My Most Important Milestone in Medium — How I Planned to Earn $100K with My First Dollar

Medium Writing Experience

You can learn this too!

Earning my first dollar in Medium is like winning a giant lottery.

People said the first dollar is the first step towards the next $100 or next $100K or next $1 Million.

In reality, not one dollar but actually $6.35 in October 2023!

As you can see, I have only once reached one dollar. But on Sept 23, 2023, I joined the Medium Partner Program and got seriously in writing.

Before this date, things had stayed the same for many years.

I have never considered earning anything from my writing since I joined Medium in December 2015.

I enjoyed writing my usual casual write-ups about technology, and most of the time, I will republish my articles from one of my technical blogs called IoT World.

However, in early 2023, I noticed a sudden surge of Generative AI articles about ChatGPT and Midjourney, but as a non-paid Medium Partner, I can’t read most of the articles.

Paid or Free Medium User?

That’s when I wondered — should I become a Medium Partner Program and be able to read all the best writings, tips, and tutorials from these writers?

I kept asking myself whether paying that $5 monthly subscription was worth it.

But the catchy titles of the articles always intrigued me, and I decided to find out by joining the Partner Program on Sept 23, 2023.

But with one condition — it should pay by itself!

And how do we achieve this? I decided that while reading, I should also start writing on my own and ensure the earnings I received will be able to pay by itself.

Slow Progress but It’s a Big Milestone

As of today, Oct 24, 2023, it has been one month and voila! I managed to earn more than the subscription, i.e., $6.35!

I may need to celebrate this as my first achievement. But then, I also need to know exactly what I have done right.

I have to refer back to the articles which have attracted the most. Significantly, the first top three earner articles.

View at Medium.comView at Medium.comView at Medium.com

Study the Stats

However, I still couldn’t figure out why — the number of claps received doesn’t correlate much.

But I have my assumptions about what I do differently that translate to this.

• I have consistently written almost every day. Sometimes twice a day.
• Continuous engagement with other readers — giving claps or responding to or highlighting their articles
• Increased the number of subscribers on my Medium mailing list.
• Write articles with shorter sentences
• Give catchy titles (although I need to become more familiar with SEO).

What I will Do Differently

What I will do more in the future will be to write longer articles. Currently, most of my pieces are about 2–3 minutes of reading time, which is too short to gain any monetisation since Medium needs more than 3 seconds of reading time.

View at Medium.comView at Medium.com

This blog article serves as a reminder to me in the future about what I do in Medium, and within 6 to 12 months, I can see an enormous difference and improvement.

Till then, I wish to learn more from fellow writers. Thanks for your inspiration and tips!