How to Increase Your Earning Potential on Medium
Tips for new and advanced writers
17 days.
That’s how long I’ve been using Medium.
While my length on the platform might not seem like much, I’ve learned some valuable takeaways from my experiences.
Invest in the Partner Program
The Medium Partner Program costs $5.00 per month.
I’ve made over $17.00 in my first 17 days on Medium.
The biggest ‘hack’ I’ve done is staying consistent with my posting schedule.
1 article per day. Every day. No excuses.
The $5.00 / month investment should not scare you.
It’s meant to hold you accountable. Medium wants you to keep writing.
You should want to keep writing.
You can make money from Medium without joining the partner program.
However, you are missing out on lots of opportunities by not investing in the Medium Partner Program.
Read Time is What Matters
Once you have joined the Partner Program, read time is your best friend.
The amount of read time your articles get is the biggest factor that determines your earnings for the article.
When someone views your article, if they read it for 30 seconds or more, that view turns into a read.
Example #1
If Jimmy clicks on this article and viewed it for 17 seconds:
This would count as 1 view and 0 reads.
The earnings would be $0.00
Example #2
If Jimmy clicked on this article and viewed it for 35 seconds:
- This would count as 1 view and 1 read.
- The earnings would be greater than $0.00
Example #3
If Jimmy clicked on this article and viewed it for 2 minutes and 43 seconds:
- This would count as 1 view and 1 read.
- The earnings would be higher than in example #2
It’s vital that you understand how this system works.
If you don’t fully understand the 3 examples above, go back and read them again.
This will serve as a foundation for how you will get paid.
The Length of Your Articles Doesn’t Matter
My longest article is 5 minutes long. It was slightly below 1,000 words.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write longer articles.
However, don’t force a certain length or word count.
Tell your story. The length will naturally be perfect.
Develop Relationships with ‘Friends of Medium’
This is the special sauce.
Pay attention.
There are 2 different types of readers. There are Members of Medium and there are Friends of Medium.
Friends of Medium earn you 4x the amount of money compared to Members of Medium.
You can tell if someone is a Friend of Medium based on if they have a yellow heart on their profile picture.
Here is an example of what a Friend of Medium looks like:
The yellow heart is in the top right corner of Jijo’s profile picture.
Here is an example of the what a Member of Medium looks like:
Notice how Sam’s profile has a star instead of a heart.
If you don’t see a heart or a star next to someone’s profile, this means they aren’t a Member or a Friend of Medium.
In summary:
- Member of Medium — yellow star — $5.00 per month
- Friend of Medium — yellow heart— $15.00 per month
- Neither — no heart or star — $0.00 per month
Make it a daily habit to read and comment on stories posted by Friends of Medium.
- Read stories
- Comment on the stories
- Stay consistent with these actions
This 3 step process will allow you to form connections with other Medium users, especially Friends of Medium.
If you show that you genuinely care about other people on the platform, it will increase the likelihood that they will read your stories.
I encourage you to not just engage for the sake of engaging.
Instead, have fun with it. Make genuine connections with people.
As humans, we are meant to communicate with each other.
We are meant to support each other and lift each other up.
Be genuine. Stay consistent.
Post on a Consistent Schedule
Speaking of consistency, it’s vital that you post consistently as well.
If you’re more casual about your writing and only want to post whenever you want, there’s nothing wrong with that.
However, you’re still reading because you want to optimize your earnings.
P.S. If you’ve made it this far, I’d love to have you become a member of my newsletter. You can subscribe to my newsletter here. It’s free! :)
Post daily if possible.
If you can’t post daily, post 2–3 times a week.
If you can’t do that, post 1 time per week.
Whatever frequency you choose, stay consistent with it.
There will be some weeks where you have more time than others. During those weeks where you have more time, write more.
Give yourself some wiggle room for the weeks when you can’t write as much.
You can schedule your posts on Medium.
Take advantage of that feature.
Conclusions
Earning money on Medium doesn’t have to be complicated.
Make the $5.00 investment per month.
Write consistently.
Build genuine connections on the platform.
Have fun! Enjoy the process.
Thank You for reading! :)
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