Why Medium is the Perfect Side-Hustle for Commercial Writers
Hint: it’s much bigger than the Partner Program payments
I’m not one for ‘hustle culture.’ I think working your face off just to post it on social is misguided and poisonous to the bigger picture. What was once a motivational phrase has morphed into little more than a t-shirt.
But we’re left with the ‘side-hustle’ and if we’re in it for the right reasons, the term is perfect for the process upon which we’ll embark together.
However, you didn’t come here for my side-hustle soapbox.
You’re here for the meat and beans of this story — Medium. As writers, we’ve been given a gift. Not only can we earn money from our stories, but we can use the platform to build an entire automated income stream to feed our family or, at least buy more Chinese take-out.
Medium is ever-evolving, but there’s been one constant since I’ve joined over a year ago.
This is a site that brings targeted readers to one platform and it gathers them very well. As writers, we’re on a constant chase for more eyeballs, but the readers are here. If we do our job correctly, we can gather them into a tribe.
As writers, we choose a herd.
The group we wish to serve isn’t important. What’s important is that we choose a lane and stick to it. This is our work. Although Medium may be a side-hustle, doesn’t mean we can let-up on the responsibility of service to those who depend on us.
Whether you’ve got a tribe or two or two-thousand — every. person. matters.
Choose your hustle
I like automated processes. They’re more controlled, test-able, and tweak-able. If I depend on my writing a single story to earn one stream of income, my income will be variable.
Automation smooths the income variability a lot.
This means we’ll use email as our main sales-generator. An automated hustle doesn’t mean you’re hands-off. You’ll be busy enticing new readers to your email list.
What can a writer sell automatically?
- Books
- Courses
- Consulting
- Training
- Short stories
- Print-on-demand merchandise
So, we choose a product, or products. We set up an automated email sequence, with valuable, entertaining content to keep readers returning. We develop an enticing, free offer to gather our tribe to our email list. Finally, we drive traffic to the offer with Medium stories.
The more stories you write, the more leads you’ll generate.
Not only will you earn a little money from your Medium writing, but you’ll have hundreds of little email oil wells working for you while you sleep.
Medium is literally paying you to grow your side-hustle.
I believe all writers should have a semi-automated side hustle. Even if you sell an inexpensive product. I have a simple, $29 offer and it pays all my annual business expenses in a single month.
When you’ve got an additional stream of automated income, you’ll have the peace of mind you can grow your writing business to the next level, while maybe scaling-back in other areas to provide more room to write.
When you build an automated side-hustle, you can scale is as big or small as you wish. You don’t need employees. I run an international publishing company in 80 countries, from my pocket.
First, we make email
The automated side-hustle starts with your email list. Everyone builds a list from zero, so there’s no shame in it.
When you’re ready, I’ve got a 7-day, free email masterclass for you. Enroll today and you’ll get the first lesson in a couple minutes from now.
I’ll show you how to get your first 1,000 readers (or your next 1,000) without spending a hot nickel on ads. It’s not easy, but once you set up the automatic infrastructure, the daily maintenance is almost nothing.
I like to wake up and check my phone for the money I earned in my sleep. You might too. This process probably won’t make you rich, but it will provide a healthy side-income to offset some of your expenses.
We’re waiting for you.
Enroll in my Email Masterclass. Get Your First 1,000 Subscribers
August Birch (AKA the Book Mechanic) is both a fiction and non-fiction author from Michigan, USA. As a self-appointed guardian of writers and creators, August teaches indies how to make work that sells and how to sell more of that work once it’s created. When he’s not writing or thinking about writing, August carries a pocket knife and shaves his head with a safety razor.