am happy to provide a friend link. Though, if you are serious about growing your following and making that money, I highly recommend you invest in a $5 monthly or $50 annual membership fee. Consider using my Medium referral link at no additional cost to you. ✏️

Let’s take a peek at the table of contents.

  ∘ How Do I Set up My Medium Profile for Success? 
  ∘ How Do I Make Money on Medium?
  ∘ How Does Medium Pay Writers in 2021?
  ∘ How Many Writers Are on Medium?
  ∘ Who Made Medium?
  ∘ Why Should I Write on Medium?
  ∘ How Can I Get Followers Faster?
  ∘ How Do I Promote Myself?
  ∘ How Do I Stay Organized?
  ∘ What Happens When You Follow Someone on Medium?
  ∘ What Are Publications?
  ∘ How Do I Join a Publication?
  ∘ How Do I Contact the Editor of a Publication?
  ∘ How Do I Make My Own Publication?
  ∘ How Do I Add Writers to My Medium Publication?
  ∘ Can I Write for Multiple Publications?
  ∘ How Do I Apply to Get Into Big Publications?
  ∘ How Do I Add My Story to a Publication?
  ∘ What are Fans?
  ∘ What are Claps?
  ∘ What are Views, Reads, and Read Ratio?
  ∘ What is Member Reading Time?
  ∘ What is a Friend link?
  ∘ How to Share the Friend Link
  ∘ What is Curation?
  ∘ What is a Mention?
  ∘ What is a Response?
  ∘ What are Tags?
  ∘ What Does it Mean to ‘Pin’ a Story?
  ∘ What is a Kicker?

How Do I Set up My Medium Profile for Success?

How Do I Make Money on Medium?

Currently, Medium has a requirement that in order to qualify for the Medium Partner Program or MPP, you need to have at least 100 followers and have published at least one piece (that is not a response but an actual story.)

Unfortunately, earning is not available in all countries, so before you get too comfortable here, figure out if you are in a qualifying country. If not, decide if you want to write for free or migrate to a different platform.

You can also implement ko-fi or buymeacoffee at the bottom of your story and ask for support, but it is usually not as lucrative as the MPP.

Countries eligible for MPP:

• Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States

Learn how to apply for the MPP here.

How Does Medium Pay Writers in 2022?

Medium pays writers through a service called Stripe. After you fill out your tax information and get approved, you receive direct deposit a few days after the first of the month. It is easy as pie.

How Many Writers Are on Medium?

Back in December of 2021, more than 200k writers have enrolled in the Medium Partner Program. This doesn’t even count the people not in MPP.

Who Made Medium?

The founder of Medium is Ev Williams. An American billionaire, he is a technology entrepreneur who co-founded Twitter and then created Medium back in 2012.

Why Should I Write on Medium?

Medium provides free hosting for your blog and has a high domain authority (95.) This means that when you post something, you have a higher likelihood of ranking on the first page of Google than you would if you tried to grow your personal WordPress blog.

Also, anyone can write on Medium and anyone who qualifies for the MPP can make money. There is no cap to how much you can earn, and lots of writers brag that they earn far more here than they do on competitors like Vocal Media, Newsbreak, Quora, Simily, etc.

How Can I Get Followers Faster?

Whatever you do, you need to understand that the follow-for-follow method is not realistic for sustainable, long-term growth. I wouldn’t recommend it for many reasons. Read more here.

Instead of following just to collect follows back, work on creating world-class, high-quality content based on Medium’s formatting guidelines. Study the top writers and try to emulate the techniques they utilize so effortlessly:

• Killer titles and subtitles
• A unique feature image
• A bombshell of an intro paragraph
• They keep you reading and wanting more
• They are direct and concise
• They are overall masters at their craft through years of perfecting and professional experience

How Do I Promote Myself Effectively?

How Do I Stay Organized?

What Happens When You Follow Someone on Medium?

When you follow someone on Medium, they will receive a notification that tells them you did. If this writer also has their email notifications on for Medium, they will receive an email as well.

Following someone means that you will see their face at the top left of your homepage when they share something new because Medium thinks you may be interested in more of their work. You will also see them recommended throughout your homepage.

This is another reason why follow-for-follow doesn’t work. You are going to be shown writers’ work you potentially don’t even like.

Some writers recommended to me by Medium today are Uwem Daniels, Ali Hall, Cynthia Chan, Janice Eastman, Jo An Fox-Wright Maddox, and more. (I highly recommend all of the mentioned writers.)

Medium knows who to recommend to me, which is the entire point! When you follow and read someone's work frequently, they may pop up here. This and your homepage will change on a regular basis based on your interactions with writers and reading history.

Everything you Need to Know About Publications

What Are Publications?

A publication on Medium is a shared space, often within a specific niche where writers can publish their work. Writers retain the rights to their work and have the benefit of being featured within a pub, which has a unique audience from the writer.

Publications can be used for different purposes and goals. The Orange Journal, for example, is a personal development publication on Medium with 2.3+ thousand followers. Any writer can be added per a request to the editor, but there are strict formatting guidelines that must be met before a piece gets accepted.

How Do I Join a Publication?

There is no one answer for this. Some publications will be harder to send in a join request than others. For The Orange Journal, I simply ask writers to comment on this post telling me they would like to be added and kindly provide me with their Medium handle to make my job more efficient.

Some pubs require you to fill out a form, will redirect you to another website, will ask you to send in an email with a draft link, etc.

Most of the time, pubs have a “Write for Us” or “Contribute” section on their Medium pub, (if not something of that nature.)

You can also search within a pub for articles. Go to their “search” bar with the magnifying glass and type in “submission guidelines” or “new writer request” or “write for [name of pub]”, etc.

If you are still struggling to find out information about how to be a writer, you can simply Google “become a writer *name of publication* Medium”. You should be able to find something with that method.

How Do I Contact the Editor of a Publication?

Contacting the editor of a publication can feel like an impossible task, especially when this person has thousands of followers and doesn’t seem to respond to people too often.

My advice: leave comments and try to connect outside of Medium. Many Medium writers also write on Linkedin, Twitter, and/or Quora. Youtube may be a great way to try to get their attention, too.

If you can somehow find their email address somewhere, they kudos to you, but I’ll tell ya — it won’t be easy. And you still won’t be guaranteed a response from them.

The best way for writers to get in touch with me is to ask to be added via the Do You Want to Write for TOJ? or the Formatting Guidelines page. Then, when they submit a story, we converse through private notes.

How Do I Make My Own Publication?

A lot of new Medium writers make the mistake of trying to create a publication within their first few months of embarking on this platform. Without an audience, it’s nearly impossible to get traction for a new pub, especially when you’re a newbie yourself.

I would recommend writing on Medium for six months to a year before you even think about creating your own publication. While of course this is just my opinion (based on experience,) it’s important to remember that there are 1000’s of different publications all across Medium.

Starting out, you will want to meet and be exposed to as many different audiences as you can. Writing in already well-established pubs helps you do just that.

If you’re ready to start your own Medium publication, here’s how.

1. Create a publication by clicking on the circle with your profile picture in it at the top right of the page.
2. Click publications, and then click New Publication.
3. You will then be prompted to create a Name, Tagline, Description, and Publication avatar.
4. It’s recommended, but not required, to also add publication tags, a cover image, and contact info.
5. Finally, you add the editor (yourself) + anyone else you like. Then you start adding and recruiting writers!

How Do I Add Writers to My Medium Publication?

Once you’re in your publication, click on your logo and find Settings.

Scroll down to the writer's section. Add writers by their handle one by one. Do not add writers without confirming they want to be added.

Can I Write for Multiple Publications?

Of course! Sometimes, you may consider which publication you want to write a piece for ahead of time to make sure you meet all of their qualifications.

When trying to get into bigger pubs, following their guidelines to a tee will help you.

Do spread your work across multiple publications.

Don’t send the same exact piece to multiple publications. Duplicate content will quickly get your account suspended.

Becoming a writer for a wide variety of pubs will give you the opportunity to be presented in front of lots of unique audiences.

How Do I Apply to Get Into Big Publications?

Getting into big publications can be trickier, more time-consuming, or nearly impossible.

Some pubs don’t accept new writers on a rolling basis. They host “open calls” from time to time and then close submissions.

Others will have you fill out a form and send your draft over. If you don’t hear back within a certain number of days, you can assume your piece did not get accepted.

Wait time will vary among pubs, with longer wait times being up to two weeks or even a month! Patience is a virtue, and if it means getting hundreds of thousands of *paying* eyes on your work, then it just may be worth it.

Some larger publications only accept Medium members as potential writers. Keep this in mind and consider signing up to be a member with my referral link at no additional cost to you.

How Do I Add My Story to a Publication?

Medium Terminology-Related Questions

What are Fans?

Fans in your stats section represent how many unique readers clapped for a story of yours within a 30-day period.

What are Claps?

Readers choose to leave anywhere from 1 to 50 ‘claps’. It’s a way to say “I like your work” — like virtual applause. Claps do not equal money. Read more on clap etiquette here and why leaving one is completely ridiculous.

The amount of claps you see can only be seen by the author. The picture on the left is what the author will see. The picture on the right is what everyone else will see.

Even if you own a publication, you cannot see the amount of claps given from each reader on stories published by other writers.

What are Views, Reads, and Read Ratio?

• Views: the number of people who have clicked into your story
• Reads: the number of people who have read your story
• Read Ratio: an estimated percentage of readers that read to the end of your story (hint: higher is better!)

What is Member Reading Time?

Member reading time is how many ‘paid minutes’ that were read by members. That means that you are earning money from these reads.

What is a Friend link?

If someone doesn’t have a paid Medium membership, that means they only have access to three free Medium articles per month. You can share any of your articles for free with people who are not on the platform by providing them with a friend link.

This is especially useful when you wish to show a (potential) employer more than three pieces from your virtual portfolio and need a way to get past the paywall.

How to Share the Friend Link

If it’s a draft:

• Click on the three dots on the top right
• Click ‘more settings’
• Scroll down and find ‘Promotion’
• You will see ‘Friend link.’ Click the ‘copy’ button on the right-hand side to copy the link
• Share anywhere!

If it’s a published story:

• Click on the three dots at the top of the story
• Click ‘copy friend link’
• That’s it!

Even if someone who is a Medium member reads your story after using the friend link, you will still earn money from them, as Medium is able to recognize this. So don’t worry, it’s a win all around.

It’s also an awesome way to bring people to the platform and potentially convert them into a paying member with your referral code.

What is Curation?

When a story becomes curated on Medium, it means that people employed by Medium as curators reviewed your story and decided that it deserves to be distributed to a wider audience.

It could be curated in one or more tags, and it will be shown on users’ homepage and recommended reading if they have indicated an interest in that particular topic. It may appear on the homepage and across various social platforms of Medium.

The best part about getting curated on Medium is that your work gets shown to people who don’t follow you, offering fantastic exposure and a fighting chance to grow your following with people who genuinely love your content and voice. — Susie Pinon in ‘Hold Onto Your Hats, We Are Spreading Like Wildfire!’ Read more on curation here.

What is a Mention?

A mention is when you “@” someone in your story or tag them. They will receive a notification when you do this, which may prompt them to read your article. As you saw, I tagged many writers throughout this FAQ to make it easy for the reader to find some great new writers to follow.

Do not overuse this feature as a way to attract readers to read your work. I see many publications using this spam-like method just to boost their own read-time.

Occasional mentions that are relative to the context are completely acceptable.

NOT spam.

What is a Response?

When someone comments on your story, it is called a ‘response.’ This comment is public and anyone can see it. It’s important to reply back to as many comments as possible. If someone shows interest in your work, it’s important to be respectful and reciprocate.

Responses are their own posts with their own url. When you write a response, you can also publish it to your profile by checking the box.

When you write a response, you can format the text through bolding or italics. You can also add hyperlinks within the text by simply highlighting the words you want to turn into a link and pressing paste.

Thoughtful responses are always encouraged.

They help you connect with other writers and build your own readership.

What are Tags?

Tags are words or phrases that should be used to describe the story. With five tags available, you should always use all five of them to maximize reach. Medium users can follow or search for certain tags based on their personal interests.

Here is a list of the most popular tags on Medium in 2021 in alphabetical order:

🍊2016 Election (51K published stories)
🍊Advice (68K)
🍊Architecture (35K)
🍊Art (166K)
🍊Artificial Intelligence (158K)
🍊Bitcoin (291K)
🍊BlackLivesMatter (56K)
🍊Books (138K)
🍊Business (347K)
🍊Climate Change (87K)
🍊Cooking (27K)
🍊Creativity (142K)
🍊Culture (153K)
🍊Design (279K)
🍊Diversity (35K)
🍊Economics (71K)
🍊Education (352K)
🍊Energy (37K)
🍊Entrepreneurship (352K)
🍊Fashion (99K)
🍊Feminism (78K)
🍊Fiction (160K)
🍊Finance (164K)
🍊Food (178K)
🍊Future (52K)
🍊Gaming (105K)
🍊Government (58K)
🍊Health (408K)
🍊History (110K)
🍊Humor (157K)
🍊Ideas (36K)
🍊Innovation (113K)
🍊Inspiration (155K)
🍊Internet of Things (26K)
🍊Investing (115K)
🍊Journalism (61K)
🍊Leadership (180K)
🍊Life (586K)
🍊Life Lessons (498K)
🍊Love (388K)
🍊LGBTQ (61K)
🍊Mental Health (237K)
🍊Movies (167K)
🍊Music (244K)
🍊NBA (37K)
🍊Parenting (106K)
🍊Photography (136K)
🍊Poetry (511K)
🍊Politics (416K)
🍊Privacy (44K)
🍊Productivity (200K)
🍊Psychology (140K)
🍊Racism (64K)
🍊Reading (55K)
🍊Relationships (247K)
🍊Satire (50K)
🍊Science (109K)
🍊Self Driving Cars (19K)
🍊Self Improvement (373K)
🍊Short Story (157K)
🍊Social Media (258K)
🍊Space (28K)
🍊Sports (221K)
🍊Startup (509K)
🍊Sustainability (52K)
🍊Technology (390K)
🍊Television (74K)
🍊This Happened To Me (31K)
🍊Transportation (24K)
🍊Travel (350K)
🍊Venture Capital (62K)
🍊Virtual Reality (42K)
🍊Women In Tech (31K)
🍊Writing (370K)

Updated Tag List for 2022 and everything you need to know to become a top writer

Become a Top Writer

If you want to be a ‘Top Writer’ within a certain tag, focus on creating content on that topic and always using the same tag. This will help you become a Top Writer faster.

Currently I am a Top Writer in “Writing,” “Internet of Things,” “Innovation,” “Ideas,” and “Advice.” I have been curated in writing many times. I keep track of this by using a Chrome extension called Medium Distribution Info.

I like to share honest screenshots of my stats and earnings because there is often a misconception among writers, especially new ones. Just because someone has over 3.5k followers doesn’t mean they have some pieces that flop and others that soar. We are all always still experimenting and learning.

What Does it Mean to ‘Pin’ a Story?

Pinning a story means it will remain at the top of your page even after publishing new pieces. If you have a favorite article that you want everyone to see first, ‘pin’ it to the top of your page.

You can also pin stories to the top of your publication if you have one.

What is a Kicker?

A kicker is a title on top of your title. Its purpose is to give a little more context to what your story is about. Most often, you will include a kicker when a story is part of a series or collection.

In The Orange Journal, there is a movement coined It Changed My Life. If someone wants to publish within that section of the pub, they may add the kicker. Read more here about how to add a kicker.

There is so much more to dive into but this FAQ covers some basic questions, concerns, and misconceptions. I am constantly creating new free resources and updating old posts as I learn more.

I highly encourage you to take a peek through my Free Writers Resources list. I will hopefully answer any pending questions you have and provide some food for thought on topics you may have not considered.

Happy writing and best of luck. You can do it!

Best,

🆂🆄🆉🍊

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