If you’re a writer looking at earning from your content, then you probably already heard about Medium, the online publishing platform that many writers have used for years and earn a steady income from their articles.
But are those writers just a few? And does the platform give new writers any chance? I wanted to test it out and see where it would lead me. I had a Medium account, but I was rarely using it, with only 7 published free articles.
I went to my account, changed my profile picture, added a new description, created an “About” page with a few words about myself, and proceeded to purchase the cheapest subscription plan at $5.00 per month.
I published my first premium article, “More and more people are ditching blogging (and I can see why),” which only made $00.10. Considering that there weren’t many people interested in blogging, I started thinking how I could transform my skills to generate revenue. The second article that I published was called “A farewell to Stack Overflow (AI winged me over)”, and it made $00.00.
Then it struck me: What if I wrote about artificial intelligence? I’ve been burning my eyes out for the last few months using hundreds of different models, LoRAs, Flux, and so much more to generate AI images, videos, and audio, so why not teach people how they can do the same?
I published an article titled “How to create unlimited AI-generated images for free“, and it made a total of $13.55. I knew at that moment that I had something great on my hands. I then published another article called “The easiest way to create AI-generated music and use it commercially”, but it only made $1.90.
I wanted to test a few more niches before I was focusing explicitly on AI, so I published a guide about installing WordPress locally with Local, and it made a total of…. $00.00.
So I went back to writing for AI, and I published a new article called “With this free app, you can create unlimited AI images, videos, and audio“. How much did it make? Well, as of this moment of writing, the article has made a total of $88.94, and there are still people adding it to their lists, commenting, and sharing it.
I’ve posted two more articles since then, but none of them was able to generate the same amount of money that this specific article did. Looking at it, I can see why. Give people something powerful for free, teach them how to use it as quickly and as easily as you can, and let it start filling your pockets.
Of course, it’s very soon to tell if Medium can actually be a place where you can earn lots of money, but many writers already do, so why not you, too, right? I’ll be updating this article with the statistics for my new posts and how much money I make from each one, but if you’re in a different niche, make sure that you research what people are searching for the most.
You can use tools like Google Trends and Arhefs to better understand which topics are currently trending and which will never see the light of day. Whatever you choose to publish, make sure it actually gives something to your readers, and play as much as you can with your titles, descriptions, and featured images, as they play a critical role when it comes to people clicking on them.
So, to answer your question: Yes, you can make money on Medium, and as you see, you can do that from the very beginning. But it’s not as easy as writing and posting, as the competition is huge and only those who can provide quality can earn through it.
Uh, oh! Legal stuff! Yikes.. Yet important! Affiliate Links Disclaimer: Many of the links on my articles are affiliate links. That means if you click on one and make a purchase, I might earn a small commission, and I'll keep doing what I'm doing, reviewing everything with absolute honesty. Sounds good? Good.
