6 Strategies to Follow if You’re on Medium for the Money
By: Smillew Rahcuef
Tags: Writers On Writing, Writing Tips, Writer, Writers On Medium, Writing

6 Strategies to Follow if You’re on Medium for the Money

That’s me taking notes for my next articles by Samson Katt from Pexels

If Medium is (one of) your side hustle, then you need to treat it accordingly, like work. That doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. On the contrary, it’s recommended. But it means “Medium — the side hustle,” like any other job, has rules to follow and winning strategies.

Michael Page, one of the world’s best-known recruitment agency, gives these 6 top tips on how to succeed at work. To make money on Medium and with your writings in general, they’re excellent strategies to follow.

I won’t take your time with the first one, #1 never stop learning. If you’re reading this article (and others like it), you already have the right mindset.

#2 Keep asking questions

Suzanne Fritelli is a co-founder of a real-estate startup (Buildrz). In this podcast, she mentioned several of the key learnings from her experience so far. This one rang particularly true to me:

“Nobody will answer questions you don’t ask.”

On Medium, if you don’t ask them:

Your close (non-writing) friends won’t share their ideas about good articles,

publications’ editors won’t tell you how to improve your articles,

and other writers won’t review any of your drafts.

Concerning this last point, a good place to go is Illumination’s slack community.

Questions aren’t only for others. We should ask questions to ourselves as well. It’s a practice I find hard to keep up with, but also very beneficial. In general, it helps to take a different perspective and to be more self-aware. In Medium context, I regularly come back to the following question, “why am I writing?”

#3 Talk to your Boss

Bosses are usually there to give feedback and guidelines. But if it’s a freelance type of work, then who’s the boss?

I tend to think that my Boss is:

my partner, when it comes to choosing a place for holidays and a lot of other things,

the person paying my salary in all other situations.

In Medium’s case, we’ve got many Bosses; the more, the better even, because readers are our Bosses.

To succeed on the platform, you need to interact with the readers. Feedback comes in the form of reading time, claps, and comments.

Articles shouldn’t be about ourselves; that’s what our journals are for. They are proven to be good practice for our mental health. But not so good when it comes to getting an additional revenue stream from Medium. We write good articles when we think of the readers all along.

Our articles should be about our Bosses. Our pieces should cater to the readers’ needs and spark their interest. Editors keep on repeating this question: “what’s in it for the readers?”

Talk to the readers, sing to them even! Your writings should be music to their ears. Words and sentences should enchant the readers; no less than the sirens’ songs enchanted Odysseus.

#4 Make friends in the office

Rev. Ed Bacon wrote on oprah.com that true friends are the people rooting for us. He even has a special name for our best supporting-friends; he calls them “the balcony people.” In his words, “the balcony people are those who are consistently cheering us on.”

They are our private cheerleader team! No matter what we try our skills at, they’ll be there to say: “go for it.” No matter how small our successes, they’ll be there to celebrate with us. They’re the kind of friends that will get over-excited when you tell them one of your articles has been accepted by The Ascent.

On Medium, maybe even more than in other settings, we need balcony people to shout-out our skills and productions. The following is a dirty little secret, but I prefer to call it marketing.

When readers browse articles on any publication, they’re attracted by titles and pictures, of course. But they also pay attention to claps and comments. Generally, the presence of claps and comments is a good sign of an article’s interestingness. Having a few “balcony people” on the platform that help you kick-start your articles’ path to glory can be a huge plus.

#5 Have a healthy work-life balance

Jack Nicholson (in the movie Shining) warned us that “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” And we know how it ended in the worst writer’s burnout in history.

That’s important to remember for people with a side hustle on top of their 9 to 5. Especially that when it comes to writing, a healthy work-life balance is improving our creativity levels. Indeed, classical activities outside of work are conducive to generating ideas.

Having fun with family and friends not only boosts our oxytocin levels, but it’s also a powerful idea generator. For example, I estimate one-third of my topics to come from discussions I had with my partner and close friends.

Unlike Tim Denning, I don’t have friends telling me to “write an article that is the opposite of billionaire worshipping porn,” but they still have some good ideas to share!

Going out for a walk is not only fighting osteoporosis, it’s also scientifically proven to be good for creativity. This Stanford study found that ”the creative output increased by an average of 60 percent when the person was walking.”

#6 Have your own voice

That’s, in fact, very easy. Each of us naturally has its own voice.

The hard thing is to be brave enough to make it heard outside the shower. (By the way, it’s one of the best places to look for your writing voice!)

It’s hard because writing is about putting ourselves out there. We uncover parts of our dark sides, we show ourselves, and share some of our secrets. It takes courage. And support. That’s another reason why we need the balcony people from point #4.

Having your voice isn’t necessarily about thinking differently. Although, at times, you will. It’s about showing up and making yourself visible. The more interesting your thoughts, the more others will listen to you and read your pieces.

This brings us back to point #1, never stop learning. Continuous improvement and practice are critical to maintaining a rich and melodious voice.