One Hidden Way Great Writers Earn More Money from Medium Stories

Stack more cake a week from today

I’m a grinder. That’s my writer-type (if there is a thing). You might be a grinder too. I try to publish my stories as fast as I can type. But I don’t publish them for the instant, partner income. I use my prolific pace for a totally different reason.

While, yes, the monthly Medium partner income is a great bonus on the old bank statement, you can burn yourself out fast if that’s the only reason you’re writing.

Most writers will ignore the little secret I’m about to share.

Maybe you won’t.

She will, but maybe you won’t.

The partner program is a great way to earn money, but you must keep typing if you don’t want the money to stop. Medium is always on — 27/7/365. Readers want fresh content.

If you aren’t always creating fresh content, your readers will go elsewhere.

The partner money will dry up fast.

Try taking a week off of Medium and watch your reads plummet. I took nine days off and lost a ton of money.

…or you can apply the hidden secret I’m about to share, and keep earning money while you do other things — like sleep. Maybe earn money from Medium and apply this principle for even more income.

This is the method I choose.

Keep reading to see if it’ll help you too.

Hidden Medium income

The big secret is micro-course. This is a term I created for quick lessons that solve a single problem.

You can (and should) create these little ditties in a week or less.

A mini-course takes the reader from her current situation and transforms her life to something better.

You give a fast, actionable solution to a big problem the reader has. Once created, you sell the micro-course automatically, through email.

Micro courses are short, which is why I call them micro.

Your reader should be able to absorb all the content and take action in less than an hour.

We don’t pay for long content that takes months to digest. We pay for actionable solutions that eliminate a burning problem.

For example, this is the micro course (I give a discount coupon to anyone who joins my tribe — but you have to join to get it) that pays every single one of my annual business expenses in less than a month of sales. At it does this every month without fail.

I earn money while I sleep (and while I’m awake, but the sleep part sounds more dramatic).

Micro-courses aren’t fancy. They give your reader a quick-win. My micro-course is a single PDF document. You don’t need audio or video.

Micro-courses are inexpensive.

Expensive courses take a much bigger marketing approach. Micro-courses are fast decisions. They provide a single, low-cost solution your reader can apply today and have her problem solved tomorrow.

There’s no fluff in a micro-course. You don’t have to pad it with a hundred junk bonus offers and trick your reader into some bigger subscription package.

Everything is above-board here.

You tell your reader exactly what she’ll get when you buys your work.

I use what I call the escape-arrival framework (from Frank Kern. I start with the current situation the reader wants to escape from. I end with the new life — the arrival.

Divide the distance between escape and arrival, with actionable steps to solve the problem.

This method keeps you on track. Remember, micro-courses offer a single solution to a valuable problem.

Spice-up your course with some nice graphics. You can make the whole thing in PowerPoint or a free, Google or Mac equivalent. export it PDF and voila!

Once you have your micro-course, you may want to use a service to deliver it. This keeps you out of the tech-support business. I did this with my micro-course and the service paid for itself the first month.

I use Podia (my affiliate link if you use it) for my course hosting platform. You can sell anything with them. And they charge a flat rate, no additional fees per sale, like most platforms.

It’s hard to sell a micro-course without an email list

I don’t like selling directly from my Medium stories. Your reader needs more relationship-building first.

I prefer to grow my tribe through my stories and use my email sequence to do all the heavy-lifting instead. This is how I earn money from my micro-course — through email.

You can too.

If you’re a writer, you’ve already got the content and the skills to make a micro course.

In many cases, micro-courses carry a lot more perceived value than books. Books have a self-imposed cap around $20 or less. Not so with a micro-course.

If you want to build your email list I’ve got just the ticket for you.

I’ve built a free, 7-day email masterclass from the ground-up. I call it the Tribe 1K. And you’re invited.

I’ll show you how to get your first 1,000 (or your next 1,000) readers without spending a hot nickel on ads. If you enroll today you’ll have your first lesson before the cookies come out of the oven.

Past students include New York Times bestselling authors. It’s almost like they now know a secret you don’t.

It’s time for you to know the secret too.

Tap the link.

Change your life.

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.