Three Months of Writing on Medium: A Case Study

The down and dirty breakdown of what I did to earn $123.02 in November 2020

I know, I know. Everyone writes this kind of article at the end of the month. However, reading other writers’ articles on this subject helps me, so I would like to pay it forward.

I learned a lot this month. Large publications published my stories (multiple times), I became an editor of a large publication (this one), I joined two mastermind groups, and (horror of all horrors) I took a break from writing for a few days. I’d like to explain how I believe all of this will set me up for a fantastic December. Here we go.

The Earnings

I promised that I’d share my progress with you every month after I wrote I Quit My Six-Figure Job Because I Made $5.80 On Medium, so here is the skinny. Here is a screenshot of my earnings month to month since I joined the platform:

Please note that these numbers do NOT include any money made from commissioned articles or anything paid in a lump sum on Medium (i.e. articles in Better Humans, etc.)

I am (thankfully) exactly on the trend line I created back when I made $5.80. My income has almost exactly doubled every month and I believe that it will continue to do so. (As I’m writing this on November 30th, I am currently at $119.05, so I added one day of my daily earnings — $3.97 to the total to make sure it is closer to what the total will be tomorrow morning).

If I stay along this trend line of doubling income every month (and, just to be sure, let’s assume only a 90% growth month over month), I’ll be making:

Needless to say, I’m definitely looking forward to May. Will it happen? I don’t know, but I have been right on track for the past three months, so I’m pretty confident.

Earning money on Medium isn’t a mystery. It’s difficult and it takes time, but like any startup venture, it’s eventually worth it. Let’s look at some of the things I’ve learned about how to generate that revenue.

How to earn money on this platform

So many people assume that earnings are this magical unicorn that needs to be figured out on Medium. I don’t. I get it. (Distribution? Now, that can be a unicorn.) However, I have seen so many writers say things like, “I have no idea how I got more views and my earnings are low.” I have an idea. You’re looking at the wrong part of your stats. Member reading time is the MOST IMPORTANT STAT on your story’s stat page. Here is what you need to look at:

Everybody and their brother and Kim Kardashian could have read your article, but if they’re not a part of the Medium Partner Program, you won’t get your dough. Visibility of your work is helpful for you and your brand as a writer, but it doesn’t earn you dollars from Medium.

So, how do you get those valuable Medium partner views?

Distribution and publications

There are two ways to get more paying eyeballs on your pieces. You can see the first one in the previous example. The previous piece was this one:

It was published on October 29th, 2020 and has made me $35.81 so far with 1.2K views. It was NOT chosen for distribution (stories about writing for Medium typically aren’t distributed because they violate Medium guidelines). However, it was published in Better Marketing. Better Marketing has 109,000 readers. The more readers a publication has, the more eyeballs you’re likely to get on your piece. (I will also say that my pretty screenshot images and raw data helped this piece as well).

This month, I had pieces published in The Startup, Better Marketing, Cinemania, Home Sweet Home, A Little Bit Better, and The Innovation. I’ll write a little more later about the importance of quality writing, but suffice it to say that the better your writing, the more money you make and the more publications will accept your work.

The second way to get a bump in paying viewers for the pieces you write is to . . . write good stuff. The Medium curator folks read all published pieces (self-published and in every publication). If your piece is chosen to be distributed, it will be promoted around the platform. (This was previously referred to as “curated”). My friends have seen my distributed pieces show up in their daily reading list emails as well (which I personally find super cool).

Here are the stats for a piece this month for which distribution was a catalyst for success:

While I only made about two bucks on this article, the Medium distribution folks helped me a lot. I’ve seen bumps in views months down the line because a piece was distributed and resurfaced. The point is that distribution is super helpful and to make it happen, you need to write great pieces that have actionable takeaways for your readers.

How to write better (and more profitable) articles

There is plethora of advice on Medium as to how to write better articles.

• Esat Artug has an entire section of The Innovation dedicated specifically to writing tips
• There are some fantastic publications like The Brave Writer where Maria Angel Ferrero and Alexander Boswell give fantastic advice on how to improve your craft
• And yours truly recently wrote Friendly Advice on How to Write an Authoritative Self-Improvement Article.

One of my new favorite ways to improve my writing is my new Medium mastermind group. The Medium Mastermind Moms was inspired by Anangsha Alammyan’s YouTube channel (y’all should check it out) and it’s been so helpful.

Kristina Segarra, Stephanie Thurrott, and me share our articles and suggest edits and publications to which to submit. We also have a shared document where we add resources like headline analyzers, helpful podcasts, and informative articles to help us along the way.

One of the things I’ve noticed from this fantastic group is that I’ve seen a higher curation rate since we’ve been proofing each other’s articles. First, because we make each other better and second, because editors can see notes on articles. So, editors know that you’ve worked hard on a piece when they see a lot of little stars in the margins.

So, if you have a friend read and comment on one of your articles, LEAVE IN THE NOTES (Stephanie Thurrott told me this) because it looks good to editors. I may be wrong, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it improves your chances of receiving distribution. Why? Because editors know you have made your article better by getting a second set of eyes on it.

What to write about

I have come up with some fun ideas for how to generate content in the past few months (which I’ll share below), but I’ve also realized that there’s a topical trend among my most popular articles. Here are my top three articles this month ($25.49, $22.23, and $12.43 respectively):

They’re all about . . . writing on Medium. Now, I WILL NOT BE THAT PERSON THAT ALWAYS WRITES ABOUT HOW MUCH MONEY YOU WILL MAKE ON MEDIUM. I can’t do that. My soul will shrivel up into a small crusty ball. However, if I commit to at least five of these articles per month, I’ll ensure some dough to support writing about other things that make less money but make me more happy.

My new favorite way to generate ideas for articles is to ask my friends to give me a topic. I’ve written about lamps, praying mantises, Roombas, TV shows, and effluvium (that one isn’t published yet). And (as I always do) I wrote about how I did it. Here’s the article:

https://readmedium.com/writers-block-here-s-my-favorite-new-way-to-generate-creative-ideas-a481905133bd

A new chapter (and a lot more responsibility)

Another thing that I believe will contribute to my December 2020 earnings on Medium is that I have recently become an editor for The Innovation. I’m beyond excited and slightly overwhelmed. Since you’re probably reading this article on the publication, you’re likely familiar with it, but just so you know, there are 20,000 readers. So, that means a lot of reading for me.

I’ve already learned a lot in my first week working with the brilliant Esat Artug and I’m excited to continue to learn and work hard to make sure your work is showcased in a publication that is respected and actively making the world a better and more informed place.

There are two reasons I believe working as an editor of this publication will positively impact my future on Medium. First, I have seen so many article submissions in this first week that I have become keenly aware of what makes a good piece (even more so than I was before).

One of the most important things I’ve found is that a lot of people don’t do their research (or they don’t cite it if they do). It’s super important to always back up your statements with research! If you want more information on how to do this, I wrote a piece about it!

Second, I’m hoping that by working with The Innovation as an editor, some of you will find my work useful in your lives and continue to read my pieces. I promise to add value and entertain you as much as possible. (Just an FYI, editors of publications don’t make money, so please be nice to us!)

Article numbers

I published 28 articles in November. This is a significantly lower number than I would have hoped. I have a lot of pieces in the queue at publications, but I also took last week to get used to the whole editor thing. Additionally, it was American Thanksgiving and I had a sick two-year-old in my house. (Taking breaks is important, y’all. Even if you take a break to do something else.)

I focused this month on raising the quality of my articles. And quality takes time. I did a LOT of research for my pieces in The Startup and Better Marketing and I have a few research-intensive pieces that will be coming out soon. I’ve found that the longer I spend on an article, the prouder I am of it.

Now, the 28 articles I wrote in November weren’t the only ones that generated revenue. A number of pieces I have written in the past brought in a few cents. That’s the beauty of Medium. Those cents add up. And the followers add up (if you write quality content). And I will continue writing in hopes that they will continue to add up.

Moving forward

In December, I will attempt to generate at least two quality pieces of content per day, spend 2–3 hours per day working as an editor, post every day to my personal blog, LinkedIn, and NewsBreak, and collaborate to be a better writer with my mastermind group. I’ll probably write informational pieces about writing about Medium, but I’ll also write things from the heart and things to help people be happier, healthier, and more productive.

If you’ve made it this far through the article, thank you. Your time and attention is valuable and I’m honored you’ve spent it with me. I’ll make sure to post a wrap up next month of everything I’ve learned in the month of December. In the meanwhile, here’s my favorite article I wrote this month:

We all learn and grow. Let’s learn and grow together. Let me know what you’d like to read and/or learn from me this month or share something you’d like to teach me in the comments. I’m all eyes. Happy December.