Summary

A new Medium writer reflects on their first month on the platform, considering earnings, views, engagement, publications, and curation to assess their success.

Abstract

In a retrospective piece, the author evaluates their initial month on Medium, detailing their earnings of $57.59, which surpassed their expectations and covered their subscription cost. Despite not achieving view counts comparable to top writers, they earned a decent amount relative to their stats. The author emphasizes the importance of reader engagement over mere view counts, noting that articles with high read ratios tend to be top earners, although not always. They share their experience with publications, highlighting a successful piece in The Startup, and acknowledge the unpredictability of publication features and earnings. Curation is seen as significant, with half of the author's articles being curated, and they observe that non-curated pieces can still perform well. The author concludes with personal takeaways, emphasizing the importance of engagement and choosing the right publications, and plans to focus on inspiration and workflow in the coming months.

Opinions

The author believes that earnings, while not spectacular, indicate a level of success, especially considering they cover the cost of the Medium subscription.
Views are not considered the sole indicator of success; the author learned that a high view count does not necessarily translate to higher earnings or reader engagement.
Engagement, particularly a high read ratio, is seen as a more accurate measure of success and is linked to higher earnings.
Publication features can significantly boost an article's visibility and earnings, but success in large publications is not guaranteed.
Curation is important but not the sole determinant of an article's success; some non-curated articles can still garner views and earnings.
The author values quality over quantity, choosing to write when inspired, which has led to a 50% curation rate.
Personal takeaways suggest that the author places a high value on reader engagement and the strategic selection of publications based on audience interest.
The author plans to focus on reading and following other authors for inspiration, indicating a desire to let their workflow develop organically.

What Does Success Mean, Anyway?

How my definition of success changed in my first month on Medium

Although I’m cringing a little bit, I committed to doing the obligatory ‘one month on Medium’ update when I first joined the platform. Now that I have a little more experience under my belt I know that this is going to be a story that you find either informative or worthy of an eye-roll. Either way, I hope I’ll enjoy having this piece to refer back to when I am living my dream of being a much more successful writer.

But what does it mean to be successful, anyway? I’ve gone back and forth on whether or not I can deem my first month on Medium a ‘success’. I didn’t earn like the top 8% of the platform writers, but I imagine I earned more than many do. I didn’t always get curated, but I managed to get curated fairly often. I only got rejected from publications on two occasions, but I didn’t frequently strive to get into the larger ones.

So, does that mean I had a good first month? When reporting on my first four weeks of writing, I decided to focus on five areas of Medium to determine if it has been successful.

1. Earnings

To date, I have earned $57.59. While my earnings have been steady, they haven’t necessarily been trending upward since week one. But it’s far more than I expected to see after my first month, especially considering my view count is lower than a lot of folks. At least I can say my earnings will cover my 12-month Medium subscription — I’d call that a success.

My first day was April 24th — screenshot from author

2. Views

I used to obsess over my stats, especially my views. I figured the more views an article received, the more people were reading it. But I quickly learned that wasn’t the case; a view can be anything from an engaged reader to an accidental click. For me, more views has not always meant more money. I expected my view count for a month’s worth of work to be a lot higher, but I earned a decent amount even with these lower stats.

My month’s worth of stats — screenshot from author

3. Engagement

I think article engagement is the best measure of success on Medium. After all, you spend a lot of time writing so it’s nice when people spend more than a few seconds reading your work. And, I’ve found my articles with the highest read ratio are my highest earners. Although, I dabbled in poetry and despite its 75% read ratio it is a very low earner. I couldn’t even buy a gumball from a 25-cent machine with this article’s payoff. If I learned one thing by writing on Medium, it’s that I’m pretty lousy at poetry.

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4. Publications

I think my first-ever story on Medium was unusually good for a rookie; after all, the easiest way to make money is to write about making money, right? It was a self-published story that was very quickly curated and then picked up by The Startup. To date, it has earned $30.38 with 722 views.

How I Saved $50k in Two Years

Over half of Americans report that they wouldn’t be able to cover the cost of a $1,000 emergency. When I found myself…

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Initially, I thought that getting featured in the largest platform on Medium must have been the reason this article generated significantly more than any of the others I published. But I’ve since published one other article to the Startup that was curated in the exact same topic as the first but has only received a fraction of the views. In fact, it is in the middle of the list in terms of views and earnings when compared to all of my work.

How to Budget When You’re Broke

Learn to manage the little that you’ve got

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My most loved stories are usually those that are published to smaller audiences; I’m hoping that their earnings will be more of a slow and steady pace.

5. Curation

I published 16 articles this month and eight of them were curated, meaning I managed to get curated 50% of the time (although two articles are still being reviewed). I probably could have pushed to produce more work, but I’m finding that I have to be a certain type of inspired to write a decent piece. I’m choosing to focus on quality over quantity.

Looking at the improvement in my curation rate over the course of these last four weeks, I would consider a 50% curation rate a success. Six of my last eight published articles were curated, a 75% curation rate compared to my first eight articles that had a curation rate of 25%.

For the most part, my curated articles received significantly higher views than those that were not curated. But interestingly enough, my second highest-earning article was not curated, nor was it published in a large publication. This story has earned $5.82 and still gets viewed regularly. Ironically, it is about what I learned in my first week on Medium.

Stop Writing About Yourself

Learn from the biggest mistake I made in my first week on Medium

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No curation, small publication, and only 137 views has earned nearly six dollars. Given those stats, I view it as my most successful articles.

So, was I successful this month? I know what I think, but I’ll let you be the judge. Here are my takeaways from my experience on Medium:

Don’t get hung up on your view stats; views don’t equate to interest
Reader engagement will bring you the most satisfaction because it means readers are actually enjoying your work
Curation is definitely important, but not the lone determinant in success
Find publications that have an audience interested in your stories, rather than focusing solely on the largest publications

Over the next few months, I am going to focus on reading and following more authors to get inspired and let my workflow as it comes. After all, it’s really the only thing I can control about my Medium experience.