I've been writing on Medium since 2017. One of my earliest articles here has now made over $2,000. Yes, it continues to earn money even now, but it earned most of that sizeable chunk in one fairly short period (I go into some of the details here). And for those who like to see the proof, here you go:

But that was a long time ago, you're thinking. There have been changes on the platform since then, most notably in August of 2023 when there was a big upheaval, and Medium brought in the new 'boost' feature. Since then, many writers are reporting a dip in income.

You'd be right. There have been changes. But you'd also be wrong if you thought the new rules have put an end to four-figure articles. Shortly after the new rules came in I published this article. It also made a lot of money quite quickly and (almost) $2,000 over time.

Don't get me wrong. There are some articles that don't make a lot of money, even when boosted. I've had some make around $50, $100 or $200, even with a boost. There have been others that have made a decent amount without a boost, and some that have not been boosted and also not made any money.

It's all a bit of a gamble, but then that's the case with any piece of content that any content creator makes and publishes, whether that's an article, a social media post, a YouTube video or a TikTok. If you're not prepared for either virality or crickets, then content creation is probably not the game for you.

So let's get back to the question. Can I make money on Medium in 2024? And more importantly, can you?

Let's look at the basics.

What is Medium?

On the off chance that you're coming here from outside of the platform, you may not know much about it. Medium is where you are right now. It's a platform where anyone can create an account and publish their content. And they do. If you sign up as a writer here you'll be working alongside everyone from Barack Obama to Jeff Bezos.

Many think of Medium as a blogging platform. I always say it's more like a magazine. People pay a subscription to read here and the type of articles that do well — in my experience — are those that are similar to those you'd find in a (specialist) glossy magazine.

That's my general rule for publishing here. Even for my pieces in The Shortform, which are essentially one minute reads. I think of them in terms of those 'snippets' you'd find in the editor's choice section or similar.

Do I have to pay to write here?

Until recently the answer to this was no. Anyone could make a Medium account, start publishing and start earning. This changed in August 2023 and now you can only earn from your stories if you are a paying member of Medium.

To be clear, your money is not a direct fee that's charged in order to write here. It's a subscription to the site that allows you to read unlimited stories.

Only those who are subscribers to the site get to put their stories behind the paywall and earn money each time another member views that story.

This seems fair enough to me. If you're pitching an actual magazine, you'd want to read a lot of copies of that magazine beforehand to get an idea of what they publish. You'd have to subscribe to it (or just buy several copies off the newsagent's shelf), just as you have to subscribe to Medium. It's the subscriptions that allow writers like you to be paid for their writing each month.

So, how do I actually make money as a Medium writer?

Based on my experience the answer is (fairly) simple. Just follow these guidelines.

Write high quality articles

If you're not already an awesome writer, work on it. Read amazing writing. Analyse it. Practice (a lot). Get feedback, and take it on board. Get some training. Beginner writer? I recommend the Write to 1K course. It's specifically designed to help new writers make their first $1,000 online.

Don't just write and throw that work up on Medium. Take time to hone your articles. I put every piece aside for at least a day before coming back to edit, polish, adjust and expand. Remember, we're thinking glossy magazine here. The kind people pay good money for.

Follow the rules

If you're used to blogging on a self-hosted blog, you're probably not used to following rules. On Medium you have to. Here are the Medium rules you'll need to follow to avoid potentially having your account suspended. And here are the quality guidelines that will help you get a story boosted.

Getting your work boosted is one key to potentially earning good money on the platform. There are no guarantees that any particular story will get boosted, but writing a boost-worthy story, that follows all the rules and guidelines, is the first step. And if you follow all the guidelines and don't get a boost? Your story will still be better (and therefore tend to attract more readers) than if you hadn't.

Publish frequently

Writers who publish a few articles and then disappear are common on this platform. And of course, life happens to us all and there'll be times you can't publish as consistently as you'd like. But there are also tools that can help you.

You need to set up a writing schedule that's realistic for you. Create your writing rituals so you stay in flow. Get organised. I find my Freelance Writer's Success Kit a great help.

Create an idea file so you always have something to work on. I haven't had writer's block in years. I just go to my idea file and pull one out. The only problematic thing about my idea file is that at this point it feels like it contains more ideas than I'll have time to write about in my current lifetime.

Create awesome headlines

Some great writing probably goes unread on this platform because there's a lot of great content on here and getting people to click through your headline and actually read your piece is a challenge. Medium allows for a headline and subtitle. Use both. Here are some of my more commercially successful stories.

If you don't know how to write headlines, learn. Analysing what grabs your attention and makes you click through to an article is a great start. You could also play with the free Co-Schedule headline tool. It's one of many free tools I share in my best-selling kindle book.

Don't get too hung up on the stats

Medium has an awesome stats counter, showing you how many views, reads, and interactions you got from each article, as well as things like how your follower and subscriber count went up. This can be useful for helping you see which kinds of articles work for you, but don't spend hours in there worrying about every little thing.

I can assure you the articles I've had go viral on Medium weren't the ones I would have predicted. My strategy is to just keep putting out good articles, as consistently as possible, and hope for the best.

Obsessing over followers can also be a waste of time. I wrote recently about how I got 20,000 followers on Medium without even realising it. Writing great articles and publishing frequently will grow your follower count organically while you build an awesome body of work. And it's probably more ethical and less time-consuming than any 'tactics' other writers on the platform might try to sell you.

Don't rely too much on Medium

If you're all-in, with no other income streams, and you don't see immediate results, you're going to stress over it and maybe give up. Medium has always been one of around ten income streams for me, so a good month on here is a bonus, but not necessary to pay my bills.

I'd advise you look at developing income streams from different clients and forms of writing (The Freelance Writer's Den is a great resource when looking for clients and markets for your writing), as well as things like your own blog, if that suits your aims as a writer.

Don't forget you can re-publish your own blog posts to Medium (and vice versa) with a link to the original article. You can sometimes even do this with published writing you've submitted elsewhere and already been paid for.

I do this with my personal finance articles for example, almost all of which have previously appeared on Wealthtender, where I'm contracted to write a few articles each month.

Always check with the editor/owner of any previous website you've written for to see if it's acceptable to re-publish to Medium, with a link back to the original article.

Ultimately, it's still possible to earn money from Medium in 2024, but it's not guaranteed, and you'll likely need to experiment to find what works for you and what doesn't. If you're a regular Medium writer and you think I've missed a trick or two, feel free to share in the comments.

Disclosure: Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means that if you click through them and end up buying a product, I get a commission. I explain what that means in more detail over at my blog, here. I also have a whole post on how affiliate marketing works here.

For more articles like this follow me on Medium, and feel free to take a look at my lists. There's one all about writing and blogging.