In a recent article, I talked about why I’m back to writing on Medium and why it might be a great opportunity for you too. Today, I wanna discuss how to make money on Medium, because there’s definitely more than one.
Medium is a trusted platform, one of the top sites online, the home of millions of readers monthly and some of the biggest and most authoritative publications. Their platform is easy to use, both for creators and for consumers, and it’s well-optimized. There are many benefits of being a writer on Medium and it’s a fantastic way to grow your brand and business, spread the word about your products, and even become your main source of income.
Here are some direct and indirect ways to monetize your content there.
How to Make Money on Medium
1. The Medium Partner Program
Medium has a built-in monetization system, and that makes it stand out from many other publishing platforms. It’s called the Medium Partner Program and it allows you to get paid for your content, based on the views, claps and engagement it gets. So write articles, get people to them (you can do that thanks to your marketing efforts or let Medium do it for you organically) and earn money for your writing.
To apply for it, you need to have a profile on Medium, to have published a story within the last 6 months, be located in an eligible country, and be at least 18 years old. You can find the link to join inside your dashboard when you click your profile picture, or just google Medium Partner Program and get directly to it.
Once you’re approved, you have to set up a Stripe account if you don’t have one already and provide some information. Then, you can go back to your existing stores and add a paywall.
That happens by editing the individual story. Go to the 3 dots, click ‘Manage paywall settings’ and click ‘Yes, make this story eligible’. From then on, any views on it will earn you money.
As for every new story you write, they are set to be eligible for the partner program.
You might be wondering how the earnings are calculated and what they are based on. As of the most recent changes, that includes engagement points (which is based on reading time, number of people who clapped, highlighted and replied to your story, and the number of new followers from that story). Then there’s a boost bonus, your earnings increase if the story is boosted, and the read ratio adjustment which is the percentage of people who read your story for 30 seconds or more on the given day.
There’s also the new follower bonus, and we’ll talk more about it in the next monetization method below.
As for the earning opportunities, and if you wanna hear some numbers, you can earn $25-$30 per 1000 views on the platform, but other writers claim they earn a few dollars for the same number of views. There are many factors involved, of course, and some sources say this is much lower.
I began seeing some cents coming in from just a few views on some stories and that happened in the first month of publishing my content on Medium.
From a quick research I did, I saw someone saying they earned over $6,000 from 1 million views on Medium.
Some of the top writers there make over $25K/month. But at the same time, the majority of people, over 90% in fact, earn less than $100/month.
Some articles can earn you a few cents or nothing, and others can go viral and make you hundreds of dollars on a monthly basis. You’ll have to spend some time on the platform, create and publish content and see what sticks, to know what works for you and your audience. Once you know how to make money on Medium, you can double down on that.
2. The Medium Referral Program
The next way to get paid on Medium till recently was by becoming an affiliate and bringing new paid members to the platform. Any time you do, you earn a commission. That can usually give results if you already have a following on other platforms, they trust you and they have something to gain by joining Medium, so they use your dedicated link for it.
But in literally a few days, they are removing it as it wasn’t working well and there was no point in continuing it. Instead, they are bringing in what they call a follower bonus, which as they say is a “A multiplier on top of the engagement points when the member reading your story currently follows you or the publication this story is published in.”
Also read: Referral Program Strategies: How to Boost Customer Experience and Drive Engagement
3. Digital products
The next best way to monetize your content on Medium is to sell your digital products just like you would on any other platforms.
That could be by mentioning them naturally in the text, adding a little promo section at the end of the article, or writing whole stories about them such as case studies, reviews, behind the scenes, etc.
In all these ways you’re marketing your products, spreading the word about them, and increasing the chances of making a sale.
4. Promote your services on Medium
You can do the same for any services you offer, such as coaching or freelancing. Show your expertise through the value of your Medium articles, and then tell people how they can work with you.
The call to action is key here, otherwise they won’t know how to get started or what you’re offering.
5. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is another way to make money on Medium. You can include affiliate links in your content as long as it makes sense, isn’t spammy and you disclose them.
You can also write affiliate reviews and optimize them well so they rank and attract readers. Some writers earn mainly from affiliate commissions on the platform, and earn a lot, and their income from the Medium Partner Program comes second.
Other ways to make money on Medium
There are other ways to get paid there too, indirect ones, such as:
Get traffic to your blog and earn ad revenue thanks to that. More traffic also means higher chances of working with brands on sponsored content. These 2 income streams can mean a lot for your business.
Promote your podcast or YouTube channel. If these are monetized, you earn directly. If not, you still grow your audience there, build more trust as audio and video content are powerful in ways written content isn’t, and that can lead to new paying customers.
So that’s how to make money on Medium even if you’re just starting out. What do you think? Are you ready to become a paid writer?
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