$33,000 on Medium in a single month. Holy cow!
Actually, $33,617.89 to be exact. I can't even imagine. Like, I think that would blow my mind so much I'd struggle writing another new Medium story!
I believe that's the most money any one person has earned in a single month on Medium. And no, we don't know who earned that in June (at least I don't).
I hear an amount like that, and I think about what kind of earnings that would bring me for an entire year. If you were able to earn that for twelve months straight, that would be $403,414.68!
Damn, I published new stories every day to Medium between May and December in 2018, and I made all of $231. $231 in eight months, and somebody just made $33,000 in a four short weeks!
Where did I get this information? Medium actually released an update about July and included it in the report. Here's a short snippet…
Seeing figures like this might get you down. You might see the statistic that only 5.7% of active writers are able to earn over $100, and think, well, crap, no matter how hard I try, I'll never be able to make anything close to that.
And then you might see those last two statistics — $33,617 earned by one writer in a single month, and $6,386 earned for a single story — and want to just throw in the towel, as they say.
But don't let these figures get your down. Instead, let them motivate you!
I get up every single day motivated to do more great work on Medium. Write new stories. Take more chances. Try something new here and there.
I'd bet a lot of money (maybe not $33,000, but some!) that the person who earned all that income in June wasn't someone who just stumbled into Medium at the end of May and wrote a few stories that hit the big time.
I bet it's someone who's been at the Medium game a long, long time, since 2018 or earlier, who's been slowly building a huge fan-base and numbers of views and reads and responses as they continue producing amazing content every day.
I've been on Medium since 2018, I've published more than 1,000 stories, and this past February I earned about $350 on Medium.
What did I make this past June for the third straight month? More than $1,700. Wow!
Now I'm not able to tell you how to earn $33,000 in a month on Medium. Making more than, say, $5000 in a month on here is a complete mystery to me. I feel like I could write and produce Medium stories twenty-four hours a day and still not be able to make much more than I'm making right now.
But every one of you can absolutely make a minimum of $100 in a month on Medium, and you can start working your way toward $1000 or more as well!
The key is to do lots of things, but most especially you need to
- write and produce great stories often
- try to get published in major Medium publications
- promote them well
- try to get your pieces curated
- make sure you engage with the Medium community
- and create one or more Medium publications of your own.
This is always a good place to start.
But what will put you at the head of the game in the long run is continuing to write, write, write.
To keep publishing story after story, and never giving up. Write as much as you can, and then write a little bit more.
Study which of your pieces do well, and then write more like that one, while at the same time taking chances on new kinds of pieces in new kinds of topics.
Don't be sad when you see that someone made $33,000 on Medium in June. Don't let it get you down.
Instead, let it be your ultimate motivator. Most of us won't ever get to a figure even close to that on Medium, but we all can certainly try.
So keep trying, won't you? And make next month your best month on Medium yet!
Here's how to make 2020 your best writing year ever.
Brian Rowe is a writer, teacher, and constant dreamer. He received his MFA in Creative Writing and MA in English from the University of Nevada, Reno, and his BA in Film from Loyola Marymount University. He's on Facebook and Twitter, and you can read more of his work at brianrowebooks.com.