WRITING

This is How I Make $2,000 Per Story on Medium

I have been making around $2,000 per blog on Medium and here’s how you can make it too

If you are on Medium for a while, you probably heard about the $100 club. It refers to a group of writers making $100 per month or more on Medium, and it’s said that only 6% of writers in the Partner Program are making this amount. There is also the $1,000 club, which is even more exclusive. Only 1% of the writers on Medium make more than $1,000 per month. I make part of this club by writing only one blog a month. How can this even be possible? Today I will walk you through my journey on Medium and how you can be part of this group, but let’s go from the beginning.

I started writing on Medium a year ago after a friend had told me that he made $40 with one blog. I was very interested in making some extra money, so I decided to try it. I immediately decided to start writing. My first blog was about a Python library that I had discovered recently. It was a technical blog, so I didn’t think it could bring that many views.

I published the blog, and, a few days later, I checked my Medium account, and I had made $30 and got almost 7K views from it. I was very excited when I realized that I could make over $100/month if I started writing a blog every week. So one week goes by, and my second blog is published. I submitted my blog to a publication, they accepted it, and I started getting hundreds of views almost immediately. A few days, I had made over $500!

Wait, what? $500 from a blog that I wrote in one afternoon? That was insane. At the time, I was looking for a job, so $500 was very welcome. After that post, nearly every blog I published brought me hundreds of dollars. I was making more money than I used to make in my previous job.

However, in July 2021, I found a great job, and I decided to focus on it. At the time, my blogs had become more complex and time-consuming, so I decided to stop writing to have more time to relax.

A few months went by, and I started missing writing because it was also a learning experience. And, of course, the money was very welcome, so I decided to write a blog about a subject that I found interesting. I submitted it to a publication, and I kind of forgot about checking the stats. A few weeks went by, and when I rechecked my Medium account, I had made over $2,000 from a single blog.

Maybe I was lucky. Perhaps it was a single-time thing? I was just so excited. I wrote that blog on a sunny Saturday, and I didn’t think it was that good. One month later I decided to repeat the recipe and, few weeks later, I had made $2,000! One day of work on a weekend paid me $2,000 again.

Since then, I have been making around $2,000 per blog even though I only publish only once a month. How is this possible?

Well, here are the lessons I have learned and how I think I got to this point.

1. Find a subject that you know and enjoy

Many writers think they need to write about a specific subject to make money on Medium, which is not true. I have seen multiple successful writers from different backgrounds writing about the most diverse subjects making thousands of dollars. If you think you have something interesting to share, it’s highly possible that other people will find it interesting too. If you don’t think something interesting, how can you expect other people will do it?

For this reason, write something that you feel comfortable about and give it a try. It can even be something that you are learning and are enjoying. In fact, some of my first articles were written while I was learning how to use the tools that I described in the blog and they were successful. Possibly because people could relate to my experience, as I was a beginner on the topic.

2. Add value to your content

When someone reads an article, they expect to take something from it. If you don’t add value to readers, it’s very unlikely that your articles will go viral. Even if it’s a personal story, the reader should learn something from it, so that they can apply your insights to their lives.

Even bad experiences can teach you lessons, so why not share them with your public? However, make sure that you deliver what you promised in the title and that readers can learn something from your article. Sometimes writers have great ideas and tips, but they don’t cover all the important points. You need to make sure that you are making those great ideas shine in your article.

3. Revise your work before publishing

I have read blogs from people complaining that they can’t make money from Medium and don’t know why. After a few seconds of reading, I knew the reason why. Their blogs were poorly written, and I’m not even talking about grammar mistakes. It was basic mistakes that could be easily fixed with a review, such as not capitalizing words at the beginning of sentences. It wasn’t good.

And let’s be honest here. You can’t expect to make a lot of money from poor quality work, which is for everything in life. Even after many revisions, my blogs might have typos and grammatical mistakes, but it’s clear when someone doesn’t make a minimum effort before publishing something. Even if English is not your first language (which is my case), you need to make sure that your work accomplishes the minimum expected quality.

4. Do not copy content from other writers

This tip might sound a little obvious, but I have seen multiple writers plagiarizing my blogs. They write blogs about the same subject, using the same structure, and, sometimes, using the same screenshots that I took. However, I have never seen one of those blogs having more than a few claps. If people read an article about a subject, the chances of reading a similar blog are small.

Does this mean that you can’t get inspiration from other writers? You can and should, as long as it’s your point of view. On top of that, you want to find your voice on Medium. You want people to follow you and keep reading your blogs, so writing original content is a must.

5. Be patient

Sometimes it takes time to achieve your goals, even if your content is impressive. So make sure that you are not putting too much pressure on yourself and don’t get demotivated. If a strategy is not working for a long time, maybe it’s time for readjusting your strategy and giving it another try.

We are all learning, and, at some point, you will be compensated. Make sure that you are offering the best that you can provide and keep improving yourself, and I’m sure that you will be successful. Publish content that you are proud of, and I promise you that it will be worth it.

Also, don’t get frustrated if you see someone making more money than you. It takes time and lots of practice to achieve your goal. Yes, you will see people making more money in a shorter amount of time, but we don’t know what they have been through to get there. Let’s not invalidate our efforts because of someone else success. Let’s use it as inspiration for our goals and I’m sure you will achieve them.

Final thoughts

In this blog, I went over my path to the $2,000 club by publishing once a month and shared some tips that worked for me. Of course, these are not the only tips that you should follow. For example, I didn’t cover that you should submit your blog for publications, but the chances of publications accepting your work if you don’t follow these tips are much smaller.

Remember to have fun while writing and celebrate your accomplishments. Celebrate each dollar that you are able to make through Medium because you deserved it! I wish you the best of luck and looking forward to reading your great blogs in the near future.