Why You Need to Publish More than One Story a Day on Medium

How building a backlog of work can contribute to your longterm success.

A majority of writers on Medium will tell you the importance of publishing a story every single day, but I’m here to tell you that it isn’t enough.

You need to be publishing more than a single story a day. Ideally three, though, that is asking a lot.

I have currently begun publishing two every day and have achieved a comfortable schedule, though I hope to up it to three very soon.

Ignore the last week, I’m currently on vacation and only have one scheduled for each day.

With the new payment system implemented in late October, having a backlog of articles is increasingly important. Don’t get me wrong, publishing one story a day will build a backlog, but to maximize the effect you need more articles.

Once you begin to gain traction with your work it’s absolutely fine to tone down your pace, but up and coming writers need to have a wide selection of pieces for people to read.

So far in November, my income has come from 49 stories. I’ve only published 32 this month.

Stories from back in October are still earning me money and it’s only possible because I built up a backlog of work.

Granted, only a portion of those are responsible for 80% of my income, it goes to show that stories written way in the past can still earn you money.

If you’re curious more on the importance of writing those “penny-earner” stories, check this piece out:

All this being said, you have no way of knowing which stories are going to resonate with your readers.

A piece you thought would go gang-busters may fall flat on its’ face and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Publishing more content is a surefire way to account for this potential obstacle.

I’m aware that a large majority of my stories unless curated or picked up by a major publication, earn around $1.50 when the rush for that piece has ended.

By simply publishing two pieces a day I can almost always guarantee a consistent $3 per day.

Hey, money is money, right?

On top of that money being earned over time, I usually now have a few curated pieces that earn closer to $4 apiece.

Truthfully, I would recommend taking a look at your statistics and figuring out what your average story earns when the rush is over.

From there, you can decide how many stories you need to publish a day to achieve an income you desire per month.

Additionally, if you’re submitting to major publications, which I very much recommend, they probably won’t get back to you on a submission for up to a week.

If you’re post gets accepted, more often than not you’ll get a large influx of traffic. Having multiple stories posted per day provides options to those potential readers and more eyes on your work mean more money.

Another benefit of having a large selection of stories is the wider range you have when it comes to driving traffic to those pieces. You can link past stories that are related to your piece at the end of each article.

More Articles = More Diversity.

I understand how hard it can be to publish multiple times a day. For how to actually get three pieces done daily, I’d recommend reading this article by Brian Rowe:

He has been consistently publishing three stories a day for as long as I’ve been following him and they’re all great reads. This article is what inspired me to begin publishing twice daily.

I hope to one day match his impressive consistency.

Writing a story every single day is difficult in itself, I know, but I would highly recommend striving to publish even more than that.

The best way to produce an income on Medium is to build a portfolio of stories that earn long after you publish them.

Remember, pennies add up.

Monetary support for the multiple articles a day argument aside, publishing more than once a day brings more attention to your profile.

More stories naturally mean more of a chance to be curated or have work featured in a major publication.

Even taking a day off can have drastic effects on your views and reads so it’s important to get into the habit of publishing daily.

Only publishing once is a habit that can be broken easily, but publishing twice or more is fairly hard to break.

Take the next step to improving your portfolio of work on Medium and begin to publish multiple times daily.

The results should pleasantly surprise you.