The Temptation of the Locked Article
I feel it every day; The desire for a couple bucks by posting a Members Only post on Medium but without the fan base.
I consider myself still new to Medium but I am, to be honest, jealous of the people that have found a way to be successful online.
At this moment, my definition of being successful online is simply currently just being able to supplement some income from an online source.
Medium has a beautiful clean platform that makes it easy to consume content and almost makes it entertaining to learn. It’s also a platform where budding writers, as well as seasoned authors, create value for others and have an opportunity to participate in Mediums revenue sharing program.
Essentially how the medium partner program works for authors who post members only articles a portion of the membership fee goes to the writer. But it doesn’t have to be just the author of the article. It could just be the person who posted it. As long as they’re curating and posting quality helpful articles they could benefit from the program. Right?
The best way to describe how the membership fees are distributed would be each paying partner has two dollars (or so) of their five dollar membership to share with authors who post members only content. 3 of the five goes to Medium and of that two bucks, it that gets divided up by all the claps on member’s only articles by that individual member.
For example, if the person clamped a total of 200 times across all of the members only posts they read, one cent would be applied for each clap and distributed to the authors of those member only posts.
So, if they clapped five times for one article they are essentially telling medium to share five cents of their membership fee to that particular author. Equally so, if they clamped 50 times out of there 200 total times on an article, that is telling medium to send $.50 to that particular author.
This is not medium approved example, just my hypothesis of how the revenue sharing program works for writers that post members only content.
The Allure
I have a growing family. I have a desk job that takes a lot of time away from my family. I have to commute to and from work as well as occasional business obligations travels.
I feel like I’m missing out on milestones that are happening at home everyday while I’m at work. So, the desire to supplement income and maybe the possibility of replacing it completely is very intriguing to me.
I, currently, have not found a one stop shop to make this dream a reality but I feel Medium is a great place to start with a little bit of supplement income. I, myself, have not had too much luck in publishing members only content on Medium but I am still very optimistic, as well as new.
I am doing a personal experiment with Medium and not posting members only content until I have gained a following. With an established list and successful post, I feel like I might go have some nice family dinners out on the town with the earnings.
The goal
As mentioned my goal is to supplement income for my family so, that we can spend more time together. Whether it be over a nice meal or even put more effort towards paying off debt faster.
We have a ton of debt (student loans, ew) and when it comes to a daytime desk job, it’s difficult to make extra money because you spent so much time there. Corporate America is also, really, just a standard rate of pay. If you’re salary based then regardless of your effort Whether it be 50% or 100%, you still get the same pay.
So, my strategy with Medium is that I thoroughly enjoyed the platform and I am getting quite a value out of my membership that I also want to take advantage of the partners program. I like posting the free articles in efforts to help others but I feel like it’s almost time to start putting out some members only content.
One thing I do want to avoid is what my buddy did. He saw the potential in the Medium revenue sharing program but didn’t get his ‘success’ and quit after three posts (2 days). He did get any views or claps. He didn’t prime his followers or publications. This was a great experiment that I got to learn from and can share with others what not to do.
This makes me believe that I was on the right path. My goal for medium in order to make some supplemental income is to get a follower base of at least 1000 by being a very active on Medium like a social media network. This means comments, highlights, follow others, post and post to publications.
You can find a list of Medium’s top publications here but note just because there is a large following doesn’t mean that is still live active and well. Smedian is another resource to leverage because you can find top publications and easily ask to write from them. For the most part, if you lock your article for member’s only you can’t also add it to a publication but some publications will pay for your article.
The Struggles Is Real
Every one wants to be a contributor or writer. The prestige that comes with it and make a little extra dough. Daily, I wonder if today is the day that I post a member’s only article and begin to supplement income.
But, daily, I also wonder if my base will get me to the results needed to get me to carry on. Disappointment suck.
I guess, I’ll just continue with my strategy.
People are making money on Medium. Why not me, too, right? Does anyone else struggle with the?
Did you know you can clap up to 50 times on an article? 👏🏼
Plus, clapping helps others discover posts. Clap and Follow me on this Medium Adventure.
