Starting a faceless Medium business
An $8K/mo business venture anybody can do?
I read a story recently from one of my favorite writers on Medium Abena Talks.
This is it…
And, it talks about making money with Medium niche accounts.
I love the idea of faceless businesses.
I’m an introvert and it’s a great fit for me to hide behind a computer screen sometimes but, still be able to make money and earn a living from my work.
This reminds me of that and I have been wanting to try it out.
I’ve mentioned making money from Medium (even a full-time income) without having any followers and people ask me how.
This is how!
How to start a faceless business on Medium
You don’t need any followers.
You do need:
- A niched-down Medium account
- Consistent writing on that account
- An open mind and a way to track your results
Here’s how it works…
First, there are a bunch of ways to make money from Medium. You can choose one or all paths to monetize your faceless Medium account:
- Affiliate marketing
- Client work
- Selling products or services
You’ll decide on a monetization strategy, then pick a niche, consistently create content on that niched-down Medium account, and keep going!
Here’s how you do it…
Decide on a monetization strategy
How are you going to make money with this new Medium account?
I mentioned some examples above.
Choosing your monetization strategy upfront will help you when you choose your niche.
Because all niches can’t be monetized and so it’s important to think of this first before you start putting your plan into action for creating your faceless Medium business.
On one of my faceless Medium accounts, I went with affiliate marketing.
Without even trying, I started making around $40 to $50/month recurring in affiliate marketing commissions from just one affiliate.
If I can do that with 9 other affiliates, that’s a cool $500/month without a ton of effort behind it.
Create a niched-down Medium account
This is important.
It won’t be like your personal Medium account where you write about your favorite things, any and everything that inspires you and publish it.
You want to pick a niche and stick to it.
- Software reviews
- Health and wellness
- Parenting
- Travel
- Etc.
Whatever you choose, pick something and then stick to it.
Write consistently and write often
Create a content calendar for yourself and write a lot.
Pull out your phone and add an appointment on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to publish three pieces of content on Medium, for example.
That’s your content calendar.
You can do this in your daily planner, on a Google Sheets spreadsheet, in the notes app on your phone, in your head, whatever.
The bottom line is, to develop a routine to start writing consistently and on a schedule on this new Medium account.
Publish to publications
What do you think will get more visibility, publishing to your zero followers new Medium account or the 206K follower publication in your niche?
In the beginning, go with publications.
Over time, Google and other search engines might start to pick up your content and drive traffic to your stories but that won’t happen instantly, it can take a bit of time.
In the meantime, use the traffic from publications to fuel your stories and start making money.
Keep an open mind
Being open is something good to do for business, in general.
You don’t have to be stuck in your ways.
Flexibility is a powerful thing and if you’re willing to pivot and change directions when needed, it can work in your favor.
Track your results
Tracking your results helps you keep yourself accountable.
It also helps you stay motivated on this journey.
How to make money with a faceless Medium account
There are a few different ways you can monetize your account outside of MPP.
First, let’s look at affiliate marketing…
Faceless Medium account and affiliate marketing
You refer to affiliate products and when a sale happens, you earn a commission. Now, here are a few things to keep in mind…
- You want to create stellar content
- Pick affiliate products that aren’t done to death (oversaturated) on Medium
- Disclose
There’s a myth that you can’t do affiliate marketing on Medium.
The truth is, you can do affiliate marketing on Medium but, you want to provide amazing content that’s valuable to the reader.
You do not want to be spammy or salesy in your writing.
That kind of behavior takes away from the reader's experience and I don’t think Medium is in favor of that.
To pick the right affiliate products that aren’t oversaturated on the platform, just do a quick search on Medium to see how many articles turn up mentioning that product.
If few do, that’s an indicator that it’s not saturated to death on here.
Then, by all means, DISCLOSE.
That means when affiliate links are in your stories, you have to write a disclosure telling the reader that.
It can be simple like “This article contains affiliate links.”
For more on Medium’s affiliate marketing policies, check this out.
Faceless Medium account and client work
The article I mentioned at the top of this story about Abena’s success in building a Medium business, shares her $8K client work booking!
Your Medium writing can bring you client projects!
Medium is the perfect place to find clients.
In fact, I just booked a client at a major publication last week and the lead came from Medium!
The editor read my article and reached out, asking me to write a piece for her publication.
For this to work, writing in a niche is helpful (not required), and make sure you have your email address in your profile.
See these examples:
Faceless Medium account and selling products and services
Talk about the products and services you sell in your Medium stories.
Do this often.
It might feel like you’re talking about it over and over (because you will be) but believe me, your readers probably won’t get sick of it, like you think they will.
I used to refer to some of my top affiliates much less than I wanted because I didn’t want to feel repetitive to the reader. I missed out on thousands of dollars in affiliate commission with this huge mistake.
The truth is, you can become known for your signature product or service by referring it to your audience. It’ll be what readers know you by and it can help you build an online reputation for that thing.
On this Medium account, I refer my two ebooks often:
This is how much I’ve earned from the two books this month so far…
I share my ebooks in the body of my stories and as a tagline at the end. It works and it’s helped me make more ebook sales.
Make this a habit. It can pay off.
Takeaways
Starting a faceless Medium account can be a lucrative side hustle or side business to pursue.
I’m personally trying it out and I’ll be reporting back more on my results next month.
Want to join me?
Would you start a faceless Medium account?
I hope you enjoyed reading this. If you’d like to support me as a writer, consider signing up to become a Medium member. It’s just $5 a month and you get unlimited access to Medium.