How Writers Can Make More Money With Every Medium Post

Let me share the simple format you can follow to maximize your returns

I’ve been working as a boost curator for Medium for the last month. In that time, I’ve been taking a more discerning look at the articles of my fellow Medium writers. Often, in order to get an article accepted for a boost, I have to make a number of editorial suggestions.

In general, I prefer to be in the role of cheerleader rather than taskmaster. However, I want to see my fellow writers succeed.

Now, to be clear, your articles can still be profitable even without a boost. My biggest earner from the last two months was not boosted. Incidentally, if you have questions about the boost program, please leave them in the comments and I’ll address them in my newsletter for Monday.

In order to maximize your success, you have to strike a balance between conforming to the requirements of the boost program, and creating an article that can grab attention on its own. The boost program doesn’t like “clickbait,” but, let’s face it, clickbait works. The ideal scenario is to create a clickbait maximized article that also receives the benefit of the boost.

That’s the sweet spot you’re aiming for. Read on to find out how to get there.

The basic format

Let me lay out the format with bullet points (readers like those anyway). This can be a checklist you can print out and hang from the corner of your monitor:

• Good title (run it through a headline analyzer)

• Title is in title Case and “Big T” format

• Subtitle is in sentence case and “Little T” format (don’t put a period at the end)

• Quality image (cite it... don’t leave a naked image or your article is TOAST!)

• As a general rule, profanities are more likely to hurt than help

• Paragraphs should be about 2.5 lines

• 3-4 paragraphs per segment

• Segments should be separated with a header

Before I started writing on Medium, I spent a few years as a content writer. It paid okay, but the big benefit was that the editors really hammered me about what it meant to “write for the internet.”

You HAVE to consider what your article is going to look like as people scroll through it on their phone because... most of your readers are going to be scrolling through it on their phone.

Leave lots of white space

White space makes readers feel like they’re accomplishing something as they scroll through your article (this suggestion has been around for decades).

If they are confronted with a big, thick, roadblock of solid text, they think, “To heck with that!” Then they go and click on an article about the Kardashians.

Having said all that, if you read my articles you’ll see I violate my own rules all the time. But I have the benefit of being semi-established. The people on my email list are likely to read my work even if it’s not “maximized” for the internet.

Those of you who follow me will see me change it up from time to time. For example, if I submit something to a new publication that article will be more in line with the “max” format. The reason is that I’m trying to capture new readers.

Citations

The other thing you have to do if you’re going to maximize your articles is provide citations for bold statements.

For example, a friend of mine recently wrote an article in which he said “the majority of child predators are members of the religious community.”

See how that looks all by itself? It looks unsupported. Some readers will see that and become skeptical. That’s the first step towards driving your readers away.

So, write this instead: “The majority of child predators are members of the religious community.”

See? Just by having that one phrase underlined, it makes the sentence seem way more trustworthy.

You don’t realize it, but discerning readers are trained to notice bold statements. You better back them up with a source. It has to be a good source too.

Not every reader is going to click on the source link, but you don’t want to alienate the ones that do. Those are your BEST readers. The ones who click on the links you provide are the ones who are looking for a reliable writer to follow, so you can’t fail them.

This might seem tricky at first, but all you have to recognize is that you’re already trained as a reader to notice the kind of phrases that need to be supported. All you have to do is learn to apply that recognition as a writer.

I used to use pull quotes more often, but from what I’ve seen, Medium seems to prefer that you support your own statement with a link. Just be sure you don’t plagiarize.

One last thing, you don’t have to hyperlink the whole sentence. It looks neater if you just hyperlink one or two words.

Give readers a clean, neat, and well-organized article

Think of your articles like a high school assignment. If you’ve got coffee stains and bits of gum on the paper, it’s not getting a good grade. If you turn in something neat and tidy, the writing doesn’t even have to be any good.

Sad but true.

I see writers put a reference list at the bottom of their articles. That’s not a terrible idea, but if you’re leaving (1.) or [*] at the end of your sentences, it disrupts the aesthetic. Leave the references, but use hyperlinks.

The other sad thing is that you should spend as much time on the title as you spend on the rest of the article. Use that headline analyzer tool I linked above.

In fact, I should do a whole article on headlines. Maybe that’s what I’ll do for Monday, assuming you don’t flood me with questions.

Cheers, and happy writing!