The good, the bad, the ugly of Medium earnings this month (This Week in Side Hustling)

The past couple of weeks have seen a pretty remarkable recovery in my Medium earnings in one key way.

That’s good.

They’ve also continued to deteriorate in one key - possibly even more important - way.

That’s bad.

But I have noticed one exciting change (more on that below).

Meanwhile, anger at the site is bubbling once again after some recent comments by the CEO.

That’s ugly.

Welcome to This Week in Side Hustling, a recap of my passive income/side hustle earnings over the past 7 days (along with some lessons I’ve learned that can help you succeed on Medium, Substack, YouTube, KDP, or whatever platform you prefer).

Let’s get to the numbers!

(Note: All in $USD)

My Medium stats so far in February 2025.

Medium earnings the past week: $279.32

OK, I have very exciting news to report on this front.

It never really pays to get excited about Medium, of course, because things change so fast there.

But if current trends hold, I’d have no problem recommending the site again as the centerpiece of an early-stage content business.

I’m not going to re-explain the January/early February earnings fiasco, because you’re probably mostly up to speed already if you read this newsletter.

Long story short: My RPM (revenue per 1,000 views) went from:

• $50+ prior to the new Medium Partner Program in 2023

• $30 right after the change

• $20 by the end of the following year

• $10 in early January 2025, when everything blew up

Things had been getting incrementally better in February, but I’ve now seen a huge turnaround over the past week or two.

Yesterday, for example, I had 1,400 views on Medium and earned $55.18 for an RPM of $39.41.

Folks, I haven’t seen numbers like this since before August 2023, when the new MPP cut my earnings 50%.

When that happened I made a strategic decision to play the long game.

Yes, it was crushing to lose that income.

But I also figured that if I hung around while everyone else quit, I could move up the top writer rankings fairly quickly.

I also redoubled my efforts re: figuring out how to write stories that get a ton of views.

So last summer, I said, “OK, fine, cut my pay 50%. I’ll just DOUBLE MY VIEWS.”

And I actually did it.

Through it all, I always held out hope that Medium would re-tweak earnings one day to reward read time again instead of stupid engagement.

And if that ever came to pass, I’d not only have the big profile but the big earnings to go with it.

There was only one hiccup remaining, however.

Remember when I wrote this 4 days ago?

Well, something interesting has happened since then.

Basically everything I published after Jan. 20 was dead on arrival.

Stories I expected to easily hit 2,000 views were struggling to generate 200.

Sure it was great that RPM was reasonable again, but it didn’t really matter if I couldn’t get any views.

The great news is that, for the first time in a month, a story that I expected to do well is actually acting the way it should.

Finally, a story acting the way I expected it to.

If I get paid similarly to the olden days and the views start coming back in, I’ll feel very bullish indeed.

Now I am aware that a lot of folks are still upset and complaining about earnings at the moment.

One issue, however, is that a lot of the people I see complaining write almost exclusively about Medium.

This is a dead end and it always has been.

In fact, I warned people about this almost two years ago (see the video below).

Now it appears Medium’s CEO has come out and admitted they’re paying less for writing about writing (hat tip to

Bin Jiang

for the find there).

At the end of the day, writing about Medium has never been a road to riches.

Now it looks like it leads straight into the ditch.

KDP earnings the past week: $6.24

Every once in a while, I’ll come across a YouTube video from a quasi-successful creator who says they’re quitting because they’re burned out.

While I don’t think I’d do the same in their shoes given how much I hate commuting and how much I love running my own business, I do understand how the system can weigh on people eventually.

The thing about content is that, no matter how successful you are, it all goes away pretty fast the moment you stop producing.

Here’s an example writ small: In January, I was very active in getting the word out about a simple, cheap, super-effective productivity tool I created called The Power To-Do List (here’s the link).

I was proud to promote it because it’s been a total game-changer for me and I felt it could help a lot of people with similarly scattered minds.

And that temporary exuberance resulted in a bunch of sales and close to $100 in revenue.

Since then, though, I haven’t been getting the word out as well and my results reflect that.

Anyway, do check it out if you’re interested. I was able to 3x my productivity fairly easily using this system.

Cover image of The Power To-Do List.

YouTube earnings the past week: $2.69

I already wrote a long post about this this week.

You can check out my plans for a total revamp on YouTube there.

Amazon Associates earnings the past week: $1.47

A great thing about publishing using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing - which I did for the Power To-Do List - is that you can use affiliate links to promote your own products.

Stock market dividend earnings the past week: $0.44

My portfolio remains small after I sold everything in 2022 and started rebuilding from scratch.

I put a lot of side hustle earnings back into the market, however, so this is growing steadily.

It’s up over $5,000 and mostly invested in dividend-paying stocks and ETFs.

Substack earnings the past week: $0

This will be up and down.

My current annualized revenue is $450, but it’s been stuck there for a bit.

And if I’m being TOTALLY honest ….. Substack is really cool, I like the platform a lot …. but the current high-voltage buzz feels really unsustainable to me.

Everyone is so psyched about it and, as a result, 99% of my feed is flooded with “how to succeed at Substack” content.

But how many people can realistically succeed at this over the long term?

Whereas Medium charges $5 for access to everything (and everyone) the site has to offer, Substack makes a pretty big ask.

Think about it: Say you really love 10 different writers, and each charges $99 per year for a membership.

Are there a lot of people out there who are going to lay out $1000 per year for Substack subscriptions?

IN THIS ECONOMY?!

I think they might support one or two AT MOST.

If you ask me, a lot of people who are making $100 a year from one paid subscriber are going to lose interest right quick and drift off to something else.

Then the house of cards starts to tumble.

Again, I really like Substack, but the advantage Medium will always have is that you pay a lot less for it and you get a lot more.

People who don’t bring a lot of value here will eventually wash out, just like they do everywhere else.

As such, I’m trying to bring that extra value.

I have a bunch of paid posts now, and my entire Medium video archive is now hidden on YouTube and available to subscribers here.

I do intend to keep building on Substack, but I’m nowhere near figuring it out the way I have Medium.

Hey, how’s your side hustle journey going?

What are you excited about?

Got any questions for me?

Let me know in the comments!