How To Get Money on Medium (Passive Income)

(Original story on Medium)

I have to give credit where credit is due, Medium has certainly developed into one of the best writing platforms (aside from this platform of course) to make passive income from writing. Now with the new option to refer a non-Medium member to become one, the opportunities are endless to make even more passive income.

I'm somewhat new to Medium still but I figured out the ways of making money passively while you sleep for Medium. My earnings are projected to be a couple of dollars higher than my previous month, in which I increased my earnings by 13x in just one month. I posted way more last month than I have for this current month but yet, I'm about to make more than I did while putting out fewer articles.

Please note, this is not me trying to brag. Frankly, I still have much to do. This purely goes out for motivation and shows that if I can do it, you can definitely do it quicker.

How?

The term 'passive income' gets thrown around too much. What really is it? To sum it up, it's when you get paid for doing absolutely nothing to maintain it but the journey to eventually earning it is what everyone has to face. Some can't take the process and they quit but the ones who stay and keep working end up making the money. Don't quit on Medium, there are days when it pisses me off and messes with my optimism but as long as you keep writing you'll earn your big break.

One story could go viral out of nowhere and you'll see your earnings increase even more. Even the stories you create that end up flopping for the first 3–5 months can jump in views without you expecting it.

Every morning I check my Partner Program earnings once a day and I make it a priority not to look back at it again until I wake up again the next day. It's become a routine to me now and that's something you should do as well. To really let your mind explore try waking up as early as possible and write. Because of fewer distractions and more time in your own thoughts, writing in the morning will result in you being more creative with new ideas. Don't even think about hopping on your phone before you write something either.

Social Media Marketing

Social media is your friend. If you want to get consistent organic views on anything then you'll have social media to fall back on because it's the perfect place to share your creative ideas and writing.

You're trying to sell something but not an actual product, it's your writing. External traffic is necessary for organic growth and it even favors you in the algorithm since you are bringing people to the platform.

Marketing is the other challenge you have to face. Sure, your writing can be superb but who's going to know if you don't promote it. Writing and blogging is a competitive niche and it's only getting harder now to make it to the top so make sure you start now. The more you wait, the longer it'll take.

How Do You Get Your Content Noticed?

I have some helpful strategies and tips for when you are editing and on the verge of publishing an article on Medium.

But first things first, with any platform there's a certain algorithm and Medium is no different. Your home page is different than everyone else's and that's because of the Medium algorithm recommending you stories targeting your recent read history. Medium want's to keep you hooked on stories all day until you forget what time it is and they do a good job at it (happened to me way too much).

There are three things standing in the way between you and a viral article:

Tags- Medium gives you the option to use all 5 tags so you should fill it up with 5 targeted tags that are relevant to the type of content you are putting out. Don't use the top tags like 'startup' or 'life' for all your tags. Treat it like its YouTube and use specific keywords targeted to a highly detailed niche.

Headline- Perhaps the most important feature of an article. Do you want people to read your story? You better give them a good reason to. Have a headline that sticks out and you think will draw the attention of readers.

If you don't have a compelling headline your writing won't get any eyes on it even if it's well-written and helpful. Don't underestimate the power of your headline!

SEO Settings- I didn't learn about this until late July, it's more important than I originally thought. I inserted images of how to get to your SEO Settings and what it looks like.

Go to one of your articles and hit the three little dots, you'll see the option for SEO settings

After clicking on story settings you should be brought to this. On the left, click on SEO settings

From here, I change the title of my article to something more SEO-friendly and within 45–55 words. I change the description to be shorter with more long-tail keywords so more readers will see my story on their home page.

What's perfect is that it won't change the original title of your article. Everything will stay the same but you'll now be favored in the algorithm by following the SEO guidelines.

TAKEAWAY

Writers write and that's always your first job. Brainstorm, jot down the ideas you have that you think will make a viral article, and write as many as possible. The one thing that I have in common with writers on Medium like Tim Denning is that we both have a writing schedule and you should too if you want to be consistent.

Keep writing every day and don't obsess over your stats even when you're killing it with the reader engagement. It's an unhealthy habit and you should be more focused on reading other articles from writers and showing your support for them.