Writers Who Aren’t on Medium Are Losing Money

The platform is one of the best ways to develop an audience and generate a side income

I hope that I’m not becoming a grumpy old man, but I think that’s happening. At this point in my life, I’ve had enough experience with people who refuse to do what I tell them to do. I don’t need any more.

Now, there are people out there who have had a lot more success than I ever will. I am not denying that. But it gets annoying to have argument after argument with a guy sitting in a trash dumpster wearing a pair of soiled underwear as a hat.

“Walter... you don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“Look around dude, at least I’m wearing a shirt!”

The worst part is that when people ask you for advice, then fail to follow your advice, then FAIL AT LIFE, they blame YOU.

Like, if you’re making chocolate chip cookies and you decide you can substitute granulated sugar for brown sugar... the cookies are going to SUCK!

“Walter, why do my cookies suck? I did what you told me to do!”

“NO YOU DIDN’T! YOU DIDN’T THOUGH!”

“I think you should have to reimburse me for the cost of the ingredients.”

“ARGHHHHHH!”

But look, there’s still time to right the ship. Just get it through your mind that you have to do everything I say to the letter. Now, go to your home office, get out your checkbook. In the “Pay to the order of” section write W-A-L...

Just kidding.

But seriously, let me give you some useful free advice.

Change your expectations

Why is it that so many people who ask me for advice turn around and dictate the advice they think I should give them? Case in point, I once had this guy try to determine his pay rate as a freelance writer based on his education.

“Well, I have such and such a degree, and twenty years of experience in my field, so when I write a 1,000 word article, I should be paid $900.”

I almost didn’t know how to respond to that. It’s basically a perfect representation of how writing for a living DOESN’T work.

As a writer, you just have to accept that a lot of what you write is going to make you ZERO dollars. That’s just the way it is. Really, this is the reason why most people aren’t cut out to be writers. As far as work hours go, it’s 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and you make ZERO dollars for all the effort you put in.

Now, if the hopelessness of that doesn’t deter you, you might just have what it takes to succeed in the field (the thin line between genius and insanity and all that...).

Look, I want to reassure you that you CAN make money writing, but it’s like starting any other form of business. You’re going to be losing money for the first few months, so you’ll have to look for other forms of revenue.

Here’s my first few months on medium:

Here are my last few months:

My earnings are pretty consistent. Some writers manage to get huge hits on Medium where they get an article that makes $5,000. The most I’ve ever been paid for a single article on Medium is probably this one (I’ve had a couple in this range):

Part of the reason this one made so much is because it’s from a few years ago. It’s had time to sit there accumulating reads (though most of the time they all come in the first month or so).

At this point, I’ve written more than 1,000 articles on Medium. On any given month, I try to write 30 new articles. If these articles earn me $10 each in the first few days, I’ll make $300 from that, and give or take $700 from the archive. I’m fine with that, and I’m hopeful that my numbers will continue to grow.

Writers have to write

The thing is, I know so many people who identify as writers who never write or publish anything. The simple fact is that if you’re going to succeed as a writer you have to dedicate some time to actually doing it.

It’s really not that hard to write something every day. Also, it doesn’t even have to be great. In my experience, writers are a bad judge of what is great anyway. Put something out there and let the readers decide (do you think I consider my top earning article on Medium to be the “best” thing I’ve published there?...I don’t).

Bad writing isn’t going to hurt you. Bad writing just goes away. Half the time, good writing just goes away (I mean... within limits, don’t go publishing your hate manifesto).

Start with reviews. Review everything you interact with. Review movies, review books. Reviews are good because celebrity names always turn up in search results. Find things out there to guide your thoughts and then share your thoughts.

One guy who started Medium around the same time I did does nothing but reviews on electronic products (things like ear buds... whatever those are). Anyway, he’s got 100,000 followers on his YouTube channel now. He said just the expenses are over 22K a year.

Silly me, I keep writing about human rights and social injustice. No money there!

Just get on the platform

One irritating thing is how slothful writers are about joining Medium. There are so many writers I know who are wasting their time on Facebook, or other social media platforms. They’ll write long-winded comments that nobody reads, and I’ll say, “Buddy, if you had put that on Medium, you’d have probably actually gotten a comment AND you’d have been paid a buck.”

Then they snort and go, “Just a buck?”

And I say, “That’s more than your last novel earned.”

Then they block me.

It doesn’t have to be like this. I’m not making any absurd promises. You have to make publishing like brushing your teeth, it’s just something you do every day. If you publish every day on medium, you’ll make less than a dollar in your first month. But keep doing it and good things will happen.

What I really don’t get is all these writers who are currently making nothing who refuse to get on Medium and say things like, “Well, making a dollar isn’t enough, tell me how to get straight to $1,000!”

It makes me want to reach through computer screens and slap people across the face. Don’t make me come over there. If you’re ready to start making money on Medium, sign up with my referral link and publish something.

If you have questions, put them in the comments and I’ll address them in my next email.