Summary

Building a library of articles is essential for generating passive income through writing, as demonstrated by the author's experience of earning from past publications despite a year of inactivity on Medium.

Abstract

The author highlights the importance of a robust backlog of published articles for sustaining passive income, even during periods of writing inactivity. Despite not actively writing on Medium since late 2020, the author continued to earn money and receive significant views each month, with a strong backlog of 208 stories being the primary reason for this sustained income. The author provides evidence of earnings and views from their inactive period, emphasizing that consistent publishing of articles, even if not all are viral hits, can lead to a steady stream of residual income over time. The article suggests that a diverse library of content increases the chances of readers engaging with multiple pieces, thereby boosting passive income potential.

Opinions

The author believes that a consistent publishing history is key to building a passive income stream through writing.
They assert that not all articles need to be viral successes; the cumulative effect of many articles can lead to significant earnings.
The author emphasizes the importance of writing every article with high quality, as it's impossible to predict which will become popular.
They note that while passive income from writing can be substantial, it will diminish over time if not maintained with new content to keep the article library relevant and engaging for readers.
The author expresses that even a niche topic like space, theories, and science can generate passive income if a substantial body of work is available for readers to explore.

Why Building a Library of Articles Is Crucial for Passive Writing Income

A case study on returning to active writing after a period of inactivity

I haven’t used Medium actively since 2020 and I still earned income, as well as received thousands of views each month. Yup, you read that right.

Truthfully, it sounds bizarre and I was rather taken aback when I logged into this account for the first time in months. While I published two small stories sporadically in 2021, I have not written actively on this platform since the tail-end of 2020.

Despite this inactivity, I have received monthly payouts. Albeit, these haven’t been payments I can retire off of but, to be fair, money is money. After looking back through my account I realized there is one main reason for what happened: a strong backlog of published articles.

The Proof in the Pudding

I would be remiss if I made these claims about making some passive income and earning thousands of views if I didn’t offer any proof so allow me to show you what I saw when I viewed my account for January 2022 (the final month of my inactivity):

Now, let’s be honest: 5,000 views, 2,000 reads, and 4 fans ordinarily wouldn’t be anything special at all. However, after not having written actively on the platform for over a year prior to this, I was shocked.

My niche is traditionally topics having to do with space, theories, and science. As a whole, this niche isn’t incredibly popular to begin with compared to some larger ones on this platform.

As for profits, the immediate months following my hiatus from Medium were relatively lucrative (by my standards). I had been coming off a slew of successful stories that resulted in my highest performing month at $687.03.

However, as my writing consistency began to dwindle in November and December of 2020 as a result of finishing school and working on locking down a full-time job, the amounts dropped as follows:

At the turn of the new year I went fully inactive and my account became dormant…or so I thought.

All-in, residual income from my previous work amounted to the following two figures:

$299.57 sum earned in 2021

101,445 sum total views in 2021

As mentioned, I’m not retiring anytime soon but those numbers are without publishing any stories (barring two small pieces that earned very low views and no income near the end of the year).

The Importance of an Article Library

My $300 earned in 2021 comes directly from passive income derived from the 208 stories I have published on my profile. While each story on its own may earn a measly amount, maybe even just a couple cents to a dollar per month, the combined total is far higher.

Here’s a secret for you:

Every story you write doesn’t need to be a smash hit.

In fact, most of your stories will likely fall flat in terms of “going viral” standards. All you need to do in order to build a solid article library and start earning passive income, though, is to publish consistently.

Having two stories, or even one, per month take off with thousands of views is enough to drive residual traffic to the other posts you’ve written that were less successful.

In fact, I believe I had around 7 stories in 2020 take off and earn between 5,000–25,000 views a piece. Those articles are largely responsible for the residual income I saw in 2021. That’s it.

While your viral stories earn you a large dollar amount up front, they are also raising the passive income threshold your other stories bring in each month simply because they drive more traffic to them.

Look at it like this: if you have one viral story and three average other stories in a month, your potential passive income is limited. A reader may be struck by your writing in the viral story and be curious to see your other work, but if the topics of the other three articles aren’t interesting to them then they won’t read.

If you have ten articles alongside that one viral story, however, there is a greater likelihood that there may be a topic they’re interested in.

You may earn 80% of your monthly income from 20% of your writing work, but building an article library for potential readers can help increase that latter percentage.

Additionally, give your all on every single article you write. It’s impossible to predict which are going to take-off, so write every single piece as if thousands of people will read it.

A final key note on this library is to be sure you are having consistency on a monthly basis. Your stories will not retain SEO relevance forever. While I managed to earn $300 by doing no writing in 2021, $61 of it was from January 2021, whereas only $9.45 of it was earned in December 2021.

It may take two months or another year, but that $9.45 will eventually drop to $0.00. Unlike some other forms of passive income, that from royalties will decrease with time. That’s why you should aim to update your article library with new content monthly to keep readership high.

Fortunately, I won’t need to find out how long it’ll take that $9.45 to drop all the way because I’m back and better than ever. Let’s get back to writing.