My Six-Figure Medium Writing Strategy for 2020
Step number four is the key to unlock everything
2019 was a huge Medium experiment for me. I didn’t know what to expect going into it. I barely squeaked onto Medium in 2018, so I had a full year to roll-around in the content sandbox.
During this time:
- They changed the Partner Program
- They cracked-down hard on curation
- They increased the number of writers
- They paid me a whole bunch of money
The experiment was a success. I grew my platform from few to many. I also burned my curation privileges for good.
Where I once curated 3 out of five stories I published, I now curate none. I’m fast-approaching 100 published consecutive stories with no curation.
…so I pivoted.
Curation is no longer in my wheelhouse.
Instead, my six-figure plan for 2020 is all-in on building my tribe. I will continue to earn good money from my Medium writing, but the income from Medium-alone will only account for 20% of my overall, six-figure writing plan.
The other 80% will come from my publishing business — the tribe I own and control — away from the Medium platform.
When we put all our hard-boiled eggs in Medium’s little basket, we give Medium permission to control our destiny. They own the traffic. They throttle the distribution. Medium controls who wins and loses.
When you own your traffic you own your business.
I own my traffic. Maybe you will too. It can get real frustrating, real-fast, if you have such little control of your financial destiny. When we own our traffic we’re in charge of how we scale our success.
In 2020, I’m all-in on email.
Four steps to six-figures from Medium in 2020
Please understand this is my plan. It’s forward-thinking. All my facts and figures tell me this will work, but I cannot see into the future. If you choose to follow the same path, please understand I’m a guinea pig on myself as well.
1. Laser focus all my Medium content on a single goal —
This comes at the cost of earning less from my direct Medium reads. The reward is a constant, new stream of subscribers 24/7/365. I’m all-in on email. Not a day goes by when I don’t get new subscribers through my hundreds of Medium stories (approaching 1,000)
2. Give readers a valuable, actionable reason to join my tribe —
This is my Easy Invite (free, opt-in offer). I have a 7-day email masterclass that took me a couple months to build. Anyone who joins my tribe can get the masterclass free.
Through my course I build trust and rapport with my most-valuable readers. These folks stick with me. They open my emails. Occasionally, I send an offer. Many of these folks buy.
3. Ask them what they want once they’ve joined —
Through a series of strategically-placed questions and surveys, I ask my readers exactly what they want. By spacing the questions over time, I’m able to paint the larger picture of the things they need to solve their most-burning problems.
I keep them coming back for more by providing them with educational and entertaining emails. Nope, I’m not Don Rickles, but I write each email in a conversational way and do my best to provide infotainment, so readers open the next email too.
4. Give them what they want —
I’m developing a flagship course, and monthly program, and a few mini-courses. All designed to custom-serve the needs of the folks in my tribe. I would have never known these problems had I not asked them.
We can never assume we know what our tribe wants. We ask them. Strategically. You can’t just say “hey, what can I sell you?” You find out what they don’t want. You look at the questions they email you. You study survey results and paint the map yourself.
The end package all comes from the tribe.
When you listen carefully, they’ll tell you what pushes their buttons. All we need to do is build them what they want. Not always what they need.
How will you engineer your six-figures from Medium in 2020?
I will continue to create valuable content for the people I serve. The best stuff will come from my email list. These are the writers and creators who raise their hands and tell me their tired of not selling any books.
These folks are done with trading typing time for money.
There’s a better way.
When we use email we automate the sales process. Our emails do all the heavy-lifting for us. So, we get more time to do our best work. In my case, this allows me more time to write and create my products for 2020.
I don’t have all the answers, but I’m all-in on tribe-building for 2020. Maybe you’ll join me.
If you’re ready (and you should be) to build a strong email list in 2020, the best time to start is today. We all start from zero.
I’ve got a free, 7-day email masterclass for you. The Tribe 1K will show you how to get your first 1,000 readers (or your next 1,000) without spending a hot nickel on ads.
We’re waiting for you.
Enroll in my Email Masterclass. Get Your First 1,000 Subscribers
August Birch (AKA the Book Mechanic) is both a fiction and non-fiction author from Michigan, USA. As a self-appointed guardian of writers and creators, August teaches indies how to make work that sells and how to sell more of that work once it’s created. When he’s not writing or thinking about writing, August carries a pocket knife and shaves his head with a safety razor.