Why Medium is the most underrated way to make money online

I’ve tried a bunch of different side hustles over the past 10 years, and I can say unequivocally that Medium is the most underrated way to make money online.

I came to this site back in August after finally accepting that the one above-average skill that I had in the side hustle game — honed over a 20-year career in journalism and communications — was writing.

I put this skill to work in various ways, with varying degrees of success.

With experience in Wordpress I gained at the newspaper I worked at, and with basic graphic design skills developed on my own time, I started several news sites with an eye toward making money with Adsense and affiliate marketing.

Although those sites may have worked out over time, I just didn’t have the drive to keep putting that much time into something for literally pennies a day.

I had a little more success with affiliate marketing, mostly through Amazon Associates, but again, the returns were a pittance compared to the time involved.

I did make some good coin freelance writing, but I never felt a single drop of passion as a hired gun writing for other people.

I always wanted to own my own business.

I think I came around to the realization, too, that I was just not passionate about news writing anymore.

I launched those sites on the heels of deciding to leave my job in media behind, and going back and doing the same thing — even if it was for my own business — was no longer fulfilling in any way.

Eventually those sites just fizzled out.

Enter Medium

In August, after doing a bit of a physical and mental reset, I decided it was time to get back into the side hustle game. After dabbling in options trading and not really getting anywhere, I sat down one day and graded my “saleable” skills:

Art: D
Web design: C
Graphic design: B
Writing: A+

After trying every which way not to be a writer, I came around to accepting that it was my path. I wasn’t suddenly going to become an amazing artist or designer at age 41.

I had a skill developed over decades and it was time to finally put it to use in the right way.

Then I remembered Medium.

A fast start

Here was a simple site that valued writing over everything else.

Best of all, the potential earnings from your work are virtually limitless. Once you publish, you can theoretially make money for as long as your content is there.

To me, this was a big advantage over freelancing.

I logged in and stuff was popping into my feed from three or four years ago.

“What if I went hard on this platform and started earning over years,” I thought to myself.

So that’s what I set about doing. In my first full month, I published more than 50 articles. This was no small feat and required all of my spare time.

Every day, I watched my earnings grow just a little bit, which was great incentive to continue.

Now, across this account and my main one James Julian, I’ve published 130 articles and I’m getting paid every single day.

Nothing will get you out of bed in the morning like checking how much money you made while you were sleeping.

Unlike grinding on Wordpress for nothing or getting a one-off $150 or something for freelancing — money that just disappears into the void — my articles (my little employees, as I call them), are marching off to work every day and coming home with passive income.

I’m not even through my fourth full month here, and by the time December comes to a close, I’ll be at close to $3,000 in earnings. This includes some marginal affiliate income related to my writing here as well as dividends from stocks bought with my earnings (I do this for tax purposes).

That’s not a huge number by any means, but it is exponentially more than what I made in all my other side hustles in the past combined.

Let’s talk about the many ways I think Medium is the most underrated way to make money online.

Ease of use

One of my favourite side hustle books is called The 10 Pillars of Wealth (affiliate link) by Alex Becker. If you’re interested in generating some extra income and possibly building your activities into a full-time business, I highly recommend it.

I always get the audio versions of self improvement books because it allows me to multitask, and honestly I just like the narrators’ energy. If you’re new to Audible, you can listen to this audiobook and one more for free by using this affiliate link to sign up.

All 10 pillars described in the book are valuable, but this is the one that finally got me generating income from my most valuable and developed skill, writing.

The pillar is this: focus solely on what gets you paid.

I spent so much time building web sites, designing logos, fiddling around with widgets, formatting photos, messing around with Adsense, setting up a bunch of different affiliate accounts that would probably go nowhere, dealing with Patreon, looking at subscription models and software, micromanaging Wordpress, etc.

And what I was I not doing with that time?

Writing the kind of content that actually gets you paid.

Medium allows you to skip all that crap. It’s got a simple, beautiful interface that you can make basic edits to (though I wouldn’t recommend wasting much time on that).

Yes, there are a million more options for editing text and content in Wordpress, but I’m telling you, you don’t need it. It’s a distraction.

Whatever you get when you hit that circled + sign on a new paragraph is really all you need as a content writer: pictures and embeds.

Remember this and never forget it: focus solely on what gets you paid.

Type. Publish. Bank.

Equipment not required

Let’s dig a little deeper on this.

I would say a very close comparable for a side hustle, the video version, if you will, is YouTube. It has a simple, great platform with massive reach.

I have a YouTube channel, which I invite you to view here, that I’m trying to get monetized. The only reason I have it is because every article I write effectively serves as a script that I’m already being paid to write (another advantage of writing on Medium as a first step).

I figure the hardest part — coming up with and developing content — is done, so I may as well repurpose it for video. My videos are super simple, just me riffing on topics I’ve already covered in articles.

In order to do YouTube right, however, in order to make real money at it, you need to put in the effort and get, learn how to use, and apply a whole new set of tools.

Cameras, microphones, lighting, editing software, scripts, storyboards, and on and on it goes. You can bet Mr. Beast isn’t just sitting around talking into a camera like me.

For Medium, however, you just need something to write on and you can get started now.

You can get a Chromebook for almost nothing. That’s really all it takes.

Low threshold for payment

I’m going to level with you right now. I’m a little mad at YouTube.

You’ll notice on some of my videos that YouTube is already serving ads on my content.

Yet I still have a mountain to climb in order to get monetized there.

To get accepted into YouTube’s partner program, you need to gain 1,000 subscribers and generate 4,000 public watch hours within a specified amount of time.

Given how much more effort goes into making videos as opposed to writing articles, this theshold is deeply intimidating.

You could spend countless hours filming and meticulously editing videos to perfection and never see a dime for your work.

Currently, I only have 66 subscribers and 123 watch hours. I am certainly not on pace to meet those monetization numbers any time soon.

For the Medium Partner Program, on the other hand, all you need is 100 followers (achievable within a few days using various methods), and a published article.

You can start earning actual money almost immediately.

Remember what I said about focusing solely on what gets you paid?

If you really want to develop side projects like YouTube or independent blogging, treat is as a hobby until it starts generating real income and use repurposed Medium content.

Make Medium your starting point that feeds into other areas.

In summary

As you have probably gathered, I absolutely love this platform for so many reasons.

After messing around wasting time with so many potential side hustles, I’ve found one that is actually paying me a fair wage for my time.

That said, it’s not a get rich quick scheme. It takes time, effort, and learning about what works and doesn’t work on the platform.

But the benefit is that you’ll be making a bit of cash here and there while you figure all that stuff out, and that is extremely motivating.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to achieve the same kind of success I have here, I’d invite you to read one of the many articles I’ve already written on the topic, which I’ve linked to below.

Before you go though, if you’re not a Medium subscriber yet but enjoyed this article and want to learn more, please take a moment to sign up using my link here. It’s only $5 a month, you can cancel any time, and you get access to all the great writers here.

Folks, thanks so much for reading this far. If you found this article useful, please do give it some claps so others can find it!

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