Wow, I made more than $1000 on Medium this month!

It’s actually happened, and I can’t quite believe it. I made more than $1000 in a single month on Medium!

In some ways all the hard work I’ve done on Medium since March has led to this moment.

On February 28 of this year, I decided to commit to a month-long experiment on Medium. Three stories a day for thirty-one days, and see where I end up.

The most I’d ever made in a month on Medium going back to May 2018 was $84. I didn’t expect to make a whole lot more than that, even if I did manage to produce a lot more content. In ten years of writing almost every single day, I’ve rarely made any income from my work, and I didn’t exactly expect it to start happening now.

But I stayed hopeful as I wrote and publish three stories a day for the month of March. I wrote some great pieces that month, and I also made a lot of mistakes. I published ninety-three pieces to Medium in a single month, and what did I earn?

$178.

Not bad, not bad! It didn’t seem to be enough to warrant all the time I was devoting to Medium. I wrote and published eleven pieces in February and made $84. Then I wrote and published ninety-three pieces in March… and only was able to double my income. That seemed a bit disappointing at the time, and I questioned whether or not to continue writing and producing a lot in April.

Thankfully my teaching semester was winding down in about a month’s time, and I also didn’t have any jobs lined up for the summer. I realized between June 15 and August 15 I wasn’t going to be making anything. So why not commit to another few months writing and producing a lot on Medium and see what happens?

So I continued writing a lot for Medium in April. A whole hell of a lot.

There was a week I wrote and published fifty pieces. Fifty! In seven days! That was absolutely insane, and I’ve never come close to that kind of number since. I actually think there’s something to be said for writing too much on Medium. Your readers can go through only so many pieces, after all, and if you publish six a day, who has time to look at it all, let alone clap for it?

But I went all in, anyway. I figured, why the hell not. Let’s just produce tons of content and see what happens. Most of April my numbers stayed about the same as March, funnily enough. I had exactly two days early in the month where my numbers jumped for views, reads, and claps, but other days nothing much was happening.

That is, until Thursday, April 25. That was the day where everything changed. I still don’t know why, exactly, other than the fact that all of my pieces that day performed better than average. I had more and more people following my Medium publication and my e-mail list on ConvertKit, which also helped.

But everything sort of changed for the better at the end of April. First of all, I learned that in five weeks’ time I earned a truly astonishing amount on Medium.

$576!

And better yet, my income was increasing week after week. From $68 in the first week of that five-week pay period all the way up to nearly $200 by the final week of the pay period. Things were happening, and I was thrilled.

In May the numbers kept growing and growing.

I had this beautiful period in May where I wrapped up my teaching semester and had nothing else to do for a few weeks really than write for Medium. In the month of June I’ve been drafting a new novel and that’s taken up a huge part of my writing day, but in May I was able to devote many hours to my Medium pieces, and I averaged between four and five stories a day.

And instead of my numbers leveling out or even going down, they just kept increasing. More and more readers were finding value in what I had to say. I wrote more personal stories that resonated with readers. My poems were getting curated, and some of my short stories, too. I wrote more than ever before about Medium, which readers have seemed to enjoy. And I kept on talking about fiction writing, which I continue to do to this day.

I had no idea what my income for last month was going to be. I had this hope for $875. My half of the monthly mortgage payment is $875, and it was always my dream that my work on Medium could pay for it. What did I make after four weeks of really hard work on Medium in May?

$940.

That number blew my mind. Particularly since I made only $29 in January of this very same year. I went from $29 to $940 in just five months, and that kind of growth and success is something I’m not used to as a writer. I’m used to failure, disappointment. I’m used to things just not working out. So to finally have something go my way after nearly a decade in the writing arena made me emotional, to be honest. The support I’ve received lately has been nothing short of spectacular.

That leads me to the month of June, where all bets were off when it came to my latest income report.

I’m not gonna lie. A little four-digit number has been at the top of my mind the last few weeks. I didn’t expect it necessarily— I think it’s best for your sanity on Medium not to ever expect a certain number when it comes to your views, reads, claps, or income — but I certainly hoped for it as the days passed.

I made $940 in May. And I hoped I could get to $1000 in June. $1000 in a single month from my writing would have meant the world to me. I couldn’t even believe I was in a position where this was possible. I still can’t, to be honest. I’m usually the one making $29 in a month and gazing up at the other writers making $1000. That’s what I’ve been used to my whole life.

Well, that finally changed, and I couldn’t be more grateful. I wasn’t sure when the latest income report was coming out. I actually sort of forgot about it yesterday, believe it or not, until I checked my e-mail in the early afternoon and saw this…

$1076.

Holy freakin’ cow!

That’s enough to pay my monthly mortgage payment, and then some. That’s enough to pay off not just my mortgage but also my health insurance, car insurance, and life insurance for June. Wow!

After four months of writing regularly for Medium, I couldn’t be happier, prouder, or more grateful.

Keep in mind that surpassing $1000 in a single month on Medium did not come fast or easily. This is the fourteenth month I’ve been writing for Medium. The first ten of these months I made hardly anything. The first ten of these months I was lucky to make $30 to $40, even when I was writing and publishing one to two pieces a day.

And even now, the writing part hasn’t gotten any easier. I’m not taking days off and basking in the sun down at the beach. Since I went all in on March 1, I haven’t taken a single day off. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I didn’t spend at least three to four hours a day writing and publishing stories to Medium.

There’s a lot I’ve done to get to the point of making more than $1000 in a single month, but I do believe the biggest thing I continue to do is regularly produce content not just a few days a week, not just five days a week, but every day of the week. Showing up every single day with new stories about writing. Showing up every day to give a little advice and encouragement.

Showing up every day to entertain, inform, or inspire, preferably all three.

I might be able to make more than $1076 in July. Or I might make something close to it. Or I might dip dramatically, I have no idea.

Whatever happens next in July and beyond, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading and supporting my work these past few months.

I never would have been able to do this without you!

—

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.