How To Become A Top Earner On Medium
By: Jazz Parks
Tags: Writing, Entrepreneurship, Startup, Finance, Inspiration

I’ve been writing pretty consistently on Medium (around 3,000 words per day) for the past few months, with stories hosted in over a dozen publications.

Over time I’m beginning to learn what it takes to make a decent income on Medium, and I want to share what I’ve learned so far.

Some writers earn an incredible amount of money on this platform.

In April 2020, one writer brought in over $28,000 in a single month! Even with jaw-dropping statistics like that, it’s important to understand that less than 6% of writers on Medium have earned more than $100 in a single month.

What Are You Expecting To Get Out Of Medium?

In all honesty, I don’t believe there’s a huge difference between making $100 and $1,000 on Medium. The only thing that matters is your level of commitment and time spent on the platform, so ask yourself what you expect to get from Medium?

A livable side-income?

Professional writer status?

Or maybe you’re here to write and connect with other like-minded individuals?

In the end, all of the above’s possible if you commit to making it happen.

In my first month, I made a measly $6, yet I made 3x that the following month and 10x the month after that. Years from now, I’ll make 1000x that.

Patience, consistency, and a commitment to improving as a writer — these are the qualities of Medium’s top earners. But what can you do right now to start making a decent income and build authority on the platform?

Build A Following

The most profitable writers on Medium have large followings, which means consistent views — it only makes sense. Yet, to build a following of that caliber takes time, which is why your sole focus, in the beginning, should be to pitch to big publications.

Over 90% of my income on Medium comes from stories that have been hosted by some major publications. In fact, few of my articles have made over $20, yet all of them were hosted with medium-to-large-sized publications.

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The two examples above represent stories that have been published with large publications. Not only have these stories brought in a decent payout, but they also helped me gain an extra hundred followers within a matter of days once published.

Most of my engaged readers found my work on a publication that they followed already, so exposing your work to various publications is key to building a diverse and engaged audience.

Focus On Writing Engaging Content

Besides submitting to large publications, writing engaging content should be the key focus for any aspiring writer on Medium. Yet, unless you’re some (Hemingway or Shakespeare), nobody expects you to write top-notch content every time. However, there are a few things you can do to ensure that the work you do put out there gets — at least to some level of degree — engagement from your readers.

Write 2–3 Articles A Day, But Don’t Post Them All

As I said, unless you were born with some unnatural god-given writing ability, we don’t expect you to produce top quality content every time. Still, you can help ensure that (most) of your content that hits Medium’s paywall provides ample levels of engagement.

I write 2–3 articles a day, but I rarely publish more than once a day. I only write as much as I do to improve my writing abilities.

After writing my articles for the day, I’ll pick the best one and edit it for an hour or two before submitting it to a publication of my choice. I spent a few days editing my best-performing articles. In a way, editing can be just as (if not more) important than the writing itself.

Use Grammarly

I contribute a large portion of my success on Medium to Grammarly, a service used to check — and correct (if necessary) — your grammar. I can’t even begin to express the importance of using Grammarly. In the beginning, it showed me exactly why I needed it.

My first month’s report using Grammarly.

This month’s report using Grammarly.

As you can see, not only did my grammar improve (drastically), but my overall writing production improved as well.

Using Grammarly encouraged me to write more by sending me weekly updates, shedding light on my improvements, and encouraging me to write more.

So unless you happen to have a master's in grammar tucked under your belt, I recommend you start using Grammarly.

Give Your Headlines A Boost

I had no idea how important a quality headline was when I first started on Medium. Then, I started to see it everywhere. Every successful writer on Medium will tell you the importance of a quality headline.

Not too long ago, click-bait seemed to be the key to a successful headline. Now, however, Medium has made changes, discouraging all kinds of click-baited headlines.

So instead of click-bait, focus on writing headlines that intrigue the reader and pique their interest. How To Achieve Results Using This One Weird Trick suddenly becomes 8 Effective Tips To Increase Productivity And Achieve Your Goals.

Give the reader a glimpse of what to expect before reading your story. Utilize the subtitle to expand on your headline if necessary.

Generally speaking, your second headline will always be better than the first. So before submitting your story, ask yourself, could it be better?

Try using Coschedule. Before you publish your next story, copy the headline and place it into Coschedule’s headline analyzer.

Coschedule does a brilliant job at breaking down your headline, providing a score of 1 to 100. They monitor your use of common, uncommon, powerful, and emotional words to draw the reader in.

As a rule of thumb, I generally won’t publish a story unless I score above a 70.

Ever get a full 100 score on Coschedule? Let me know in the comments!

Engage With Other Writers

My most engaged readers happen to be the people who I follow and engage with as well.

To grow an engaged audience, focus on reading and mingling with other active writers on Medium. In the beginning, those first few followers will be the difference between making it or breaking it as a top earner on Medium.

Engage with others, and in return, they’ll provide feedback on your work, share your stories, overall contributing towards your success as a professional writer.