What is Medium?
- a free blogging platform
- YouTube for writers
- no need to worry about SEO
- high traffic days: Tues, Weds, Thurs
How do you get paid?
- join the Medium Partner Program to get more exposure and get paid thru the royalty scheme
- you need 100 followers (click here see how to do it)
- pulldown menu from your profile pic
- referral program
- include a link in your article
- you get $2.17 every month as long as they stay on subscription
How to get started
Setting up a profile (3:05)
- people respond better to human name
- bio: I am a human that write about XYZ (no need to overcomplicate it)
- photo: show that you are a human
- about: make it simple
First article (5:15)
- I am a human
- I am new here
- These are the topics I write about
- you can edit or delete later
How to format an article (6:55)
- you can directly get stock image from parter “unsplash” (7:20)
- add your subscriber link at the bottom to build your audience (8:25)
- can click a button to share on Twitter (8:50)
- add up to 5 tags (8:55)
How to get followers (10:20)
- search “new writer welcome” in search bar on top right corner > Publications > Submission rules > Apply to become a writer
- you will get accepted in 2 days
- (11:45) once you get accepted as a writer, you can submit to publications
Why Medium?
- you don’t need a niche or SEO
- easy to use UI
- get more writing jobs:
- at the end of your article, write something like: hey, want to have this kind of awesome content for your own website? guess what, I am a freelance writer. hire me. here is my email
Tip
- at the end of your article, write something like this:
- hey, want to have this kind of awesome content for your own website? guess what, I am a freelance writer. hire me. here is my email
Tips
Titles
- use weird numbers
- e.g. 7 tips, $16,765
- use “I” instead of “you”
- keep it short
Others
- Include a link to your website to collect email addresses so you can send them offers
- whichever article does well, repurpose the content and post on other platforms to make money
Tips after writing 15 articles
- your article does not need to be original to Medium
- longer articles are not better – his best performing piece is a 3-minute read
- (4:25) join the partner program to get more exposure
- publications may tweet about your articles
- get yourself approved as a writer
- delete rejection notes – other publications will see them
- be consistent and show up always, even if you keep getting rejected
- keep track of which articles you have submitted where so you don’t submit the same thing twice
- be patient – it could take up to 7 days to hear back from the publication
- if you don’t hear back after 7 days, remove the submission and try another publication
- formatting (8:40)
- title and image are extremely important
- read other articles and learn why they get so many views
- don’t over self promote in your articles
- publications will reject them
- Medium doesn’t like too many URLs in an article
How much did he make with 15 articles in 30 days? (10:30)
- $39.83
- he spent 2 hours to write one article
Was it worth it?
- Yes
- excellent exposure for his brand and courses
- fewer negative comments compared to Twitter)
- gained 75 followers
This is a professional journalist
- he made $350+ in his first month
- 45 minute to write one article = $7.75 per hour
- 2nd month
- writing fewer articles but made $23.27 per hour because of the accumulated pay from all articles
She published 3 times a week on Medium
- if you write every day you will burn out
- you make more money writing for clients
- 1,000 words = 6 minutes read
- publications takes good content even if they are 3-minute reads
- she has 4,000 followers and is making $200+ per week
Not a success story
- She made less than $1 in a week. But like everything else, it takes time and persistence to grow over time
- In her opinion, it should be easier to make money writing than making videos because it is less time consuming