How to Make Money Writing on Medium
If you really want to be a writer, then you HAVE to have a Medium account
Over the years, a lot of people have asked me how to make money writing. The truth is, I’m happy to tell people!
There have been times when I’ve sat down with friends for hours. I painstakingly explained to them, step-by-step, EXACTLY what they have to do in order to succeed.
And you know what happened?
They completely ignored me and didn’t put any of my tried-and-tested strategies into action.
Yeah, ha ha, hilarious.
The result of this I no longer talk about how to make money writing on Medium with people until they’ve signed up to the platform through my referral link. Once you’ve done that, I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have.
Like many platforms, Medium is behind a paywall (although you can get a certain number of free stories per month). As I write this, I believe the membership cost is $50 a year or $5 a month.
Here’s why I think you should join:
You can make money
The quality of work is higher than other social media platforms
Membership gives you access to all the articles
There are some pretty cool people on Medium
The paywall means there are fewer complete jerks
I discovered Medium a few years back and it made me regret all the years I wasted on Facebook. With AI writing programs like ChatGPT in the news, everybody’s freaking out about robots. The fact is, other social media platforms have been dripping with robots for probably close to a decade. The only difference between now and then is that today robots are writing whole articles instead of just snitty comments.
I hate to break it to you, but you’ve been interacting with bots for a lot longer than you know. Medium is one of the few platforms actively trying to quash the AI takeover (did you see The Terminator… just do what I say if you want to live okay?)
Doing a referral membership doesn’t add anything to your membership cost. All it does is send approximately half of whatever you’re paying to help support me. That way, I can give you a better chance at success. See? It’s a win-win.
If you want to be a jerk and just sign up on your own without directing those funds to help anyone, you’re totally allowed to do that. Heck, I’ll even keep writing my articles about how to succeed.
But don’t waste my time asking me questions. To be honest, I’ve had it up to here with people who demand you do favors for them, but who won’t even lift a finger to do a favor for you even when it costs them nothing at all!
End rant.
Don’t get me wrong, you don’t have to sign up for Medium to make money. As it stands right now, all you have to do is sign up for their Partner Program. A few years back, you could join the partner program as soon as you signed up. Today, you need to publish a few stories and get 100 followers.
This represents another reason why you should do what I’m telling you TODAY instead of waiting. When I sat down with my friend a few years back, the 100 follower requirement wasn’t in place. Now it is. If he’d done what I told him to do when I told him to do it, he’d be making money right now.
He’d probably be making a LOT of money because he’s a very good writer.
Don’t be like that guy. If you are that guy, don’t be yourself. Here’s my referral link again.
Once you sign up for Medium, here’s what I want you to do:
Write a story
Learn how to get a draft link
Send the draft link to me so I can leave you some notes
I can also help you hit your 100 follower count. Depending on the effort you put in, that shouldn’t take very long (maybe a month or two maximum).
Actually, here’s how to find the draft link:
You hit the “…” and “Share draft link” is the second item on the list. When you send me the draft link, I can tell you what to improve to actually make money (with direct notes on your draft). I’ll only tell you once though, and you have to do what I say because I don’t like it when people waste my time.
I’ve been on Medium for a few years now, and I’m actually in a position where I can nominate certain stories for further distribution. So you need to sign up… NOW!
There are many people I’ve known throughout the years who I KNOW have fantastic stories to tell.
Look, I’m not promising you fame and fortune and a bunch of BS. However, if you do what I tell you to do, I believe you’ll give yourself the best chance of having your work be seen at the lowest cost to you.
Even if your ambitions are to publish or self-publish a book, getting established on Medium is, as far as I’m concerned, the BEST place for writers to gather a following.
There are even book review publications within Medium. If you think getting book reviews is easy then you’ve never published a book.
$50 a year is completely reasonable. In fact, I should write Medium right now and tell them to make it $100 a year. So you better sign up via my referral link before I do that.
So, to summarize, if you’re interested in learning how to make money on Medium. Here’s what you have to do:
Follow me on Substack
Sign up to Medium via my referral link
Write a story and send me a draft link
I plan on using at least one post a week on Substack to answer questions about Medium. In my early days on Medium, I’d do a monthly post about what I’d learned. However, I’ve discovered it makes a lot more sense to write about Medium on other platforms so you can draw in more readers.
Go ahead and get started. Don’t hesitate to ask me questions. I’ll answer them with posts. That way even if you don’t listen to me, it’s not a waste of my time!
Get writing people!