On Medium Income: It’s Not in Daily Reads, but More in The Relationships
Earn more by being MORE
I write about how to make money on Medium — a lot. I do this, because these are the types of stories my readers enjoy reading. So, I make more of them. But there’s a big difference in trying to make a quick buck and doing work that’s meaningful.
Medium is not a quick-buck kind of place.
Once you’ve built a substantial platform, you can earn great money from the partner program. I’ve benefited greatly from it. For that, I’m thankful.
However, if you attempt to build something on Medium with money as your soul purpose, you’ll be sadly disappointed — as with any journey where money is the goal.
Money is not a goal, it’s a result.
…of hard work.
…of helping others get what they want first.
…of being your best self and putting your best work into the world.
We can’t eat money. No kid wants to be a money when she grows up. Money won’t teach you to fish, or pat your head when you feel like crap.
Money is a yardstick.
On Medium, we’re paid by the number of reads we earn from paid subscribers. The better our work, and the larger our following — the more we’ll get paid.
Readers will return to us because our message matches our mission.
Therefor, if you want to make more money as a Medium writer, maybe it’s time we look at how we help others get what they want, before we can even consider getting what we want.
Keep reading, I’ll show you how.
How to help others get what they want
If you want to earn more money from your Medium stories, I find it best to start with the people we serve — our tribe.
If we want repeat readers we need to put our work in their shoes.
What story can you write today that will help your reader escape her current situation and arrive at the place she wants? How can you deliver a positive outcome to a negative situation? What burning issue does your reader have, for which she needs an answer — now?
I like to think of every Medium story as a product.
When you develop a product you think about the end-user, not yourself. As writers, it’s fun to write Medium stories for ourselves because they make us feel great.
But self-serving stories rarely spark a reader.
Why?
The focus is different.
Instead of helping you, I focused on me and how great I am, my clever train-of-thought, or something I want to brag about. Readers see straight through these. I still write them sometimes too. I’m just as guilty. Sometimes we just want to write for us.
But these self-serving stories won’t build a writing business.
We’ve got to shift focus to the reader.
Instead of focusing on the daily read stats — the short-term wins (or losses), we should focus on the long-term relationship with the reader.
When we build relationships with our best people, we turn a couple pennies per read into a lucrative, long-term agreement.
Famous marketer Frank Kern has a quote I really appreciate. He say’s:
Demonstrate you can help people by actually helping them
This means you help your readers first. Before any expectation in return. The read-income might happen as a byproduct of your best work, but the tribe-building and long-term relationships you create by helping people — those are the reason we’re all here.
It’s time to build a legacy business with our writing.
We can earn more by being more for our readers first. The money will work itself out as a byproduct of serving your readers well.
A legacy writing business begins with a tribe
Not just any tribe, mind you, but a tribe where you own the access. You control the message. And you don’t have to pay to reach all your followers.
On Medium, there’s no way to reach your entire following.
You can’t even pay to do it.
Medium owns the platform. Medium owns the access. Medium controls the way we get paid (or not) and Medium owns your followers. You can’t take them with you if you leave.
This means Medium can take away your writing income any time they want.
As more writers clog the platform, there will be more competition, lower payouts, and even more reason we need to build our own tribe.
We’re talking about email.
When you own your traffic you own your business. If you build an email list you own, you have direct access to every member of your tribe. You can contact them any time. And email is almost free.
When you encourage your Medium followers to become tribe members, you build yourself an insurance policy. And the beginnings of a legacy business.
Everyone starts with zero subscribers.
If you’d like to start your own email list, I’ve got just the thing.
I hand-crafted a free, 7-day email masterclass called the Tribe 1K. I’ll show you how to get your first 1,000 (or your next 1,000) readers without spending a hot nickel on ads.
Start your reader’s list before you need it.
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 these folks who want to make work that sells and sell work they make. When he’s not writing or thinking about writing, August carries a pocket knife and shaves his head with a safety razor.