My 1500th Published Story - 10 Kickass Medium Writing and Monetization Tips
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My 1500th Published Story - 10 Kickass Medium Writing and Monetization Tips
To master the game of online writing and become a better writer.
OMG. I’m jumping out of my skin excited.
Recently, I published the 1500th story on my favorite writing platform Medium.
Here’s the proof:
When I crossed the 1,500-story-milestone I was doing my happy dance.
So while I’m writing these lines, from time to time, I’m looking out of the window, watching the seagulls flying in the air.
I’m listening to my favorite radio station and my fingers are flying over the keyboard.
I’m in the zone. I write like no one is watching.
But it hasn’t always been that way.
Let’s cut the fluff and dive right into the nitty-gritty…
Here Are My 10 Tips From Writing 1,500 Stories On Medium
1 — From Zero to $$$ With Medium’s Tipping Tool
At the beginning of 2022, I embarked on the Ko-fi tipping journey.
Key facts about Ko-Fi:
It’s free to use and charges a 0% transaction fee on donations.
PayPal is available.
Then, in July 2022, Medium introduced its new tipping feature.
Back then, I had received 19 Ko-fis for $5 each.
This was $95.
How much did I make after Medium launched its new tipping feature?
Because of the German tax system, I raised my coffee price from 5 to 10 dollars.
Fast forward to today, my tip jar is filled with $260.
Especially for people from non-Stripe countries such as India, Pakistan, or other countries that are not eligible.
They can set up a Ko-fi shop within seconds and earn money.
2 — Win New Referrals and Earn Passive Income
She’s a well-known writer on Medium.
If I say: cat mom, freelancer, YouTube star… ring, ring…
This makes the bell ring, am I right?
It’s Zulie Rane.
She’s one of the fastest-growing writers on Medium with now 87k followers… counting.
She’s down to earth, well-educated, smart, and knows how to write. I get why so many people admire her.
In addition, she has an unfair advantage. Early on, she started not only creating content for Medium but also for YouTube where she promotes writing on this platform.
Recently, she interviewed two spokespeople from Medium about the new Boost… and BANG… she got +63 (!) referrals in one month.
So in December 2022, she was at 259 referrals = $560.
See?
Her most powerful referral tool isn’t Medium.
It’s YouTube.
For us this means, it’s absolutely smart to promote Medium memberships outside of the platform.
That’s why I promote the Medium membership via Quora, Substack, and YouTube.
3 — Get People on Your Mailing List
You need to know that you build a rented audience on Medium.
That’s why you need to also build an owned audience.
You are allowed to include a call to action, or CTA, at the end of each Medium article.
Why not include a CTA and ask people to subscribe to your email list?
If people enjoy what you’re writing on Medium, they will also love what you write in your (more personal) newsletter.
4 — Create Your Own Ebook With Minimal Effort
If you write on Medium you can also create an eBook based on the stories you’ve already shared.
How?
Well, that’s super easy.
Simply repurpose stories that fit together in a Medium list, copy and paste those stories, and…
… fuel your eBook template with your amazing content.
Wait what? That sounds too easy…!
Well, I tried a lot and it took me a while to find out how easy it can be to create an eBook when using the graphic design tool Canva.
The free version provides a lot of super awesome cover images for books.
There’s something you have to keep in mind.
To make creating your eBook as easy as possible search for templates that provide not only a stunning cover but also several designed pages (with quizzes, welcome page, about… whatever you need) to create your eBook.
The cool thing: no graphic design knowledge is needed!
But there’s more…
It’s absolutely crazy.
I didn’t expect this to happen, but I made more than $200 net with a free ebook on Gumroad.
You might wonder:
“How’s that possible?”
On Gumroad, I offer an ebook for free
I surprised my followers and friends with The Medium Kickstarter eBook.
It’s a free resource for everyone who wants to kickstart or level up his writing on Medium.
Again… it’s FREE. It costs zero!
You might wonder:
“How can you earn money then?”
My example shows even if you offer a digital product for free on Gumroad you can make money.
People can name a fair price and pay some bucks for it!
From a marketing and business perspective, this is very clever.
All you have to keep in mind is that you have to pay a 10% fee since January 2023.
5 — Promote Your Book and Become a Verified Author
The other day I saw that a fellow Medium writer had the blue author badge next to her name.
Yeah!
Finally, one of my fellow writer friends got the badge.
Actually, there are a lot of writers who now have the blue badge on their profiles.
When I shared on YouTube a tutorial video on how to get the badge, several writers asked me how long it would take to get the badge.
“Around three weeks”, I told them. Well, in some cases it took much longer than three weeks.
But hey… isn’t it great to finally see this verified badge next to your profile and promote your book/s?
You’re an author and would like to show your book/s on your profile. Sure thing!
Just follow the simple steps shown in my free tutorial on my YouTube channel.
6 — Medium’s Gold Rush Is Over but You Still Can Make Money
If you see screenshots from Top Writers promoting their courses better think twice.
Almost always, their screenshots with mind-blowing earnings are from 2018, 2019, or 2020.
What about 2021, 2022, or 2023?
Well, the gold rush days are over.
Top Writer and entrepreneur Nicoles Cole shared that the absolute Top Writers, the cream of the crop, the 1% at the top of Medium, earn up to $10,000.
In the past, some writers were able to write one story, go viral and earn tens of thousands of dollars or even got a book deal.
These gold rush days are long gone and some Top Writers are comparing 2023 with 2014–2018.
Medium is no longer the platform it once was.
Of course, it’s not easy to leave those times behind. But times change like the tides.
However, there are writers who earn up to $10,000 per month on this platform. It’s still possible to earn a full-time income on Medium.
Frank Andrade (The PyCoach) for instance has mind-blowing stats:
What’s Frank’s secret?
Machine learning and AI are the top searched keywords on Google. People all around the world want to learn more about it. Frank takes advantage of this.
In addition, Frank is writing about web scraping, automation, and of course data science.
6 — Earn Money With Hidden Champions
Reader engagement is dependent on the topic you’re writing about.
Claps and comments can be a vanity metric.
Seeing higher reader engagement doesn’t equal actually getting paid more.
There are topics that I refer to as ‘hidden champions’.
If you want to make money, why not write about:
true crime
historical stories
historical fiction stories
personal, messy stories
erotica
7 — Learn How To Get Boosted
Medium’s biggest and most impactful Boost is here.
Tony Stubblebine shared that there are Medium writers experiencing up to 100k views.
“Our goal is that every Boosted story should get at least 500 extra views within the first week.”
Here’s a WOW-worthy example with 3,000 views Tony shared:
On February 21, 2023, Medium updated its Distribution Standards.
These standards are the playbook, every newbie needs to know about.
Why?
They provide guidance and direction.
The 5 criteria to get Boosted
Medium is listing 5 criteria in the form of questions to get the Boost.
Ask yourself…
1 — Is my story constructive?
2 — Is it original?
3 — Is there relevant experience?
4 — Is it well-crafted?
5 — Is it memorable?
8 — Medium Also Pays You Well for 150 Words
As a busy working mom, I embrace short form writing.
I often don’t have the time to write long form articles.
Short form writing gives me a nice dopamine kick when I really need it.
Plus, it’s definitely addictive.
Writers complain they only earn pennies with their long form stories or can’t be consistent
Hey guys, why not write short form?
It’s a wonderful tool to keep you in the habit of writing on a daily basis.
Plus, you can earn $$$ with 150 words.
Let me show you what’s possible:
Yeah! With 3.4K internal views, I received around $100. That’s insane. Isn’t it?
See!
Longer isn’t always better.
9 — Repurpose a Single Medium Story 10x
Let’s say you’ve created and published a long form story (3 minutes plus) on Medium.
If you just post the story and call it a day, as most people would, you’re not really squeezing all the juice out of the orange.
There’s still a lot of untapped potential in that one piece of content.
So here’s what you could do:
Record a video for YouTube
That way, the video is discoverable on the YouTube platform, so you have the potential to reach a lot of people who wouldn’t otherwise know about you.
Gradually tweet out the most impactful quotes.
Create quote graphics via Canva or Pablo and post them to Facebook.
Convert text to audio and release a podcast episode.
10 — Learn The Most Popular Topics and Top Writer Tags
One of the biggest mistakes I made at the beginning of my writing journey was not tagging correctly or not tagging at all.
By doing so, you’re missing a wonderful opportunity: to get seen, read, and rewarded for your writing.
You need to make yourself familiar with the 73 Top Writer eligible tags.
Medium doesn’t provide a list but I put one together for you.
Pick one or three tags and write about the topics you love on a regular basis to become a Top Writer in this category.
Why is it worth becoming a Top Writer?
With topic tags (=labels) you can…
optimize your story
gain more exposure
be seen and read
make your story get found on Medium
“Adding relevant tags to your post will help with its discoverability around the platform.” Medium
I earned Top Writer badges in more than 35 topics on Medium.
Here are some badges:
I was where you are right now 29 months ago!
I see you and I feel you.
So start combining tags that are eligible for Top Writer status with more specific ones!
🥳Surprise! This week I have a special surprise for you. Come and chat with me about Medium. AMA and I’ll answer your burning questions.🥳
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My 1500th Published Story - 10 Kickass Medium Writing and Monetization Tips
A ton of valuable information as always Kristina.
Even if one makes a truckload of money on Medium, it may not be advisable to rely on just a platform. But yes, definitely a great supplementary source of income for those who get paid by Medium. Good enough for some holiday funds.
You have set the standard for what "prolific" means. Congrats!