Writing on Medium: Month 1

This is my oddly successful journey, thoughts, statistics, and earnings while writing on Medium for 1 month.

Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash.

How has writing on Medium been going?

How many people read your articles?

How much money did you make?

Is it worth it?

These are all questions I’ve been asked over the last month — mostly from friends and family, but some from my readers and curious internet strangers as well.

It is now the 16th of February (as of writing) and it has been exactly one month since my first article was published on Medium.

Now that enough time has passed, I feel that it worthwhile to sit down and talk about my experience so far.

Writers, I find, oftentimes fall for creating a taboo of money-speak or career-speak; we tend to shy away from talking about our journeys (successes and failures) as well as our earnings.

Perhaps it is out of embarrassment, or maybe it is out of fear of being criticised.

In either case, as a young, emerging writer myself, I have always greatly appreciated those few writers who have been open about these things. Their openness has made the realm of writing online less confusing and less overwhelming as a result.

Hence, I want to make this a monthly publish of mine, a monthly update that catalogues my journey.

But that’s enough yacking…

So, how has my first month writing on Medium been?

Let’s get to it!

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An unexpected (success) journey

I should start by being upfront about this: my first month on Medium was not typical in any way.

I published my first article with no expectations — I thought, at the most, that maybe a few dozen people might read it — and went to bed.

Then I woke up to a number of private messages by none other than Rui Alves who, somehow having come across a first-time article written by somebody with little to no followers, expressed a desire for my piece to be included under the Babel publication.

Needless to say, a large portion of my relative success this first month is all thanks to that initial interaction with Rui Alves; because, thereafter, my article was nominated for a boost and my readership and followers took off.

Thank you, Rui!

Since then, I’ve branched out and written for various other publications, including: Language Lab, Books Are Our Superpower, The Academic, and New East; and with fortune on my side almost all my articles under these publications have been boosted.

From my observations, and word-of-mouth, the build up of readers, followers, and likes (or claps as they’re called here) is usually slow for new writers.

But I got lucky and had that little human intervention occur.

I was essentially boosted (pun intended) by other, more well-established people on the platform from the get-go, and it was through their noticing me that I have arrived at where I am now.

Statistics

As a result of my above journey, I went from 0 followers to just over 400!

Many thanks to all my loyal readers for making that possible.

Author’s screenshot of the views and reads statistic for mid-January to mid-February.

In total, I published 10 articles throughout the month and received 8.3k views and 4.4k reads: an average of 830 views and 440 reads per article.

So roughly 53% of all those who came across my articles stayed long enough to become readers — a decently successful ratio, and one that I’m proud of, if I don’t say so myself.

My most popular article took the mammoth share of these statistics, accumulating 2.3k of the total views and 1.3k of the total reads. The weakest article — barring one private, unlisted story — meanwhile only pulled in 17 and 8, respectively.

Author’s screenshots. For the purpose of this analysis, I’ll mostly ignore the stats from the one unlisted story, third from the top of January. It’s role is inconsequential here.

Interestingly, the two outliers (being the two weakest) were notably the only articles which I did not publish under a publication and were not boosted as a result.

Thus, it seems that the two greatest factors when it comes to pulling in viewers are publishing under the right publication and getting boosted.

Earnings

When I initially started writing on Medium I had no intention of earning money since, well, I wasn’t aware that I could.

Thus, my first few articles were all publicly available until I found out about the Partner Program. I still intend on writing some public articles — I believe a hybrid route is best — because, in hindsight, I think those initial articles being freely available played a role in my early success.

5 of the 10 articles I published this month were pay-walled after I joined the Partner Program, and these are the results so far:

Note: I’m focused on the lifetime earnings here since they include both “January” and “February”.

The total, for mid-January to mid-February, comes out to exactly $103,77.

Admittedly, I’m unsure as to how these numbers are all calculated; I’ll have to do some further research.

My Butterfly Lovers article, for example, despite having almost 100 less reads than my language article, outperformed the latter by $6,76. It is, however, a 2 minute longer read, so perhaps earnings are based on time read, or maybe even claps factor in since the former article garnered more of those.

Nevertheless, the elephant in the room for this department was my book article which accrued a whopping $62,54!

Altogether, my pay-walled articles gained 952 reads, meaning that, on average, each read was worth ~$0,1. So, now all I can imagine is the queer scenario of me being a street performer and having 952 people each tossing me a 10cent.

I don’t think I was cut out to be a performer, though, so I’ll just stick to writing.

Was it worth it?

Personally, yes.

Will it be worth it for others?

That’s hard to say.

For the fun of writing and the desire to be a part of a positive reader-writer community? Definitely, yes!

For financial reasons?

As a prospective main stream of income, I’d say it isn’t worth it.

For me, this is a side-hustle — I’m a full-time university student, so making an extra few dollars a month is really a bonus since I am currently not reliant on a full-time job to keep me afloat.

Essentially, for the average person, Medium is no way to make a reliable living.

Another factor that makes it more worth it for me is simply the exchange rate. I live in South Africa and the dollar to rand exchange rate works in my favour, especially since the cost of living here, generally speaking, is not as hefty as it is in the US or Europe.

The country you live in, then, will also play a role in deciding whether this endeavour is worth it or not.

Then, finally, the part that matters the most: do you feel satisfaction?

This is important because if you dislike writing, then this journey will only disappoint you further. There is a common saying amongst writers: “write for the love of writing and not for the love of money”; because this profession, ultimately, is not very lucrative.

I started writing on Medium purely as a past-time to share my thoughts, experiences, and knowledge as I finish up my studies; I had no intention of earning money — that was simply a happy bonus.

I absolutely love writing and would have continued even without the prospect of earning a cent.

So, before you begin, or before you continue if you’re already writing, ask yourself this: what do I get out of this?

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Concluding advice for new writers

Here is a fantastic guide for those looking to start on Medium.

Do not expect to have the same journey as me.

Find topics you enjoy writing about.

Keep writing on this platform for the love of writing.

Keep publishing, because the more you put out there, the more people will start to notice.

Read other articles and engage with the author and comments — but show a genuine interest and provide meaningful contributions.

Write for publications once you feel you are ready.

Respect and take advice from the editors of those publications.

And remember to persevere. Do not get discouraged. Some articles will do well; others won’t. It is only a natural part of the journey we must all take.

But, for now, I welcome you all to Medium!

That “Write” button calls from the upper right of your screen, and a whole lot of fun awaits you.

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I intend to publish my statistics each month. The next update will thus appear at the end of March rather than mid-March so I can more easily extract and share Medium’s statistics. Thanks again to all my readers, and if you wish to keep in touch or support my work further, feel free to follow me on Medium.