Wow, I made more than $1000 on Medium in September!

I just made my most money ever on Medium in a single month. Here are three reasons why.

I actually thought my income was going to go down this month, not up.

Maybe it’s because all the hard work I’ve done in writing novels in the past decade still hasn’t led to a publishing contract. Maybe it’s because all the hard work I did in five years of graduate school hasn’t led to a full-time teaching job.

I have a tendency to think negative, not positive, when, as I’ve learned over the years, you should always think positive no matter what the outcome might be.

I mean, come on. I’ve had stupendous months on Medium since May. I made $29 on Medium in January, $84 in February… and $838 last month. I mean, come on.

As somebody who’s been writing almost every day for ten years and rarely ever made any money from my work, this period of my life is kind of astounding.

I was hoping by the end of the summer to make maybe $500 in a month if I was lucky. To surpass $800 for the fourth straight month was insane. I’m still in awe about it all, and I continue to be each and every week on Medium.

Since I made $838 in August, I figured for September I’d make something close to that, maybe less. I did earn $270 one of the weeks this month, but I also earned $190 a different week. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen.

My payment summary for September came in yesterday (which accounts for five weeks this time instead of four), and I held my breath as I scrolled down the page to see what I made for the month…

Whoa. That’s the most (by two dollars) I’ve ever received in a month on Medium!!

These numbers still don’t seem real, even though I always dedicate part of my day to Medium, even though I continue to work as hard as I can and treat this site like it’s a part-time job.

Hard work has often not equaled success in my life, so I never feel confident that things are going to improve. It’s one of the amazing and terrible parts about writing for Medium. Things change every day. You really have no idea what stories will land, what readers will like this story and not like that story, how much money you’ll likely make week to week.

It’s amazing because the possibilities are endless. I might think I’m going to make $150 in a week, and then, boom, $270 appears at the bottom of an estimate screen. I might work really hard on a Medium story that actually does well and makes me more money than I ever thought possible!

If you love to write, and if you have something to share with the world, this is a great place to be. To be able to write what you want and get paid for doing it? I can’t imagine why any writer wouldn’t want to at least give this site a try!

So how did I get to $1078 last month? Is there anything necessarily special I did?

Not really. In fact, I actually wrote and published less last month that normal.

But something worth thinking about I guess is how it might actually be better for you to write less, and focus on the stories that readers particularly love.

That’s definitely what I’ve been doing lately, and it seems to be paying off.

Here’s what I try to do on this site every single day…

1. Write and publish high-quality stories.

I’m averaging three stories a day right now, although occasionally I do post four (this month, for example, I’ll be posting a horror movie review every day in celebration of Halloween!). It might seem difficult to manage three stories a day, but you can absolutely do it if you plan ahead.

I always start with a fun piece early in the morning — a poem, a short story, a film review, a book review. I’ve actually gotten really into writing poems lately. It’s a fun way to stay creative!

The second piece is usually about writing fiction. I’ve been writing and revising short stories and novels almost every day for ten years, so there’s a lot I have to say on the subject!

The third piece is always about writing for Medium. Readers respond to these with great enthusiasm, and as long as you keep reading and clapping for these, I’ll keep writing them! I’m always learning new things about Medium , and it’s fun to share my findings with you.

I’m at a point where readers kind of know what to expect from me every day at this point, and I definitely think there’s value in that.

2. Find new high quality pictures for the stories.

I feel like I’ve given my new stories a little bit more life by using Unsplash’s dynamic catalogue of truly amazing photos since June.

I mean, it might sound stupid to think a lone picture will make or break an otherwise well-written Medium article, but I do believe the picture you choose is super important.

I had two Medium stories die quick deaths last week, and in both cases the pictures weren’t well-chosen. I don’t think that’s necessarily why those two stories failed, but I’m sure the mediocre pictures had something to do with it.

Pay attention to the photos you use! Take five minutes, even ten, to find the perfect one. It might seem like a waste of time, but it never is, trust me.

3. Keep looking for new ways to promote your work.

I’ve talked a lot about this on here, but it’s oh so true — a great Medium story isn’t worth much if nobody is able to find it.

In my early months writing for Medium in 2018, I’d so often write an awesome piece… and it would be completely ignored. I’ve give an hour of my day over to a new story, and I’d check the stats three days later, and find that the story had 2 views, maybe 1 read (if I was lucky), and 0 claps.

A few dozen instances like that, and you’re ready to abandon Medium for good, trust me!

But if you promote your work well, if you keep building an e-mail list, if you create your own Medium publication and send out letters to your publication’s followers, if you join and engage in online Medium communities, you’ll eventually be in very good shape. Facebook is a great place to start.

But there are other ways to promote your work too, of course. Using Twitter, Reddit, a personal website.

The new way to promote I started doing recently was posting my latest stories about fiction writing to LinkedIn, along with a bit of description before I offered up the link. I’ve noticed a few people clicking over to my stories from LinkedIn, so that’s a strategy that’s definitely working.

Again, do not be shy about promoting your work. Do what needs to be done so that as many readers as possible can find it.

At the end of the day, remember to enjoy the journey, publish often, and write what you love!

Don’t compare yourself with anybody else. You are unique. You have stories and expertise and advice to share with the world that not everyone else can. And we all want to hear from you, not occasionally, but often!

Don’t feel like you have to publish on Medium every single day, but try to publish a few times every week if you can.

The more you produce, the easier it is to see what’s working well and what isn’t working well, and then in the following week, write more of what was working well the previous week.

Just keep going, and keep learning. As long as you never give up, there’s no telling how much success might soon come your way!

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Brian Rowe is an author, teacher, book devotee, and film fanatic. He received his MFA in Creative Writing and MA in English from the University of Nevada, Reno, and his BA in Film Production from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He writes young adult and middle grade suspense novels, and is represented by Kortney Price of the Corvisiero Agency. You can read more of his work at his website, brianrowebooks.com.