This is The Easiest Way To Make $1,000 Per Month on Medium
Without being a "writing bro" who writes every day
I earned $1250 through Medium in July.
In August, I earned $923.
Those numbers aren't going to pay the bills, but they're respectable when you consider that I only wrote two stories over that time. Making $2,173 for three hours of work is a good return.
April was the last month in which I wrote at least four stories. Can you guess what Medium paid me in April?
$3,487 dollars.
The question is, why is Medium paying me so much for so little?
It all comes down to views, and views are dictated by distribution. Yes, I still write stories that bomb and only earn a few bucks. They aren't boosted, and after the first few days, the algorithm buries them, and no one ever sees them again.
You have to write stories that Medium can boost. That might mean writing about things you don't want to write about. I don't love writing personal stories because I'm uncomfortable sharing details of my life. However, Medium rewards those stories when you combine them with a positive and uplifting lesson. They also tend to resonate with readers, and that motivates me to write them.
Because of those personal stories, eight of them have now been boosted, and one that wasn't boosted went viral.
Here's the secret to making $1,000 monthly on Medium:
Those old stories boosted stories make up 90% of my monthly income. The one story I've written each of the last two months didn't make more than 10% of my total earnings. It's like being paid royalties.
Medium considers your boosted content and viral stories evergreen. That means they will distribute those articles far beyond the normal two—to three-day lifecycle of the average story.
For example, a story I wrote in March earned me $507 dollars this August.
The easiest way to make reliable money on Medium is to build a library of boosted stories. I have eight now and reliably make $900-$1,200 a month, even if I don't write more than one story.
What I'm reading this week
I had open heart surgery two weeks ago, so my mornings now start with 60-90 minutes of tech-free walks in nature. This might be an even better habit than reading from a mental health perspective. The walks have cut into my reading time, but I have been reading passages of "Meditations" by the stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius.
Question for the week
Inspired by Marcus Aurelius, "Do I need to have an opinion about this?" Free up a surprising amount of mental real estate by allowing yourself to not have an opinion on most things.
Talk soon,
Josh