Medium earnings SHINE again, major YouTube strategy shift (This Week in Side Hustling)
I was one of the internet’s biggest Medium.com boosters for a long time, so I can’t tell you how much I hated ripping the site for most of January.
Lots of people complain just to complain, so I’d kept my mouth shut even as Medium chipped away at my earnings bit by bit, month after month for more than a year.
As I wrote in this piece, January was the last straw for me.
My RPM (or revenue per 1,000 views) had fallen from $60+ in 2022/23, to $30+ in the months following the relaunch of the Medium Partner Program in August 2023, to $20+ in the fall of 2024, to $16 in December, to $8 (!) in early January.
The reason I wrote the piece wasn’t just me crying about money (honestly, lol).
I was deeply worried about Medium’s future.
Not only were writers not taking the site seriously anymore, they were actively rooting against it.
A lack of communication (other than some random gaslighting in the comments) compounded the frustration.
But in spite of all that, it does appear that someone at Medium has finally started listening.
Not only is my RPM back above $30 - heights not seen since late 2023 - my views are recovering as well.
Is there still a critical problem that needs to be fixed?
Yes, yes there is, and we’ll get to that in a moment.
But it’s extremely encouraging to see things moving back in the right direction this week.
Let’s get to the numbers.
Medium earnings this week: $420.81
In fact, if Medium makes one easy fix, I’d be confident once again calling it the GOAT starter platform for online creators.
That’s high praise, but as I explained in the video below, I think it’s well-founded.
Medium has a few BIG advantages when it comes to early-stage creators:
Content management is super easy, fast and the interface is nice and clean
There’s a low bar for entry - all you need is a laptop and an internet connection
You start getting paid right away
The only thing that could knock Medium off its perch would be if earnings became so uncompetitive that people just decided it wasn’t worth the effort.
Unfortunately, simmering earnings issues had already started pushing top writers off the platform throughout 2024 before things really exploded in January.
If even I - a longtime Medium superfan - was about to quit, I figured this could well be the end.
Well, as I mentioned up top, earnings appear to have stabilized and even surpassed where they were for most of 2024.
There’s just one more nagging problem that Medium now needs to correct.
While it’s great that the pay per view is reasonable again, it doesn’t really matter if you don’t get any views.
My OLDER stories are acting as normal, but my NEW posts aren’t being distributed to my 31,000 followers.
Posts that should be in the 1000s of views at this point aren’t even reaching 100.
I’ve heard from others that this is happening to them, too.
Again, if this gets fixed, I will be reconverted into a Medium True Believer.
If not, it’ll be hard to recommend a platform that doesn't even share your work with your hard-earned audience.
More updates to come.
YouTube earnings this week: $2.10
I’ve come to realize something pretty important about YouTube: I really hate being on camera.
As you’ll know if you’re a longtime reader, I’m an ADHD introvert.
Most of the time I live in my head, and I’m very comfortable there.
To be consistently successful on YouTube, however, you have to be a performer.
And while I’ve gotten a lot better at that with practice (my early vids are so cringe I hid a bunch of them), it’s still in conflict with my natural state.
I’ve tried in the last year to compensate for this by experimenting with faceless videos, but those pretty much go nowhere.
My only successful faceless vid was this YouTube short, which will soon become the most-viewed video on my channel:
Does that mean I’m walking away from YouTube?
No.
I get obsessive about figuring things out, and I won’t rest until I manage to crack this platform.
I don’t like being on video, but I also don’t like, say, commuting.
We all do things we don’t necessarily love to make money and attract success and positive momentum into our lives.
YouTube is one of those things for me.
Having said all that, I do think my stagnation there necessitates a BIG strategy shift, one I think could actually work.
More on that in a future post (subscribe to make sure you don’t miss it)!
Kindle Direct Publishing earnings: $15.62
I wrote a 1,000-word piece on my KDP mission just last week, so I’d encourage you to read it here if you’re interested.
Long story short: I finally created a product I was proud to market, and the money has started trickling in as a result.
Stock market dividend earnings: $0.91
A year ago, I had a $22,000 portfolio built entirely from my side hustle earnings. I’ve since drawn that down to about $5,000, so my dividend income has suffered as a result.
I do earn passive income from my portfolio pretty much every week though, so I can’t complain too much.
If Medium earnings recover as huge as I think they can, I’ll start pumping this up again.
Substack earnings: $25.66
My strategy here is pretty simple:
Write entertaining free posts that also provide value and build my audience
Paywall exclusive information that I honestly believe will directly make money for my subscribers
In other words, I only feel good about accepting money here if I believe the subscription will pay for itself.
One example is this post where I dug into Medium’s earnings glitch and made a tweak that immediately boosted my earnings.
Another will be my headline writing tutorial that I plan to publish soon now that I’m through a crush of sports tournaments for my kids (lol).
I’m also posting my videos here ad-free … I may wind up turning some of these into an exclusive podcast.
(Friends, thanks for reading! Want to support my work and improve your productivity drastically at the same time for less than $10? Grab my procrastination-killing tool, The Power To-Do List, using my affiliate link here!)
Have you noticed any changes on Medium over the past week?
What’s your main side hustle for 2025?
Let me know in the comments!
Looking for something else to read?
My top 5 trending stories today:
I'm happy things are turning around for you at Medium, James! And I understand about YouTube. I had a channel once upon a time ago, but I also hate being on camera. With that said, I think your videos are great, and you don't come off as hating the camera.
James, thanks for good news! Hopefully the increase will become a stable trend. I can't stop writing on Medium, but the idea doing it for pennies makes me cringe! 😬