The Value of A Viral Article

Are they the best way to make money on Medium?

We think of viral articles as stories with instant success accruing roughly 500 reads or more.

Do they always make the most money, though?

It depends on who’s reading them. And many other factors.

Let me explain.

I’ll say it again: I’m not a Medium geek. But I can break down some of my stats well enough to understand that a viral article is not a sign I should sign up for a vacation to a South Sea island.

In my seven or so months writing on Medium, I’ve been lucky to hit the viral jackpot several times. My reads on these half a dozen articles (out of roughly 250) range from 500 to 1.5k, give or take.

My earnings however, spike from a measly $13 bucks for over 700 reads to over $200 for a mere 500. So, if you ask me, yes, as far as reads go, the more, the merrier. But don’t look to viral articles alone to pay your rent.

For you newcomers to the platform hankering to shoot the moon with your articles, thinking you can clear a thousand reads or so and quit your day job, let me burst that balloon right now before you shoot yourself in the foot.

If you are the writer with the skills and finger on the pulse of a significant number of readers to write thrilling articles that hit the mark several times a day, chances are good that a publication with a huge readership will make an offer for a column and you will earn big bucks on the platform.

For the rest of us, though, making money on Medium is a tough slog. My earnings topped $500 for the past two months, but are sliding into a crevasse in January because I’m not writing as much and probably not writing at the same level of interest. Working at it, though, so please stay tuned.

Yet, in this up and down time, I have had a piece go viral. But it did not pull me up sufficiently to match last month’s productivity. As I look at my viral articles, here’s what I’ve learned. I hope it’s helpful to you.

1. High reads must come from paying members to earn money.

My first article on Medium went viral. I was licking my chops as the numbers climbed, but when the earnings didn’t match the claps — back in May 2019, claps were the important metric, my heart fell. I discovered that I had to have reads from paying members. My article had been featured on Google, thanks to good SEO. But those readers didn’t belong to Medium, and without their $5 per month, I got a share of crickets.

2. Read time determines earnings.

An article with many reads won’t earn money if the read time is in seconds instead of minutes.

I’ve written articles that should have been 5 or 6 minutes, but when the first readers read it, they skimmed it or quit halfway through, and I ended up with a read worth almost nothing. So an article getting hundreds of internal reads, meaning from paying members, but with a low read time, will never earn an article with fewer reads but longer read time. I have a viral article with a thousand reads worth under $50 because of the low read time, but longer articles with few reads earning more money.

3. Just because you have sex in the title, doesn’t mean your story will go viral.

Medium is set up so that we can’t game the system. I can’t tell you how they do it, but I thought because my first story had sex in the title and it was curated and accepted in a publication, then went viral, all I had to do was write about sex.

Guess what? I’ve written about sex and had those articles fall flat. You have to approach every article with the intention of doing your best work. And let the viral gods and goddesses have at it.

4. Don’t give up on Medium because an article has a slow start.

Many articles wander in the desert before readers find them, or curators find them, or the algorithm decides to push them to the head of the line. Suddenly, you see a slow starter start to get Medium love, and you have a viral winner on your hands. Another way to push a favorite lagging piece, is to make it your featured piece on your profile. It will be the first thing readers see when they come to your profile, and it will likely get more reads. Pro tip: Choose an article with a healthy read time to boost your earnings.

If you want your articles to go viral, learn from the writers who have done it. Don’t just read the popular articles, though that’s a start, but read the breakdowns by the writers who’ve grabbed the brass ring. Today I can recommend two such pieces. Rueben Salsa talks about his first success with a piece gone wild.

For nuts and bolts advice, turn to Robert Turner, who also has excellent Medium advice, including how to write a viral post.

Good luck and I hope my advice is useful.

I’m an editor and writer on Medium with Top Writer status in several categories. I’m also an editor for the publication, Rogues Gallery. I’ve published 55 titles on Amazon and edit for private clients. If you’d like to hire me as your editor for fiction, non-fiction, or business writing, please contact me here. If you’d like to read more of my work on Medium, click here to sign up for my newsletter. I’ll make sure you don’t miss a word. Thank you for reading.