The Exact Strategy I Used to Write a $5,000 Article in Under 5 Hours

Yes, for one day I made over $1,000/hr

I published the article “If You Want to Be Rich, Stop Focusing on Your Salary (Do This Instead)” from Gate 7 of the O’Hare International Airport on January 4, 2019. It took me a little over two hours to write, one hour to edit, and another ninety minutes to finetune, adjust, and research.

Prior to that point, I had made $34.62 for three months of writing on Medium.

It wasn’t the most inspiring or beautiful piece I’ve written. To be blunt, it isn’t even the article that I’m most proud of. I’ve spent days pouring my heart and soul into pieces that no one batted an eye at.

As of 12:27 a.m. on Sunday, March 1, that story has earned $5,321.93.

While I did write this story in under five hours, several months of trial and error predicated its success.

Succeeding on Medium Is Not a Lightning Strike

At the time, it seemed like magic that my article was being received so well. But there is a method behind all magic acts.

Writers often get caught up in seductive lines from authors like Hemingway, who said something along the lines of

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”

While beautiful, statements like these are relatively contradictory. As Ryan Holiday wrote in his book “Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work That Lasts,” Hemingway commonly restructured and edited his work. Hemingway even revealed that he re-wrote the first half of “A Farewell to Arms” over fifty times.

I failed a lot before one of my articles actually took off. Eventually, I started to learn and improve my craft, and I unlocked the strategy for writing a popular Medium article.

Here’s exactly what I did.

Start With a Story Backed by Results

There is a common theme among a lot of writers to create content about subjects that they haven’t experienced or know very little about. My goal from the beginning was to be as authentic as possible, intertwining tidbits from my life with lessons that others can learn from.

The premise of the article “If You Want to Be Rich, Stop Focusing on Your Salary (Do This Instead)” was to show my readers that salaries don’t have to be the focus of your earnings.

I argue that to be in the top tier of wealth, you have to adopt a multi-revenue approach to earnings, combining both active and passive streams. At the time, I had been investing, writing on Medium, freelancing, and working a full-time marketing job.

This article worked because a lot of people could relate to my story; it was written for someone who is working full-time and interested in pursuing other endeavors on the side of their career.

The reason it worked so well is that I used real examples from my life to support the subject matter.

Write a Title That Communicates Your Message

It’s no secret that titles bring a reader in.

What a lot of writers don’t understand is that a well-written title can be the difference between an article getting ten views or going viral.

Why?

Because if you can’t grab a reader's attention immediately, they will scroll right past it to something that will.

There are four components to my title that make it a worthy headline.

It provokes desire

Most people you talk to would agree that they would like to be rich someday. Anyone who feels trapped in their job or underpaid will wonder, “hey, how can I make more without focusing on my salary?”

Desire breeds action. If you can make someone really want what you are selling them through a title, the foundation for a high-earning story has been set.

It challenges common knowledge

When I graduated from college in 2017, side hustling, freelancing, and writing weren’t even on my radar. I was under the impression that making money stemmed from a respected career that could be achieved over time as you slowly climb the corporate ladder. Based on the emails and comments I received on this article, a lot of other people have the same mindset that I once did.

If you introduce the idea that salaries aren’t necessarily the key to getting rich, readers will be inclined to see why their understanding of wealth is being disputed.

It’s simple to understand

This is the key.

Don’t confuse someone before they start reading your work. Titles are meant to drop breadcrumbs and pique interest. Give your reader a taste of the content with a headline that is easy to digest.

It’s evergreen

You need an evergreen topic that everyone can relate to.

People ten years ago wanted to be rich and people 100 years from now will want to be rich. It’s no coincidence that this article actually saw higher peaks months after I published it.

The title “If You Want to Be Rich, Stop Focusing on Your Salary (Do This Instead)” isn’t super creative or inspiring. It’s clear, straightforward, interesting, and relevant. That’s all a great title really needs.

* Side note

I try and take two nights a week to free-write as many titles as I can. This means I always have ideas swirling around in my head when I sit down to write.

Format Your Language to Be Comprehendible

If I start reading an article that’s one giant block of text with tons of words I have never seen before, I’m probably going to stop.

There is a time and a place for beautiful language.

Writing great articles is obviously about the content you provide. But it doesn’t do you any good to have formatting and language work against you. My articles that have performed the best are often less artistic and more focused on being clear and concise, with a valuable learning opportunity mixed into a story from my life.

We live in an era where everyone wants to be stimulated all of the time. Chances are, some people reading this very article are also listening to music while performing another task.

Bullets, lists, and short paragraphs will help your readers stay engaged longer. You can even try and break up the text with pictures and quotes to be more visually appealing.

Write Articles at an Appropriate Length

My sweet spot often falls between four to six minutes of reading time. Occasionally I will push out a three-minute piece that is meant to be a quick read or one that is seven or more minutes, where I really take the time to go in-depth on the subject matter.

Part of the reason “If You Want to Be Rich, Stop Focusing on Your Salary (Do This Instead)” found so much success is that it reads at a quick pace, with enough detail to teach the audience something valuable.

At the time this article was written, compensation was based on claps. Now, earnings are generated by an algorithm that accounts for views and reading time. Be aware that internal views count towards your earnings while external views do not. However, external views can increase the likelihood that a story is curated (more on the curation guidelines here) which will drive more internal traffic to your post.

Choose the Right Publication

Publications on Medium can make or break the success of your article.

According to Medium’s Help Center,

“Publications are shared spaces for stories written around a common theme or topic, usually by multiple authors.”

Essentially, publications provide you with a pre-built audience and reputation. If they accept your article, it will be published to their followers and may even appear on one of their social media pages.

I decided to submit my story to the Startup for several reasons.

• The Startup has over half a million active followers and publishes to the exact demographic I was targeting.
• The article tags included “Entrepreneurship” and “Finance,” which are leading topics that The Startup often publishes.

Picking the right publication may take some time and research. I had already published on The Startup before, so I knew going in that I wanted my story to be featured there.

If you’re new to Medium, take some time to research the different publications that exist on the platform. There are dozens catering to nearly every popular niche audience, and if you can’t find what you’re looking for, consider starting your own, as I did.

Market Yourself

Your writing doesn’t stop the moment you hit publish. There are other ways to bring in more views to your work.

So many writers on Medium spend all of their time creating amazing pieces of work, which is a fantastic mindset to have. However, I think that writers are missing out on an essential part of branding in our digitized world. You want people googling your name, finding you on social media, and interacting with you on as many platforms as possible.

Someone that looks for you outside of Medium is a true fan of your work. Here are a few things I do to enhance the marketing side of my writing.

Engagement

Be accessible by being a human.

Reward readers who took the time to consume your content and provide thoughtful feedback. I responded to as many comments as I could and paid attention to the positive and negative reviews I received.

Clap for comments, offer insightful responses to people disputing your point of view, and make sure everyone knows that a real person is sitting behind the keyboard.

Backlinks

Part of the reason “If You Want to Be Rich, Stop Focusing on Your Salary (Do This Instead)” jumped in views and engagement over time is that I routinely drove readers back to the original story from other platforms.

It was published on Ladders, where I was informed that over 100,000 people viewed it in a single weekend; used on Quora to answer questions about finances; used on my personal website and social media channels (more on that below), and distributed to friends and family who I thought would find it beneficial. Hopefully, they will be inclined to share it with their own network.

Social media

I actively share my posts on Linkedin, Twitter, and occasionally through Instagram stories. While these external views may not directly increase your earnings, they do increase the distribution of your work (which may, in turn, make you more money down the line).

Social media will also allow other Medium users to find you, increasing your short-term earnings. I have someone tweet me an article at least three or four times every week, and I always make sure to like it or reply with an encouraging response.

Personal website

I once had someone join Medium because they followed a link from my website to the platform.

I’ve had people submit story ideas through my website, email me about collaboration ideas, and even started contributing a column on Ladders because an editor saw the stories from Medium I featured on my website.

A website is an extension of your personal brand and can be a great place to offer potential readers a different place to read your work. I chose to host mine on Squarespace for $16/month because I wanted to use their templates, but there are plenty of other affordable options out there.

One Last Thing

Just keep in mind that writing is a marathon, not a sprint. You can write for weeks on end and become no closer to greatness, making money, or having an article go viral.

As I said, my highest-earning article on Medium was written in under five hours. However, the process to get me to that point took time. And it wasn’t like my writing career immediately took off after that. There are still plenty of things I publish that make me cringe a day later, while making less than five dollars.

But that’s the beauty of it all.

Medium is essentially a testing ground for your work.

I didn’t come in on day one and make $5,000 on a single post. If you’re willing to put in the work and follow the strategies I outlined in this article, it is possible for you to achieve this, too.