You know that I’m a big fan of diversification and not putting all your eggs in one basket. I’m currently active on five platforms regularly but, in all transparency, most of them take a lot of time to manage. Save for one, the most recent addition to my stack, Medium.
It’s not just a distribution platform, it’s also a platform that pays you for your writing. I’ll tell you all about it right after we welcome today’s partner, a brand that supports creators and helps them get paid their worth.
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What is Medium and how does it work?
Briefly put, Medium is a platform where you can share stories aka articles on any topic. I write about marketing and growth (obviously) but you can also read articles on personal growth, finances, travel, and more.
Just like on most blogging platforms, you can add tags to your stories, which helps them get discovered by readers who are interested in a particular topic.
You can publish original stories/articles, stuff you’ve never published anywhere before OR (my favorite thing) syndicate your existing content aka republish your blog posts or newsletters.
You can publish:
- On your personal profile, as you would on your own blog
- In Medium publications that essentially work magazines or regular platforms that accept contributions: you submit your story and it gets approved (or rejected) by the editorial team. If your story is really good, it will get “boosted” by the editorial team. “Boosts” are essentially distribution on steroids — your story gets pushed to their email list, to the top of the feeds, and more.
Here’s where things get interesting
Unlike most syndication platforms, Medium users pay a monthly fee to access paywalled stories. It’s a small fee ($5/month or a bit more if you’re feeling generous). Part of that money goes to you, the writer.
You won’t make a fortune by writing on Medium — not directly, at least. BUT it’s an incredible platform for discovery precisely because, if you paywall your stories, all your readers will be people who are accustomed to paying to support writers.
In a world where you can find free information (and everyone knows that!), being able to reach an audience that is OK with paying even a tiny fee is huge.
But the real goldmine lies elsewhere — in the audience you can funnel from Medium to your own platforms.
How I spend 20 mins a week on Medium
At the beginning of 2024, I met Sinem Günel, a Medium expert, writer, and entrepreneur. She found my newsletter and told me it would be perfect to syndicate on Medium. We quickly became friends and she kept telling me I should get started already.
I kept postponing it because my time was very limited. As expected, Sinem was right — Medium is fairly easy to use, I could have found the 40 mins or so it took me to get started. [By the way, Sinem is hosting a free webinar on Medium writing next Thursday. If you want in, grab a slot here.]
I finally did it, though, in August. Here’s my profile.
My first story went live on Medium, in the Better Marketing publication, on August 25th. You may recognize it from this newsletter, where it was originally published back in August 2023.
More than a year later, I syndicated it to Medium and it made me a cool $300+ (still my most successful story to date).
Since then, I settled into a 20 minute/week Medium routine:
- Every Friday, I submit 1-3 new stories to 1-3 Medium publications. I say new, but these are really old newsletters.
- It takes me 5-10 minutes/story to copy-paste it into the Medium editor and make light edits (links, remove mention that it was a newsletter issue, and so on).
- Another 5-10 minutes go into answering comments from readers.
That’s it, that’s the whole routine.
The ROI of 20 mins/week on Medium
Let’s talk money first. These are absolutely not life-changing amounts or even enough to live on. However, given the time I invest in the platform, it’s the easiest money I’ve made.
Quick caveat: this is easy for me because I already have the content. For me, this is syndication, not writing from scratch. If you have to write from scratch, it will take longer.
Here’s an overview of my account so far (October is in progress).
I estimate it’s fairly easy to get to $500-$1000/month. Within less than two months, I got to almost 400 followers with, again, minimal effort.
I could make more if I spent some more time engaging with other writers but this is not a priority for me. I’m not in it for the money.
The real driver for me is email list growth. I estimate that I get anywhere between 5 and 10 new subscribers for every boosted story, plus some social media followers but those are harder to track.
And, again, I’ve only been at it for less than two months.
As my following grows there, too, I will probably get more readers irrespective of how well the publication that hosts it performs or boosts my story. However, these will still matter more than anything.
Which takes me to my next point.
Distribution matters A LOT — just like on any other platform
See those little arrows next to the number of views each story got? Those were boosted stories i.e. chosen by the editorial team for enhanced distribution.
There is a stark difference between boosted and non-boosted stories, especially in the beginning when you don’t have a large following of your own.
I got almost 400 followers in a month and a half. However, most of my followers also came from boosted stories, so yeah, it’s a (vicious or virtuous?) circle.
Which story gets boosted and which doesn’t is out of your control. Some of my favorites did not get a boost, for instance. Overall, approximately 40% of my stories got that coveted boost.
Still, I like the human-first approach to this. There’s an editorial team who picks the best stories and it’s refreshing to know you didn’t just win the algorithm lottery. Plus, nothing beats getting private notes like this from editors:
One other thing I love about Medium is that your stories there live longer than social media content (aka longer than a fruit fly). My first story published at the end of August is still getting readers and responses. Sure, not as many as it did in the first days, but it’s not dead-dead either.
Should you be publishing on Medium?
It was an easy yes for me but that doesn’t make it a good fit for everyone. It could be an easy yes for you too if at least one of these statements is true in your case:
- You already publish written content, especially long-form.
- You have a content bank you can pull from.
- You like writing and you don’t mind doing it for another platform too.
- You’re looking for another distribution platform.
Got at least one of those working for you? Let’s get you started on Medium!
First, let’s make sure you avoid this big mistake
In the past month, I’ve recommended this platform to a few friends. Most of them started posting directly on their profile. While that will bring you some SEO juice, it will never bring you real traction.
If you want better distribution, a lot of eyes on your stories, and money, publish in publications.
Yes, getting approved as a writer takes a bit of time and it can be a hit-and-miss process but it’s 100% worth it.
Medium publications (Better Marketing is my favorite) already have an established audience, so you will get readers to all your stories.
If you only publish on your profile, you rely on your followers (zero if you’re just getting started) and maybe one-two readers who discover your story via tags and search engines.
How to use Medium with minimum time investment and maximum impact
First off, you’ll need an account:
- It takes about as long as it does to set up a social media account.
- The real time-drain is setting up your payment account, especially if you live outside the US. I recommend you do it nonetheless because you want that audience, the kind who pays to read.
- If you want to publish paywalled stories, you will also need to be a paying member yourself ($5/month).
- Add a profile picture and make sure to link to your website, ideally, a landing page where you can capture emails.
Then, it’s time to find the right publications to host your stories:
- Here’s a list of active Medium publications.
- You can find more on Medium, with a simple search.
- The real challenge is getting accepted as a writer to your target publications. I got accepted by 4 out of 5 I applied to and that one outlier is getting to me. I have made it my mission to crack the code and get accepted. This will be your most time-consuming activity. The good news is that, once you’ve been accepted to a couple of publications, everything gets very easy and very fast.
Publishing time:
- Go to your content library. Pick your best articles/newsletters.
- Copy-paste them into the Medium editor.
- Make light edits (if needed).
- Submit to publication.
- Wait. Some publications are very fast and get your stories out there within hours, while others take up to 10 days to publish your work, depending on their current editorial calendar.
If you have additional time to shed, you can also engage with other authors’ stories, much like you do on social media to get some traction for your own content. However, the best part about Medium is that this absolutely NOT mandatory. Good content will get traction on its own.
Right now, Medium is the easiest distribution platform for me. I know, the numbers are not out-of-this-world. Still, for the time I invest in it, the ROI is.
I don’t know about you but I haven’t been on any platform that pays AND pays off with this kind of minimal investment. Until now.
So, if you already publish content, especially long-form, be smarter than I was and don’t wait for eight months to get started.
See you there? Holla at me if you start publishing on Medium!
