The World's Common Tater

I have mentioned writing on Medium a few times. Someone said I should do a post about my experience on Medium, so here it is.

A while back another blogger in a Facebook group I am in suggested writing on Medium. I set up an account and imported a few of my posts from here over there and not much else. Then, someone said you can make some money on Medium if you join the Medium Partner Program and that you didn’t have to be a member to do so. So, I joined.

I still didn’t do much more than import some of my posts from here to Medium. I had one or two followers and made no money. I made 4 cents in August and 13 cents in September.

At that point, I did a few things that changed my Medium experience. I attended a webinar about writing and making money on Medium. I discovered I needed 100 followers to stay in the Partner Program. I signed up for the free month trial as a paying member of Medium. I started following people. They started following me.

I posted an article listing my 20 favorite books of all time. People read it. I made $9 in October. I made $46 in November. Almost all of that is from the book article. I made $33 in December. Still a good portion of it from the one article. I’ve had two articles that have earned almost all of the money I’ve made. I’m now struggling to make money on anything new that I write. I have two articles getting a lot of reads, but Medium only pays for reads from Medium members and all of the reads are external. So, no money.

Here are some things you should know if you are considering writing on Medium:

1. You don’t need to be a paying member to make money on Medium, but I’ve found it helps because interacting with others helps your stats.
2. It is easy to import writing from WordPress to Medium.
3. Don’t get fooled by early success. I had two early successful articles and thought that was a sign of things to come. It wasn’t,
4. Writing for small publications provides a small bump in numbers. but you have no control over when your articles are published. I have yet to submit anything to a bigger publication.
5. Most articles will at least make you a few cents so if you write regularly, you can at least make back your $5 membership fee.
6. You only get paid for reads by Medium members, so while my book article with 1000 reads made over $50 my Elvis article with 1000 reads has made basically nothing. I have no idea where people outside of Medium are finding it.
7. Being a top writer means nothing. I am a top writer in reading and books, but it does not lead to any sort of uptick in exposure or stats.
8. A lot of people on Medium write about Medium. If you read those early to learn, your “for you” feed will be filled with nothing else.
9. I still have no clue why people read certain articles more than others.
10. It is still nice to make a little money from writing.

You can see my Medium profile here.

If you decide to write on Medium and decide to become a member, please consider using my referral link here. I will get a referral fee from Medium if you use it.