Can You Really Make Money On Medium.com?

Medium.com is a blogging platform that was developed by a man named Evan Williams… one-time CEO of Twitter, and the creator/founder of Blogger. Medium is known as a ‘minimalist blog platform’ where ‘your favorite writers, thinkers, and experts are publishing their best work.’ But can you really make money on Medium.com?

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And if so, how do you do it?

At first glance, Medium.com looks like Blogger… but a little bit different. It is a bit more like a newspaper, where everyone and anyone is allowed to write about whatever they want. 

But it also isn’t a forum. It is actually a blogging platform. 

Can You Make Money On Medium?

Let’s talk about the blogging part of the platform first. This is what people are most familiar with, since many famous Twitter personalities and social media stars publish content there from time to time. Why they would not publish content to their own website is a mystery to me, but I digress.

Medium Is A Minimalist Blogging Platform

There isn’t much to look at when you actually start writing in Medium.com. But that is also probably the biggest thing to talk about! 

Medium is completely minimalist. The actual article-writing part of the platform is so minimalist that there really isn’t much to look at. 

Take a look. 

It is clean, concise, to-the-point, and almost seems to be made to resemble a typewriter in almost every respect. 

In fact, that is exactly why it kind of reminds me of an old-school newspaper. 

There is a little ‘plus’ sign that you can click to do a few things… but that’s it. 

This plus sign gives you the option to… 

• Add an image
• Add an image from Unsplash
• Add a video
• Add an embed
• Or add a new part

Once you write (or paste) your article into it and fill in your title, you click on the “Ready To Publish?” button. 

At this point, you will get to see a story preview, and will get a chance to add up to 5 Tags, to show readers what your article is about. 

There is also a button that says this… 

“New! Allow curators to recommend my story to interested readers. Recommended stories are part of Medium’s metered paywall.” 

This is one of the ways in which you can earn money on Medium.com, but it is also the last option you have to make a choice about before you click “Publish Now” or “Schedule for Later.” 

In either case, your article will be published… no muss, no fuss. It is super simple. 

Now, let’s talk about how to monetize your Medium.com account. 

How Do You Actually Make Money On Medium.com? 

There are two main ways to earn money on Medium.com. One is through Medium’s Partner Program, and the other is by using Medium as a content-platform for affiliate/content marketing. 

So let’s talk briefly about both. 

The Medium Partner Program

Here is how the Partner Program works. 

First of all, you have to write. You need to write good enough work that other people would want to read it. 

Once you publish such work, make sure that you turn on your distribution and earnings settings when you publish the story. 

Next, you need to hope that your post was good enough to get recommended by the Medium Editorial Team. 

They review thousands of stories every day, and when a story meets a certain set of standards, they may recommend it to readers in relevant topics on Medium. 

You actually earn money when subscribing members read and/or applaud your work! And you get paid for it at the end of every month. 

As you write more, you can broaden your readership… and you can end up making even more, both off of existing content, and off of new content. 

As you can see, there are no ads or banners on Medium. Just writers, encouraged to do their best work possible. 

And since subscribers all pay to subscribe to Medium.com, the company uses some of this money directly to pay writers who earn it with popular, well-written content. 

Using Medium As A Content Platform

In content marketing and/or affiliate marketing, many creators use platforms like blogs, podcasts, and YouTube channels to build up their audiences, build trust with their viewers, and then market products. 

And Medium can be used for this as well, if you use it responsibly! 

You may not necessarily be able to ‘market products’ through Medium directly, but you can use Medium to publish work and get your name out there. 

And then, you can use it to point people to your official website… where you can then market products to them through your content-marketing funnels. 

This is a great way to make Medium.com work for you without being required to pay anything for a blog. But Medium also does pretty well in the search engines. So if you use it and publish some blogs based on well-researched keywords in your target market, then you may be able to gain some attention and traffic through it.

And in the long-term, this can definitely help you to gain traction and earn more money through your content marketing or affiliate marketing business. 

How Much Can You Earn On Medium.com?

Some people earn less than $1 per month, while others earn more than $1,000 per month through the Partner Program. It really all depends on how popular your content is, how ‘curatable’ it is, and whether or not it gets a lot of views and clicks. 

But even if you don’t directly make any money on it, you can still use Medium to drive traffic to your affiliate or content-marketing website. 

It really all depends on what your goals are. If you are a writer, then yes… Medium.com gives you the potential to earn some pretty decent money. 

But if you never get any clicks or likes, you are not guaranteed to earn anything. Plus, if you only write one or two pieces, but never actually keep up with your profile, then you are actually much less-likely to build a readership… and that will hurt your chances to earn through the Partner Program as well. 

The Downsides To Medium.com

There are obviously a few downsides to every platform, and Medium.com is no exception. 

So let’s take a moment to discuss them. 

First of all, Medium is a blog that is hosted on a server that you do not own. Therefore, there is always the possibility of losing your content. 

It is extremely unlikely that this would happen. But it could happen. 

Secondly, you do not have total control over SEO on Medium. To a point, you are dependent on the platform and the settings they give you to work with… which aren’t many. 

You will probably find much better SEO advantages if you launch your own WordPress blog. But with that being said, Medium.com is actually pretty good when it comes to SEO… especially if you embed the proper keywords and choose your tags wisely. 

And thirdly, some people see Medium as a waste of time if they don’t make money in the Partner Program. 

Let’s be clear here. Earning money through Medium.com’s Partner Program is difficult. You will be competing with the best writers on the platform. And even if you are really good… you will still have a tough time coming out on top because the subjectivity of the curators is a factor. 

So you can never count on earning money on Medium.com through the Partner Program. 

It just isn’t a guarantee, and you cannot really force that. 

My Personal Feelings About Making Money On Medium.com  

With all of this being said, here are my thoughts about trying to make money on Medium.com. 

I like Medium because it is popular, simple, pretty good in the search engines, and gives you the opportunity for curation. 

I also like that you can earn some extra money with it. 

But with that being said, I think that it is especially good as a platform for writers to showcase their work. I also think that it is one of the cooler free blogging platforms in the game right now. 

And I think that is the biggest reason to use it. 

If you are a writer, and are trying to grow your audience or showcase your talent as a freelancer, then having a Medium.com account can be super helpful. 

I do not think that any writer should rely on the Partner Program. But… it can be a cool surprise if you earn money from it. 

I think that Medium would stand to earn you the most money as a platform to build an audience for your content or affiliate marketing business. It could also help you to establish yourself as an expert in your chosen field. 

If you are not a writer, or are not interested in writing, then Medium.com is likely not for you. 

It is, after all, a platform for writers. 

Our Final Opinion Of Medium.com

Should you try to make money by writing on Medium.com? 

Nathaniell

What's up ladies and dudes! Great to finally meet you, and I hope you enjoyed this post. My name is Nathaniell and I'm the owner of One More Cup of Coffee. I started my first online business in 2010 promoting computer software and now I help newbies start their own businesses. Sign up for my #1 recommended training course and learn how to start your business for FREE!