What I Learned From My First $100 Month Writing On Medium
In my writing, I often advise people to celebrate the small wins, so today I am taking my own advice and celebrating a small but important milestone I recently achieved; earning $100 in one-month writing on Medium. Well, $128.30 to be exact. Not a huge amount of money and in fact, I felt a little embarrassed to even write a post celebrating $128, when I “am sure” there are tons of you reading this that would laugh at $128.
Then I saw a stat from the medium partnership program that really floored me. In August, only 9.3% of authors earned more than $100. This made me feel much more confident as I am by definition in the top 10% of authors in the partnership program.
Slow But Steady Growth
Writing on Medium, is not going to make you rich any time soon. In fact, it may not make you “rich” at all. If your primary goal is to make a quick buck, this is not the route for you.
If however, you are like me and have a hell of a lot of passion for a particular topic (for me it’s personal finance), have little skill in designing your own website and like the idea of making money based on reader engagement and not reader clicks then Medium is an amazing place to share your passion, tell your stories and earn a few bucks for your trouble.
As I mentioned, September was my first $100 plus month writing on Medium. Do to that I needed 7,253 views of my stories with 4,204 people reading all (or most?) of my stories and 244 unique people “Clapping” for my stories.
I’ve been very encouraged in the slow but steady growth in my presence on Medium. In the 5 months I’ve been writing on Medium my views have increased each month.
May: 1,340 views
June: 2,417 views
July: 3,304 views
August: 5,930 views
September: 7,253 views
A 440% increase in 5 months.
Some Stories Take Off
The Rule of 72
There is nothing quite as exciting as having your first story gain a little bit of traction. For me, that story was a very simple, brief overview of a concept in personal finance called “The Rule of 72”. Put simply, the Rule of 72 tells you how long it will take for your money to double. That is a very appealing concept for a lot of people so I am not surprised it was the first story to gain traction.
At the time I write this, “The Rule of 72” has had about 1,700 views and earned me $50. The majority of that came in the first week after I published the story, but I still see 5 or 6 views per day on this story.
Want to Retire in 10 Years? Here is What You Need to do
My most popular story to date is “Want to Retire in 10 Years? Here is What You Need to do”. That is (if I do say so myself) a very tasty title that I am sure would gain most people’s attention. Retire within 10 years? Sign me up . The story is an overview of the Financial Independence, Retire Early (F.I.R.E) concept. If you have not read this story yet, here is the link:
This story has had nearly 3,000 views and earned me about $60 on it’s own.
Some Stories Are Absolute Duds
As exciting as it is to have a story that has 3,000 views it certainly distorts your expectations. Having success on one story does not guarantee any success on your next story.
Want proof? The very next story I published after my 3,000 view success was a story called “How to Break Free From the Financial Debt Spiral”. I thought this was a quality story with really valuable information for people in debt. My brain was still buzzing with the success of the previous story. This was going to be a sure fire smash success. Except it wasn’t. This story has only 69 lifetime views!
The lesson? Embrace the randomness of the Algorithm and of life.
Writing More Frequently
The one variable in my control is to commit myself to writing more frequently. It’s the best way to quickly learn what I am most comfortable writing about and what Medium Members want me to write about. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different topics, in my opinion Medium is a place where many different types of stories can thrive.
Right now I am publishing stories about 5 times per week. Every story does not need to be 2,000 words. If I can convey an idea in 500 words or less, that’s great. No one wants another 500 words worth of filler. I’ve read a lot of posts saying that the Medium Algorithm rewards longer stories, but right now I am focusing on being as concise as possible.
Starting My Own Publication
Having my own publication might be my favorite aspect of Medium. As I mentioned, I am passionate about writing about Personal Finance, I am literally obsessed with the topic. So I found it very cool that in about 5 minutes I was able to set up what amount to my own website on personal finance called “Making of a Millionaire”.
As I mentioned before, I have very little coding ability. I’ve made my own websites in the past and frankly, they look like crap. You can pay for someone else to make you a beautiful website, but that costs money. With a publication you can have your own beautiful blog up and running in 10 minutes, for free! Not bad.
But the best feature about having your own publication is that you can attract other talented people who are passionate about your subject matter to write for your publication. On that note, I would like to take the oppurtunity to thank the following talented writers for contributing to the growth of “Making of a Millionaire
And most of all:
Tricia for not only contributing her first story recently but also for being my loving and supportive wife who makes any success possible for me.
Bottom Line
I am excited to be growing on the platform and finding a certain level of comfortability in my writing. I am excited to continue to collaborate with talented, passionate people and most of all I am excited to keep writing about a subject that I love and having the ability to make a few bucks while I do it.
