Want to learn how to make money on Medium. Here’s a detailed at the real odds of making money through the blogging platform, including an interview with a top Medium editor.
If you did a quick search online for “how to make money on Medium” you’d see 2,070,000,000 results pop up. Of course, not all of those pieces of content answer the question you’re really asking. You’ll get inundated by experts claiming it’s the next best thing and showcasing eye-popping income.
The phrase, “how to make money on Medium” appears in articles about how to make money as a side hustle, and it’s featured on about every writer resource out there.
You’ll also find a lot of articles that tell you that blogging through Medium is a waste of time. Those articles claim the Medium Partner Program doesn’t pay well. They showcase that there’s only a small percentage of Medium writers who make money writing Medium articles.
What if I told you that both of those things were true?
About 6.4% of writers on Medium earn over $100 per month. That is a small percentage and those are full-time writers. They get featured on the homepage.
Those Medium members boast high-quality content and their hard work has paid off with curation. Successful writers on medium.com often write for a Medium publication, like The Startup, and earn subscribers through their Medium stories.
That really only answers the question of how many writers Medium pays through the Medium Partner Program. What it doesn’t tell you is that there are other ways to earn directly through your efforts on Medium.
Contents
What Is Medium?
Medium.com is an online publishing platform. A new writer can start their own blog on Medium to make money online and earn a passive income. This makes it attractive to active writers. There are strategies that a freelance writer can use to create great content and increase the number of claps to reach the top writer category.
For bloggers, the Medium platform ranks well in search engines because the algorithm favors the platform. So you’re more likely to find your audience here than you are on WordPress. A single story on Medium will outrank the same piece on your own blog or website.
Medium.com has a lot of great content and active writers. Search engines favor the platform and their monthly subscription is high. Your Medium stories are more likely to be read by a wider audience. There are also publications on Medium. Some of the publications do pay their writers and all of them have editors who view work before it’s accepted.
Strategies to Earn on Medium
There are new writers who earn well on the Medium platform, but they also put in hard work and time. They pay attention to SEO, work on trending topics, pay attention to their metrics, and reap the rewards in their bank account.
In short, you need to know how to write an article.
You can earn money. I’ll say that again for the writers in the back who don’t believe it. There are countless first-hand accounts of people who do earn monthly through the platform. They do this in a few ways.
The Partnership Program: This is Medium’s payment method. Writers can sign up for the partnership program and put all of their content behind Medium’s paywall. Your articles will earn money based on the amount of time that readers spend on the content. Some articles can earn really well this way. Remember, the platform gets hundreds of thousands of visitors a month.
Ways to get Curated on Medium
Just signing up for the partnership program isn’t usually enough. You also want to get curated by Medium’s editors. Being curated means that the editors have approved your writing and they promote your work, which brings you higher traffic.
Getting curated is not as easy as it sounds. You need to study Medium’s Distribution Standards and make sure that you’re adhering to their guidelines. Getting your work placed in a publication will also help your chances of being curated.
Curated work receives far more views than you can garner alone. More eyes on your writing means more chances to earn. Being accepted to a publication can also be used as a professional publishing credit, so it’s great for newer writers who need clips for their portfolios.
Other Ways to Make Money on Medium
The Partnership Program is the most talked-about way to earn on Medium. But for professional writers, it might not be enough to sweeten the pot. After all, if you wrote a post on Medium that only made $20 over months, it doesn’t seem worth it. You can easily write the same amount of words for $100-$150 in a freelance capacity.
There are other ways that your work can earn on Medium besides the Partnership Program. Medium offers you a much larger audience. For writers, that can mean the chance to get your work in front of editors, small business owners, and anyone in your target market for your services.
You can use your published articles on Medium as samples when you apply for paying writing work. You can also use the Medium platform to network. You have a space on your bio to include your website link and contact info. Use it the same way you’d use social media.
You can also use affiliate links on Medium. You need to abide by Medium’s rules and the rules of any publication you’re in. But affiliate marketing is allowed on Medium and the platform gives you a wide audience, so this can be a lucrative way to create income from your work there.
Other Ways Medium Writers Benefit
You already know that you can earn some money from the Partnership Program. You know that you can use affiliate links and that you have access to a wider audience. But there are also some benefits to you as a writer that you might not readily think of while looking at monetary figures.
Medium gives you a platform to improve your craft. You can, of course, work in solitary and never show anyone your early work. But that never really helps writers improve.
If you study the articles that do well on your Medium blog, you can get a feel for what you do well and where you need to improve. The act of writing on a regular basis also improves your ability to create and use words well. And the community aspect of the platform can help you find other writers to network with that can help support your growth, and vice versa.
The Final Word on How to Make Money on Medium
What’s the final word on making money on Medium? There are a few things that we’d like you to take away from this.
- You can earn money through their Partnership Program.
- You can make connections that will lead to paid writing work.
- You can use the reach of the platform to earn through your own business or market yourself.
Medium doesn’t pay the same way that straight submissions to magazines or online publishers often will. But it is a viable and worthwhile platform to cultivate new followers and build your credibility. With Medium, if you’re willing to put in the effort and pay attention to your strategy, you will reap rewards from the work.
Remember, Medium isn’t the only place to find a writing job.
Make Money on Medium Through Writing With Adrian Drew
Medium is the number one platform for non-fiction writers who want to find readers, share their message and earn a little for doing it. Members of the partner program regularly earn four and five figures a month.
But what if you’re just starting out and don’t have and subscribers, much less a portfolio?
Is it too late to start writing on Medium?
Adrian Drew is the editor and owner of one of Medium’s top publications Mind Cafe. His publication focuses on personal development and receives over 200 submissions a week.
He explains how you can earn your first $100 on Medium even if you have no subscribers.
In this interview, Adrian explains:
- How to get started writing and earning on Medium, even if you have no followers
- What editors of top Medium publications usually look for
- How much you can expect to earn as member of the Medium partner program
- What types of images and tags to use
- How to drive traffic to and attract readers of your articles
