Questioning the right way to use Medium and the right way to make cash on Medium? You’ve landed on the proper place.
I began writing on Medium in 2016 when running a blog was my interest. A number of months later, I spotted the financial potential of this running a blog platform, and it’s confirmed to be a fantastic begin for my writing profession.
Though I ditched Medium years in the past to solely give attention to my weblog, it’s nonetheless one of many best blogging platforms to make money in 2024 — particularly for the budding writers.
On this information, I’ll present you the most effective methods to make cash on Medium, the right way to successfully use Medium, and what I’ve realized within the years utilizing the platform.
Right here’s what this information covers:
What’s Medium?
Medium is a social publishing platform that’s open to all customers and residential to a various array of tales, concepts, and views. Anybody can write for the platform, so it is nice for novices.
Well-liked matters on Medium vary from psychological well being to social media, from world affairs and trending information to productiveness hacks. This makes it a strong selection for anybody who desires to begin running a blog.
As Medium founder (and Blogger creator/Twitter co-founder) Ev Williams wrote when he launched the platform in 2012: “Medium isn’t about who you’re or whom you recognize, however about what you must say.”
How does Medium work?
The very first thing you may discover on the Medium web site is its web site design.
As former HubSpot Senior Content material Strategist Erik Devaney says, “It is minimalistic, that includes numerous white house and restricted formatting choices. Need to change the header typeface to Comedian Sans? You possibly can’t. Medium will not permit for such atrocities of design.”
This determination makes nice writing the main focus. However that is simply one in every of many nuances of Medium.
Medium is for 2 sorts of folks — writers and readers — who’re targeted on on-line content material publishing. Once I began my profession in content material writing and technique, I wasn‘t positive what that meant.
I found Medium as a result of I used to be attempting to determine the place to construct my writing portfolio. I’d heard Medium was a sensible choice, however the first time I signed up, I wasn’t positive the right way to use it.
Should you‘re simply getting began on the platform, there’s a good quantity to study earlier than you hit publish. Let’s get into it.
High quality Results in Discovery
Many writers go years with out sharing their writing publicly. However when you resolve to develop into a author, whether or not you are ending a primary novel or writing content material for manufacturers, you could discover a solution to share your abilities.
Medium is nice for writers who make investments time and vitality of their work. It rewards in-depth, well-researched, and helpful articles, not simply reputation or model consciousness.
Platform-Enabled Reader Engagement
Feedback and likes are standard in on-line media. However if you‘re new to writing, it’s useful to know precisely what individuals are responding to and why.
To satisfy this want, Medium offers readers an opportunity to spotlight and remark instantly throughout the textual content of every article. This course of is like the best way skilled editors interact with writers.
Curation and Publications
Medium has curators who evaluate articles for high quality. If a curator chooses your article for wider distribution, it offers you an opportunity to introduce your content material to extra readers.
This would possibly embody highlighting your article on the platform, exhibiting your put up to readers they suppose will need to learn it, or including it to subscriber emails.
Most curators are publication editors. A few of the most popular publications on Medium in 2023 embody:
- The Startup.
- In direction of Information Science.
- Private Development.
- UX Collective.
- The Writing Cooperative.
Medium’s curation and publication fashions aren’t simply nice for writers. In addition they give avid readers and followers an opportunity to help their favourite writers.
Paid Alternatives
Medium additionally offers writers the possibility to earn cash with their tales. As a member of the Associate Program, you’ll be able to put tales behind a paywall to earn earnings.
On this program, you’ll be able to improve earnings with repeat readers, engagement alerts, and extra.
Writing for Medium
Anybody who has a Medium account can write for Medium — there is no different vetting course of concerned.
To get began, merely sign up for a free Medium account (or improve to a $5/month membership for limitless entry), and also you’re prepared to begin writing from there.
It’s necessary to know that articles should adhere to Medium‘s content material pointers and guidelines. As an example, as a author I can’t promote controversial or excessive content material on my Medium account. I can‘t do third-party promoting. And there’s a separate set of insurance policies if I need to write about cryptocurrencies.
Online marketing hyperlinks are allowed, however writers should inform their viewers that they are together with these hyperlinks. For the complete record of guidelines for content material, check out this put up on Medium Rules.
As a marketer, Medium presents a possibility so that you can attain a brand new viewers together with your content material. The platform is open, so some matters lean towards sharing longer-form, extra well-thought-out content material, whereas others are quick and topic-focused.
On this approach, Medium is like advertising and marketing on many different channels, as a result of success in writing for Medium is not nearly nice writing. It takes some analysis into audiences and publications in a selected space of curiosity. So, what makes Medium a fantastic channel for writers?
Within the subsequent part, I’m going to get into the subject above, and speak about how I selected between Medium and WordPress.
Medium vs. WordPress
This put up presents an exceptional breakdown of WordPress vs. Medium for pricing, running a blog, and search engine optimisation from a enterprise perspective. So, I need to use this house to share my private expertise with the 2 platforms.
How I’ve Used WordPress as a Content material Author
I labored with a designer to construct my private web site on WordPress and constructed a separate aspect challenge by myself with Elementor.
I‘ve additionally used WordPress professionally as a content material supervisor and freelance author. Altogether, I’ve been utilizing the platform for six+ years to create and promote content material.
WordPress is a wonderful platform for sharing content material on-line inexpensively. It additionally makes it straightforward so as to add plugins, options, and instruments to attach my websites to different related channels, like social media feeds or fee gateways.
I like WordPress as a content material author as a result of it lets me run impartial websites on-line that I can use to check concepts earlier than extensively broadcasting them.
That stated, it took years of studying about SEO (SEO) to start producing site visitors on my private websites.
With the speedy latest adjustments in search engine optimisation, I have been investing extra time in researching social channels for advertising and marketing and promotion.
How I’ve Used Medium as a Content material Author
As you’ll be able to see above, I selected to go along with WordPress for my portfolio. However, I began utilizing Medium after I was managing content material for a small ecommerce startup.
I used to be searching for efficient methods to advertise content material for our weblog. I wished a channel that might assist broaden the affect of the wonderful writers on my group. So, we began with Medium.
I requested writers on my three-person group to jot down an authentic piece for Medium as soon as a month along with their scheduled weblog assignments.
Whereas some posts sat on our model’s Medium web page with out a lot traction, a couple of grabbed precious consideration. Particularly, we had essentially the most success with posts that we submitted to standard publications on the positioning.
For instance, I submitted this put up about Ecommerce Easter Eggs to the Marketing and Entrepreneurship publication curated by Larry Kim, and Bryce Patterson submitted this piece on the content writing process to the publication The Writing Cooperative.
These publications have devoted audiences, which helped us present our writing to extra folks and construct followers for our branded Medium account.
WordPress vs. Medium — which is best for you?
Whereas these are each wonderful platforms to showcase writing, they’re fairly totally different. I exploit each platforms, however I spend extra time on WordPress due to my targets as a creator.
However many writers will discover that Medium is the most effective platform for them due to its give attention to author discovery, monetization, and community-building.
At this level, it’s possible you’ll be able to strive utilizing Medium. Let’s take step one.
Use Medium
- Create an account.
- Observe folks, publications, and matters.
- Advocate, share, and bookmark content material.
- Spotlight particular phrases.
- Write responses.
- Format textual content in your posts.
- Add pictures and media.
- Share drafts and publish posts.
- Measure your outcomes.
Getting Began With Medium
1. Create an account.
Anybody can view free Medium content material. However to publish and work together with of us on the platform, you could have an account and log in.
So, step one is creating an account. Signing up was tremendous straightforward for me.
I headed to Medium.com and clicked the “Get began” button on the high of the web page. From there I had three totally different sign-up choices to select from: Google, Fb, or e mail.
I used my Gmail account to create an account first, which was tremendous quick and easy. They even made including my identify to my profile straightforward, as a result of it auto-filled primarily based on my e mail.
I additionally arrange a separate account, this time signing up with e mail. All I wanted to do was click on a hyperlink in my e mail to finish setup, and the method was in any other case the identical.
Throughout sign-up, it helped to keep in mind that Medium is a component social media. It‘s not only a platform to jot down blogs, it’s an area to share, remark, and curate content material inside a neighborhood.
So, I felt like some components of the sign-up, like selecting matters, felt extra like signing up for Twitter (X) or Pinterest than creating an account on a running a blog platform.
I like conserving my running a blog and social media accounts separate, however Erik Devaney recommends signing up for Medium utilizing Fb.
He says, “That approach your entire present connections from Fb who’re on Medium will mechanically be following your account as soon as it is created. This protects you the difficulty of getting to construct up a brand new viewers solely from scratch.”
No matter what you go along with to begin, you’ll be able to all the time hyperlink your Twitter (X), Mastodon, or Fb to your Medium account later within the “Safety and apps” tab within the Settings menu.
The Settings menu can be the place you’ll be able to replace your username, profile web page URL, profile design, and extra. You too can management what e mail notifications you obtain from Medium on this menu.
To finish my profile, I added a photograph and wrote up a brief (160-character max) bio for my Medium profile web page.
I exploit the identical bio throughout my social media accounts, so I simply copied and pasted this from my Instagram account, emojis and all.
2. Observe folks, publications, and matters.
In a Medium feed, the content material that‘s surfaced comes not solely from the accounts of the folks and organizations you comply with but in addition from publications and tags.
What’s extra, when trying to find content material on Medium, folks, publications, and matters all present up within the outcomes.
Individuals
First, work out who you need to comply with. Whose writing do you need to learn? Who’s making content material you’ll be able to study from as you start your new writing journey?
There‘s all kinds of writers on the platform, and I’m fascinated about slightly little bit of every little thing, so this step was fast to finish.
Whether or not you are fascinated about politics or people-watching, computer science or world travel, you are prone to discover some writers you need to comply with too.
Publications
Medium publications are collections of tales primarily based round a typical theme. Anybody can create them — your self included — and the best way they work is pretty simple.
Because the creator of a publication, you are an editor by default. This implies you’ve the power to:
- Add writers to your publication.
- Edit and publish the tales submitted by your writers.
- Evaluate the metrics for all of the tales which can be a part of your publication.
Because the publication‘s creator, you’ll even have the power to nominate new editors (to allow them to do all that stuff I simply talked about).
Making a publication is simple to do. First, I wanted to submit fee to develop into a Medium member.
Then, I clicked on my profile picture within the high proper, and scrolled right down to “Handle publications.” A pop-up appeared, and I clicked “Create a brand new publication.”
This led to a brand new web page the place I wanted to enter data on the identify, description, social accounts, and subject for my publication. I additionally wanted pictures prepared so as to add an avatar and emblem.
The avatar picture seems on featured pages round Medium, whereas the emblem picture seems on the homepage of the publication. You possibly can find out about picture sizes for these necessities and extra in this Medium post.
As soon as I completed coming into this data, I had an opportunity to create a customized design for the house web page of my new publication.
This publication will give me an opportunity to not solely share my very own writing, but in addition join with different writers on the matters I care about.
Matters
As soon as referred to as “Tags,” Matters are the hashtags of the Medium ecosystem. Once you publish a narrative on Medium, you get the choice so as to add as much as 5 matters, which seem on the backside of your story.
So, after I click on a subject it brings me to a web page the place I can see extra tales with the identical subject. It additionally offers me ideas for different matters I is perhaps fascinated about.
As an alternative of surfacing content material primarily based solely on the social graph (for instance, the folks/publications you comply with), Medium makes use of matters to floor content material that is primarily based on particular pursuits.
For instance, this article from Beth Dunn, a latest Advertising and marketing Fellow at HubSpot, consists of 5 matters:
- Consumer expertise.
- UX writing.
- UX design.
- Inclusive design.
- Content material technique.
Following matters like these may also help personalize my Medium expertise and make it simpler for my readers to search out extra of my content material.
Now that I‘ve arrange an account, began following some accounts, constructed a publication, and adopted some matters, let’s begin partaking with content material.
Work together With Medium Content material
1. Advocate, share, and bookmark content material.
Clapping arms are the “Like” of the Medium world. It is a solution to present that you just help and admire the content material that somebody has shared.
When studying a narrative on Medium, you’ll be able to help it at each the highest and the underside of the particular story, the place you see the clapping hand image.
In both case, I simply click on on the clapping hand icon to help a narrative. As soon as clicked, the arms will change from a top level view to strong black.
The primary time I supported a narrative, I unintentionally clicked the quantity beside the clapping arms icon. This was a cheerful accident as a result of it let me see the complete record of people that advisable that story.
Word: You possibly can clap as much as 50 occasions per put up, and you may clap for as many posts as you need.
Once you suggest a narrative, the author, by default, will obtain an e mail notification. (However that‘s one thing you’ll be able to management in Settings). The extra help a narrative receives, the extra probably it’s to be shared across the Medium community.
Tales that obtain essentially the most likes inside a given time interval get featured on Medium’s residence web page.
In the identical two areas the place you’ll be able to suggest a narrative, you may as well save, hearken to, or share that story.
To avoid wasting a narrative I wished to spend extra time studying, I clicked the bookmark icon, and it saved the story to my studying record. I also can create particular studying lists on this a part of the platform.
To pay attention, I simply clicked the play icon, however if you wish to use this function, it‘s good to know that it’s for members solely. Lastly, I shared the story by copying the hyperlink or sharing it on LinkedIn, Twitter (X), or Fb.
Once you bookmark a narrative, it’ll seem in your studying record, which you’ll be able to entry out of your Medium profile web page or from the Medium homepage on the backside of the right-hand sidebar.
2. Spotlight particular phrases.
Now that I understand how to help, share, and bookmark Medium tales, it is time to unlock a second degree of interplay. I do that by choosing sections of textual content with my cursor.
As soon as I spotlight some textual content, a pop-up menu will seem that provides me 4 choices:
Spotlight
Clicking the highlighter icon (highlighter image) places a inexperienced spotlight across the textual content I chosen. That is seen to my Medium followers. By default, a narrative’s author will get a notification when anybody highlights a piece of their tales.
Response
Clicking the speech bubble icon lets me write a response to the story I‘m studying. The part of textual content I’ve highlighted seems on the high of my response. (Extra on responses in a second.)
Textual content Shot
Clicking the Twitter icon generates a “Text Shot,” which is a tweet that mechanically pulls within the textual content I highlighted as a screenshot.
Non-public Word
Some tales can even present a lock icon in a speech bubble. Clicking this icon lets me ship the author a non-public be aware. Should you don‘t see this icon, it’s as a result of the creator has turned off personal notes.
You possibly can select this on or off in your settings, however I selected to go away it on as a result of I learn that editors sometimes use private notes to offer feedback to writers earlier than publishing.
3. Write responses
Not like conventional weblog feedback, Medium responses are treated as individual stories. Apart from showing on the backside of the tales I reply to, I also can publish my responses to my profile web page.
That is useful for me as a result of it lets me interact with folks on the platform with out having to decide to writing a full-blown story. It additionally helps me give you blog ideas or tales.
Medium’s method to responses offers feedback the potential to take off and get circulated identical to conventional tales.
A fast be aware: Responses are engagement alerts on the Medium platform. And, responding is a tip that reveals up in lots of articles about the right way to promote your writing on Medium.
For me, this makes it necessary to reply genuinely. Whereas responses are a solution to improve my visibility on the platform, I work to be considerate within the methods I help and interact with the writers I reply to.
Write and Publish on Medium
1. Format textual content in your posts
Prepared to begin writing my first Medium put up, I click on “Write” on the high right-hand nook of the Medium residence web page. I also can get there by clicking on my profile icon on the top-right of the Medium web page after which scrolling to “Tales.”
I can create a brand new story by clicking the inexperienced “Write a narrative” button. That motion pulls up a display that is prepared for my content material that appears like this:
As Erik Devaney says, “Writing in Medium’s editor is very intuitive and — from a stylistic perspective — practically unimaginable to screw up.”
As standard, it’s the writing that’s robust, however a instrument may also help with the main points. Once I write, I typically use a template, like one in every of these free blog templates.
Then, I copy and paste my writing into my chosen publishing platform. Medium makes this step straightforward. It retains hyperlinks and different formatting from pasted textual content.
If I need to make a change to the textual content, All I’ve to do is spotlight a piece to disclose a number of primary format decisions corresponding to daring, italics, or hyperlinking. It additionally lets me designate textual content as an H1 or as an H2 utilizing the massive T or little t:
And I can select between two totally different types of block quotes —
Possibility A:
Or Possibility B:
If I actually need to get fancy, I exploit Medium’s drop caps operate.
Know these enlarged, stylized letters you generally see firstly of sentences? These are drop caps. In response to the Medium team, they’re helpful for “pacing, beginning a brand new chapter, or just a bit typographical delight.”
Another choice for creating some separation between totally different sections of a narrative in Medium is to make use of a separator. To insert one, I click on the little plus icon that seems on an empty line of a narrative:
Clicking that plus icon will open up a menu with six choices. The one on the far proper — the icon with the 2 little traces — is the separator.
This is what it seems to be like on the web page:
Try this story for extra formatting how-tos, corresponding to including inline code, mentions, or emojis.
2. Add pictures and media.
Including pictures, movies, and embeds to a Medium story could be so simple as copying and pasting URLs into Medium‘s editor. The editor, generally, can mechanically acknowledge the media’s format and render it accordingly.
For instance, I need to add a pair movies to my in-progress put up. For the primary video, I simply copied and pasted the YouTube URL, after which clicked “Enter.”
Then I added a TikTok video by clicking the video icon that reveals up after clicking the plus icon. The ultimate consequence was the identical regardless of which steps I adopted.
You possibly can add a spread of media to your Medium story together with:
- Importing a picture out of your pc.
- Including inventory images with Unsplash.
- Inserting a video with a URL.
- Inserting an embed code for approved media.
There are additionally totally different dimension and orientation choices for displaying media.
For instance, the choices under appeared in a pop-up menu after I inserted my YouTube video. There are three decisions for sizing a YouTube video on Medium:
3. Share drafts and publish posts.
Once I completed my story and was pleased with how every little thing regarded, I headed as much as the highest navigation to decide on between two choices: “Publish” and an icon with three dots. The three dots spotlight a spread of decisions for writers.
These embody sending a draft hyperlink, checking the looks of the put up, unlisted publishing, and extra.
For instance, “Share draft hyperlink” generates a hyperlink to the draft of my story, which I can share with anybody — even when they do not have a Medium account. And the folks I share the draft with also can depart me notes.
Clicking the “Publish” button, in the meantime, opens a menu the place I can select as much as 5 matters for my story.
It is a kind of pre-publishing dashboard, with reminders so as to add a featured picture and a hyperlink to study extra about what occurs after publishing. I like that it additionally presents an opportunity to schedule my put up if I need to share it later.
It is also the place I hit the “Publish” button to share my story with the world.
4. Measure your outcomes.
I revealed my first Medium story and I’m set to earn cash on the platform, however the influence I could make with Medium will rely on how my tales carry out.
To see metrics for my Medium content material, I clicked my profile icon within the high right-hand nook of the Medium homepage and scrolled right down to “Stats.”
Once I arrived on the “Stats” web page, I didn‘t see a lot (but). However quickly, I’ll see the combination variety of views and claps my tales and responses have obtained over the previous 30 days.
There’s additionally a graph that gives day-by-day granularity, with particulars on follower counts and highlights.
As I scrolled down the web page, I had the choice to click on on particular tales to view particular person stats. The Medium group can be making changes to the Stats pages.
It seems to be like most of those adjustments are for monitoring fee metrics or serving to writers tie fee to efficiency.
This is a fast rundown on what metrics Medium at present tracks:
- Claps — the variety of claps a narrative receives.
- Responses — the variety of responses a narrative receives.
- Lifetime earnings — the full quantity a narrative has earned.
- Views — the quantity of people that visited a narrative’s web page.
- Reads — tracks when somebody views a narrative for 30 seconds or extra. Scrolling to the underside of the story was once required however is not anymore. Views and reads for particular person tales reside on story element pages.
- Member learn ratio — tracks member reads divided by member views.
Fast be aware: Member-only and non-member exercise is tracked individually in Stats.
Get Paid on Medium
Now that I‘ve gone by the right way to use Medium, I’m desirous about the right way to benefit from it. I’ve completed some analysis and located a couple of methods writers monetize with this platform.
Medium Associate Program
First off, there’s the Associate Program. If you wish to earn cash together with your tales, that is an thrilling solution to receives a commission on Medium.
The Medium Associate Program pays writers instantly every month. To receives a commission on Medium, you’ll first must develop into a paid Medium member. Then, it’s time to use for the Associate Program. The necessities for this are easy. It is advisable to:
- Be a Paid Medium member ($4/month or $40/12 months).
- Have revealed at the very least one Medium story within the final six months.
- Be 18 years or older.
- Reside in an eligible nation (right here’s the list).
When you’re a part of the Associate Program, you’ll be able to put new and already-published tales behind a paywall for premium members. Nevertheless, you’ll should earn a couple of badges earlier than utterly getting your articles behind a paywall.
Now, there are two methods to get your tales behind the paywall for premium readers:
- Whole learn time of the Medium article.
- Bonus earned when a non-member indicators up inside 30 days of studying your piece.
It makes use of engagement metrics to resolve how a lot you’ll receives a commission for every story, connecting what readers like to what you make from the platform as a author.
Nevertheless, the cash made by the Associate Program gained’t suffice your wants. A overwhelming majority of writers earn as much as $100/month by the Associate program. Just a few attain the $1,000/month mark.
I’ve discovered this good information that will help you calculate your earnings on Medium.
Crowdfunding
Whereas I‘ll be attempting the Associate Program to earn on Medium, I’m additionally interested by different choices.
This can be a good solution to make cash on Medium when you have a lot of followers on the platform and also you don’t want to develop into a paid member.
Even in case you’re a paid member, you’ll be able to ask your subscriber for a tip in your precious writing.
For instance, I arrange tipping by going to “Settings,” then “Publishing” and updating the settings below “Handle tipping in your tales.”
I can add a fee hyperlink, and I will have the ability to obtain suggestions from readers. There are alternatives to make use of Patreon, PayPal, and different standard platforms.
Promotions
The hidden gem to earn cash by Medium is Affiliate marketing. Should you’ve a big following or are ok with search engine optimisation, affiliate marketing online can grow to be a profitable possibility.
Right here’s the way it works: You write a weblog mentioning the services or products. Subsequent, you’ll place the affiliate hyperlink throughout the piece. When the readers study in regards to the product by your weblog, they’ll be enticed to purchase it utilizing the hyperlink.
For each buy, the affiliate vendor pays you a fee. So, when you have round 20,000 reads in a month and say, 2% of the readers have bought the product that pays you $70 in fee.
The full seems to be $28,000 a month.
Effectively, that’s a large amount of cash to make!
Promoting Your Merchandise and Providers
I’ve seen a number of companies, particularly educators promoting their programs on Medium. All of it begins with exhibiting that you’re educated in regards to the topic and successful your reader’s belief.
When you’ve a major engagement in your posts, it’s time to advertise your services or products on Medium. For instance, Jay Baer, the founding father of digital media Persuade & Convert has 55k followers on the platform.
Whereas his posts achieve huge attraction from the readers, what I appreciated right here is his technique to include his service inside.
Within the put up about optimizing for voice search, Jay contextually promotes his digital advertising and marketing service, providing companies to create your content strategy.
As soon as your inventive concepts are flowing, strive our blog topic generator to assist construct out a pipeline of standout content material concepts in your viewers.
The Medium App
I journey regularly, so consuming and interacting with content material on the go is greatest for me. For this, I am utilizing the Medium app. The app consists of the identical tales and content material I can discover on my laptop computer, with the added bonus of a mobile-first interface.
On the app, I can floor content material associated to my pursuits. These curated lists rely on the tags, publications, or authors I comply with.
I additionally use the app‘s Discover function to search out new, fascinating content material and to interact with fellow readers, becoming a member of conversations as they’re occurring.
I hoped I might begin drafts within the app, however no. That stated, I can test story stats wherever I’m, which is useful.
Use Medium for Writing and Sharing Your Finest Tales
Medium is a robust platform for writers and content material creators to share concepts, interact with readers, and even earn cash.
By following the steps I shared on this article, you’ll be able to unlock the complete potential of Medium. So, begin writing and exploring the probabilities.
Your viewers is ready.
Editor’s be aware: This put up was initially revealed in August 2021 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.
