I’ve been writing on Medium since March 2020.
When many writers struggled with low performance and eventually quit, I kept writing on Medium.
I’ve grown my blog to 13,000+ subscribers on Medium in the past three years. I published over 300 stories, making pennies from most of them. Nevertheless, consistent writing and persistence helped me earn $15,525.35 on Medium as of November 2023.
Here is the proof:
My accumulated Medium earnings.
In a nutshell, blogging on Medium is much more than writing and publishing random articles. The platform can help you reach millions of readers online, earn money, and build a personal brand and an online business through your writing.
Today, I effectively use Medium to make money through the Medium Partner Program, promote and sell my ebooks on Gumroad, and acquire potential SEO clients.
If you want to learn how to make money on Medium, this Medium blog review is for you.
I’ll teach you my proven-to-work strategies and show you how much I’ve made from Medium writing.
This article is an in-depth Medium review for everyone who wants to start blogging online, develop writing skills, and pursue a writing career.
Here is what this article covers:
Let’s start with the basics, which will be helpful for those unfamiliar with a Medium website.
What is Medium.com?
Medium is a US-based company developed by a former CEO of Twitter, Evan Williams, and launched in 2012.
In short, it is an open platform for writers where anyone can share their ideas with over 170 million readers worldwide. Can you imagine?
According to the Medium About page, over 100 million people engage and share their stories on Medium monthly. Some are professional writers, but most aren’t. They write because they have something to share with the world. And if you do have something to share, you’ll work in the morning, in the evening, and even on weekends because you are passionate about it.
Your unique experience and stories are the only things that matter on Medium.
You don’t have to be an experienced writer to get published on Medium, nor should you be a savvy marketer to drive audiences to your stories. Medium will use its algorithms to promote your content.
If you come to Medium, you can focus on creating powerful stories people will love to read.
This is what Medium strives to create — a room for ideas to evolve and spread without incentivizing destructive advertising.
Is Medium.com website reliable?
Let’s quickly see how the Medium platform works as a business and then make ground-based conclusions about its reliability.
How does Medium make money? And how much?
Medium generates revenue from user subscriptions that cost $5 a month or $50 a year. With this tiny contribution, the Medium publishing platform pays its writers over $2 million monthly! That’s incredible!
Here is the official statement made by the platform founder, Ev Williams:
“We pay out over two million dollars per month to writers, editors, and publication owners. With several hundred thousand members today, we are confident in the durability and scalability of the model. And, thus, we are continuing to invest in the long-term vision, for which we have much to do.“
From April 2021 to July 2021, Medium rewarded the 1000 most active and successful creators with cash bonuses worth $500 as gratitude for the value writers bring to the platform.
1,000 writers and $500 for every writer makes a $500,000 bonus paid to writers besides the partner program earnings.
It’s half of the USD million! The platform can afford it!
As a Medium top writer, I was rewarded with bonuses four times in a row, in April, May, June, and July 2021.
It was an unexpected but delightful surprise from Medium.
I could not find an official financial statement to share Medium monthly revenue. However, how Medium values and supports its contributors makes me feel confident in the future of Medium.
Medium is a dynamic and fast-growing platform with unprecedented growth in 2020. Look at how fast their page views have been growing:
The official announcement from Evan Williams on Medium
To say more, Medium turned ten years old in August 2022.
The platform has undergone a massive transformation to serve its readers with the best content and writers with the most seamless experience.
In their reflection post, the Medium team revealed that 18 million articles had been published on the Medium website since 2012. That’s huge!
The following are the most prominent Medium milestones since 2012:
2016
2017
- Medium Partner Program was introduced, letting writers earn money from their stories.
2018
- Natalie Portman responded to the #MeToo movement’s critics.
2019
- Medium acquired The Bold Italic, a publication covering Bay Area culture.
2020
- Coronavirus hits. Medium broke records for visitors and sign-ups as millions of people took to the platform to process what was going on.
- In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, Medium started a new blog called Momentum, where writers could share their perspectives on anti-Black racism.
2021
- Medium introduced a new email subscription feature.
2022
- Medium turned 10. Ev Williams stepped down as CEO, and Tony Stubblebine took the reins.
- Medium brought back old-good custom domains and mobile editing.
- A new audio experience for listening to stories on the go was introduced.
2023
- Medium removed the tipping system and referred membership.
- Instead, Medium has introduced Boosts to help outstanding stories reach more readers.
More yet to come!
I am sure.
Considering the latest updates, Medium is a reliable platform to work on.
As a writer, I have not experienced any issues with Medium. If you have any questions, their support team is always responsive and ready to help.
How does the Medium Partner Program work?
Everyone can write on Medium, but only those enrolled in the Medium Partner Program will get paid for writing on Medium.
Since August 2023
- Medium removed the 100-follower requirement.
- Made Medium membership compulsory to join the Partner Program.
- Opened Partner Program to more countries, including Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Malta, and the United Arab Emirates.
You can see an up-to-date list of all Partner Program-supporting countries below.
Medium supported countries.
Tony Stubblebein mentioned in the August edition of the Medium Blog that they had to delay opening the Partner Program to India, Brazil, and Thailand due to some legal regulations and payment system limitations.
Nevertheless, they expect to handle the current challenges and open the Partner Program to many more new countries soon. Here is an excerpt from the October 2023 Medium Partner Program update:
“As of now, we estimate that the additional country support will launch in early 2024 with a more robust payout system to handle all the nuances of different countries and currencies.”
If you want to make money from the Medium Partner Program, you must comply with the following rules:
- Be a Medium paying member (pay $5/monthly)
- Have published at least one story in the past six months
- Be 18 years old
- Reside in the Partner Program-supporting country
If you meet all these requirements and are willing to make money writing on Medium, you can apply here.
There is one more aspect I want to cover as a part of this Medium review —how Medium earnings are calculated.
Many writers don’t understand what Medium considers when calculating your payment. Besides, Medium has made many changes to its algorithm, which adversely impacted writers’ earnings.
Medium has also mentioned that fraudulent activity was detected during September – October 2023, which cut writers’ earnings almost in half.
Likely, Medium has reported that all the issues are fixed, and they are now calculating writers’ earnings properly.
Here’s what impacts your earnings on Medium:
- Member reading time (people who read your story for 30 seconds or more)
- Member listening time (if people prefer listening to your stories instead)
- Member engagement signals, such as claps, comments, highlights, and new follow
- Boost bonus (if your story is boosted)
You can learn more about how Medium calculates Partner Program earnings here.
Note that you can make money even if you share FriendLinks with your readers. In other words, if some readers come through FriendLink and read your story for over 30 seconds, you’ll also earn money!
Can Medium remove active writers from the Partner Program?
The short answer is yes!
Here is what Medium writers on their official website:
“If you do not publish within a six (6) month period, we may disable your ability to receive any revenue under the Partner Program. Before disabling your ability to earn under the Partner Program, we will notify you. “
How to join the Medium Partner Program
You must join the Medium Partner Program to receive earnings from your stories.
You get paid through the Stripe payment system by the 15th of every month. Note that Stripe is only supported in some countries! You can check the up-to-date list of countries here.
Here is what the Medium Partner Program registration process looks like:
Medium partners with Stripe to send payouts to writers. It takes roughly 10 minutes to set up the Stripe account and link it to Medium.
You will have to upload some documents to verify your physical address. Once it’s done, you are officially a part of the Medium Partner Program.
Note that Medium earnings are displayed in USD.
Your payout will be automatically exchanged if your bank account is in another currency.
How do you make money writing on Medium in 2024?
Whenever I talk to new writers, their first question is, “How to make money on Medium?”
They are interested in strategies and tips that help establish writers earn decent money on Medium.
Some believe Medium top writers know some secrets that help them succeed.
Let me tell you that Medium’s secret path to success does not exist. No matter what established writers tell you, there is no magic pill that will make you a successful Medium writer overnight.
What I’ve also learned from writing over 300 stories on Medium is that you’ll have to find your tone of voice and a niche to succeed.
In time, people will follow you because they’ll want to learn more from you! They’ll associate you with a solution to some of their problems and seek a solution in your content.
Once you establish a personal brand on Medium (it took me 3years to do it), people will start coming to you for advice and will be open to buying your products and services.
As you might have guessed, there are many ways to make money on Medium besides the Partner Program.
The following are a few ways I make money blogging on Medium.
1. Medium Partner Program
I joined Medium in March 2020, and I’ve been actively writing on Medium since then.
Here is what I achieved writing on Medium constantly from March 2020 to October 2023:
- Published 293 stories
- Earned $15,525.35 in total
- Made $3,000 from a single article as an affiliate
- My best-performing Medium article made me $1,249
- Gained 13,000+ followers
- Received $2,000 as a bonus from Medium
Am I doing great on Medium?
I am an average writer who consistently makes $500–$1,000 on Medium and gradually grows my follower base.
Many established writers earn way more money than I do. However, even more writers struggle to make $100 on Medium.
Everyone’s journey is different.
You won’t be able to predict your earnings by following what other Medium writers say or do. I assure you!
How do you get paid on Medium? The answer is to consistently publish articles, learn your audience, and slowly shift towards topics that work best!
I blogged about everything on Medium. However, I discovered that my best-performing topics were my solopreneurship journey, SEO, my website growth, and my side hustles.
Therefore, I no longer write unsolicited and shallow pieces on Medium.
Instead, I share exclusive details about my journey as a solopreneur and an SEO specialist. This is what my readers want to read.
The more they read, the more I earn. It’s easy now!
However, it took me two years to figure out my writing niche and build an audience that knows me and patiently waits for my stories.
I published my best-performing article in April 2023, sharing my insights about SEO and ChatGPT. I didn’t expect it to resonate with people that much. Apparently, AI and related topics are quite popular on Medium.
My best-performing Medium story.
Below, you can see my top 5 best-performing articles of all time. All of them were written in 2023, except for this: “8 Common Traits of Toxic Leaders, According to Google.” I published this Medium story in February 2021.
My top five stories on Medium of all time based on earnings.
Note that the Medium Referred Membership Program is gone!
Medium removed it because, as they say, it didn’t contribute to writers’ earnings as expected.
If you have some referrals left, you can check your referral earnings in the Audience stats. In my case, I make roughly $60 from referred members monthly, but this number is declining.
My audience stats on Medium.
2. Sell your products and services on Medium
I’ve been writing on Medium for three years and have already built a personal brand (at least, I think so). It means readers recognize my writing style, wait for new content, clap, and leave their comments.
Being active and growing loyal fans leads to trust, while trust leads to sales.
Today, Medium is my second-best ebook sales generation channel on Gumroad.
I sell two ebooks and one SEO checklist, which earned me $8,000+ on Gumroad.
My ebook sales on Gumroad.
I owe my Gumroad success to Medium because it helps me spread the word about my services and products without using annoying ads.
Here is what I do to make money on the Medium website selling my products:
- I write success stories mentioning my ebooks
- I share how-to articles that teach readers how to do X to achieve Y, mentioning my ebooks as step-by-step guides
- I include call-to-actions (CTAs) at the end of my articles
If interested, you can learn more about how I sell ebooks from my guide on “How to make four figures selling ebooks on Gumroad.”
What’s a Medium Boost?
Medium Boosts is a way to promote your stories to a broader audience on Medium.
When a story is boosted, it is featured on the Medium homepage, in the Medium apps, and in the Daily Digest email, which is sent to millions of Medium subscribers.
Here is what else you get if your story is boosted:
- Increased reach and visibility: Boosted stories are seen by millions of people on Medium.
- More engagement: Boosted stories typically receive more views, claps, and comments than non-boosted stories.
- More money: If you’re a Medium Partner, you can earn more money from boosted stories because they are more likely to be read by Medium members.
Boosted stories are selected by a team of nominators on Medium. The nominators are looking for stories that are well-written, informative, and engaging. They also consider the story’s popularity, as measured by views, claps, and comments.
According to Tony Stubblebine, a boosted story gets at least 500 additional views within the first week.
You can see a list of publications and Boosts nominators here.
How many stories should you publish monthly to earn money on Medium?
Let me share a myth new writers anxiously believe about Medium.
”I will earn more money on Medium if I publish daily.”
Active writers, indeed, have a higher chance of attracting more readers. However, if stories are poorly written and have no value for readers, they won’t get many views.
I used to publish around 15 stories monthly, earning me up to $200. Now, I make the same amount from posting a few stories.
I don’t overwork and force myself to be a writing machine. Instead, I focus on topics that appeal to me and my target audience.
You can’t predict Medium earnings. Period. In time, you will be able to say what works or doesn’t work with higher certainty. However, you won’t know how much money a random article will make you.
Everyone has a unique journey on Medium. If you want to get paid for writing on Medium, you will have to find your own writing pace, discover topics that interest you and your audience, try, fail, try harder, and see what works.
Let me show you one example from my Medium writing.
I published only 4 stories in October 2023, making $701.78. My views and earnings doubled compared to September 2023.
It’s not only one occasion. I’ve had months when I published 6-7 stories and made $1,000+ on Medium.
The success depends on your topic and a catchy title rather than the number of published articles.
October 2023 statistics on Medium.
Medium’s response to AI content
Following the popularity of ChatGPT, many Medium writers, including me, have been concerned about the impact of AI-generated content on Medium and our earnings.
Let’s not pretend AI-generated content does not exist on Medium. It does!
Many writers believe that’s the way to earn extra pennies from the platform.
Since AI has become a rising concern, Medium has published its official response to writers’ concerns in its October 2023 Partner Program update.
Here’s an excerpt from it:
“Our system has several strategies for minimizing the distribution of AI-generated content: some based on machine-learning, and others based on human curation, content flagging, and moderation. None of these will catch all AI-generated content, but the overall effect is that content that is discernibly generated by AI is unlikely to be distributed widely on Medium.”
Remember that massive content publication does not guarantee an increase in earnings since Medium considers engagement when calculating writers’ earnings.
If readers open your story and leave in a few seconds because they feel it’s boring and likely AI-written, you won’t earn money.
Based on my experience, you can make up to $1,000 on Medium by writing 4-7 high-quality and engaging stories. So, don’t waste time on AI. Instead, develop your writing skills to build an audience and grow your personal brand.
Is writing on Medium worth it?
The answer to this question heavily depends on your goals.
If you aim to develop your writing skills, become a better storyteller, and reach millions of people with your message — then yes! Writing on the Medium website is totally worth it.
Over time, you will notice that Medium opens up many opportunities and helps you gain life-changing connections. Payouts are great, but they become secondary once you learn the platform rules and start utilizing them.
If you aim for quick wins, then Medium is not for you.
In April 2020, I earned $7. Exactly one year later, my paycheck was $636.06.
In April 2022, I made $416.29, while in April 2023, my payout was $784.46.
I don’t know what will happen in a year, but I stay optimistic about crushing my Medium writing goals.
Everyone’s Medium journey is different, but I am here to inspire you, believe in yourself, and give it a try.
Who knows, you might be another Medium success story.