What a wild year!
I started writing on Medium.com in April and am blown away by my success on the platform. My hard work paid off in a matter of months with the new Boost Program that helped launch my earnings to unexpected heights, placing me in the top 6% of writers, a position I’ve held for 3 months now! Crazy. (Keep reading to learn more about the Boost Program. See my earnings at the bottom of this post.)
Some Facebook friends have asked me how to make money by writing on Medium. After answering this question by messaging a few friends individually, my thumbs got tired. So, I decided to make a post about it for everyone to see!
I wasn’t able to squeeze everything into one post, so this will just be an introduction to getting started on the platform. I will cover other Medium topics in the future!
Decide if Writing on Medium is for You
If you love to write, then Medium is an excellent platform for you to publish your work, gain visibility, network, and earn money!
However, Medium is not a get-rich-quick scheme! Don’t expect to be successful without putting in the work. For example, I published somewhere around 45 articles before I got my first boost and started earning real money. As I type this, my amount of published articles is 74. I publish somewhere between 1 and 3 articles a week.
Many successful writers on Medium have experienced delayed success, putting in hard work for over 2 years before earning good money! If you want to write on Medium, prepare to be patient. It takes perseverance and confidence to write your heart out consistently over a long period of time when it feels like no one sees or appreciates your work. But, if you keep writing and improving your skills, eventually you will gain some traction.
Don't Use AI to Write for You on Medium
Again, Medium is not a get-rich-quick scheme, so don’t think you can take a shortcut by using AI to write for you! AI writing sucks and is frowned upon by the Medium community. If Medium staff discovers you are using AI, your account will get deleted.
However, you can use AI-generated images and you can write about AI technology. Those types of articles tend to do pretty well.
How Often Should You Publish on Medium?
Recently, Medium staff released a statement telling writers not to worry about how often they post, saying that frequency of posting will not affect boost potential and earnings.
However, having done a ton of research on SEO (how to rank on Google and other platforms,) I recommend posting a new story to Medium at least once a week, but not at the expense of quality! It is better to take your time producing quality work than to rush shitty content out the door.
Consider your schedule, decide how often you can post to Medium, and try to post consistently.
Again, Medium staff says the frequency of posting will not affect your views and earnings as they value quality over quantity. Posting once a week at a minimum is simply my personal advice having studied algorithms across multiple platforms.
1. Start a Medium Account
There are currently 3 types of Medium accounts:
- Free – You can start a free Medium account, sign up for the Partner Program, and earn money on your stories. However, I don’t recommend a free account because it doesn’t allow you to read unlimited stories, which means you’d be missing out on the opportunity to engage with other writers as well as read helpful how-to articles on Medium.
- Member – A Medium membership costs only $5 a month and allows you to write stories as well as read unlimited stories from other writers. Currently, writers only get paid when a paying Medium member reads their story. As a writer, it will benefit you to become a paying member because it allows you to engage in read-for-reads. That means that if you become a Medium member and start reading my stories, you will be paying me because writers get paid based on reads. In return, I will see your claps and comments and show appreciation by checking out your stories too. (I try to return this favor as often as possible, but it isn’t always possible for me to read everyone’s work! However, if you comment on one of my stories that you read this post on my website, I will love you forever and definitely return the reads!)
- Friend of Medium – The Friend of Medium membership is brand new, so I can’t give a lot of details about it, as I’m still learning about it myself. The Friend of Medium membership costs more than a regular membership, so I wouldn’t recommend it to new Medium members, and I’m not sure if it is available to new members anyway. One cool feature is this: Friends of Medium members pay YOU more when they read your work. I am a Friend of Medium, so if I read your work, you will get paid more than you would from a regular member reading your work!
2. Sign Up for the Partner Program to Earn Money on Medium
After starting your account and selecting your membership level, you need to sign up for the Partner Program to earn money.
When I started my Medium account, you had to have 100 followers before you could be eligible to make money through the Partner Program. Lucky for you, that has changed recently! Now, you are immediately eligible to sign up for the Partner Program after creating an account.
Click here to learn how to enroll in the Partner Program.
3. Complete the About Me and Profile Sections
It’s important to create your “about me” and profile information sections before publishing your first article. Don’t overthink it and don’t spend too much time on it. Check out other people’s “about me” and profiles to see how they word things. See mine here and in the image below. On the left is my “about me” section. On the right is my profile information.
4. Install Grammarly for Free
Install Grammarly for free on your laptop or computer before writing your first article! It will save you a tremendous amount of time. Grammarly provides suggestions for spelling, wording, punctuation, and proper grammar as you type!
I know I said not to use AI, but Grammarly doesn’t count. It’s not writing the entire article for you, it’s simply helping you polish your original work. Most publications on Medium prefer that you use Grammarly!
Click here to install Grammarly for free!
5. Start Writing on Medium!
Now you’re ready to start writing on Medium!
Enjoy the freedom of writing whatever you want: poetry, fiction, personal essays, opinion pieces, tech articles, and more!
To my knowledge, the only things that aren’t allowed are malicious articles that involve hate speech, fake news, and affiliate marketing. OK, technically affiliate marketing is allowed. However, I don’t recommend it, because those types of articles don’t do well on Medium. People don’t go to Medium to buy things. They go there to read.
Read about Medium’s community guidelines here.
How to Format Your Article
Don’t get creative with article formatting! If you want to get boosted and earn good money, follow these formatting guidelines:
- Kicker
- Title
- Subtitle
- Featured Image
- Story (with more images throughout the reading)
How to Create a Kicker, Title, and Subtitle on a Medium Story
Kicker
A kicker goes above the title of your story. Kickers aren’t necessary for all publications on Medium, but some publications do require them. Kickers are usually about 3 words that tell the reader what the story is about.
In the image below, I have chosen my kicker to be Life | Personal | This Happened to Me. Use this formatting for your kicker and type it into the top line of your story. Then type your title below that, and type your subtitle below that. All of the lines will be in the same font initially. We will come back to the kicker! See images below!
Title
Highlight the title in the middle line and click on the big “T” as seen in the picture below. This will give you your title in a bigger font.
Make Your Kicker Bigger
After you’ve highlighted your title and made it large as seen in the picture below, highlight the kicker in the upper line and click on the little “T” this time. This will give you your kicker as seen below.
Subtitle
Finally, highlight the subtitle on the bottom line and choose the little “T” again. This will give you your subtitle as seen in the image below!
If you are confused by any of this, don’t worry. Just play around with it and you will figure it out. It’s easy!
Images
How to Add Images to a Medium Story
See how to add images in the pictures below! (If using your own images, make sure they are at least 1200 pixels wide!)
Should I Use Stock Images or My Own Images?
You’ll see that stock images are an option for Medium articles and they are very convenient. Feel free to use the stock images directly provided by Medium via Unsplash. You may also use stock images from other sites that offer royalty-free images. However, I’ve had editors change my stock images from Pexels to Unsplash images without warning me before publishing, so I stick to Unsplash images on Medium these days.
It’s better to use original images whenever possible, because stock images get passed around like joints at a Phish concert. The internet loves fresh content and so do Medium readers.
Citing Images on Medium
Citing Stock Images
Stock images provided on Unsplash are cited for you automatically! It’s so convenient!
If you are sourcing stock images from another website, cite them in the same format that Medium automatically does for Unsplash images.
Citing Your Own Images
To cite your own image, upload the photo and then click below it to type in the space provided.
If you took the photo yourself, cite it as “Photo by Author.”
If someone else took the image like a friend, family member, or photographer cite the image as “Photo by Sandra,” or whatever the name of the photographer is. In addition, you need permission from that person to use the image on Medium. It’s rare for editors to ask if you got permission from the photographer, but if they do ask, you want to be able to say with confidence that you have permission to use the image.
***If providing your own images, make sure they are at least 1200 pixels wide!
Alt Text
Alt text describes images for readers who are listening to the story rather than reading it. Alt text is helpful for readers with visual impairments, and all editors require it! In addition, proper alt text can improve your chances of ranking on Google search through search engine optimization, aka SEO.
Don’t worry. Adding Alt text is simple. See visual instructions below.
Paragraph Formatting on Medium
You need proper paragraph length to create white-space page breaks that create what is called “reader momentum.” This is a technique I use in my blog and on Medium as well.
See? I just did it. Notice how the above paragraph is only 2 sentences long? Short paragraphs may seem like a strange concept, but when explained it makes a lot of sense.
Most readers these days consume information from their phones. Phone screens are much smaller than computer screens. A short paragraph on your laptop may translate to a long paragraph on a cell phone screen. When readers see a large chunk of text, their eyes get tired, and they are less likely to read the story. If no one reads your story, you don’t get paid!
However, when you break up paragraphs, it plays a mental trick on the reader. Short paragraphs and white space make the reader feel as though they are reading less than they are! Cool huh?
There is no set rule about how many sentences should be in a paragraph. My paragraphs typically range between 2 to 5 sentences, which seems to work well for me and my readers.
How Long Should My Medium Stories Be?
How long your Medium stories, poems, and essays should be on Medium will vary based on the publications you plan to submit to. However, most publications on Medium prefer stories between 3 and 11 minutes long. (Medium stories are measured by read time rather than word count.) You will see the read time of your stories displayed in your “stories section,” as seen in the image below.
*Please note that these are my unfinished drafts! That’s why they are so short!
How to Publish a Story on Medium
There are 2 ways to publish a story on Medium. You can either self-publish or choose a Medium publication to submit your work to.
How to Self-Publish
I have only self-published one or two articles. I don’t recommend it. It’s harder to get visibility when self-publishing unless you already have a ton of followers. On the upside, when you self-publish, you have full control over the finished piece, meaning you don’t have to deal with pesky editors!
To self-publish, simply click on the “Publish” button at the top of your story. See the image below.
How to Add Your Story to a Publication
If you want to add your story to a publication, you need to get accepted to write for them first. Some publications are easier to get accepted to than others. Here are some simple steps to follow:
- Find the publication you want to write for. Make sure that the story you plan to submit fits their style.
- Type in Medium search or Google search, “That publication submission guidelines.” You should find an article that tells you everything you need to know to become a writer for that publication.
- Once accepted, click on the 3 dots at the top of the screen. This will provide you with a drop-down menu. See picture below.
- Select “add to publication.”
- Select the publication you want to submit to.
- Add 5 related tags to your story. (Check back for future posts on the most popular story tags!)
- Submit your work! An editor will either publish your work or they will reach out to you with suggested edits.
How Much Money I've Made Writing on Medium
I have been a Medium member since April of this year. For the first few months I didn’t earn a cent writing on Medium, partly because back then, you had to have 100 followers to join the Partner Program and earn money. Another reason I didn’t earn money in the first few months is that it takes time to build a following and get seen.
I started earning a little bit of money once I was eligible to join the Partner Program. In fact, I earned enough to pay for my fifty-dollar yearly subscription soon after joining the Partner Program!
However, the real money didn’t come until several of my stories got boosted. “Boosted” means going viral! Your story gets boosted when an official Boost Nominator sees your work and nominates it for a boost to the Medium staff. If the staff likes it, they boost it and you EARN FAT CASH!!!
Check out my earnings below and check back for future posts giving tips on how you can get your stories boosted too! I have many tips to share! Like Pinhead of Hellraiser says, “I have such sights to show you!”
Thanks for Reading!
Thanks for reading! Check back for more Medium writing tips in future posts!
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