The Only Thing That Matters on Medium Is Engaging, Informative Content, and Regular Publishing
How to make $500 in the first three months.
At first, it may sound easy to churn our engaging, informative content once a day — the secret to making an income on Medium, but it isn’t as simple, or as easy, as it sounds.
You have to put writing time in weekly or even daily until you see some traction.
If you follow and read advice from popular writers who’ve made a name for themselves, nearly every single one will tell you that showing up is the first hurdle.
The reason you read it over and over again is that it’s true.
The advice “regular content makes for success on Medium” may sound easy to accomplish at first, but try it for three months. You’ll quickly realize it isn’t as easy as it sounds, although it is quite doable.
It only takes work. And a lot of writing.
But if you stick to this one rule, I promise you will find success — money and followers.
If you’re serious and stick to a plan, it is entirely possible to make over $500 a month within the first three to six months of regular posting. The time it takes to make that much monthly income will differ for every writer. Each one of us comes with different writing abilities, skill sets, and life experiences. Some may make that amount or more, much faster than others will.
Medium is a slow burn
Medium, unlike Twitter, is a slow burn.
It takes time to realize and learn which stories get curated, and in which subjects you do your best work.
I do my best writing when writing about writing, productivity, and relationships/self-help.
This is not a surprise to me, I’m most interested in these topics.
I spend a lot of time reading books in these areas, I’ve taken classes on these subjects, and have had a ton of personal therapy. I have a wealth of knowledge and personal experience when it comes to writing, relationships, and productivity.
These are the topics I find writing about the easiest for me; I don’t struggle to find my voice in these topics.
Readers respond to authenticity, and they are smart.
There is so much content vying for their attention; they can tell when you’re not honest; it comes through in writing. So, in the beginning, write what you know.
You may find more confidence in writing if you start with writing about what you know.
When you have more experience broaden the topics in which you write.
It takes practice to get comfortable with specific subjects, and there is no better way to practice than through writing and sharing your work.
One that went “viral”
The story I wrote that went viral, did not go viral right away.
It happened over time.
The article, Choosing Your Words Carefully Make Love Last, picked up traction several weeks after I first posted it. I posted it to my blog outside of Medium, so possibly SEO took over.
Still, it keeps getting reads, highlights, and claps as of this morning.
To date it is my most read article.
Initially, I submitted it to one of my favorite Medium publications, where it was swiftly rejected. I thought the rejection odd, the publication has since posted similar articles frequently, but by more well known Medium writers. I have no idea why it was rejected, but in hindsight, I’m grateful it was.
I published it in my own publication instead, and it is my most read work, has made me the most money out of my 300 plus articles, and has increased followers to my publication, The Happy Spot.
So give your articles time.
You never know which stories will do well in the long run. As long as people read your work, whether you published it six months ago or last week, you will continue to earn revenue with your story — you can literally make money while you sleep.
The one commonality of success is consistency
That number one habit you need for consistency is persistence, even when you aren’t seeing results, that may be the hardest part for some, especially in the beginning when no one is reading.
Show up rain or shine.
Less than 10% of writers make above $100 a month from writing, the rest make a lot less.
I’ve been in the 10% category since my third month of consistent writing and every month since my earnings have climbed steadily to above $500 since my fourth month of regular writing. The only thing I’ve done is post nearly every single day, sometimes more, occasionally less.
Goals
I gave myself a goal to publish regular weekly content for at least a year.
Once I’ve posted for a year, I’ll then reevaluate and take stock of my progress. I don’t pay much attention to stats right now, but I’m sure I will look closer at my stats at a later date.
My goal started on June 26, 2019, with this post,
So far, I’ve stuck to daily publishing for nine months, and my writing has improved.
I reasoned, if I can write for Medium and my other blogs for one year, I’ll know that writing for a living is something I’m willing to take seriously and stick to, and something I’m able to pursue long term.
As long as I’m making money this first year, my main focus will be on writing for one year.
Now is the time
There might be no better time to start a daily writing habit since many of us are at home a lot more lately. Now might be exactly the time.
We are all writers.
Social media and email demand it of us. So many of us have unrealized dreams of being a writer, but most of us write every day. So, doesn’t writing make you a writer? You write. Therefore you are a writer.
Use Medium to become an even better writer in public, and possibly make extra cash doing so.
The beauty of Medium is that anyone can publish. But too often people give up after the first post doesn’t go viral, or heck doesn’t get many views at all, which is the most likely scenario for someone just starting. That happened to me.
I didn’t really understand Medium at the time.
I posted one story and when it only garnered a few claps, I gave up — (although, this story keeps making me money).
I didn’t know anything about Medium as a writer, only as a reader.
Then I started reading writers who had a lot of followers and claps. I realized that the ones who have a lot of followers wrote every day. They simply show up. I told myself, I can do that. If I’m able to write consistently and make money, you can also.
There are outliers who do really well right out of the gate. Nearly every story they publish gets a lot of attention, they only post once a week, or once a month, and each post does well.
But that’s not true of many of the writers who make over $500 a month and more. We post every day or at a minimum five times a week.
More writing on Medium advice below.
Jessica is a writer, an online entrepreneur, and a recovering perfectionist. She lives in Los Angeles with her extrovert daughter, two dogs, and two cats.
