Blogging Guide
Aug 19, 2018
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How Much Money Can You Make Writing for Medium?
Medium partner program earnings faqs, can you make money writing on medium, more from blogging guide.
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Self Made Millennials
How to Make Money on Medium Website In 2023
Victoria Kurichenko
November 16, 2022
If you want to make money online, then let me introduce you to Medium writing .
In this article, I share my Medium.com review and what I learned after publishing 250+ articles on the Medium website in the past two years.
I also share how I make money on Medium and how you can do it too.
This article is an in-depth Medium review for everyone who wants to start blogging online, develop writing skills and pursue a writing career.
Here is what this article covers:
Here is what the article covers:
- What is Medium.com website?
- Is Medium reliable?
How the Medium Partner Program works
How to make money writing on medium, my medium monthly earnings.
- How many stories should you publish to make money on Medium?
Best-performing Medium topics
Is writing on medium worth it.
Before getting to the core article’s topics, let me quickly introduce myself and share my Medium journey.
I’ve been actively writing on the Medium website since March 2020.
I published over 250 stories, discovered my writing niche that resonates with people, and earned $10,000+ from the Medium Partner program alone by December 2022.
In a nutshell, blogging on Medium is much more than writing and publishing random articles. The platform can help you reach millions of readers online, earn money, build a personal brand and an online business through your writing.
If you want to try Medium as a user first, I encourage you to become a Medium member and support other creators on the platform. By signing up through this link , you get full access to every story on Medium for just $5/month.
Let’s start with the basics, which will be helpful for those unfamiliar with a Medium website.
What is Medium.com?
Medium is a US-based company developed by a former CEO of Twitter, Evan Williams, and launched in 2012.
In short, it is an open platform for writers where anyone can share their ideas with over 170 million readers worldwide. Can you imagine?
According to Medium’s about page ,170 million readers worldwide visit Medium to read stories and get inspired. It’s half of Europe or 40 U.S. states!
The Medium writing platform is a unique, closed environment with its own rules, a room for creators to thrive and for readers to learn.
Your unique experience and stories are the only things that matter on Medium.
You don’t have to be an experienced writer to get published on Medium, nor should you be a savvy marketer to drive audiences to your stories. Medium will do it on its own.
If you come to Medium, you can focus on creating powerful stories people will love to read.
This is what Medium strives to create — a room for ideas to evolve and spread without incentivizing destructive advertising.
Is Medium.com website relible?
Let’s quickly see how the Medium platform works as a business and then make ground-based conclusions about its reliability.
How does Medium make money? And how much?
Medium generates revenue from user subscriptions that cost $5 a month or $50 a year. With this tiny contribution, the Medium publishing platform pays its writers over $2 million monthly! That’s incredible!
Here is the official statement made by the platform founder, Ev Williams:
“We pay out over two million dollars per month to writers, editors, and publication owners. With several hundred thousand members today, we are confident in the durability and scalability of the model. And, thus, we are continuing to invest in the long-term vision, for which we have much to do.“
From April 2021 to July 2021, Medium rewarded the 1000 most active and successful creators with cash bonuses worth $500 as gratitude for the value writers bring to the platform.
1000 writers and $500 for every writer makes a $500,000 bonus paid to writers besides the partner program earnings.
It’s half of the USD million! The platform can afford it!
As a Medium top writer, I was rewarded with bonuses four times in a row, in April, May, June, and July 2021.
It was an unexpected but delightful surprise from Medium.
I could not find an official financial statement to share Medium monthly revenue. However, how they value and support their contributors makes me feel confident in Medium’s future.
Medium is a dynamic and fast-growing platform with unprecedented growth in 2020. Look at how fast their page views have been growing:
To say more, Medium turned ten years in August 2022.
The platform has undergone a massive transformation to serve its readers with the best content and writers with the most seamless experience.
In their reflection post , the Medium team revealed that an enormous 18 million articles had been published on the Medium website since 2012. That’s huge!
The following are the most prominent Medium milestones since 2012:
- Hillary Clinton sets up the first-ever campaign publication on Medium.
- Barack Obama publishes his State of the Union address on Medium.
- Yelp customer service representative Talia Jane writes an open letter to her CEO , leading to a public reckoning over income inequality.
- Medium Partner Program was introduced that lets writers earn money from their stories.
- Natalie Portman responds to the #MeToo movement’s critics.
- Medium acquires The Bold Italic, a publication covering Bay Area culture.
- Coronavirus hits. Medium breaks records for visitors and sign-ups as millions of people take to the platform to process what’s going on.
- In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, Medium started a new blog called Momentum , where writers share their perspectives on anti-Black racism.
- Medium introduced a new email subscription feature.
- Medium turns 10. Ev Williams steps down as CEO, and Tony Stubblebine steps in to take the reins.
- Medium brought back old-good custom domains and mobile editing.
- A new audio experience for listening to Medium stories on the go.
More yet to come!
I am sure.
Considering Medium’s latest stats, updates, and bold plans, Medium seems to be a reliable platform to partner with.
As a writer, I have not experienced any issues with Medium. In case of any questions, their support team is always responsive and ready to help.
The Medium partner program was developed to help writers get paid for writing online.
Medium partner earnings are calculated based on two components:
- How much time paid Medium users spend reading your stories.
- How much of their monthly reading time is spent on your stories.
If you are interested in learning more about how Medium calculates writers’ earnings, they have a detailed article about it.
You have to do two things to monetize your stories on Medium: (1) join the Medium Partner Program and (2) put your stories behind the payroll before publishing.
The Medium Partner Program is only available in some countries.
You can find the up-to-date list of supporting countries below. If Medium updates its partner program terms, you can find the latest information on this page .
Please, be informed that Medium has introduced entry requirements to the partner program.
It’s no longer enough to register on Medium and get paid for your stories.
You have to fulfill the following conditions to apply to the Medium Partner Program:
- Be over 18 years old
- Live in the eligible location (countries are listed above)
- Have at least 100 followers on Medium
- Have published at least one story on Medium in the past
Once you fulfill all the above-mentioned requirements, you can submit this application form . The Medium team will review your application and get back to you with (hopefully) some great news.
How much does it cost to join the Medium Partner Program?
It’s free. There is no fee or hidden charges to enter the Medium Partner Program.
You can still get paid for writing on Medium even if you opt out from paying a $5 Medium member reading fee.
Can Medium remove active writers from the Partner Program?
The short answer is yes!
Here is what Medium writers on their official website:
“If you do not publish within a six (6) month period, we may disable your ability to receive any revenue under the Partner Program. Before disabling your ability to earn under the Partner Program, we will notify you. “
How do you start making money on Medium?
You have to join the Medium Partner Program to receive earnings from your stories.
You get paid through the Stripe payment system by the 15th of every month. Note that Stripe is only supported in some countries! You can check the up-to-date list of countries here .
Here is what the Medium Partner Program registration process looks like:
Medium partners with Stripe to send payouts to writers. It takes roughly 10 minutes to set up the Stripe account and link it to Medium.
You will have to upload some documents to verify your physical address. But once it’s done, you are officially a part of the Medium Partner Program.
Note that Medium earnings are displayed in USD.
Your payout will be automatically exchanged if your bank account is in another currency.
According to the Medium monthly update , here is how much writers made in September 2020:
- 68.7% of writers or publications who wrote at least one story for members earned money.
- 6.4% of active writers earned over $100.
- $49,705.40 was the most earned by a writer, and $16,685.5 was the most earned for a single story.
In September 2020, the best-performing story earned $16,685 for its writer. How cool is that? It seems you can blog on Medium and make more than any other full-time job would pay you.
This opportunity attracts many new and established writers to the platform who want to share their voices with millions of readers worldwide and make a living from it. It’s a fascinating part of Medium.
However, don’t be deluded by these gorgeous numbers. If you take another look at the numbers above, you may notice that no more than 6.4% of writers managed to earn over $100 in September 2020.
It is, perhaps, the last monthly writer’s earnings update by the Medium curators’ team. This is why there has been no new data since 2021.
As an established Medium writer, I know Medium writing is challenging and unpredictable. Some writers report making four figures monthly on Medium. While others barely make $100.
The following are four ways how I make money blogging on Medium .
P.S. yes, there is more than one way to do it.
1. Medium Partner Program
I joined Medium in March 2020, and I’ve been actively blogging since then.
This is what I achieved after consistently blogging on Medium for over two years — from March 2020 to October 2022:
- Published 244 stories
- Earned $10,349.80 in total
- Made $3,000 from a single article as an affiliate
- Gained 6,000 followers
- Received $500 bonuses four times
Am I doing great on Medium?
I am an average writer who consistently makes over $900 on Medium and gradually grows my follower base.
Many established writers earn way more money than me. However, even more writers struggle to make $100 on Medium.
Everyone’s journey is different.
You won’t be able to predict your earnings by following what other Medium writers say or do. I assure you!
How to get paid on Medium? The answer is to consistently publish articles, learn your audience and slowly shift towards topics that work best!
I blogged about everything on Medium. However, I discovered that my best-performing topics were my solopreneurship journey, SEO, my website growth, and my side hustles.
Therefore, I no longer write unsolicited and shallow pieces on Medium.
Instead, I share exclusive details about my journey as a solopreneur and an SEO specialist. This is what my readers want to read.
The more they read, the more I earn. It’s easy now!
However, it took me two years to figure out my writing niche and build an audience that knows me and patiently waits for my stories.
2. Medium Referral Program
Medium introduced its referral program in August 2021.
It’s another way to make additional income on Medium besides payment for views.
Some say Medium introduced the referral program to offer stable and recurring monthly income to its writers because the changes Medium has made to its content distribution algorithm adversely impacted writers’ views and earnings.
I’ve experienced these algorithm changes several times. However, there was nothing I could do about it.
I could either complain and quit writing or shut up and continue working no matter what.
I chose the second option.
If you don’t expect quick wins and are ready to build your presence on Medium slowly, you’ll make it.
The referral program is one more proven way to make money on Medium.
Before showing my referral income stats, let me explain how to find your unique referral link.
1. Navigate to Settings > Publishing> Promote Medium memberships.
2. Customize your Medium referral page.
You can customize the headline and the body message that Medium users will see on your referral page.
Come up with a compelling copy that explains why someone should pay $5 monthly to Medium.
Here is how my Medium referral page looks:
3. Promote your Medium referral link.
Once you are ready with the customization, start promoting Medium membership.
For example, I include a tiny call-to-action at the end of my Medium posts. Readers who find my content valuable and want to read more are subtly invited to become Medium members.
Here is what I write at the end of my stories:
“You can get full access to every story on Medium for just $5/month by signing up through this link .”
Furthermore, I also promote Medium membership through my website.
According to Medium , here is how much money you can make from every referred member:
You’ll get $2.27 for every referred member with a monthly subscription or $2.01 with a yearly subscription.
Here is how much I make through the Medium referral program by sharing a tiny CTA in my content by October 2022:
3. Medium Tipping
This has been a feature request for a long time.
Unlike Medium, many content writing platforms, like Vocal.media , had a tipping system.
Finally, Medium added a quick solution to collect tips from readers in July 2022.
If you enable the tipping feature in Settings > Publishing > Manage tipping on your stories, you’ll see a short call-to-action at the end of your Medium stories like this:
It’s worth knowing that Medium tipping is not integrated with the Partner Program.
It means your tips won’t be added to your monthly earnings. Instead, you can choose the preferred payment platform yourself.
PayPal and Ko-fi are among the popular tipping options.
If you are interested to know how to collect tips on PayPal, this short how-to guide will help you. Alternatively, I have an in-depth Ko-fi review, which shares how I use the platform to collect tips.
Despite having over 30,000 monthly views on Medium, I’ve only made $20 as tips.
Tipping is a nice-to-have feature on Medium, but you should not treat it as a stand-alone income source.
4. Selling your offers on Medium
I joined Medium two years ago to get paid for my writing through the partner program.
However, I realized that Medium is much more than an environment for blogging.
Medium is a powerful platform to build an audience, validate your business ideas, grow your email list and sell your offers.
For example, I sell my ebooks through my Medium stories, which helps me make up to $1,000 monthly extra.
Since many Medium readers know and trust me, they are more open to making a purchase.
If interested, you can learn more about ebook sales in my Gumroad review .
Medium earnings are unpredictable.
You can make a few cents from your stories today, but one of your stories can suddenly go viral and make you three and even four figures income.
Many high-performing writers admit that less than 10% of all their articles make the most of their monthly income on Medium.
This rule works for me too.
I joined the club of lucky writers who earned above $100 in June 2020. It was my third month writing on Medium. It merely happened because my story about TikTok made over $50.
With the Medium website, you can publish once and continuously make money from your old stories, as they are recommended to readers repeatedly.
For example, my first Medium story made me just $7.
How much does Medium pay me now?
After two years of consistent writing, I make $50-$200+ from every Medium story, which results in $900+ monthly income.
How many stories should you publish monthly to earn money on Medium?
Let me share a myth new writers anxiously believe about Medium.
”I will earn more money on Medium if I publish daily.”
Active writers, indeed, have a higher chance of attracting more readers. However, if stories are poorly written and have no value for readers, they won’t get many views.
I used to publish around 15 stories a month which earned me up to $200. Now, I make the same amount from posting a few stories.
I don’t overwork and force myself to be a writing machine. Instead, I focus on topics that appeal to me and my target audience.
You can’t predict Medium earnings. Period. After some time on the platform, you will be able to say what will or won’t work with higher certainty. However, you won’t know how much money a random article will make you.
Everyone has a unique journey on Medium. If you want to get paid for writing on Medium, you will have to find your own writing pace, discover topics that interest you and your audience, try, fail, try harder and see what works.
Many writers write about random topics on Medium and share their personal stories.
They don’t realize that most readers only care about themselves, not someone else’s life, family issues, new cat, impressions from a trip to Mexico, etc.
People want to know how to solve their life challenges. They will start reading your stories if you can help them do it.
The following are the most popular Medium topics based on my own experience, judgment, and discoveries:
- Money making culture and tips
- Productivity
- Programming
- Entrepreneurship.
There are exceptions, though. Some writers publish stories about politics or relationships and do well on Medium.
If you have something insightful to share with the world with higher certainty — do it! However, don’t forget that your stories are not about you . They are all about your readers!
The answer to this question heavily depends on your goals.
If you aim to develop your writing skills, become a better storyteller, and reach millions of people with your message — then yes! Writing on the Medium website is totally worth it.
Over time, you will notice that Medium opens up many opportunities and helps you gain life-changing connections. Payouts are great, but they become secondary once you learn the platform rules and utilize them fully.
If you aim for quick wins, then Medium is not for you.
Remember the statistics I shared earlier in the article? Over 95% of writers don’t even make $100 on Medium. The majority fail. Only a tiny percentage of writers crush their goals because they are dedicated to making it happen!
If you are serious about writing on Medium, you will eventually make money. Period.
In April 2020, I earned $7. Exactly one year later, my paycheck was $636.
I don’t know what will happen in a year, but I stay optimistic about crushing my Medium writing goals.
Everyone’s Medium journey is different, but I am here to inspire you, believe in yourself, and give it a try. Who knows, you might be another Medium success story.
Hello there!
My name is Victoria. I am an SEO expert, Medium top writer, solopreneur, and the founder of Self Made Millennials. I help companies create optimized content and attract potential customers through organic search results. In addition, I share how content creators can monetize their writing skills.
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3 Strategies to Manage Your Sales Pipeline
A Guide to SEO for Lead Generation In 2023
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18 Responses
Hello, Victoria!
First of all, thank for your articles. They are very helpful. How did you enroll in the Medium Partner Program if neither Ukraine, Hungary nor Georgia are eligible countries?
Hi Victoria,
For something that should be dry and boring you made it coherent, accessible, enjoyable as much as that can be said about an article explaining the monetizing of medium. What I really liked about your article was the fact that you were completely real and spell things out in a clear concise and I daresay pleasant yet underlying cheeky manner although I’m sure you didn’t mean it in that way. Kind of like “this is how it is”. I’m quite lazy and unmotivated myself although I believe there is a fair bit upstairs I’d like to share. Your post help me to see clearly and I’m not overly worried about the monetary aspect is that as a secondary goal once I get started but just wanted to drop you a line and say indeed your writing style is engaging for the topic and readers you are trying to reach. I do have a couple questions though. 1. Your website is it “hosted” on medium or how does that work? 2. My writing will be of a spiritual Christian nature so I’m wondering does medium stifle viewpoints or are they open minded.
Not sure if it’s a question you answer but thought I’d ask Thanks
If I decide to sign up I will use your link but didn’t see the call to action at the bottom of your page.
Thank you for your comment! You might be surprised, but I do check comments and reply whenever I can. 🙂
As to your questions:
1. My website and Medium are two different things. My website is hosted on WordPress. 2) Medium says there is a place for every writer, idea, and opinion. You can share your point of view and see how readers react.
Best, Victoria
Thanks a lot for this best article ever about Medium platform.
As you wrote in one of your previous articles about Vocal and Medium, you said that if someone wants to earn for a living then Vocal and Medium cannot be the right places for it but I personally beg you to tell and advise me how can I earn for living online?
All the best
Hi Hijer Samatta,
Thank you so much for reading my article and for your kind feedback. I really appreciate it! Medium can bring some decent results if you are ready to publish there daily and consistently. Otherwise, it won’t yield any results. I use Medium to build a personal brand and grow my email list, which helps me sell my products and services. Perhaps, you can start writing to figure out your niche and your offer and then monetize your efforts.
Thank you for the valuable article. Could you please tell me whether we are able to republish the same original article on another platform too, or is it restricted with medium.com?
Thank you so much for reading my article! You can republish content on Medium and Vocal.media if you are the author.
Thank you 🙂
Thanks for sharing the useful information
You are welcome, Dheeraj!
Hi Victoria, Could you tell me whether content published on Medium can be bundled and republished?
Thanks and I enjoyed learning more about Medium.
Thank you for reading my article and for your comment! Let me answer your question: You reserve the rights for your Medium content. You can repurpose your content and republish it elsewhere. For instance, I often republish my content on Vocal.media and Quora. 🙂
I’m new to the world of blogging, and I’d like to learn more approaches and strategies for writing blog content and publishing more content. Thank you, Victoria, for sharing this information. Any advice you provide us newcomers will be really helpful.
You are welcome, Ofrates Siringan! I am happy to help! 🙂
Thanks for this article Victoria.
I am getting started with writing on Medium. This article has inspired me to write more and become a better writer who creates:
– Quality Content – Inspiring Content – Valuable content
Hello Bonnie,
Thank you for reading my article and I am happy to hear you find it useful! Good luck in your writing endeavors on Medium!
Hello, I’m from Mexico , Do you recommend to write the stories on english or write in my own language ? And is there a specific number of characters needed for writing?
Hello Yalina!
Thanks for reading my article! Medium is an open platform, where anyone can publish anything in any language. However, if you would like to enroll in the Medium Partner Program and earn money writing, you will have to write content in English. There is no minimum or a maximum number of characters when it comes to writing on Medium. 5-7 minutes posts tend to perform well for me. They have a higher read ratio. However, you can also experiment with shorter posts. I hope my comment is helpful for you!
All the best, Victoria
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How to make money on medium.
For tens of thousands of content producers when they started writing, Medium was a safe and user-friendly platform to publish articles. Today there’s more to it. Content publishers are now also making money online on this popular platform. Not surprisingly, Medium is seeing a surge in the number of its users.
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What is Medium?
Medium is a blogging platform that’s open to all. It’s one of the few blogging platforms where you don’t have to be a successful writer to set up an account. Anyone can become a contributor and share views, stories and insights.
How Does the Medium Platform Work?
When a paying member reads and claps for your story, a part of their membership dollars goes into your bank account.
How Much Money Can You Make on Medium?
In the first few months when they are building their profiles on Medium, active writers make about $25 a month. By posting regularly and focusing on quality content creation, writers earn more. In numbers, top members can make about $1,000 a month.
Ways to Make Money on Medium
Author bonuses, friend referrals, medium partner program.
Interestingly, the Partner Program also has content curators who lookout for the best stories. Stories that make the cut automatically receive higher rankings on the site’s home page, email newsletters and user feeds. This, in turn, helps content creators reach more people and increase their income.
Medium Stories
Tips for making money on medium, 1. write longer articles, 2. produce quality content.
When creating a Medium article, proofread it properly and check if it’s readable. Does it have short paragraphs? Do the sentences have proper punctuation? Is the overall tone consistent? Asking these questions will make your Medium articles readable and interesting.
3. Get Your Work In front of Medium Members
4. pay attention to your headlines, 5. build credibility before going behind the paywall, 6. create a strong profile.
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This Online World
Side Hustles, Making Money Online, & Finance
How to Make Money on Medium – How I Made $1,000+ Writing On Medium
posted on December 5, 2021 This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclaimer for more information.
I started writing on Medium on March 25, 2018 after someone recommended I try publishing on Medium to drive traffic to This Online World.
All I did was republish my phone farming guide and write one more short post on personal development.
I’m writing this article to share that within 24 hours, I made $100 from republishing my content on phone farming:
Over the preceding months, I also continued to earn money for my Medium writing, and have recently passed the $1,000 mark and now earn passive income every month from my articles:
If you have ever wondered how you can make money by writing, I’m here to tell you about Medium.
Let’s get started.
What Is Medium?
If you haven’t heard of Medium , I can only describe it to you as being one of the easiest, minimalist blogging platforms out there.
Medium is a publishing platform that was created by Evan Williams, the former CEO of Twitter, and officially launched in 2012. The platform offers publishers and bloggers alike to share their works or create new articles entirely.
All in all, the Medium platform is one of the simplest ways to get into blogging or to read some great content.
The most popular topics on Medium (as seen on their homepage) include:
- Technology.
- Entrepreneurship.
- Creativity.
- Productivity
How Does Medium Make Money?
If you want to understand how a platform can pay you, it generally helps to understand how they make money in the first place.
With Medium, users are able to read up to 5 articles per month. If readers want to enjoy any content past that limit, they must become a Medium member for the price of $5/month.
Interestingly, traditional advertising practices haven’t been too successful for Medium .
Between their commitment to quality and minimalist design, crowding the platform with banner ads just isn’t an option.
So, Medium has ultimately come to rely on monthly subscriptions and rounds of fundraising to power their platform thus far.
It will be interesting to watch Medium move forward as a business, and I am genuinely curious to see how they will monetize their platform.
For now, however, it’s all about content quality and Medium members.
Making Money on Medium – How Clapping Works
When you enroll in the Medium Partner Program (which is free and open to the public), you can start earning money with your Medium content.
When Medium Members clap, a portion of their $5 monthly subscription fee is paid directly to the author.
Since clap payments are a fraction of a user’s $5/month subscription fee, users who clap very frequently have lower paying claps than users who only clap a few times per month.
This means a single clap typically ranges from $0.01 to $1-$2 depending on who is viewing and clapping on your article.
Edit -11/07/2019 – Changes To How Earning On Medium Works
As of October 2019, Medium actually made some changes to how authors are paid, so scrap most of what I just said about claps.
According to Medium , payments are now calculated based on reading time , not claps.
While claps can still help authors expand their reach and indirectly earn more for their stories, increasing overall engagement on your stories is now the name of the game when it comes to making money by writing on Medium.
Non-member reading time will also be factored into payment if they become a member within 30 days of reading your stories.
Additionally, earnings are now updated daily rather than weekly (thank God), and stories have more in-depth metrics to break down their earning stats. Across the board, this is a set of great changes since it makes it easier for smaller authors to make money by writing on Medium.
So, if you want to increase your Medium earnings, focus on sharing your stories through social media channels and converting new Medium readers to paid members alongside growing your reach on the actual Medium platform.
Making Money on Medium – Author Bonuses
I made $100 in 24 hours after reposting my phone farming guide on Medium due to a Partner bonus:
Earning bonuses for blogging on Medium is a fairly new concept, but it’s certainly exciting.
This March, Medium announced they would be paying out bonuses to Medium Partners for quality work.
You shouldn’t rely on Medium bonuses as a reliable source of income since Medium Editors will only be rewarding bonuses to a few dozen stories every week, as they explained in a Partner Program email to me:
However, you have to admit that if you’re looking to make money by writing, choosing a platform that actively rewards quality submissions should seem like a no-brainer.
Ultimately it’s really promising to see Medium making an effort to reward quality, pay their authors, and encourage interesting content.
Here’s some other stats Medium included in their Partner Program email for March:
- 48% of authors or publications who wrote at least one story for members earned money. The average amount earned for the month was $77.04.
- $7,924.22 was the most earned by an author, and $2,400.40 was the most earned by a publication.
- $1,744.21 was the most earned for a single story. 10.6% of stories that earned money made over $100.
The fact that a single story on Medium earned $1,744 blows my mind. And one single author earned $7,924!
Just note: to join the Medium Partner Program you will need to provide Medium with your SIN (or other forms of government issued identification) as well as your bank account information (transit number, account number, branch number).
Medium’s New Author Bonus
In true Medium fashion, the platform continues to change to help authors earn more for their writing.
Recently, I got an email from the Medium Partner Program that explained the new author bonus structure for the next few months.
Medium’s new author bonus structure pays the top-performing writers with additional cash to encourage them to write more.
The current bonus tiers are:
- Top 1,000 Writers : Earn an extra $500 bonus.
- Top 1,001 – 1,500 Writers : Earn an extra $100 bonus.
- Top 1,501 – 2,000 Writers : Earn an extra $50 bonus.
I think the fact that Medium is giving the top 2,000 writers on the platform extra money for already making the most money on Medium is pretty sweet.
Medium’s email also states: “In August, we’ll announce more writer programs and Partner Program updates,” so it’s clear that additional earning opportunities are coming down the pipeline for Medium writers.
Referring New Medium Members
I’m updating this guide on how to make money with Medium yet again because Medium now has a referral program!
That’s right: you can now make money by converting your readers into paying Medium members .
The Medium referral program pays you half of a reader’s membership fee. This works out to about $2.01 per month per referral.
I’ve seen a lot of Medium writers pushing this heavily, encouraging people to become paying Medium members with links in their bio.
But, I don’t know many writers who make meaningful income from this referral program.
It’s nice that Medium is adding more ways for authors to get paid, but this program feels a little spammy to me.
Plus, Medium is becoming more saturated, and if every author starts clamoring for people to sign up with their link, I don’t think it’s a winning strategy to chase after given the noise.
My advice : focus on increasing your read time and total reads rather than stressing too much about the new Medium referral program.
The Benefits of Medium – Traffic and Reach for Bloggers
I like writing on This Online World because it’s my own platform. I write about what I want, choose my own design, and make decisions about how to monetize the website.
You don’t have any control on Medium.
However, the traffic you can generate by writing on Medium is immense.
According to Alexa , Medium is the 272 most popular website in the world in terms of traffic, and is ranked 137 in the United States.
Medium also draws more than 60 million monthly readers , and while their algorithm isn’t fully understood, it’s clear that Medium is a powerful blogging platform with incredible potential.
Here’s a snippet of my Medium stats:
When you examine a breakdown of referral traffic for a Medium article, a few things are also apparent:
As you can see, a variety of referral sources contributed to views on my phone farming guide and provided a noticeable spike in viewership.
Medium even pushed the content to more readers by having the article trend on the entrepreneurship section of the website. Additionally, other outlets like smartnews.com also decided to direct readers to the article.
For bloggers who are just starting out, it’s hard to compete with Medium’s algorithm and massive amounts of monthly traffic.
However, blogging on Medium allows content creators to take advantage of Medium’s monthly traffic and established audience.
You can also benefit from Medium without sacrificing the SEO profile of your own website.
Edit: I just released a new post that outlines some Medium Partner Program updates and strategies to expand your reach, so check that out too!
Importing Stories to Medium
Medium allows bloggers to import past stories onto their platform, allowing them to maintain control of their content (on their own blog) while benefiting from Medium’s massive amounts of monthly traffic.
In this sense, it’s the best of both worlds .
Importing content to Medium is really a form of content syndication: the process of making existing content available on other platforms.
However, when you import a story to Medium, they add the extremely crucial rel=canonical tag.
This tag essentially informs Google that your original article maintains ultimate authority over the website that houses imported content. This means Google will prioritize your blog in the SERPS, not Medium.
Considering the use of the rel-canonical tag, there is no reason not to import your blog posts to Medium .
You can earn money, drive additional reach, and even grow your blog in the process as your Medium followers trickle over to your original blog.
Making Money on Medium – My Suggestions
I’ll admit, after making $100 in about 24 hours after publishing my first post on Medium, I did question why I’m writing on This Online World.
But at the end of the day, it is rewarding to have your own corner of the internet.
If you’re a fellow blogger or writer who owns their own website (or is planning on starting one), don’t stop writing.
Medium offers bloggers an incredible amount of traffic and revenue potential, but it doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice content creation for your own website.
The ability to import your best articles to Medium already allows bloggers to establish a presence on Medium. Additionally, if you have another article or series you’ve always wanted to write that falls outside of your current website topic/niche, just publish it on Medium.
In short, here are my suggestions for using Medium alongside your own website:
- Create a professional Medium profile : include your picture, credentials, interests, and why you write on Medium.
- Import your best articles: Start out by importing an article or 2 to Medium.
- Tinker with the algorithm: If some of your work isn’t receiving viewership after a few days, just delete the story and re-import it. Medium doesn’t care if you do this, and republishing a story might place it in front of the right set of eyes.
- Treat Medium like a partner blog: Don’t be afraid to outbound link to your own blog/website, or link to other great articles on the web. Medium doesn’t like overly pushy affiliate links or tonnes of links in general, but you can get away with a few.
- Test and retest: I’m still learning how to use Medium. However, like any learning process, you need to put in some work. Monetize some of your stories…leave others free to view. Comment on other stories, or clap for authors. Write a variety of content, experiment with your images, titles, and headlines. Just figure out what works for your topic of writing and audience.
You can also checkout my latest YouTube video which breaks down the strategies I use to make more money from Medium each month!
Medium Publications – An Opportunity To Increase Reach
If you are struggling to gain views or make money with your writing on Medium, you can also reach out to various Medium publications and request to write for them.
Medium has an incredible amount of popular publications, and many of them regularly accept guest writers or regular contributors.
Currently, I’m able to contribute to 3 different publications, and I actually didn’t have to apply to 2 of them (one of the editors reached out via email to ask me to share some of my work):
If you want to find Medium publications that accept submissions, I suggest checking out this list from Oniverse or doing some digging on the trending section!
The best part about writing for Medium Publications is that you can still earn money for your work, even if your story is syndicated (like most of mine is).
Once you’ve been approved to contribute to a publisher, you can edit any of your published stories and send in a request for them to be added to a publication:
If your story gets accepted, your story can be seen by everyone following the publication, and you might find your work gets a nice boost in views, claps, and ultimately money!
So, don’t be afraid to apply to Medium Publications or to send out some emails or DM’s! You might find the process increases how much money you make on Medium every month.
Additional Thoughts on Medium as a Blogging Platform – Writing for Money
The primary goal of my blogging or writing endeavors isn’t to make money. However, writing for pleasure isn’t my main objective either.
I don’t have a number 1 goal when it comes to writing , and I want to be honest about that.
I love to write, and I am also addicted to the concept of passive income generation. Therefore, I have picked writing as an enjoyable hobby that I can also gradually monetize.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with monetizing one’s writing as long as it is done professionally, transparently, and doesn’t sacrifice on value or personal beliefs.
What does this have to do with Medium?
A few things.
Firstly, I think the fact that Medium pays their partners is great. If you are looking to make money by writing and don’t care about owning your own platform, go full steam ahead.
Medium is making an effort to reward great writers, and it shows in gestures like their bonuses or in the high percentage of writers who are currently earnings.
If you simply want to write because sharing your ideas with other people bring you joy, I’d also say give Medium a try.
Medium is one of the easiest blogging platforms out there, and the ability to follow writers and clap for stories encourages discussion.
However, I also encourage people to remember that things can change .
Medium has already had 2 business model changes since its inception, and while I love the platform, writers on Medium ultimately cannot control how the platform will be monetized.
Moving forward, I think it is important that content creators don’t place all of their eggs in a single basket.
So, write on Medium, start a blog, or begin some other online endeavor. Whatever you decide to do, just be sure to enjoy the process.
Edit – 8/1/2018 – An Update on my Experience with Writing on Medium
It’s been a while since I wrote this guide on how to make money on Medium, and I also published this post during my infancy as a Medium writer.
I’ve been writing on Medium for a few months now, and for the most part, I only republish content and use Medium as a form of content syndication.
However, reposting your blog content to Medium doesn’t seem to have an impact on the ability to make money:
To date, I’ve earned $261.68 from writing on Medium, and I should cross the $300 mark once the payments from July trickle in.
Additionally, I’ve also been able to grow my monthly reach and follower base quite considerably:
Ultimately, developing a following on Medium takes time, but it is certainly possible to make money on Medium and drive referral traffic to your blog.
One thing I have noticed, however, is that some of my Medium stories have inched their way onto the first page of Google:
After digging into the issue, it seems like 2 of my stories (for whatever reason) aren’t using the rel = canonical tags and attributing This Online World with credit.
I’ve contacted Medium’s support team, and I hope to resolve this issue soon to avoid cannibalizing my blog’s page views.
For other bloggers who want to use content syndication on Medium, I suggest keeping an eye on your blog post ranking stats and positions in the SERPs.
Additionally, you should also inspect the page source of your syndicated content on Medium to make sure your blog is being given ultimate authority and credit.
Edit – 6/25/2019 – An Update On My Medium Revenue
I’m writing one more update to show that it is certainly possible and sustainable to make money by writing on Medium.
Here’s a snapshot of my lifetime earnings:
Keep in mind this is mostly from syndicating my blog content on Medium, so that’s pretty neat!
Edit – 02/22/2020 – Crossing The $1,000 Mark On Medium
I wanted to give one more update on this post to show that is indeed possible to make money by writing on Medium and to even surpass $1,000.
The new payment model is awesome for new writers as well. You truly don’t need to have a massive following to start monetizing this platform, so don’t wait around! There has never been a better time to get started on this platform, especially if you want to create a writing portfolio or practice your writing.
Edit 07/11/2020 – Medium’s New Author Layout
I wanted to give another update to this guide since there have been more substantial changes to Medium that impact how authors reach their audience.
The big change is that authors now have their own subdomains and the ability to design their own page to create a more personalized feeling for their profile.
You now have more control over how your profile looks, and Medium is definitely making the push to help writers build loyal followings and to become less of a clickbaity volume game.
Don’t get me wrong, compelling titles and volume are still important if you want to make money writing on Medium, but it’s slightly less pressing than before.
Additionally, one recent tip I’ve learned is to build your email list with your Medium profile.
As you can see from this profile (August Birch is a pretty stellar writer on Medium), you now have more real estate to collect emails and generate outside sources of revenue:
This isn’t a change to how earnings are calculated, but don’t be afraid to get creative to put your profile page to work!
Medium Vs WordPress – Where Can You Make The Most Money?
So, can you make money on Medium?
Yes, you certainly can, and I’ve earned well over $1,000 to date writing on Medium.
But, after 3+ years of blogging on This Online World and experimenting with Medium, I once again want to stress the power of owning the platform you write on and what that does to your income.
For example, I earned about $1,000 from Medium in 2020. That same year, I made $22,000 blogging .
A lot of this came from running display advertisements with Mediavine and by using affiliate marketing, which are both impossible or very tricky to do with Medium.
So, I think it’s possible to make money on Medium, and it’s likely faster for new writers than starting a blog from scratch.
But, never discount the power of owning your own platform. It lets you get more creative with monetization, build a brand, and even sell your website down the line for an exit strategy.
My final advice is to give Medium a try and put some content up to see what happens.
But, never be afraid to start your own blog either. You never know what can happen, and it’s so low risk I figure it’s something everyone should try once!
Ready to start your own blog?
I always recommend using SiteGround hosting for new bloggers.
SiteGround is incredibly affordable and reliable. It’s also the host I used to scale This Online World to 50,000+ monthly views per month, so it has my vote!
Happy blogging!
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does medium pay per $1,000 views.
How much Medium pays you per view depends on if paying Medium members read your story and for how long they read. Since there are multiple factors at play, Medium doesn’t have a set rate per 1,000 views. Some stories might earn more or less than others, so focus on increasing read time by writing engaging content.
Is Writing On Medium Worth It?
Writing on Medium is worth it if you want a free and quick way to get your writing out there. It’s also worth it if you want to monetize your writing without creating your own blog.
However, making money with Medium is becoming harder each year as more writers join. Personally, I think running your own WordPress blog has way higher income potential than Medium does, so this is where I spend most of my focus.
How Much Can You Realistically Make On Medium?
I think most writers can set a realistic goal of making $20 to $50 per month if they consistently write great content. It’s also possible to scale to $100+ per month, and some Medium writers write full-time.
However, most writers don’t make over $100 per month; this is a competitive environment with lots of writers, so you need to grind to increase your income.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, you can make money on Medium and also use the platform to promote your other websites/businesses.
All it takes is some time, patience, and work (like everything else worth doing!)
Once again, to learn more about how you can optimize your Medium profile and gain more claps, check out part 2 of this post !
Also, be sure to read my post on the best sites like Medium you can also try to make money with your writing.
Thanks for reading!
Tom is a full-time blogger and freelance writer with a passion for side hustling, passive income, and the gig economy. His work has appeared on dozens of personal finance websites like Money Crashers, The College Investor, Investor Junkie, and more. This Online World is all about providing people with honest ways to make and save more money by using technology. To learn more about Tom, read his About Page !
If you’re interested in freelance writing services or want to partner with This Online World, please use our contact page to get in touch!
Reader Interactions
Priya Viswanathan says
June 6, 2018 at 9:48 am
I love this article and your whole philosophy on passive income especially with the constant demand for writing in all forms in all industries! I’m only just getting started on Medium, I’ve spent so much time on there reading and learning and now starting to plan my own pieces to publish. I look forward to keeping up with your content both on here as well as Medium!
Kunwar says
June 25, 2018 at 6:38 am
Very Nice !!
Nicely Written, I Like this blog and found this applicable and helpful for me !!
Thanks for Sharing your Views…
Mr Tee says
July 19, 2018 at 2:52 am
I come from Vietnam. The medium works in Vietnamese or not?
Tom Blake says
July 20, 2018 at 4:11 pm
Hi Mr. Tee. You can write on Medium, but only writers from countries that support Stripe (the Medium Payment processing system) can earn money. Sorry for the bad news, but hopefully it is supported in the future! https://stripe.com/global
Dan Jordan says
July 20, 2018 at 2:13 pm
Hey great article, I was recently introduced to Medium by Gary Vee on one of his vlogs and it really took me by surprise in seeing how much opportunity and creativity can be in one place. Thanks for sharing your insights and experiences with Medium so far. I too am into the online marketing and trend world.
I have followed your social platforms too 🙂
Look forward to reading more of your writing!
July 20, 2018 at 4:08 pm
Hey Dan, thanks so much for the kind words! It really is incredible how much opportunity there is on a platform like Medium. I followed you back, can’t wait to read some of your content tonight! 🙂
August 4, 2018 at 4:21 am
This service is not available for Nigerians. I hope medium looks into it.
August 4, 2018 at 4:31 pm
Hi Amaka, sorry to hear it is not available. I hope they add more coverage for Stripe soon. If you like, you can head to https://stripe.com/global and sign up with your email to be notified if/when Stripe becomes available in Nigeria (or any other country you might have a bank account). Additionally, you can also write on Medium to grow an audience and drive the traffic to another blog/website that you monetize. Best of luck 🙂
Rachel Blue says
August 10, 2018 at 4:01 pm
Can you repost content you already published on your website to Medium or do they insist on new content that they thereafter “own?”
August 10, 2018 at 4:08 pm
Hi Rachel, great question! You can definitely republish content you have already published onto Medium! They have an ‘import story’ tool which automatically adds a rel=canonical tag (letting Google know that your imported story is the original source). It’s a great form of content syndication and importing stories is what I do with most of my content on Medium. Hope this helps!
August 16, 2018 at 6:30 pm
Great article, Its good of you to share it with us. It seems like a good way to increase your blog’s exposure and make some extra money – a win, win!
August 16, 2018 at 10:27 pm
Hi Ged, thanks so much for reading and for the comment! It definitely is a win-win if you ask me 🙂 there is so much potential!
Manan Shah says
September 8, 2018 at 9:32 am
Very nice article. Helpful. From here I want to go open medium account. Thank you for inspiring me.
September 9, 2018 at 9:33 pm
Hi Manan, thank you so much for reading! I’m glad you’re opening a Medium account! I truly think it is a great platform and I wish you the best of luck.
Richard Reader says
December 6, 2018 at 6:08 pm
Hi Thomas. You just open my mind with this article. For a long time, Medium has caught my attention. But I ignore it. With this article, you have opened the door of my mind to do something for my blogsite through Medium. Thank you for your kindness in sharing this valuable experience with the readers of your blog.
However, I have one important question.
Does Medium limit the number of articles that can be posted by Medium authors? Explanation please.
Regards. Richard Reader
December 9, 2018 at 12:38 am
Hi Richard, thanks so much for reading and your kind words! As far as I know, Medium does not limit how many articles you post. However, in order to not appear spammy I would definitely suggest not importing/writing more than a story or two a day. I’m really happy to hear you have something exciting in mind for your blog! 🙂
Ashraf Jan says
January 28, 2019 at 5:36 am
Hi, Such a wonderful post, I also listed some easy ways to make money with Medium. You can check here https://threadsp.com/how-to-make-money-on-medium/
February 7, 2019 at 1:07 am
Awesome post, Ashraf!
March 9, 2019 at 11:39 am
I would love to write for medium, but it’s sad stripe is not available in my country.
I hope it is soon, though.
March 24, 2019 at 6:41 pm
Hi I’m underage and don’t plan to be a paid member until a few quality articles are posted and with some traffic. Is it possible to have a robust blog on Medium without paid partnership for the first few months, also without paid features to thrive there? Or do I have to upfront pay for the features?
April 10, 2019 at 12:22 pm
Hi Isha. Thankfully, joining the Medium Partner Program is free! So, you can start writing and earn money with Medium without having to pay to be a member. I think you might have trouble since you are under 18, but I would still write to grow a following and then monetize when you can be accepted!
Marjorie Vernelle says
May 26, 2019 at 12:12 am
Tom, I was researching Medium and found your article. What a piece of good news! I have been looking for a way to post writing, and maybe draw more attention to the art blog I started a few months ago. Medium sounds perfect, and your details about it make it of great interest. I am signing up today.
May 26, 2019 at 11:25 pm
Hi Marjorie! I’m really happy to hear my guide to write on Medium was useful! 🙂 It really is a decent (and almost effortless) way to drive some traffic back to your blog through content syndication, and writing original content is quite fun too! Best of luck!
Tracy Karol says
July 1, 2019 at 5:12 am
Thanks for the information, just what I’m looking for. I do wish I could make some money from all the answers I devote to Quora, but at least it’s writing I enjoy and benefits others.
Navin Rao says
September 4, 2019 at 7:21 pm
I actually didn’t know, that one can earn through writing on medium too. I love writing quora. Infact i landed to this article from there. This article was certainly an eye opener for me.
Kudos, you are doing a fantastic job spreading all the info around and letting everyone making money online. I truly appreciate.
Thanks, Navin
Duston says
September 8, 2019 at 7:55 pm
Oh, nice! Thank you so much for this article. I have finally made the commitment to start blogging and not only am I new to it all but I still have to take courses for how to use WordPress from the very beginning (free of course as I have found several). Your insight into Medium is great as I was not aware one can earn money from their articles on WordPress but also use it to earn additional income from their primary blog articles! Thank you again!
September 10, 2019 at 12:01 am
Hi Duston, thanks for reading! I’m glad you liked the article! I definitely think syndicating your old blog content is the way to go if you want to get started with making money on Medium and growing a second channel alongside your blog! 🙂
jimmyu says
September 17, 2019 at 2:35 pm
Really Helpful article I am going to try this
Sagar Arakh says
October 18, 2019 at 4:17 pm
Thank you for writing about your journey on medium. I have started blogging since 3 months and inspite of a considerable hard work, I’m not reaching anywhere. So I’m kind of demotivated and now thinking to speak my heart out on medium. Let’s see how it goes. 😊
Garvish says
November 20, 2019 at 11:04 am
This was a long read, but definitely one of the most informative article written on how to make money online via Medium. I’ve always wondered of doing that but didn’t know if I would be successful. After reading the article I surely will be trying the method again. Hopefully this time I make some money.
Anthony Boyd says
November 22, 2019 at 2:56 am
Great article!
I made my first $.39(lol!)on Medium by importing articles from my website and left it alone for awhile. Ever since then I’ve been importing more of my work because I do see this as a future form of passive income.
November 22, 2019 at 2:58 am
Thanks for the kind words Anthony!! That’s definitely a great way to start out and how I got the ball rolling! With Medium’s recent changes to their payment algorithm, I think it’s a great time to do just that.
Dropping some Medium links once in a while on relevant Reddit communities or somewhere on social media can help too if you want to spur some growth now and again. Just an idea 🙂 thanks for reading and your comment
DG Kaye says
January 22, 2020 at 10:53 pm
Great informative article. I’m actually surfing around to find what Medium will take from us for taxes? Especially if I’m Camadian. 🙂
January 24, 2020 at 2:01 pm
Hey DG, thanks for reading and for the question! Medium has a pretty awesome document that outlines a bunch of their tax info: https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/sections/360001924873-Taxes
I had to fill out a W-8BEN but that’s about it! Pretty simple process so far! 🙂
JD Mumma says
February 2, 2020 at 6:04 am
“have recently passed the $600 mark and now earn passive income every month from my articles” I’m confused on your total earnings. Is your total earning the $602.46? From March 25, 2018 – June 25, 2019? About $500 over 15 months (I took off the first month and the $100 from that first month)? About $33/month?
Temeka Stanley says
February 6, 2020 at 10:01 am
Where do you add the tag “rel=canonical tag” when importing a story?
February 7, 2020 at 3:04 pm
The ‘rel=canonical’ tag is added automatically if you use the import a story function 🙂 you can double-check your published post by right clicking on the post and selecting ‘view page source’ as well (look for the URL pointing back to your site, you should see it says rel=canonical). Hope this helps!
Jodi Henson says
February 16, 2020 at 6:53 pm
Thank you Tom for this incredible, in-depth review of Medium. I joined Medium innocently because I stumbled onto a blog post that led me here and I have been hooked ever since. But I was so confused when I started getting emails with my stats. Results? I couldn’t figure out why I had results much less what was the source. Now I get it! I seriously appreciate your explanations and even better the tips, tricks and suggestions. My website is currently being overhauled and as soon as it’s done, I’ll start linking my blog posts. Thanks again!
February 17, 2020 at 4:13 pm
Hi Jodi. I’m so happy to hear this little Medium guide has been helpful! 🙂 Thanks so much for reading and for the comment. That is exciting about your website redesign; it will be awesome to import your content to Medium and to watch both platforms grow!
Lydia Herrera says
May 6, 2020 at 5:25 pm
Nice Informative article. Thank You. I just signed up for medium subscription and partner program and connected my stripe acct. I suppose this is the time to start. I had ran into medium a couple years ago…
May 12, 2020 at 12:27 am
Hi Lydia, thanks for reading and the comment! That is awesome that you’re going to start writing on Medium and are joining their partner program. Congrats on taking the first step, I hope you find success on the platform!
Ramrkrishna jena says
May 18, 2020 at 2:34 pm
I am from India and my stripe account was banned by stripe team, so i want to know how i create a stripe account for medium.
Jon M. says
June 18, 2020 at 2:14 am
Really informative post. I’m curious if you know whether Medium backlinks are ever dofollow? I always leave at least one link to my blog in my Medium articles, but I looked at the html and the link is marked nofollow. However, when researching this question online it seems there is not consensus. If the links can ever be dofollow it seems Medium could be a great way to build authority for a blog.
July 7, 2020 at 9:39 pm
Thanks for the awesome question Jon and for reading! 🙂 from my knowledge, they are never marked as do-follow but I agree there isn’t a consensus. After submitting dozens of stores, some of which have hundreds of claps, I’ve never had links change over (I know links can change on Reddit based on upvotes so I don’t think there’s a mechanism like that in place). So, ultimately, I think it’s purely no-follow unfortunately 🙁
sa7sa7 says
July 3, 2020 at 12:02 am
Hello, One question please: If my story gets curated and one publication emailed me to share my work with them, what happens if I accept to work with that publication? Does my story stop being recommended by curators? Help please 🙂
July 7, 2020 at 9:37 pm
That is a pretty common occurrence since publications want a curated story to be in their publication! You can submit it and your story will still be recommended as far as I know 🙂 thanks for reading!!
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How to Make Money on Medium Through Writing
Want to learn how to make money on Medium. Here’s a detailed at the real odds of making money through the blogging platform, including an interview with a top Medium editor.
If you did a quick search online for “how to make money on Medium” you’d see 2,070,000,000 results pop up. Of course, not all of those pieces of content answer the question you’re really asking. You’ll get inundated by experts claiming it’s the next best thing and showcasing eye-popping income.
The phrase, “how to make money on Medium” appears in articles about how to make money as a side hustle, and it’s featured on about every writer resource out there.
You’ll also find a lot of articles that tell you that blogging through Medium is a waste of time. Those articles claim the Medium Partner Program doesn’t pay well. They showcase that there’s only a small percentage of Medium writers who make money writing Medium articles .
What if I told you that both of those things were true?
About 6.4% of writers on Medium earn over $100 per month. That is a small percentage and those are full-time writers. They get featured on the homepage.
Those Medium members boast high-quality content and their hard work has paid off with curation. Successful writers on medium.com often write for a Medium publication, like The Startup, and earn subscribers through their Medium stories.
That really only answers the question of how many writers Medium pays through the Medium Partner Program. What it doesn’t tell you is that there are other ways to earn directly through your efforts on Medium.
What Is Medium?
Strategies to earn on medium, ways to get curated on medium, other ways to make money on medium, other ways medium writers benefit, the final word on how to make money on medium, make money on medium through writing with adrian drew.
Medium.com is an online publishing platform. A new writer can start their own blog on Medium to make money online and earn a passive income. This makes it attractive to active writers. There are strategies that a freelance writer can use to create great content and increase the number of claps to reach the top writer category.
For bloggers, the Medium platform ranks well in search engines because the algorithm favors the platform. So you’re more likely to find your audience here than you are on WordPress. A single story on Medium will outrank the same piece on your own blog or website.
Medium.com has a lot of great content and active writers. Search engines favor the platform and their monthly subscription is high. Your Medium stories are more likely to be read by a wider audience. There are also publications on Medium. Some of the publications do pay their writers and all of them have editors who view work before it’s accepted.
There are new writers who earn well on the Medium platform, but they also put in hard work and time. They pay attention to SEO, work on trending topics, pay attention to their metrics, and reap the rewards in their bank account.
In short, you need to know how to write an article .
You can earn money. I’ll say that again for the writers in the back who don’t believe it. There are countless first-hand accounts of people who do earn monthly through the platform. They do this in a few ways.
The Partnership Program: This is Medium’s payment method. Writers can sign up for the partnership program and put all of their content behind Medium’s paywall. Your articles will earn money based on the amount of time that readers spend on the content. Some articles can earn really well this way. Remember, the platform gets hundreds of thousands of visitors a month.
Just signing up for the partnership program isn’t usually enough. You also want to get curated by Medium’s editors. Being curated means that the editors have approved your writing and they promote your work, which brings you higher traffic.
Getting curated is not as easy as it sounds. You need to study Medium’s Distribution Standards and make sure that you’re adhering to their guidelines. Getting your work placed in a publication will also help your chances of being curated.
Curated work receives far more views than you can garner alone. More eyes on your writing means more chances to earn. Being accepted to a publication can also be used as a professional publishing credit, so it’s great for newer writers who need clips for their portfolios.
The Partnership Program is the most talked-about way to earn on Medium. But for professional writers, it might not be enough to sweeten the pot. After all, if you wrote a post on Medium that only made $20 over months, it doesn’t seem worth it. You can easily write the same amount of words for $100-$150 in a freelance capacity.
There are other ways that your work can earn on Medium besides the Partnership Program. Medium offers you a much larger audience. For writers, that can mean the chance to get your work in front of editors, small business owners, and anyone in your target market for your services.
You can use your published articles on Medium as samples when you apply for paying writing work. You can also use the Medium platform to network. You have a space on your bio to include your website link and contact info. Use it the same way you’d use social media.
You can also use affiliate links on Medium. You need to abide by Medium’s rules and the rules of any publication you’re in. But affiliate marketing is allowed on Medium and the platform gives you a wide audience, so this can be a lucrative way to create income from your work there.
You already know that you can earn some money from the Partnership Program . You know that you can use affiliate links and that you have access to a wider audience. But there are also some benefits to you as a writer that you might not readily think of while looking at monetary figures.
Medium gives you a platform to improve your craft. You can, of course, work in solitary and never show anyone your early work. But that never really helps writers improve.
If you study the articles that do well on your Medium blog, you can get a feel for what you do well and where you need to improve. The act of writing on a regular basis also improves your ability to create and use words well. And the community aspect of the platform can help you find other writers to network with that can help support your growth, and vice versa.
What’s the final word on making money on Medium? There are a few things that we’d like you to take away from this.
- You can earn money through their Partnership Program.
- You can make connections that will lead to paid writing work.
- You can use the reach of the platform to earn through your own business or market yourself.
Medium doesn’t pay the same way that straight submissions to magazines or online publishers often will. But it is a viable and worthwhile platform to cultivate new followers and build your credibility. With Medium, if you’re willing to put in the effort and pay attention to your strategy, you will reap rewards from the work.
Remember, Medium isn’t the only place to find a writing job .
Medium is the number one platform for non-fiction writers who want to find readers, share their message and earn a little for doing it. Members of the partner program regularly earn four and five figures a month.
But what if you’re just starting out and don’t have and subscribers, much less a portfolio?
Is it too late to start writing on Medium?
Adrian Drew is the editor and owner of one of Medium’s top publications Mind Cafe . His publication focuses on personal development and receives over 200 submissions a week.
He explains how you can earn your first $100 on Medium even if you have no subscribers.
In this interview, Adrian explains:
- How to get started writing and earning on Medium, even if you have no followers
- What editors of top Medium publications usually look for
- How much you can expect to earn as member of the Medium partner program
- What types of images and tags to use
- How to drive traffic to and attract readers of your articles
Join over 15,000 writers today
Get a FREE book of writing prompts and learn how to make more money from your writing.
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Bryan Collins runs things around here. He's also a non-fiction writer and author.
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Can You Get Paid on Medium? Short Answer, Yes. How to Make Money Writing on Medium
Last Updated: October 9, 2022 References
This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Nicole Levine, MFA . Nicole Levine is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. She has more than 20 years of experience creating technical documentation and leading support teams at major web hosting and software companies. Nicole also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Portland State University and teaches composition, fiction-writing, and zine-making at various institutions. There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 44,534 times. Learn more...
How can you earn money for the awesome writing you publish on Medium? When you enroll in Medium's Partner Program, you can place your articles behind Medium's metered paywall, making them available only to paid users. Medium then determines your pay based on how long and often people engage with your writing. Whether you're a short story writer, fashion blogger, or business/technical content creator, read on to learn how to monetize your Medium account and bring in some extra income.
Enrolling in the Partner Program
- Even if you join the Partner Program, you can still publish articles that are freely available to all users. You won't make money on those articles, but they may encourage new readers to check out your paid content.
- Your pay is determined by reading time—the amount of time a reader spends actively reading your post, which includes scrolling and moving the mouse. [2] X Research source Medium members pay $5/month subscription fees, and those fees are then distributed to writers based on the time those readers spend on each members' articles.
- If you're not already signed into your Medium account, you'll be prompted to do so now.
- Click Set up payouts on Stripe .
- Enter your email address and click Next .
- If you already have an account, enter the password. If not, enter a new password.
- Enter all required information. Make sure to use your legal name, even if you use a pen name to write on Medium. [4] X Research source
- Go to https://www.medium.com/me/partner/taxes in a browser.
- Choose whether you're an individual or paying taxes as a company.
- Fill out the form and click Next .
- You will receive a confirmation email from Medium once your information is approved. Once approved, you can start earning money on articles.
- Medium sends payments monthly, usually by the 8th of each month. Depending on your bank, it can take 5-7 business days for your payment to appear in your bank account.
- Earnings on the dashboard are updated daily.
Making Posts Eligible to Earn
- If you're not already signed in, sign in now.
- If you're creating a new blog post, you can make your post eligible to earn as you publish it to medium. When you're finished composing, click Publish , which will bring up the Story Preview window. Then, check the box next to "Meter my story so it is eligible to earn money" and click the green Publish now button.
- Readers without paid Medium subscriptions can still read several paywall stories per month before needing to purchase a membership. This will not affect your earnings.
- If a friend isn't able to subscribe to Medium but still wants to read your paywalled story, you can share it with them directly using a friend link. [6] X Research source Just click the three dots at the top-right corner of the story and click Share Friend Link .
Writing Successful Medium Articles
- High-quality, well-written, error-free, easy-to-follow articles written with the reader in mind.
- Stories that share new insights and perspectives, stir emotions, provide meaningful advice, and offer fresh takes on familiar issues.
- Honest and factual, supported with trustworthy sources.
- Contains no clickbait, advertising, or content that violates Medium's rules . [8] X Research source
- A clickbait headline may encourage someone to click your link, but unless your story delivers on the headline's promise, the reader won't engage with your story for long, and probably won't return.
- If explaining a step-by-step process, test your process thoroughly, and make sure the organization is easy to follow.
- Use valid sources whenever possible—it adds to your credibility.
- Medium also hosts some official Medium-run publications (all open for submissions) including LEVEL (a men's magazine), ZORA (for women of color), and Elemental (science-backed health and wellness).
Expert Q&A
You might also like.
- ↑ https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017581433-About-the-metered-paywall
- ↑ https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/360036691193
- ↑ https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/115011694187#h_01EECWD3WWHZTJMF5PTK7AAM2C
- ↑ https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003928833
- ↑ https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/115011928308-Make-a-post-eligible-to-earn-money
- ↑ https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/360006543813
- ↑ https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/360006362473
- ↑ https://medium.com/earn
- ↑ https://medium.com/creators-hub/how-to-write-a-headline-a72ab3449150
- ↑ https://medium.com/creators-hub/seo-tips-to-make-your-stories-discoverable-and-grow-your-readership-b0c8230a8200
About This Article
1. Go to https://medium.com/earn . 2. Sign up for the Partner Program. 3. Set up your Stripe account. 4. Submit your tax information. 5. Mark your posts as metered. Did this summary help you? Yes No
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How to Make Money on Medium in 2023 (In-Depth Guide for Beginners)
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure for more information.
So, you want to learn how to make money on Medium? Awesome!
Medium is a free platform for writers from all backgrounds to publish their stories and get paid. That’s the simple version, but the reality is that it’s not that simple.
I joined Medium back in 2014 before I started my blog. Medium has changed a lot since then, and I ultimately decided to ditch Medium to focus solely on my blog. The main reason is far more lucrative IMHO than Medium can ever be.
Medium can still be a good platform for new writers, though. So if you’re really interested, this guide will explain everything you need to know about making money on Medium, from how you’re paid, tips for success, and more.
Quick Links
What is medium, how do you get paid to write on medium, bonus payments, curated, and featured articles, how much money can you make writing on medium, how does medium pay writers, 1. how long members spend reading your story, 2. how much monthly reading time members spend on your story, 3. the number of medium members you refer, tips for making money on medium, 1. find a niche, 2. focus on the storytelling process, 3. always put these three things in your opening, 4. share your stories, 5. don’t focus too much on medium memberships, more ways to make money on medium, blogging on medium vs. wordpress, pros and cons of writing for medium, the final word on how to make money on medium.
Before we talk too much about how to make money on Medium, I want to make sure you’re clear on what the platform is. So let me break it down for you…
Medium is an online publishing platform where anyone — and I mean anyone — can publish articles. It’s kind of like YouTube for writers.
I actually published stories (that’s what Medium calls articles) before officially starting my blog. I had no clue how to start a blog back then, but I had things to say. And that’s where Medium came in.
It’s free to write and read stories on Medium , but you need to be a Medium number to view an unlimited number of stories. Memberships are $5/month or $50/year — it’s these membership fees that pay writers, and this is how Medium makes money.
Back in 2012, when Medium was first launched by one of Twitter’s co-founders, it was an invite-only site. The purpose was to give writers more than Twitter’s standard 140 characters (that was the word count back in 2012) to share their ideas and stories.
Today, anyone can create an account on Medium and start writing.
Learning how to make money on Medium is more involved than creating an account and publishing some stories, but that’s what this guide is for. Let’s dive in!
Make $1,000 to $5,000/month as a freelance writer
Go from “I don’t know what I’m doing” to “I landed my first client!”
You need to be part of the Medium Partner Program to make money writing for Medium. Bonus, the program is completely free to sign up for.
Writers enrolled in the Medium Partner Program earn a portion of the money paid by Medium members. Members pay $5/month or $50/year and get to view and post unlimited stories on the platform.
While the Partner Program is free, there are two requirements:
- Have at least 100 followers
- Have published at least one story on Medium in the past
Once your account meets those requirements, you can join the Partner Program, but you still need to make your account eligible for payments. Basically, you allow Medium to put your articles behind a paywall.
Medium walks you through the process of putting your stories behind the paywall, but the majority of people will still be able to read your articles for free. In addition, non-members get to read a certain number of articles for free each month.
The idea is that the more time someone spends on Medium and reading your story, the more likely they are to pay for a membership. That’s why Medium essentially gives a few stories away to non-paying readers.
Back to how you make money on Medium…
For Medium writers enrolled in the Medium Partner Program, there are two ways your stories can get a portion of member payments:
- Total read time on your articles from Medium members
- Bonus earned when a non-member reader signs up within 30 days after reading your article
Writers used to get paid based on the number of “claps” their story receives, but Medium got rid of the pay-by-claps model in 2019. Claps are still important — an article with a lot of claps might get noticed by Medium curators — but they’re no longer essential.
It’s recommended that writers also become members because you can post an unlimited number of stories per day, read as much as you want, and get a sense of what’s popular.
I know that’s a lot of pieces, but here’s the TL;DR version of how people make money on Medium:
- Join Medium’s Partner Program for free
- Publish at least one story and get to 100 followers
- Make your stories eligible to earn money
- Earn a portion of member payments
Medium has a couple of ways it rewards writers with outstanding content. A really stellar article can earn you a bonus payment, which is typically a $100 payment. There aren’t clear guidelines for what warrants a bonus payment, but it’s decided by Medium’s human editors.
There are also a couple of ways Medium sets apart exceptional content:
- Curated: A curated article is one editors have decided is high-quality enough to be recommended in one or more topics.
- Featured: Featured articles are a big deal — Medium gives your story the front-page treatment, and it’s a huge honor.
Like bonus payments, Medium isn’t clear on what stories become curated or featured, but these are a big deal for writers. It almost guarantees there will be more eyes on your writing, and that means more money.
The vast majority of Medium writers earn under $100 a month. So making a full-time living writing on Medium isn’t in the cards for most people. The reality is that most people won’t even make enough to cover their student loan payments.
Here’s what Medium has to say about writer pay:
- The very top writers, less than 1% of Medium writers, make $5,000 to $30,000 a month
- It took most of the top writers 1 to 2 years of writing for Medium before they were making that much
- Around 94% of writers earn under $100/month
- Around 6% of writers made some money — that only means more than $0
Writing for Medium isn’t a way to get rich quickly. It’s entirely possible to earn money from Medium, but it’s a long game.
Remember, Medium pays writers based on how long a reader spends reading an article, and writers also earn money when a new reader signs up for membership within 30 days of reading their article.
But here are more details on how earnings are calculated:
Medium doesn’t give an exact formula, but the more time spent reading your stories = more money.
Medium shows you stats about your story’s daily total member reading time and daily earnings. In addition, they calculate reading time from both members and non-members, especially because if non-members become a member within 30 days, Medium includes this in your reading time.
This is how Medium rewards writers with loyal readers. For example, if you have a reader who spends 10% of their monthly reading time on one of your stories, you earn 10% of their subscription fee.
This typically works out well for writers who find a niche topic and build their following based on that niche.
This is straightforward: Medium pays you half of that new reader’s membership fee (after processing fees) for every new member you refer. You earn that portion of their membership fees if their plan remains active.
Now that you understand how to make money on Medium, here are some tips for success.
Because Medium rewards writers with loyal readers, niching down is highly beneficial. You want to stay away from too broad topics and find your loyal readers through something more specific. It can be anything, like fly fishing, freelance writing, small business marketing, etc.
It’s just much easier to become an authority or familiar voice in a niche than a writer trying to connect with a broad audience.
Medium articles are called stories for a reason. Stories are far more compelling than dry articles that read like research papers. You want to speak to readers as if they are in the room listening to you. That may mean writing in the first person or adding your personal experiences.
Because reading time is so important, three things will help keep readers on the page:
- An eye-catching headline. Grab their attention the minute they see your article
- Solid opening paragraph. Here’s where you begin to show value.
- Interesting, authoritative lead-in. Let the readers know you have a way with words, and this is going to be a great read all the way to the end
You should definitely share your stories on social media, with your email list, your blog followers, and so on. And make it easy for those people to share your Medium stories from there.
People who already have some loyalty to you are more likely to stay on the page for the entire article, and that’s one of the major factors in how to make money on Medium.
Converting your readers into paying Medium members pays, but most writers aren’t earning a meaningful income this way. Honestly, it feels a little spammy to push readers too hard into buying a membership.
Pushing people hard into membership may be a turn-off. They will definitely have an opportunity to sign up when they read your articles without you pushing them.
What I really like about Medium is that it presents opportunities for growth, and that means you’re not limited to how Medium pays you.
Here are even more ways to make money with Medium:
- Affiliate income: Medium allows content with affiliate links, meaning you can share links to Amazon or any other affiliates. Those links need to be meaningful, so share them appropriately.
- Freelance writing opportunities: If you want to become a freelance writer , Medium can help you get started. The platform can act as a portfolio and present future opportunities.
- Promote your blog: Medium allows for a wide readership, and they allow you to share outside links. This gives you a great opportunity to promote a blog.
- Promote your business: For entrepreneurs, Medium can present multiple ways to make money — it gives you a niche topic to write about and you can link to your business for free.
If you’re thinking about starting a blog, Medium sounds like the perfect place to get started. It’s free, easy-to-use, and anyone can start writing. Heck, I started my blog on Medium, and now it’s what I do for a living.
But, my experience blogging leads me to believe that blogging on WordPress is better than Medium.
Medium has a lot going for it — you can share affiliate links, it’s free, and Medium pays you several ways. But WordPress has far more benefits:
- There are more ways to make money. You can make money through sponsored posts, affiliate links, display ads, selling your own products, and more.
- Your blog is fully customizable. Medium has customization limits, but you can do virtually anything you want with a WordPress blog. There are free themes to start, but you can pay for more options when you’re ready.
- It’s easier to build an email list. Your email list is gold. And a WordPress blog makes it easy to create a sign-up form and grab readers’ emails. Medium now has tools for list building (Medium introduced them in 2021), but it’s limited.
Ready to start a blog?
Start a WordPress blog hosted on Bluehost for less than $3/month. That’s less than the cost of a latte!
- It’s free. There are $0 hosting fees, domain fees, or any other fees related to writing on Medium. It’s recommended that you pay the $5/month membership fee, but you don’t have to.
- Huge readership. Medium gives you the opportunity for your writing to be seen by millions of readers.
- No technical components. Medium makes it simple — you just write. You don’t have to worry about SEO or setting up a blog.
- You can export articles. Medium gives you the ability to export stories you’ve publied on the platform as HTML files. This means you can start writing for Medium and eventually publish them on your blog.
- There’s a lot of competition. There are thousands of articles published every day on Medium, and it can be difficult for new writers to get noticed
- The traffic isn’t yours. Medium’s paying subscribers belong to Medium, even if they’ve signed up through one of your articles.
- Low pay. The vast majority of Medium writers make less than $100/month, and only the top 1% of Medium writers earn the equivalent of full-time pay.
Medium makes it incredibly simple to start writing for their site, but the making money part will take a little more time.
The first thing you need to do is sign up for the Medium Partner Program. It’s completely free, and anyone can sign up and start writing.
I was pretty quick to pivot from writing on Medium to blogging because blogging is far more lucrative, and you have total control of your content. Those were huge deal breakers for me, and it’s worked out well. I’ve grown a 7-figure business from this site, and I don’t know if that wouldn’t have been possible on Medium.
Want to learn how to start your own blog, check out How to Start a Blog in 2022: The Easy Step-by-Step Guide .
Medium writers average $15 to $30 for every 1,000 views, but Medium doesn’t per view — they pay by read time. So while those views help, you want to focus on keeping readers on the page because that’s where the real money comes from.
Medium can be worth it for new writers, but it honestly depends on your goals. If you want to build your writing stamina and develop your niche, then Medium could be a good starting point. But to make money writing, blogging or freelance writing can be far more lucrative.
While it’s possible to make $100/month or more, less than 10% of Medium writers make less than that each month.
Yes, you can make money on Medium, but it’s a long game. You need to sign up for Medium’s Partner Program to start making money, which is how you earn money when Medium members read your articles.
Medium pays by reading time, not per read. So the more people read your stuff, the more money you earn. That’s the simple explanation.
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December 19, 2022 Posted in: Freelance Writing • Freelancing
About Millennial Money Man
Bobby Hoyt is a former band director who paid off $40,000 of student loan debt in 18 months on his teaching salary and then left his job to run Millennial Money Man full-time. He helps other Millennials earn more through side hustles, save more through budgeting tools and apps, and pay off debt. He is a personal finance expert who has been seen on Forbes, Reuters, MarketWatch, CNBC, International Business Times, Business Insider, US News, Yahoo Finance, and many other personal finance and entrepreneurship media outlets.
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How to Make Money on Medium: An In-Depth Guide for Beginners
By Shane Dayton
Last updated: May 4, 2022
When you buy something through one of the links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Learning how to make money on Medium as a freelance writer is actually easier than you might imagine. The barrier to entry is low, meaning you have an opportunity to build a long-term passive income from your Medium articles if you are willing to put in the work.
There aren't many really strong websites left that are considered web 2.0 or have an open writer policy.
Medium.com is one of those exceptions.
In fact, they are widely regarded as an incredibly strong website that provides a wide array of opportunities thanks to their 80-100 million monthly visitors. That's a whole lot of traffic no matter who you are!
Writers have the ability to join the Medium Partner Program, which allows them to make revenue off of their articles. This is an exciting opportunity for many individuals. Especially those who enjoy writing or are passionate about sharing their subject.
Want an entire course that teaches you how to grow an audience and make money on Medium? Try this full Medium Course right here .
What Is Medium?
The clap system has changed, the new medium payment system, importing stories, subscribers vs. non-subscribers, reading time, bonus payments, curated & featured, affiliate marketing, driving traffic, promotion & seo, two main paths, learn from those who have done it, verdict: can you make money on medium.
Medium is a strong publishing platform that has thrived at a time when many other writer-generated sites have struggled. Especially ones with a wide range of topics and interests.
Featuring massive traffic, a pay wall that Medium writers have the option of putting content behind (or they can make it freely accessible 100% of the time), and a strong push on revenue through membership, the Medium publication is very unique and has created a remarkable online reach. And they pay their writers!
That means opportunities for content creators looking for another way to diversify their income.
In addition to the main site, Medium also has “Publications.” These are online “shared spaces” under the Medium brand that act as online magazines run by Medium itself. Medium publications are topic-based and open to many writers.
Or in some rare instances a one-writer game.
There are over 10,000 publications on Medium, some of which have hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors all on their own.
They do a good job covering all of this in their blogging guide found here .
This umbrella of publishing and the massive number of paid subscribers buying into the value that Medium offers helps them to make a really unique online space. One where the writers who contribute have opportunities not only for attention and traffic but can also earn money on Medium.
Many Medium writers have done very well doing just that!
How Writing on Medium Works
The first step to making money on Medium is signing up as a writer and joining the Medium Partner Program. This isn't difficult.
Sign up is easy because they are open to new writers. You do need to have a bank account or debit card that you can attach to your Medium account to receive payments. Actual payments come via Stripe.
This does mean that you must be based in a country that supports Stripe to receive payments. While Stripe is a growing company that serves a solid number of countries around the globe, they're not worldwide as of this writing. That means you'll need to check to see if your home address qualifies or not.
If you live in a country that Stripe does not serve yet, unfortunately, there really isn't a workaround for that, at least at this point in time. They don't send checks, so all transactions have to be through Stripe to a bank account.
If you are based in a Stripe-friendly country, then you can sign up for the Partnership program right away. I was paid as a Partner for my very first article published on Medium. Writers are paid once a month, almost always by the 8 th .
Getting signed up is easy as the Medium Partner Program definitely focuses on getting talented writers ready to get up and writing on Medium as quickly as possible. This is great because it makes it easy to get started writing. That means getting started earning money.
Payments used to be determined by a combination of the number of claps from subscribers, and how many claps each subscriber gave in a month. That would divide their $5 subscription into a portion that would be paid to every article that received a clap from them.
You no longer earn money on a per clap basis on Medium. While claps are still there, they aren't quite as important as they used to be. As of fall 2019, they are no longer a part of the equation to figure out how much Medium writers get paid.
Claps are still important. Medium pays attention to them to see what types of articles their subscribers pay attention to and applaud. Publications within the Medium umbrella do the same thing. They are also a decent indication of whether you are on the right track while writing on this platform or not.
A story receiving a high percentage of early claps might get more attention from curators, who work to promote good pieces of content in an effort to get the best Medium stories more attention. This can happen even with your first article.
In fact, this is exactly what happened with the first article I wrote for Medium.
Now the important stat is read time from paying subscribers . Many writers actually like this shift as it does two things.
- It rewards long reading time whether you're an established writer on Medium or a beginning one
- This also rewards longer articles that writers have put a lot of time into
Admittedly, my first article would probably have paid much more on the new system. The highlighted sections in the screenshot below from my first article show these two important stats and where they'll appear on the article.
By focusing on creating high quality content Medium readers will read all the way through; you'll be set up for success. You get paid from these stats now. You also put yourself in a position to get your story curated or even featured.
Medium does the heavy lifting getting traffic for their active writers. That lets you focus on your writing.
While advertising your articles on social media like Twitter, YouTube, or Facebook can be a great way to get some attention, it's the pre-existing traffic that can really work to your advantage.
Medium does offer an interesting option of “importing” stories that you use elsewhere. This means you can conceivably write something for LinkedIn and publish that same piece on Medium. Or even a blog post on your own website.
This can be a good tool for someone who has to handle their content creation on their own and want to expand outreach.
For true beginners, Medium almost certainly is going to have a larger reach. A new writer can get curated or featured if their piece is good enough.
However, there are legitimate concerns with this strategy, and it's not going to be right for everyone.
For individuals building themselves as a brand, creating expertise for something like a speaking career, or for those who just want to get the word out period, this can be a useful way to get the most out of every piece of content.
For many other marketers, while this can be interesting, the drawbacks may not be worth the time savings. Still, this is an interesting little feature that most user-generated content sites don't allow.
Making Money on Medium
Medium is not an article directory. This is very important to understand up front. This isn't like an advanced version of the old article directories that used to spam up the internet wherever you looked.
Medium also isn't a substitute for an affiliate site. The product heavy top-10 lists aren't going to gain traction here because that's NOT what the millions upon millions of readers there are looking for.
Medium is an online publication that really does focus on quality writing. Readers come for articles that read like you could find them in a magazine. They like informational articles. They like personal experience articles.
Quality definitely gets rewarded over quantity in a Medium article.
When you write an article for Medium you have a choice between keeping it open for everyone, or keeping it locked behind a Medium paywall. While it might seem like a good idea to keep the article open for everyone to see, there are actually several reasons to re-think this.
The first important detail to understand is not all views and read times count towards getting paid for an article. Only those from readers who pay the $5 monthly description count towards getting paid for your article.
While it might seem counter-intuitive, keeping your content locked behind the subscriber paywall can actually result in getting more traffic and more attention than you otherwise would.
Medium heavily promotes its content behind the paywall. This means more marketing, more promotion, and if a piece is going to be curated or featured it will almost certainly be among those articles that are for paying subscribers. In other words, by focusing on keeping your Medium stories where you can receive direct payment for them you might also be getting the largest number of possible views.
Reading time matters whether you are trying to make money from Medium directly from getting paid for the writing, or you're going to use Medium to drive traffic to a website or promote your expertise/services. The more attention you can get, the better.
This means focusing on three major parts of the beginning of your Medium article:
- Snappy eye-catching headline.
- Solid opening paragraph.
- Interesting, authoritative lead-in.
You want the snappy headlines to catch attention. Then the solid first paragraph is to draw readers in and up those read times. Those are great, but then that follow up lead-in paragraph needs to show value to your readers.
If you can show early and often you know how to tell a story with words, then you're going to get a lot more out of the Medium platform.
You're also going to see much larger and more consistent direct payments from writing.
Bonus payments actually are a thing on Medium. Sometimes when someone writes a really outstanding article, the human editors behind Medium want to reward it. There aren't a lot of clear guidelines on what constitutes a bonus payment.
The feeling is that there isn't a clear system or set in stone set of standards. But sometimes a bonus payment is given to an article that an editor or reviewer finds particularly outstanding.
These bonus payments on Medium members are generally $100 flat from what most writers report who have received them.
Payments to the Medium Partner Program members are not instantaneous. They are paid out once per month when payment is made for the rest of the writer's monetary earnings for that month.
While this can't be counted on as a consistent source of income it is a possibility that is always out there.
There are two terms that come up a lot on Medium when describing articles: curated and featured. So what do these mean?
An article that is curated is one that is seen as high quality enough that an editor decides to have your post recommended in one (or multiple) topics. This gives it a bit more exposure and allows you to be found by readers perusing actual topics on the Medium site.
How long you've been writing for Medium doesn't matter: your very first article can be curated if it's good enough.
Case in point:
Being featured is much harder to pull off, but it's a big deal if you can.
This means a well-written article hits the right notes with what is trending at the time and the tastes of whatever editor is reviewing your work. If you're featured, you're just that: featured. You get a big front page push and that is incredibly profitable for writers who managed to snag one of those honors.
Affiliate links are allowed on Medium. While spammy content can be penalized and writers banned, including an affiliate link is allowed. Make sure you provide quality content that Medium readers will enjoy.
You do need to disclose in the article that the links are affiliate in nature and that you get compensated for any purchases made through the links.
As with any affiliate marketing links, these work best when put in excellent content that builds trust and authority. If you can do this in an article, then you might just be able to harness Medium's amazing traffic to get some solid sales off a well-placed link.
Direct affiliate sales can be another way of monetizing articles on Medium. The other option you can pick is to use your writing skills and the platform's traffic to drive traffic to an affiliate website you own.
One of the strong points of Medium is the ability to drive traffic. Because of the sheer amount of traffic the site sees, a single article that gets a lot of attention can end up sending a large number of potential visitors to a website.
Driving traffic is one of the strongest potential ways of using Medium. Traffic here can be used to go to a website offering your services for sale, an e-book, or even an affiliate site. This is in addition to any SEO benefits or reputation building benefits that come from appearing on Medium.
Medium can make money for marketers by being part of online promotion or SEO efforts. There aren't many websites high in trust and authority that are just open to writers. While that is the main site versus your article URL, a link from Medium is in your control because you can write the article.
A link from Medium might not be the strongest in the world. At least in terms of pure SEO punch, but it's a link that you can build and get for yourself on a site that is recognized as an authority by Google. There's no denying that there's at least some value in that!
Medium is a high-traffic platform. Writing well enough to get Medium stories curated or even featured could be big for your earnings. Even beyond that, the boost in readers could turn into a major boost in awareness of who you are and what services you offer.
There are generally two main paths for making money on Medium, and it's possible to combine the two to some extent. The first is the writing route. For individuals who are very good writers but struggle with affiliate marketing or building niche websites , Medium can be a great way to build a writing portfolio they can actually make consistent income off of.
Direct income paid by Medium is the first main path for income.
The second is using Medium to drive traffic and boost your web properties.
This is driving traffic to your website, increasing your online reach, and even boosting your reputation. Whether you're trying to build your profile or drive masses of traffic, both can be done by writing high quality articles on Medium.
In that scenario, the money is made from converting the traffic your drive from Medium.
Is Full-Time Income from Medium Possible?
There are a lot of numbers out there on Medium earnings, and a full-time income is indeed possible.
A majority of writers are not making that at this point. But that doesn't mean the potential isn't there. There are many ways to earn money from Medium. Whether as a writer first by nature or a marketer with some writing talent.
There's likely something at Medium for you.
For talented writers who also work hard to learn affiliate marketing and build passive income through building sites, they can make a full-time income using multiple strategies for both writing great articles and driving traffic while picking up the occasional affiliate sale.
The majority of writers are not making a full-time income on Medium based on released numbers. In fact, only a very small total number are, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible!
Even for those who see Medium as mainly a way to promote other sites or as a side hustle, there are a lot of potential benefits that come from working with this platform.
While the high end numbers are impressive, only 10% of total writers make above $100 a month and even fewer make a full-time living. Then again, there are writers making five figures on Medium: so it's possible.
There are many great articles right on Medium about how to make money on Medium. In fact, it's safe to say that it's one of the favorite topics for writers and readers alike.
Articles like this , this , or this all give some insight into where each percentage falls. As well as how the writers are doing. Keep in mind that with any site that signs up writers, a good 50% of them often write a couple articles (if that) and then never again. This can make the earnings reports seem worse than they actually are.
That being said, it takes work and skill to make serious money on Medium.
For those good writers intrigued by what the site has to offer you can save yourself a lot of time, and a lot of trial and error, by taking a look at this Medium Writing Course put together by a successful Medium writer making a very healthy living writing just for Medium.
Learning how to earn money writing on the Medium platform from those who have already done well increases your chances of quickly earning money for your efforts.
Absolutely. The site is really open about the numbers. If a new writer just writes a single story, the chances of making money is really small. As with any blogging platform the key to becoming a successful writer is to write quality content. And a lot of it.
Stay persistent as a writer, do a little social media promotion, and your Medium earnings will build over time. Maybe even to a full-time passive income if you stick with it.
There will be surges here and there during your Medium writing career. Some articles will take off. Others may struggle. Every successful Medium writer will experience this. The key is persistence.
There are not many writers who make a full-time living from writing for Medium. That being said, there are hundreds who have managed to do so already. That number continues to grow as more writers find everything that Medium has to offer. Writers can write articles and earn money every month by doing so.
There are many opportunities to make money writing from Medium. While most individuals do this through direct writing payments there are other options. Affiliate links in articles are a viable option. So is driving traffic to money-making websites.
All of these are viable ways to get paid as a freelance writer on Medium.
There are plenty of options here. While this might not be for everyone, for strong writers in particular making income from Medium can be a great way to take advantage of those skills.
Shane has been a full-time writer since 2005. Shane has a degree in English & Creative Writing from Coe College (2002) and an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction Emphasis) from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (2007).
Shane spent years using his online writing skills to earn a living online and live the life of a digital nomad. After learning about affiliate marketing and SEO he has since created several niche sites to further increase his business income.
Want to learn step-by-step how I built my Niche Site Empire up to a full-time income?
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Money is an essential aspect of life that we can’t take for granted in the society we live in today. Money can enrich our lives and put us into a position to enrich others. If we use our money smartly and intentionally, it has the power to ...
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Amounts and values of money can be written using words, numbers and/or symbols. In North America, the dollar symbol is $ and the cent symbol is ?. For example, one quarter can be written in words as “twenty-five cents” or in numbers and sym...
Get accepted, celebrate. ... To start earning, publish stories with the meter my story box checked.
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Medium generates revenue from user subscriptions that cost $5 a month or $50 a year. With this tiny contribution, the Medium publishing platform
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The Partnership Program: This is Medium's payment method. Writers can sign up for the partnership program and put all of their content behind Medium's paywall.
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Writers enrolled in the Medium Partner Program earn a portion of the money paid by Medium members. Members pay $5/month or $50/year and get to
The first step to making money on Medium is signing up as a writer and joining the Medium Partner Program. This isn't difficult. Sign up is easy