Make Money on Medium

This is a review of ‘Make Money on Medium: Build Your Audience & Grow Your Income’ by Nicole Akers, the founder of Publishous — a well-established and popular independent publication on Medium that has become a thing in its own right.

I’ve a lot of respect for Nicole Akers, am impressed by the success she’s achieved on Medium, and think Publishous is a wonderful publication. It’s genuinely one of my favourites to write for on Medium. So I was excited to read this book.

That said, I feel like I must have misunderstood the title. I’d hoped that a book called ‘Make Money on Medium’ would give you detailed information on how to, you know, make money on Medium. But it doesn’t really do that at all.

What you get instead is a straightforward, gentle, and accessible introduction to Medium. It’s positive and optimistic about the earning prospects of writers on Medium. It tells you how to get started on the Medium Partner Program, and thus how to start to make money, but it doesn’t dig into the details.

It would be perfect for someone who has never written on Medium before and isn’t sure where to start. The book will hold your hand as you set up your account, make your profile, write your first few posts, and submit your work to publications.

You’ll come away with a foundational sense of how to deal with publications on Medium like a professional, how to write a good blog post, and an idea of how to promote your work both on and off the platform.

You’ll learn how to gain followers, the importance of community, and be encouraged to engage with and support other writers. You’ll also hear from a veteran editor of a successful publication their perspective on the do’s and don’ts of what to do, when you want to write for them, and what they’re looking for.

Beyond that? Nothing much. No content strategy. No mindset shift. No reality check. Just write as well as you can as often as you can and trust that people will read it. No mention of how to get into Medium’s own publications, as opposed to independent publications, or why that’s important. No hard truths for people who write fiction or poetry and hope to find an audience. No consideration of how Medium’s algorithm works, which subjects do best, or just how hard it is to earn money from writing on the platform.

There is brief coverage of things like tagging and curation but very little in the way of nuts-and-bolts practical advice or advanced techniques. According to the book: “It doesn’t matter what you write about; every topic has a home on Medium. Medium is the place for anyone to write about anything.”

After writing on the Medium Partner Program for over nine months I have to say that I don’t think this is the case. Not if you want people to read your work. Not if you want Medium to curate your work. Not if you want to make any money.

Maybe I got my hopes up because of the book blurb’s ringing endorsement by Ayodeji Awosika who is a very successful writer on Medium: “I can tell you the process Nicole lays out is pretty much my entire recipe for making 4–5 figures on Medium every single month. I owe a large portion of my success to Nicole and her publication, Publishous. Put one hundred percent of your trust in her because she knows exactly what she’s talking about.”

The fact is that only about 7–10% of all active writers in the Medium Partner Program earn over $100 per month. More than 99% will never earn $1,000 on the platform — let alone four to five figures every single month. You could earn a lot of money on Medium. But you probably won’t. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try, of course, but you ought to go into it with your eyes open.

I was hoping for detailed advice on how to make money on the Medium Partner Program but that’s because after writing there for over nine months for peanuts I’ve lost heart. I’m a qualified journalist. I managed to figure out how to pass the $100 per month threshold — which sounds impressive if you say you’re ‘in the top 7% of earners on the platform’ but is barely even pizza money. But after recent changes to Medium’s algorithm my earnings have plummeted to next-to-nothing.

Please don’t let my disenchantment with writing on Medium put you off trying your hand there or reading this book. There are plenty of good reasons to write on Medium other than making money. The book is perfectly fine for what it is — it just stopped short of teaching me anything that I hadn’t already learned the hard way. It’s a good introduction for people who are getting started on Medium.

If you want a light and breezy pep-talk and some encouragement when you’re just getting started on Medium then this book is your new best friend. Once you’re settled in be sure to read Medium’s help pages and detailed advice. Also check out ‘3 min Read’ — Medium’s own publication where they often do a deep dive on best practice for writers on the platform.

Then pour yourself a stiff drink, roll up your sleeves, and prepare to get your hands dirty. Writing is a bloody business after all.

James Garside is an independent journalist, author, and travel writer. Join Chapter 23 for the inside track on all their creative projects and insights about life, work, and travel.