Three Lessons Learned from Publishing on Medium Every Day
Working Medium for everything its got.
I’m giving Medium everything I’ve got — at it for a full seven months now. I’ve had success — more than I anticipated. I make well over the $100 mark each month, only about 10% of Medium writer’s get over that demarcation line each pay period, so I must be doing something correctly.
Unlike other writers — no judgment, more power to them — I’m not totally comfortable talking about income, especially as it climbs.
Many writers write about their success and exact dollar amount, I read those writer’s posts frequently. Discussing their income works for them, but right now, it makes me uncomfortable.
I doubt I’ll change my mind on this.
There’s not some big secret to cracking Medium and getting paid.
The only thing that matters on Medium is engaging, informative content, and regular publishing.
That’s it.
It isn’t as easy as some suggest, but it isn’t impossible to make a substantial amount of money here in a short time, even a few thousand dollars a month.
If you’re interested in my experience, keep reading. Below are the three biggest lessons I’ve learned so far, some thoughts, and how I’m able to post with regularity to get my stats up and increase my follower count.
How to maintain a regular publishing
One: Get comfortable with exposure.
I wasn’t comfortable with sharing parts of myself when I first started, and this held me back. Readers respond to authenticity. And they are savvy.
Your audience can feel when you are not being totally honest, it shows up in your writing. You have to be OK with talking about yourself. The posts where I infuse my personality do the best — get the most views.
If you want to be successful you have to be OK with revealing parts of yourself.
This is not a comfortable place for me to reside. I’m a private person and an introvert, it is hard for me to be vulnerable.
To quell this fear, I only share experiences I’m entirely over.
I’ve resolved them in my mind and heart. So, if, or more realistically, when someone makes an insensitive comment on some hardship I’ve faced, their opinion carries no weight with me, because I’ve already done the work and healed it for myself.
I only write about painful experiences from the past that I’m fully recovered from. This is in service to my audience.
I’m not sharing to heal myself or vent. I’m not using my audience’s time to elicit a response to serve me. My primary goal is to help them by sharing my experiences. If they can relate and get something useful out of it, I’ve done my job as a writer.
Two: Up your stamina.
If you’re a writer, and especially if writing is not your only source of income — you’ll need perseverance. You must write. It is in your bones. You know you’re a writer if you continue with it even when you’re earning pennies per hour because that is what you’ll be making in the beginning.
You will need stamina to keep going, both physically and mentally. This means taking care of yourself and leveling up your energy.
I write about increasing energy and the benefits of mental health and nutrition because, as an introvert, my energy is greatly affected by other people, the foods I eat, the water I drink, the exercise I get.
Sitting and staring at a computer for a large portion of the day sounds easy, but it can be draining physically. It’s hard on your eyes, wrists, back, and neck. Taking care of yourself, even if that only means standing up and stretching on the hour, will make you a more prolific writer.
You’ll have more energy to sit in the chair longer and write.
Three: Write and keep writing even when your audience hasn’t found you yet. They will.
Your cumulative output matters more than any single thing you write. The secret to becoming a better writer is to become a prolific one.
You will write poorly in the beginning. That doesn’t matter as much when you start. In fact, it is the perfect time to write poorly, find your voice, and hone it, because not a lot of people will be paying attention at first.
I use Medium as a platform to become a better writer. That was my goal, and my mindset coming in.
Yes, I want to make a living income, but right now, I’m focused on becoming a better writer. If I can write nearly every day for one year, then I’ll know this is for me. Because if you want to make it here you have to show up not just on the good days, but the bad days too.
Medium is a slow burn. It is a gradual build. You put in a lot of effort in the beginning without seeing a whole lot of results, that’s when you need faith because if you believe in yourself and your writing and you stick with it, you will see results build over time. Guaranteed.
“The genius thing that we did was we didn’t give up.” — Jay Z
It happened to me. I didn’t give up.
On Medium, writers are paid for reading time — how long people are reading your posts. This means quality matters. So as you are writing a lot, aim to write better.
Writing is a skill that can be learned. Through doing it.
There are 30.000 writers on Medium, not everyone will get noticed, but if you show up consistently with quality content, you will get noticed over time.
Those are my three biggest takeaways after over half of a year here, nearly every day.
If I can do it, you can too.
It just takes time and dedication to your craft.
Only you can determine how badly you want to get paid for your writing, if you do, grab it by the tail and don’t let go.
I will write more about specifics of formatting a post to follow at a later date. Stay tuned and write on.
Jessica is a writer, an online entrepreneur, and a recovering type-A personality. She lives in Los Angeles with her extrovert daughter, two dogs, and two cats.
