Updates on the Medium Program

There have been some nice changes to the Medium Partner Program over the past few months and I so longed to write a new post that is well updated and will give some insights about some new developments, what it entails for writers and how well it supports the ability to make money on Medium.

This new post will include:

• Latest updates that have been made to the Medium Partner Program
• The best Medium publications and authors – some inspiring statistics.
• Tips for generating more money on Medium, how to get more claps, and growing your audience.
• Should bloggers write on Medium?
• Now let’s take a look at all these

The Medium Partner Program – Recent Updates

For many of you who haven’t come across my guide, you may be wondering what the Medium partner program is all about.

In summary, it is a way you can make some money for your writing when people stumble on your content and it interests them.

The amount of money you earn depends solely on the “the rate of engagement from the Medium members”; this involves some statistics and metrics like claps, total monthly engagement via your content and the reading time by a user.

Don’t bother much about all this process; yours is just to write quality and great content and anticipate to receive as many claps as possible and reach out to as many readers as you can.

So, let’s look at how the top publications and writers in the Medium partner program are doing?

It is quite good, below is an overview of earnings from the Medium partner program over the past few months:

May:

• About 42% of authors/publications who wrote at minimal 1 story made money.
• The average money earned by partner program members was about $63.50.
• The top Medium author earned $6,424.27.
• The top Medium publication earned $2,213.15
• The highest-ranked story made $2,524.10.
• Medium released its first monthly themed magazine: Trust Issues.

June:

• About 42% of authors/publications who wrote at least 1 story were able to make money.
• About $46.20 was the average amount of money earned by partner program members
• The highest amount earned by the top medium author is $10,628.62.
• The highest Medium publication earned $1,351.77.
• The most earning story made $2,244.77.
• Partner program stories in publications: Medium gives permission for publications to make money through the partner program.
• Friend Links: Medium built the friend link system, which gives room for authors to have access to their locked stories if readers have to go through a specific link.

A quick note on friend Links: They can be distributed by anyone. So, once you are able to pass around the link, other readers can share the story.

This is a bright feature which ensures that you can still earn more revenue on Medium with locked stories but you can also widen your network via social media, sharing your content with friends who may not be chanced to read your stories.

July:

• More than 47% of authors/publications who wrote at least 1 story earned money.
• About 9.8% of active authors earned over $100.
• The top Medium author made $16,007.02.
• The highest Medium publication earned $2,260.42.
• The highest-earning story made $2,059.72.

August:

• 51.7% of authors/publications who came up with at least 1 story made money.
• 3% of active authors earned above $100.
• The top Medium author made $11,082.27.
• The most viral story made $3,714.78.

So, what conclusions can we make from all of this data?

It appears that more than half of the authors in the Medium partner program do earn money. And I can easily say that most of these authors generate about 5-10% earnings well above $100.

More also, it looks like there is not much point in creating your publication unless you are just trying to promote or advertise your brand. Single authors do have that potential to make big amounts of money with their writing, whereas publications make way less.

One of the most interesting things that I found to be really inspiring in this whole thing is the fact that single stories do earn more than $2,000 every single month.

Even though you might not be a top writer on the medium platform with enough followers and the speed to push about 5 figures of monthly income, a single post that goes viral in the right niche can bring a reasonable income.

Now let’s take a look at some tips and tricks that you can utilize to improve your results on Medium.

Growing Your Medium Following and Getting More Claps

At your very best and peak on Medium, you could be averaging more than 8,000 views a single month within a few months of starting out.

Even during one of your higher months of earnings, you could have one of your stories going mini-viral for a complete day.

And for a couple of weeks, you may not really create original content on Medium. You could be well pleased with your 8 thousand monthly views and $50-$85 dollars of passive income for a single month.

And since the Medium partner program continues to develop and authors are still earning big money, I have decided to give the platform more consideration and attention.

I still want to put more attention on my blog so I can opt-in for Mediavine, but I have this feeling that 2020 will require a whole lot of original content created for Medium.

Anyway, I have thought about the tactics that I have used to grow on Medium and I have also done some reading/snooping to see what other writers are also doing.

And besides, listed below are some tips I have thought about for growing and improving your audience and to gain more views.

Tip 1 – Ask for Claps (though the reading time is more important)

People are strategic on Medium in terms of how they design their articles, profiles and even how they request claps.

I have been able to come across a few writers who have inserted images as the “Big thank you for the Claps” banner at the bottoms of their articles and this is after the practice of requesting for claps in general.

Though I haven’t tried this out myself, this is just a good idea. It is the internet or digital measure of having a “Thank you for the tips’ jar at your sale terminal in a brick and mortar store.

If you find out that you have a high read rate on Medium but you are not getting too many claps, integrate banners like these into the bottom of your content.

Tip 2 – Enhance your Story Aesthetic

15 Amazing Benefits of Content Marketing to Your Business

Getting claps on Medium is nice, but your earnings rely solely on user engagement.

If you want to improve the time people spend reading your work, creating eye-catching articles and getting segments that flow well can boost people to continue reading.

If you’re having a hard time keeping readers on your content (which can be depicted by a fewer number of claps or low payouts), turn your entire profile a face-lift and see if it has a certain influence.

Medium is such a great platform because it is minimal to the most possible way. However, don’t be too carried away by this simplicity by thinking you can never optimize your content.

Tip 3 – Build an Online Presence

At present, there are a lot of writers who have below 300 Medium followers, which aren’t too bad in considering the unavailability of original content they publish.

On the contrary, if you take a look at some of the top writers and publications in the Medium partner program, you will notice so many similar names and faces.

There are so many marketing experts, online influencers, business developers and many writers with a well-known following, all writing on Medium.

Some often use their Quora profiles and blogs to generate and drive traffic to their Medium accounts, but this is not the most effective or straightforward way to increase your reach.

If you can build and enhance a Twitter account, Facebook page, Pinterest following or some other online network or platform, you will be privileged to increase your views on Medium, which can also lead to increased engagement, front-page attention, and more money.

And since the Medium Partner Program added Friend Links, you can get your content locked but can still make use of your social platforms to generate and drive traffic back to your stories. So it is a win-win game for you.

Promoting your Content through Different Online Media

Tip 4 – Study What Works

When you started writing on Medium, it’s likely you didn’t really consider how your own blog could fit with the most popular content on the platform.

But just like any other platform, writing about topics that are trending is one of the best ways to earn some cash.

Just search through what is trending on Medium; you will come across tech stories, articles about business, some pieces about the human condition, opinions about politics and so many thought revealing topics.

If you are blogging about niche topics, you will have less competition, but you will also reach out to fewer people. It is a tough act to balance with.

One of the most recent websites I discovered is Smedian.

Smedian is made to connect all medium writers and editors so as to help both parties improve.

Smedian has 2 relevant lists:

• The top 100 medium publications
• The fastest-growing Medium publications.

You can utilize these lists to keep track of which publications are at the summit of Medium, as well as which publications are growing the fastest.

Carry out research on which writers create content for these publications and take notes on what they do in the right way.

Going through the best publications in the Medium Partner Program as well as the stories on the front page should give you an idea of what strikes it hot on Medium!

Tip 5 – Become a Medium Member

Currently, I am planning to become a Medium member as soon as I get to write genuine content on the platform and I encourage serious writers to do so as well.

There are two major reasons:

1. Becoming a Medium member gives you the chance to research the content you are really interested in (locked with lots of claps).
2. Being a Medium member will allow you to return back to the platform and other authors you enjoy.

Now, it is a pity that there is no such thing as a free Medium membership or a Medium membership coupon.

If you write a few stories or one story, you will earn more than the $5/month subscription fee so the cost will hardly be noticeable.

Should Bloggers Write on Medium?

If you need to make money in the future or want to dive into blogging to make money, I will advise you to just stop the crap and start writing on medium.

There is no justification for building a website from scratch; buy web hosting and also a theme and pass through the wonders of the Google Sandbox if you are just writing to make money as fast as possible.

But on the other end, if you have been in the blogging game for a while and don’t need money immediately, you can also benefit from getting your own platform since this paves ways for your monetization options and many more doors.

In these cases, I think it is of great value to improve a social presence on at minimal one platform like Twitter, Pinterest, or Facebook so it can help you promote your platforms. With the new introduction of Friend Links, this is more necessary for Medium than ever before.

Complete Guide to Getting More Traffic to Your Blog through Social Networks

I am well aware that it is more of a different post than usual, but I want to give an update on the current state of Medium because I do recommend it so well in the past.

I strongly believe that the platform is great, and there are so many opportunities for making money by writing.

And I think it is necessary that Medium writers follow with the new updates to the Partner Program and bloggers/freelance writers alike should always have it in mind to grow and improve other media platforms as well as their major profiles.

Conclusion

Are you planning to join the Medium Partner Program and showcase your blogging potential? Why not write for yourself alongside writing for Medium? If you’d consider it good enough to write for yourself, I’d love to recommend an online business platform that would provide you with all the resources needed to build your own virtual real estate and achieve financial independence in no distant time. Are you ready for this? Don’t hesitate to read my review through this link.