3 important lessons from my first $5000 writing on Medium
At some point last month, I crossed $5,000 in earnings from writing on Medium.
Given how many times I tried and failed to get proper side hustles going in the past, I’m deeply proud of this milestone.
If you’d told me 6 months ago when I started writing here that I’d be halfway to five figures in earnings from sharing my thoughts on this platform, I’m not sure I would have believed you.
But here we are.
Here are my earnings from my main account
:
And here are my very modest earnings from the hobby account you’re reading right now:
In total, this all adds up to $6,108 USD.
In my home currency (Canadian dollar) based on my Stripe deposits, I’ve made well over $7,000.
Grind grind grind
Believe me when I say this: it hasn’t been easy.
I worked my butt off, publishing more than 200 articles across two monetized accounts over 6 months.
For the mathy folks out there, that works out to about 33 articles per month.
BUT, just because something isn’t easy, doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
As I acknowledged crossing the $5,000 barrier, I reflected on the process that got me here.
Here are 3 important lessons from my own journey that I can share with Medium writers who are just starting out.
Lesson 1: This is not a get-rich-quick scheme
I think this is the most important thing people need to understand.
The reason for that is it can be hugely disappointing when something doesn’t meet your expectations, and that causes people to quit way too fast.
Actually, this is probably the reason most people quit side hustles of all kinds, whether it’s Medium, YouTube, print on the demand, KDP, or whatever.
People are expecting their lives to change overnight and for all their problems to go away.
Sorry folks, it simply doesn’t work like that.
In fact, I’ve heard plenty of successful content creators say it typically takes 2–5 years to accomplish anything in this game
I love Medium very, very much.
It’s clean, it’s simple, it has a low bar for monetization, and it allows you to start earning almost immediately.
But it’s not going to make you rich overnight.
Actually, it’s not going to make you rich ever.
You can make significant, life-changing money, however.
I think people need to recalibrate what they think “life-changing” means, by the way.
You don’t need to be MrBeast to change your life with YouTube, and you don’t need to be Tim Denning to change your life with Medium.
Like I said, I’ve made more than $7,000 in around 7 months. That’s not nothing!
That’s a pretty nice starter stock portfolio, or a full year of payments on a really nice car, or a full year of utility bills paid, or two pretty nice vacations!
Forget being a millionaire right now.
Focus on picking up little wins and stacking them on top of other little wins.
One day, almost without noticing, you’ll realize those little wins have compounded into massive victories.
Lesson 2: This is not passive income
Yes, after you publish a story, it will continue to earn for you.
That’s why I love the Medium platform so much, why I think it’s the most underrated way to make money online, and why I think it’s far superior to freelancing.
But if you stop writing at your previous pace, you can expect your views and earnings to fall off a cliff.
Let’s revisit one of the images I posted above with one area in particular highlighted.
So what happened here?
As you can see, my account caught fire in December and my earnings skyrocketed.
Rather than seize that momentum and write more than ever, however, I turned my attention to a bunch of side projects like my YouTube channel, Substack, and building my own website.
The result: after publishing between about 25–50 articles in each of my first five months, I published just 15 total in January, and then 15 in February.
The result was a face-melting 40% drop in Medium earnings.
Yes, I can stop writing for a while, and that can result in a pretty gaudy hourly wage (see the video below).
But take your foot off the gas and you will slow to a near stop eventually.
Without bringing new eyes to your work, you will stagnate.
In that sense, it’s not passive income at all.
Lesson 3: Consistency is everything
Seriously, I know I (and pretty much everyone who publishes Medium and YouTube tutorials) repeat this a lot, but there’s a reason for that: consistency is absolutely critical to your success.
Everyone talks about Medium, YouTube, and social media algorithms in the context of the viewer being hooked.
I think one of the reasons they’re built the way they are is to keep the creator hooked.
That’s because the more you write and the more momentum you build, the more good things happen for you.
I’ve said this before and I’ll repeat it over and over again until I’m out of breath: consistency is everything.
Don’t believe me? Go look up any YouTuber earnings video and they’ll tell you the same thing. The more momentum you build, the more success you have. Period.
The reason most people fail is that consistency is hard.
There are a million reasons NOT to write.
You’re tired. You’re bored. You feel pressured. You’re overwhelmed. You have to do the dishes. There’s a really good show on Netflix right now. Instagram is calling out to you.
They’re all excuses.
The more I write, the more momentum I build, and the more money I make.
It’s the people who show up and do the work anyway who ultimately succeed on Medium and in every aspect of life.
My most-read stories
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Yep, you can still earn BIG money on Medium in 2023 (full tutorial and earnings)
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It’s good to see how well you doing on Medium. $5000 as a side-hustle is not to be sniffed at! Too many people fail to see that even a few dollars weekly over time, when it’s an additional amount, can do wonders when handled right.