12 No B.S. Reasons Why Medium Can Boost Your Writing and Springboard You Into a Full-Time Writer
What if you can pay your bills with your words?
Is making a living as a writer your dream? Are you tired of the endless hustle to land a well-paying writing gig? Or feel like running away from haggling creeps on freelancing job sites who want you to write 1000 words for $3, or send them 2000 word writing sample for free? You don’t know a thing about that topic. But mind you! They want it in a day or worst in hours.
What if your dream writing job is right in front of you? And it does not even feel like a job?
Medium is an authentic content platform, a true writer’s dream that seems too good to be true. But it is. Do you have an interesting story to share, an actionable fitness plan with far-reaching health benefits, or have creative writing skills? Are you an expert in psychology, marketing, or any field? I mean, are there people out there who can benefit from your answers? I am asking because you’ll see Medium has an audience for almost every niche. If in doubt, test waters, it is free to write. And earn for your knowledge.
“Medium has a readership of more than 100 million people around the world.”
Wait. Did I say earn? Yes, I did. I am someone who doesn’t trust anything easily. Though I had a free Medium account for months, I barely wrote there, and I never tried to monetize it. But I was going back to Medium to read several interesting stories. I battled the temptation to become a paying member though I wanted to read all those fascinating stories that kept me clicking. But Medium has a limit of 5 free stories per month if you’re not a paying member.
I reasoned that Medium’s yearly membership of $50 per year(Less than $5/month) costs less than eating out on a weekend.
I even considered it as my self-treat. I browsed through several reviews and joined some Medium FB groups. I asked questions about the possibility of earning at least whatever you spend. Like at least $5 per month. Can I make it back? The answer my research revealed was simple. The more valuable your content is, the more consistent you are at it, the more patience you learn to exercise, the more are your chances of making any money.
S-I-M-P-L-E! And I reiterate it. Write quality content consistently and wait patiently.
I took the plunge of being a paid member in December 2020. I also felt reassured that Medium also has a risk-free cancel-anytime policy. I wrote 4–5 articles in December 2020. How much did I earn? $5 with my then 40–50 followers. So there it was. But the community I got in that one month truly inspired me. Not to mention the confidence and other writing opportunities that opened up to me.
I even got my first 100 followers in that month. The responses, claps, and the invites by pubs to be a writer for them kept me pumped.
The bigger reward was, I got to feast on fine writings and met writers whom I could call my tribe.
I made big writing plans for 2021, and I even invested in Grammarly Pro to edit my pieces. But heavens know I am happy, and if you’re curious, in Jan 2020, I crossed $10 and you are seeing my Feb 2020 earnings till 11th Feb.
But I am not here to earn $5 or $10, nor I am telling you that you should write on Medium to make up for the $5. Then why? Here goes…
1. Motivation to write
The writers' community on Medium is unlike any other blogging platform. Every piece aims to add immense value. You will have a definite takeaway or two from any article you read. The more you read of other better writers and engage with their content, the more you will improve. You’ll never feel writer’s block again as you’ll see so much inspiration around you.
Reading on Medium is more like giving your brain a steroid shot.
2. Experimenting is key.
If you are a new writer like me, then you want to explore your writing interests. Humans, in general, have diverse interests. You may want to write poetry, but technology may be your strength. And to your surprise, you can uncover a new potential skill or discover a new interest you never imagined. I am on the edge of such marvelous discoveries.
I am at ease writing about parenting and technology but want to try history. Later we can tie it to the niche we want to stick to in the long run. Say you are trying history and your favorite theme is parenting, you can write on “How was parenting 1000 years ago?” You get it.
3. Have a ready portfolio.
If you’re switching careers from being a corporate executive to being a fiction writer, or a press-release writer, a columnist for political views; you’ll need published samples. Instead of writing and storing it in Google docs, writing on Medium gives it an audience. You know where you stand by the responses and can get suggestions from writers that add more value to your post. I truly champion this cause, and I have learned so much from fellow writer folks just writing one post per week consistently.
So when you pitch for businesses in your market, you will have a steady flow of portfolio pieces that can land you more lucrative writing gigs. It is happening every day on Medium. Just search for “Got a job, writing on Medium,” and you’ll see people who’ve even articulated their success stories as a writer.
4. Get noticed and seize new opportunities.
Why look outside? Some medium publications pay you for writing content they host. If you are in the Medium Partner Program, your content goes behind a paywall, and you also get paid for the number your article reads. Once you publish some quality pieces, you’ll get invites from many Medium publications to write for them. Some paid, but most are just metered behind the Medium paywall.
Publishing in publications will help expose your article to more eyeballs, thereby earns substantially better than self-published pieces.
You can search for publications in your niche(s). Pitch them with a ready article, or some pubs directly take writer requests. After you’re a writer to the pub, you can add your post to the publication. The editors will review and approve if they consider your article fit for their publication.
5. Grow a following.
Writing for huge publications helps you cater to a global audience. If you consistently post evergreen articles for hungry readers, you can very well grow a large audience in a matter of months. Share it on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram to increase your followers further. One viral article can give you hundreds of followers in a short time.
Pitching and getting your piece accepted in big pubs takes tremendous effort. But nothing is stopping you from trying. If you write to figure in major publications, you focus on writing quality pieces. Even if you get rejected, Medium has its in-house team of curators who distribute your story if they find it interesting.
Medium also lets your readers subscribe to your stories. Later, when you have your product or service to sell, you can promote them and achieve an effective email marketing strategy without investing in any email marketing software.
“Even if you slack for a month, your readers and new followers will be enough to generate income for a month because your old content is working hard for you even when you sleep.”
6. Read great content with no Ads served.
The variety of content you discover here is like a top magazine serving up stories from around the world. Unlike websites, you don’t see Ads popping up left, right, and center, interrupting your reading experience. It’s a luxury to read without any distraction.
You can search for content based on your interests and get to read unbiased raw opinions.
Medium discourages Affiliate links, so it is a rarity you’ll find someone trying to sell you something. You will always find distilled pure content and don’t feel surprised if you see world-renowned leaders and experts write columns in here regularly.
7. Make friends for life. Get editing help and more
We writers do much procrasta-research and end up writing almost nothing for days. And often, the family is not too supportive of our pursuits, and we think of quitting. But on Medium, the environment is open, warm, friendly, and inspiring. You will sooner or later find friends matching your wavelength. You could have meetups, even virtual ones, and have accountability checks often. That helps to break any writer’s block or fear you’ve got.
When pitching significant publications, your Medium friends are going to have your back, with uncensored feedback to polish your piece before you submit it. It highly increases your story’s approval and curation rate.
8. Don’t have a blog? No problem.
Most new bloggers will want to have a blog, and it is a good thing if you have the money. New blogs with WordPress or Wix cost upwards of $100. Again, there is a cost for a captivating design, editing tools, SEO fix to appear on Google’s front pages. And once you drive traffic to your website, it can take more than a year before you can start monetizing it. Instead, for the first few months of starting as a writer, you can use Medium as a platform to experiment and see how the audience reacts to your stuff. Then build a website based on the content that your readers like better on Medium. And in the meantime, even earn for your writings.
“Medium has a high domain authority, and your content appearing in top Google searches is higher on Medium than on your blog.”
- You can also check how your posts perform on Medium using the stats page.
- Readers can comment, clap and highlight your content, which is a direct affirmation of your content. They can leave a private note in appreciation or for collaboration or feedback.
- Creating an account on Medium is easy. Just go to https://medium.com/. You can sign in using Google, Facebook, or email account. If you choose Facebook it imports all your followers onto Medium.
- If you want to earn, then you will have to join Medium Partner Program.
- Here you sign up and enter your preferred payment method and taxpayer information, and done.
The page looks like this.
9. Promote Your Website, Products, and Services.
Whether you’re a book author, freelance writer, copywriter, new business owner, you can republish content from your website along with a link to it using Medium’s import feature. It also adds a canonical link at the end of the article, telling Google that the original was published elsewhere and this is a copy. So your site won’t get penalized by Google search rankings. Medium encourages you to import content, and you can benefit from Medium’s authority in Google and SEO wise.
By doing so, you can drive traffic to your website. You can write a couple of helpful posts and re-direct the readers to your website for more reads in that niche.
It works remarkably well as a lead generator.
Most entrepreneurs often post on Medium to drive traffic to their business. It is a zero-cost promotion strategy that you can employ early on.
10. Grow a Publication
Owning and growing a publication is a secret goal for most writers. You’ll have every opportunity at it as there are no restrictions for creating a pub. If you have an idea for a publication that can attract followers in time, then you can have a go at it.
Managing a publication is like you are a magazine owner. Once you have built a strong follower base, writers wishing to write for your publication submit stories in tens or hundreds per day. You can have your content visible to all pub followers and don’t need to spend time promoting a lot. You’ll have to create an editors’ team to support you in proofreading content and publishing or rejecting content.
So you get a feel of running a micro-business. Much like any business, it takes patience more than a great idea, to grow a publication to a decent size.
“There are 12,453 pubs on Medium and growing.”
11. Start coaching people.
Say you found success writing on Medium or even as a freelancer in any industry. You will find people willing to pay you to coach them. There is nothing more fulfilling than being able to help someone who’s struggling to reach their goals.
If you see someone who’s about to get hit by a vehicle, won’t you rush and pull that person from harm’s way? We don’t think whether we are capable of helping them or not. It is a natural human instinct to help.
We all have a teacher in us, and we are just scared to show up because we fear criticism. Just believe in your gift and be willing to share it with people who need it the most. They would be more than happy to pay you to learn what’s in your head. Give them more than what you can afford to give, and your rewards will double many times over.
12. Make money.
I purposely put this in the end for a reason. If you write only to make money, it shows. So always write to help, guide, empathize, support, and try to add some life-changing value to your reader. That way, you are a part of their success story. Then money follows. Money is a proven by-product of your writing, guiding, relationship-building efforts, and just trying to help.
I admit that even if I make a few dollars every day (I am optimistic it will improve soon), waking up to my Medium earnings is one happy thing I look forward to each day. It’s addictive.
An extra $1000 per month isn’t a bad thing, even if you already have a job. The top medium earners earn a jaw-dropping $40,000 — $60,000 per month. Some writers are writing just 8–10 star articles each month and taking home a cool $3000. I am not saying you can make a boatload of money and get rich just by using Medium. And Medium is also rewarding you if you bring in more paid subscribers.
It’s crucial to diversify your income streams if you are freelancing.
Some helpful resources I've put together to give you a headstart on Medium
Medium FB groups
There are several, but I’ve handpicked half a dozen of them that I follow more. You can ask questions, rant, and of course, promote your content here.
Medium Writers Lounge
Medium Writers and Bloggers
Medium Mastery
Medium Wizardry
Medium Writing
Womxn of Medium(for women 😉)
Some Popular Medium Publications to follow.
Indeed this is a fraction of the 12000 odd publications, but consider them just a place to start reading.
The Startup
Better Humans
Better Programming
Better Marketing
Modern Parent
One Zero
The Ascent
PS I Love you
ZORA
Mind Café
The Writing Co-operative
Few publications even have their slack group to interact with their writers and editors. It is an intuitive chat tool that allows sharing of news about the publication easier.
You can browse through the “Write for us” posts on publications to get started pitching to be a writer for them. Alternately, hop on to Smedian, a one-stop-shop to search for and request access to many Medium publications. The possibilities and opportunities are plenty, so keep your writer spirit up and write on.
Medium founder Ev Williams(also ex-twitter co-founder) says the core of Medium is to provide a blogging platform focusing on writing tools. With an increased interest in long-form content, as opposed to short tweets on Twitter, people are looking at a breakup and data analysis.
With content-hungry readers in multiple interests, Medium has a readership of more than 100 Million.
The White House, Gates foundation, the who’s-who of the world use Medium as a means to communicate with their community. So it is a win-win for you as a writer and a reader. You create an audience for your content and engage with your favorite authors at the same time.
It gives you the satisfaction of flexing up your writing muscles, revel as a published author, and get paid for it. If you aren’t making the best on Medium as a platform yet, the time is right now.
Disclosure: This post has affiliate links and if you become a paid Medium member, I might receive a commission from Medium.
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