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What’s Better: Slow and Steady, or Flash in the Pan?

I’ve got two stories about to hit $100 in Medium lifetime earnings, with very different stats

I know everyone writes about how to make money on Medium. Everyone thinks they’ve figured out the Secret Recipe, and they’re excited to share this One Hot Tip that will make you a Medium superstar overnight.

Don’t trust those articles — they’re usually lying or exaggerating to get attention. They also all contradict each other, offering conflicting advice. For some, the important thing on Medium is to post as much as possible, with the hope of having a viral article. For others, having evergreen articles (ones that stay relevant for a long time and have a consistent stream of views, no matter how small) is far more important.

What’s the truth? Viral or Evergreen? Here’s what I know, based on a year on Medium. I make around $100/month on average from Medium, so having one article make a whole month’s income seems a good indicator that I’ve hit the right formula — especially considering that most articles on Medium never earn more than $10.

I have two articles, both about to hit that big milestone: $100 from a single article. One is an evergreen article, posted in November of 2021. The other went viral and earned a lot upfront when it was posted in April 2022, but quickly dropped off. Both were published in large, Medium-run publications. Both were featured by Medium. Only the viral article was ‘distributed’ (the evergreen doesn’t fit the standards).

Which do you think will hit $100 first?

Evergreen: The Slow Burn

My evergreen article from November 2021, “How to Use Medium Lists Effectively,” earned $10-$20 per month for the first couple of months, then dropped off to between $3-$5 per month. It consistently gets a few views per day, most of which are internal — meaning they come from readers with accounts here already. This makes sense, since it is about optimizing a Medium feature.

The Stats:

• Lifetime Views: 2.9K (Internal 2K, 70%; External 889, 30%)
• Lifetime Earnings: $94.17
• Lifetime Member Reading Time: 33hrs 36min
• 3K claps; 60 comments

Because more than two-thirds of my readers for this article were Members, relatively few views have led to comparatively high earnings. It works out to about $0.03 per view ($0.05 per internal view) or $2.80 per hour of Member reading time.

If my evergreen story continues earning about $3 per month, in two months, it will hit $100 after being on Medium for 11 months. The article was written in a single day, and maybe took a couple hours, but is now providing a trickle of passive income.

If it stays at this rate (and there’s no guarantee that it will), I will earn about $36 per year from the article in the next year. It could spike and earn more, or go completely dead and stop earning — but it will likely, at very least, hit that $100 mark in a month or two.

An evergreen article is like chicken broth. It takes a long time to stew, but will eventually show results. It is basic, palatable, and always useful to have on hand. It will appeal to a lot of people at the time when they need it. Everyone gets the common cold, and they’ll come back for the broth when that time comes.

Viral: A Flash in the Pan

On the other hand, my “viral” article from April 2022, “Am I a Millennial or Gen Z?” is less than four months old and on the same earning threshold as my evergreen article. It earned $8 in one day in April, leading to $51.80 in April earnings alone. In May it earned $39.57, but by June had dropped off to a measly (by comparison) $4.82. In July it earned just $0.37 and is on track to earn about a quarter in August.

The Stats:

• Lifetime Views: 14.1K (Internal 3.2K, 23%; External 10.9K, 77%)
• Lifetime Earnings: $96.75
• Lifetime Member Reading Time: 31hrs 29min
• 1K claps; 23 comments

Because the majority of views were external, the story only earned >$0.007 per view ($0.03 per internal view) — but $3.07 per hour of Member reading time. It has fever claps and comments than my evergreen article, leading (maybe?) to fewer recommendations to Medium readers now that its brief time in the spotlight is over.

My evergreen article is an informative article — little more than a list, it is pretty dry, though it gets the job done and conveys information clearly. This one is a bit more fun, a bit more personal, but not as long-lived. It also gets a lot of hits on Google, which means new readers (but not paying readers, if they aren’t already on Medium).

If it maintains its current rate of $0.25 per month, it won’t hit $100 until September 2023, thirteen months from now. However, because its monthly earning potential has been drastically decreasing since its first viral weeks, it may continue to earn less and less — or have another viral resurgence and earn the $3.75 needed to push it over in a day. Who knows?

A viral story is a bit like the hot new dish at the trendy restaurant downtown. At first, they’re booked out weeks in advance. Rave reviews from critics got everyone banging down the door for a taste — but that doesn’t last long. The initial wave of interest passes. If the dish doesn’t appeal to a wide enough range of clientele or they don’t invent more new and exciting dishes, the restaurant will go out of business. Fads come and go fast now… anyone remember Cronuts?

Which story is better?

I don’t think it is controversial to say that I love “Am I a Millennial or Gen Z?” more than my listicle about lists. It touches on an issue close to my heart; it’s personal; I used photographs of my childhood self to illustrate it. A couple of days’ worth of work went into it, compared to a couple hours writing my evergreen.

And yet, my “viral” article may never make $100 (despite being so close), whereas “How to Use Medium Lists Effectively” will almost certainly hit $100, and soon.

The success of my evergreen article continues to baffle me. That’s the one I’ll be known for? That’s what’ll earn passive income? I have written better articles! I swear!

If it is all about earning passive income, writing evergreen, instructive articles (data, facts, instructions, manuals) will generate more than a well-written personal essay on this platform over time. As much as we all like to think our personal stories will sell, they’re far more likely to fizzle and burn out — if, indeed, they ever get their time to shine.

But that doesn’t mean I want to stop writing articles I am passionate about. Personal articles are what make this platform great — not the “How To”s and the “Best Of”s and the “Did You Know”s. Those articles all look the same, sound the same: they’re soulless. A robot could have written them.

The articles I am most proud of aren’t my highest-earning, but the ones I put my soul into. And I think readers respond to that as well.

“Am I a Millennial or Gen Z?” has definitely gotten more people to follow me than “How to Use Medium Lists Effectively,” despite having a similar amount of internal views. My other personal essays, like “I’m a Novelist Living Without an ‘Imagination’,” may not have earned $100, but I guarantee they gained attracted more followers than the list story.

People will read the list story. They’ll get the information they need, drop a ‘thank you’ comment, and then leave. They don’t follow the person who wrote the instruction manual — they follow the person whose stories have heart. The ones that made them laugh, or cry, or got them to click down a rabbit hole of webpages.

So to answer the question this article is based on: what’s better, slow and steady or a flash in the pan?

I still don’t know. Maybe that’s a cop-out, but honestly, it depends on your priorities as a writer. We all know technical writing earns more money. That’s true in standard/traditional publishing as well as online.

People look up skills they need to learn and questions they want answers to. If their Google searches lead them to your article, you’ll get readers. Steady traffic = steady income, even if it is just a few pennies a day.

But those people won’t keep coming back to you for more. That article is a one-stop shop. Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am. If I found your article because I needed to know how to change my tire, I’m not staying to check out your poetry — even if I’ll totally dig it.

But the person who finds your poem and loves it… that’s your ideal reader. They’ll follow you. They’ll clap. They’ll comment and keep coming back for more.

If you’re looking for a connection, write what means the most to you. That’s how you find your people in this vast digital void.

Maybe, an article you put your heart into will go viral for a day or a week or a month and earn you some money.

Maybe it won’t.

The internet is fickle.

But I think that it’s worth the gamble.

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Never miss a story by subscribing to my Medium via email. Looking for more like this? Check out my personal nonfiction, nonfiction journalism and longform fiction. I do not monetize poetry or flash fiction. My novels are temporarily out of print; find out why in my article, “The Dreamspinner Press Controversy.” You can also find me on Twitter or like my public Facebook page.