My Medium Strategy (Answering Some Q&As)
My Medium Strategy (Answering Some Q&As)
I've given up Medium twice. Here's how I come back.
In this post:
My experience on Medium & why I believe in my strategy.
Q&A: How often to post on Medium to get the algorithm to work for me?
Q&A: How long should my articles be?
Q&A: Should I submit to publications & which ones?
Q&A: What else can I do to improve my results?
Q&A: How much money can I make writing on Medium?
My experience on Medium & why I believe in my strategy.
I first started writing on Medium in December 2019.
In my first month, I made a dollar. The second month was about $20. In the third month, I reached $100.
On my fourth month on the platform—March 2020—I made $1200.
That’s rare. Most people take at least a year to get to 4 figures.
Two more things happened in March 2020.
I found out I was pregnant with our second boy.
A few days later, the first Covid lockdown was announced.
An eventful month, right?
I tried to keep writing on Medium, but I had freelance clients, pregnancy hormones kept me sleepy, and the lockdown sucked all creativity out of me. In the following months, my Medium output (and income) slowly declined until it reached 0 new articles per month and $1-2 from old reads.
A year later, after sending my older son to preschool, I decided I’d give it another shot. That time, I got to $800 within 3 months.
But my toddler kept coming home sick, and the baby always caught it. I was underslept and couldn’t keep up. A month later, my husband sold his company, and the money in our bank account made it easy to slack off.
So I gave up again.
Even though I’ve given up twice, I’ve made over $10K on the platform with just a few months of effort.
Now, I’m on it for real. The kids are older, mom is getting some sleep again, and we almost spent my husband’s money too.
For now, I’m still in the double digits on Medium, but I’m growing steadily, and I’m expecting to reach four figures in October or November.
Want to know how I’m so sure that I’ll repeat my results a third time?
Here’s my strategy.
How often to post on Medium to get the algorithm to work for me?
Early on, I read that you can’t make good money on Medium with less than 4 articles per week.
I stand by that.
Some people will tell you to post every day. It would be great if you could, but only if you could deliver quality writing. Posting articles that are way too short & generic daily won’t get you far.
How long should my articles be?
When you write a story, Medium shows you how long it would take for someone to read it.
Lately, they’ve been looking for longer pieces. My best-performing pieces on the platform are 5-7 minutes long (1200-1600 words), but I notice many of the top writers only post articles 6 minutes and longer.
Should I submit to publications & which ones?
You should submit your stories to publications (pubs). The more stories you have in top publications, the better.
The main problem with publications is that submitting will slow you down (as publications take a few days to review stories), and there’s no guarantee that your piece will get accepted.
To up your chances and stay on schedule with a minimum of 4 posted articles per week, it’s a good idea to:
Be accepted as a writer in as many publications as possible. This way, you will learn how long each publication takes to get back to you, what each publication likes, and boost your chances for success.
Always be a few articles ahead of schedule.
If one pub rejects your article, send it to another.
To find the pubs where your posts need to be, find successful writers in your category and see where they post their stories.
What else can I do to improve my results?
Be active in the community.
Don’t just write. Read. Clap. Reply. Follow people. Read the responses to articles to see what questions people ask or what they have to say about a topic. Notice the most read stories in your niche—how are they approaching the subject?
I recently e-mailed Tim Denning to ask him something, and he replied. If you don’t know who Tim Denning is, he’s a Medium celebrity with 300K+ followers and consistently makes 6 figures on Medium alone.
The guy also has a 170K-people e-mail list and often sells out his classes.
Yet, he replied to my e-mail, and he gave me great advice too. How cool is that?
The more active you are within the community, the easier it will be to collaborate, get help, and get noticed.
How much money can I make writing on Medium?
A simple Google search tells us that the top 1% of the writers on the platform make between $5000-$30 000 per month through the Medium Partner Program.
Another 15% of writers make over $100 per month.
This sounds like tough odds, but there are about 300 000 writers on Medium (unofficial information), which means 3000 writers make over $5000 monthly.
That’s not a small group. It’s also good to know that they’re very open about sharing their strategies.
Was this helpful?
My regulars will notice that this is a bit different from the e-mails I usually send out. While I’m still planning to write a lot about the mindset of successful solopreneurs, I do get asked a lot of specific questions about platforms, clients, money, etc.
So I thought you’d enjoy an e-mail like this every once in a while.
Let me know in the comments!
Happy writing,
Maya
Thx so much for sharing! It really gives me some hope, because I started off ok but now with 2 months of school holiday, my toddler is getting all the attention and my writing is almost non existent. So it scares me a little, but I'm determined to get back into the game asap. :)
Loved how open you were and indeed, how cool is it that Tim answered with great help!