That One Time I Was Making $2,000 a Month on Medium…

Why earnings tanked and when they will return

You probably understand why your Medium earnings tanked over the past few months. Mine have dropped 75%.

Whether you earned $30 a month, or $3,000, almost every Medium writer has seen a big drop in their partner earnings. But it won’t stay that way.

We’ve all had our minds on the plague. Not only that, but those who lost their jobs also had to cut the non-essential leaks from their bank accounts. This means a drop in the number of paid subscribers.

Not only that, but there’s a major drop in attention.

I didn’t see this coming. I assumed that Medium reads would go through the roof. Everyone is stuck home, almost world-wide. When people are home they consume more content.

…but they aren’t spending time on Medium.

They are glued to the news.

Views, reads, claps, and comments are down. And although I continue to grow my following, my Medium income has dropped to scary-low levels.

Honestly, there have been days when I started to question if it’s worth it to stay. But I shook that off like a wet dog and got back to work.

I’ve written over 1,000 stories since joining Medium in 2018. There are plenty of writers who earn more than me, but I’m really surprised by how vulnerable my earnings have been, even with a semi-large following.

We just stopped reading almost everything but the news.

So, here’s the big question: When will our Medium earnings return? How long do we have to wait before we can stop earning pennies per story?

While I can’t give you an exact answer, because no one knows, I do believe it’ll have a direct correlation to re-opening the economy for business.

When your readers return to work, they’ll have their old Medium-reading routines. They’ll be so tired of all the terrible news, your Medium stories will be a welcomed guest.

Those who keep writing will be rewarded, but you’ve got to weather the current storm.

I’m just as pessimistic as you may be right now. But I believe with every piece of my being that we’ll get a huge spike in readership in the next few months.

My stats have been slowly trending upwards at a slow climb. Nowhere near where they were when I was making $2k/month in partner income, but we’re getting there.

…but you’ve got to keep writing now.

Don’t wait until the gate opens, when every other Tom, Rick, and Shelly start writing again, to boost your Medium shelf space.

Keep your publishing going while the others have given-up.

Not every writer will make it through this plague unscathed. Those who persevere with their content will be the ones who stay in the forefront of their reader’s minds.

Keep focusing on your niche.

When you serve a single niche you become the dominant voice there. The more you dominate a niche on Medium the more you gather new readers.

Sure, there are many writers who do well writing multiple niches, but it’s very hard to build a writing business trying to serve everyone. And, as this plague has show, Medium is best considered one of many income streams, not a single source for all our income.

Overnight, many writers went broke.

But it won’t stay that way. If we continue to serve our niche now, while reads (and competition) is down, we’ll be ready when the floodgates open again.

We also need email.

Not only should be keep writing to stay on the Medium homepage, but we’ve also got to build our own insurance policy in case this ever happens again.

When you’ve got your own email list, you can offer your customers your products, without going through a middle-man, or paying some social platform just to reach your followers.

We all start with zero subscribers.

You can use your Medium stories, not just to bring partner income, but you can also use it to build your own tribe — a list you own, no matter where you publish your content.

Medium might fold someday.

With that, all your followers disappear. Not so when you have an email list of your best readers.

I’ve got something for you.

I built a free email masterclass for you. I hand-crafted the whole thing. It took me a couple months. I call the masterclass 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. Past students include New York Times bestselling authors. Yep, the ones you see in the bookstore.

Your email list will help you build a legacy writing business.

If you want to grow your writing business you need email before you lose that valuable reader. Start your list before you need one. Once you need one it’s almost too late.

Tap the link.

Guarantee your seat before I start charging an enrollment fee.

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 helps 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.