My “How I Made Money on Medium” Story as a Non-Writer

Not the typical advice

Not quite what I was searching for but hey, Americans will get the drift. (Photo by rupixen.com on Unsplash)

Do you know what you can consistently find on Medium? At any given moment, another How I Made Boatloads of Money on Medium article. As someone who has read her fair share of them, let me summarize most of their tales:

create your own publication
write about what you know
be an expert at something even if you think others are experts
getting more than $100/month is super rare
Medium often changes their algorithms
don’t give up
demonstrate better writing skills than an ape on a keyboard
advertise your side business of selling e-books or online courses but don’t overly advertise because Medium and readers won’t like it
get a mailing list
before publishing, go to your article’s page settings and add Reader Interests tags.

There. That should save you hours of time. You’re welcome.

Oh, did you want to read more? That’s right, I followed the advice of having a good hook for a title. I’ll sort of bait-and-switch a little: I am a writer, however I write technical documentation for a living. Super dry stuff that is boring as hell. “Click this to blah blah” and “Enter the username in the field to display blah blah” type of content. It is short and author-agnostic. In a perfect world, no one should be able to identify an Installation Guide as something that I’ve written.

I don’t have dreams of becoming a big author. I have no books in the works, not even way back in the chasms of my mind. There is zero chance I’ll quit my day job and become a freelance writer or blogger. Point is, writing on Medium isn’t my natural habitat.

In less than 5 months with writing as a small hobby, I’ve made $5702.17. From what I understand, that is not typical.

I’ll spare you the screenshot to prove my worth. (I think they’re obnoxious. I don’t need proof of income to read an advice column.) I’m not buying a car with the cash but it’s a sizeable amount that’s helped my bank account. It’s paying for my home fumigation and roof repair. That’s the kind of baller I am with money.

Here is my non-traditional advice for making some coin off your writing on Medium.

Have a lot of anxiety

Ask anyone with anxiety what’s in their mind and they’ll tell you the twenty running thoughts they’re having that moment. Anxiety is like having a room full of TVs on different channels playing at once.

It’s exhausting. For me, writing out the “TV shows” in my head eases my anxiety and helps provide clarity. It allows me to take a ruminating thought and pull it out of my head. Of course, I have dozens more running in my brain but at least I’ve got one thought out and onto paper. Uhh, screen.

As a blessing and a curse, I’ve quelled quite a bit of my anxiety since the majority of it stemmed from a tumultuous childhood and a crappy marriage, both of which I’ve finally gotten under control. That means I don’t write even half as much as before.

The money lost in income since last month is probably what I would have spent on therapy, so it all evens out.

Write about your life’s drama

If the idea is to write about the areas in which you’re an expert, then my marital woes fit the bill. Can I write about the current political climate and changes in the government? Hell no. But I can write for hours and hours about feeling trapped in a crappy marriage.

Whatever your drama, people will connect. Your drama could stem from your baby daddy burning down your hidden marijuana plant and I guarantee, people will connect with your story and find solace in it.

If you’re not from North America, don’t underestimate how much your daily life’s struggles are of interest to those of us on this side of the earth. I know what the life of a fashion editor in New York is like. Those stories are a dime a dozen. If you live in a hut in a third-world country and you’re using Medium on a phone from 2010, then fuck yeah I want to know what your daily life is like. Even if it’s just to tell me about Sunday’s grocery store shopping experience (do you even have grocery stores?). Bonus points if you’re writing about your town’s perspective on the coronavirus pandemic.

Writing about your drama allows readers to feel less alone in their struggles. While you may not have any answers (I sure as hell don’t), it’s comforting to know when you’ve reached rock-bottom that someone out there understands.

Don’t mimic a particular way of writing

Remember how I said I don’t write about the current political climate? I also very rarely read editorial pieces on them either. Not because the topic doesn’t interest me, but because most of those authors have a particular style and tone that bores the shit out of me.

While my problems are pretty serious, I don’t write with a serious tone in my head. I’ve been told my way of writing is different because I can write content full of despair (ugly-crying-with-mascara-down-my-face kind of despair) while still infusing humor and sarcasm into it.

I don’t write a particular way on purpose. I’m writing what’s in my head as if I were to tell the story to someone else. I don’t have the end in mind. I don’t even have an objective in mind sometimes. My goal is to just write in a way that is most natural to me, which allows the words to flow. Medium is the upscale version of my personal diary.

If you, dear Reader, are absolutely hysterical and are interested in writing government editorial pieces, please send your content my way. Don’t tone down or change your style to suit the topic.

Use an online text editor for fuck’s sake

Google “online text editor free”. Bookmark your results. Make sure Grammarly is one of the bookmarks. Check your title capitalization with CapitalizeMyTitle.com. If you haven’t done this already, then this may be a good chunk of why you’re struggling to make $50 a month on here.

You don’t need to be a good writer (clearly, because I’m not winning a Pulitzer Prize that’s for damn sure), but you need to be articulate. It’s not about avoiding writing in past tense or not using sentences that start with “and”. Your writing needs to flow and make sense.

My content is very sensitive and thus, I can’t send any of it to friends to proofread. Also, I don’t have the time nor the care factor to bother. Since this isn’t my source of income, I’m fine taking 10 minutes to pass my writing through one or two free online editing tools.

I’m pretty sure Grammarly is a real human who rolls his eyes when he sees my content because sometimes it’s written like a drunk chicken at the keyboard. Grammarly doesn’t fuck around when it wants to let you know your writing sucks. It even rates your writing. If Grammarly is rating you at 70%, what do you think your readers will rate your writing?

Go balls-in with your thoughts

This one is tough. I wanted to write one single article when I joined Medium. There was no plan to vomit my adult life story onto anyone’s screens. The more honest and open I became with my writing, the more reader engagement I received.

This isn’t surprising. Everyone wants to read authenticity and pieces from the heart. We get enough fake life and perfection from social media. Writing should be your true self.

I’m not going to lie, it’s not always easy to submit that “Publish” button. Writing from the depth of my soul is easy because I don’t even care if I publish anything or not. I have over sixty unfinished writings in my Medium drafts. If I know I’m going to publish the article, I have to push myself harder to not sound insincerely impressive, intelligent, or sane.

I have one finished article that is probably the most emotional article I’ve ever written. I think it would help a lot of people gain perspective on love and heartache. Even for me, it’s too terrifying to post. I can normally handle the internet trolls (at least on here, the trolls add to your page read count), but for something sensitive like that article, I’m not quite sure I can handle it. Whether I publish it or not, I can confidently say I went balls-in when writing it.

Can you guess what part I hate about writing on Medium? Coming up with some snappy way to end an article. Given the spirit of my advice, I’ll end this in the way I want to write it:

There. Now you have enough advice to make at least $50 on Medium if you write often enough and don’t be a douchebag with your content. When you’re authentic, you won’t be boring, and you’ll engage readers. Go forth, young grasshopper, and prosper!