True Cost Of Writing On Medium
Are You Getting Your Time’s Worth
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Every day at 05:30 p.m. Sydney Time I earn for the stories I wrote for the readers on Medium, some days it’s a few cents, and sometimes it is in double digits. But what is the true cost of these earnings?
There is a general belief that the cost associated with these earnings is just the subscription cost, but actually, there is a lot more. Let’s look at all the actual costs associated with these earnings, and how we can make the best of these investments.
💰 Financial Cost
Investment:
The subscription fee. This could be 5$ or 15$ depending on which tier you paid for.
Corresponding Returns:
Daily Earnings, which can range from a few cents to as high as a thousand dollars depending on your content, and engagement time.
How To Increase Efficiency:
To be most efficient go for the annual plan, but only after due diligence. The best way is to start with the monthly regular tier. Only if you are certain you can recover the subscription costs in the first few days should you go for the annual plan.
An annual plan comes out cheaper since you get an annual subscription for the price of 10 months. So overall ROI is higher.
From the earnings perspective, you can ensure high earnings by writing consistently for the first 30 days and following these tips to grow early.
Takeaway:
Try the Medium monthly subscription first to test the waters. If you can recover the subscription cost via earnings within the first 10 days, go for an annual plan.
Only go for FOM if you are confident you would be able to recover the subscription cost with your writing.
👨👩👦👦 Relationship Cost
Investment:
To earn money on Medium you need to take time out of your family and social life. If not properly managed this can be taxing on energy and time available to spend with your family and friends.
Corresponding Returns:
If you engage genuinely, Medium can be your way to connect with some truly amazing people who are on a similar path as you and willing to be your fellow traveler. These writers would understand your situation and can end up being the support system you truly need.
This relationship can benefit you outside of Medium too. I have friends I made on Medium who live in other countries across the world. I am quite sure they would be more than willing to be my host if I ever plan on visiting their country. They can help you understand the culture of their country and thus help expand your audience. No other platform allows you to have such reach in terms of genuine friendship.
How To Increase Efficiency:
Genuinely engage with people who you resonate with. These relations can complement your existing relationships and even enhance them. But make sure you are connecting with the right people who are in line with your goals, there could be writers who have different goals than yours, be conscious of this.
Takeaway:
Read and engage with other writers to find your community. Medium is a social media platform that pays you for making friends do not miss this opportunity.
🤝 Opportunity Cost
Investment:
The time you spend on Medium is the time taken away from other ventures with potentially better returns for you. These ventures can range from an e-commerce store to a blog outside Medium. This is a risk you should be aware of.
Corresponding Returns:
By writing on Medium you are creating content and building skills that you can reuse in other side businesses. Your writing here can open new opportunities if read by the right people. When you write your personal stories you are also showcasing yourself to the world. Who knows, there could be people willing to invest in your vision based on your content.
How To Increase Efficiency:
Write about things that you are passionate about as well as what you would like to pursue outside Medium. For example, if you want to be a solopreneur, read about it, write about it, and then convert your learning into an ebook. Use this ebook as a free giveaway to entice others to join your newsletter.
A newsletter if properly managed can open further opportunities for growth to you, while also showcasing you as an authority in the said field.
Takeaway:
Diversify. Your medium content can open doors and opportunities you might have never thought of. If done properly your stories can be a starting point for more opportunities. Medium is full of such writers who started their journey on Medium and went on to make very lucrative businesses out of it.
⏰️ Time Cost
Investment:
Actual hours spent on Medium are independent of the above costs. This time by itself is truly lost, what you do with it is what matters.
Corresponding Returns:
None. Time lost is time lost, and an hour spent on Medium cannot create 2 more hours for you to spend that day.
How To Increase Efficiency:
The best approach is to get the most out of the time spent on Medium. Invest in productivity tools, and understand deep work. With time you would end up taking less time to write more content, and your engagement would also be streamlined.
Takeaway:
Time once gone is never recovered, so the only way to do this right is to increase your speed, both in writing and engagement. Find who is worth engaging with and build genuine relations with such writers. Have a system in place to come up with new ideas, and frame and structure them efficiently into a story worth reading.
🛎 Conclusion
The earnings from Medium can range from a few dollars a day to thousands in a month. Every country has a minimum wage, which can be used to determine if you are being appropriately compensated for your time. In Australia, the minimum wage per hour is about 25 AUD, whereas in India it can be less than a dollar. Dividing your total earnings in a month by the time you spend on Medium is a good way to determine if it is financially worth it, and at least more than the minimum wage in your country.
But as I stated above what you earn back from Medium is not just the money, but also relationships and opportunities which could be priceless.
So please account for all these things and know the true cost of earning on Medium. Based on your true cost and returns determine if the time you spend is worth it, or not.
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