My New Medium Strategy Has Earned Me $6,000 in the Past 60 Days. Here It Is...

Hint: it's not from the Partner Program.

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Over the past year, Medium has changed drastically.

Although everyone’s strategy is different, I’ve been finding a lot of success outside of the Medium Partner Program.

Here’s how I’ve been earning an average of $500 per article for the past 2 months…

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What’s changed on Medium?

If you’re new to Medium, or aren’t sure what changes I’m referring to, let me provide you with a quick breakdown.

I won’t go into depth because… that’s what this article is for: 👇

But, in a nutshell… 🥜📝

… over the past few years, Medium’s leadership has been changing various aspects of the platform to achieve 3 major goals:

• Promote human storytelling

• Reduce A.I.-written content

• Make the company profitable

Two of the biggest changes have been:

1. A heavier emphasis on the Boost Program

2. Removing free reads for non-paying Medium members

This has resulted in many writers seeing a decrease in their Partner Program earnings. And, many writers have been scratching their heads at how to continue finding success on the platform.

Myself included.

Fortunately, I stumbled across a method that has been quite lucrative for me. Here it is — plus, 2 additional methods you might want to try this year.

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The best Medium strategies for 2025.

Sometimes I get into hot water sharing my Medium opinions. So, I want to preface this section with 3 disclaimers:

1. Everyone’s experience is different

2. Medium is still a great platform if used correctly

3. I’m on your side. I want us all to write from a place of passion, make money, and be happy

With that said, let’s get into the first strategy… ✍️💰

#1. What I’ve been doing:

So, as to not bury the headline any further, I’ve been using Medium as a promotional tool to write sponsored posts.

In the past, my strategy was purely to earn from Medium’s Partner Program. This meant, I:

• Targeted Medium members

• Aimed for a 70% read ratio

• Told engaging stories

Unfortunately, in late 2023, this strategy ceased to be profitable for me. Not wanting to give up on Medium completely, I took a break to explore different ways of making money as a writer.

Fortunately, during that time, my YouTube channel had begun taking off — increasing my online presence. And, when I returned to Medium, I had an inbox full of sponsorship offers.

In the past, I always ignored the notion of sponsored posts because, truthfully, I don’t enjoy client work. And, it meant more to me to write from a place of passion than to sell out for a quick buck.

Although my feelings haven’t changed, my bank account… well, it doesn’t have feelings.

And, in the battle between selling out and cashing in, money won. And, I decided to try it out. I thought, ‘Who knows, maybe I was avoiding a good thing’.

As it turns out, I still don’t enjoy client work. And, much prefer to write solely from a place of passion.

But, if your primary goal is to make money as a writer, writing sponsored posts can be quite lucrative. Personally, I’ve been working with 2 clients over the past 2 months, averaging $500 per article.

My Fiverr Affiliates dashboard

Note: one of the clients requested I remove the paywall from my stories to increase their organic reach. So, I factored this into my pricing. 💡

To give you an idea of how much you can charge, here’s the structure I use. Feel free to use this as a base when setting your prices:

My rate sheet

You can also download this customizable rate sheet (seen above) as one part of the Writing Dashboard.

Sponsored posts come down to leveraging:

• Your audience

• The trust you’ve built with your audience

So, be careful who you choose to do business with. And, always consider the long-term ramifications of your actions. You never want to sacrifice your audience’s trust by selling them something you don’t believe in.

Here’s a full guide on how to land sponsorship deals: 👇

#2. Get jiggy with Medium’s goals:

Although Medium’s algorithm may seem to change every few months, its vision is unwavering.

Its goal has always been to be a place for human expression.

Unfortunately, the spawn of A.I. has made this task overwhelmingly difficult. And, although I’m not in the know as much as I used to be, it seems as though A.I.-generated content is as rampant as ever on the platform.

Although unfortunate for Medium’s vision, it comes with a silver lining. If you are, in fact, a human. And, are looking to use your human storytelling abilities for good, you are a shining light in the otherwise grey blur of A.I.-generated stories.

Medium is prioritizing Boosted stories more than ever. 🚀 📝

And, encourages writers to engage authentically, start communities, and share their unique experiences. If you’re able to get your stories Boosted consistently, you have a much greater chance of them going viral.

👉 Here’s a free guide to getting Boosted on Medium.

Even if your stories don’t get Boosted, it’s still possible to earn a good amount of money without garnering massive amounts of views. Here’s one of my recent non-Boosted stories with an RPM of $41.67.

RPM stands for “revenue per mille”, which means how much a story earns per 1,000 views. 💡

One of my recent Medium stories

#3. Focus on SEO:

Medium has a members-only model.

This means, non-paying members can’t read paywalled Medium stories. Which, creates a dilemma for writers looking to grow an audience on the platform.

As of today, Medium’s average monthly traffic is around 130 million.

Which is a relatively small user base when you take into account the billions of humans who use the internet every day. For example: LinkedIn’s is around 1.7 billion.

This is largely because to earn money from Medium’s Partner Program, you must paywall your stories. Which, drastically reduces the number of people who can read them.

So, if you’re looking to grow an audience on Medium, it’s important to take this into account. You can always remove the paywall from your stories to allow everyone on the internet to read them.

How to remove the paywall from your stories

If you’re willing to sacrifice your Partner Program earnings, Medium can be a great tool for ranking on Google. Medium has a high search authority, meaning Google views it as a trusted source. And, stories posted on Medium naturally rank very well for SEO.

You can then use this organic reach to earn money through affiliate marketing. Or, by driving traffic to your blog, website, or social profiles.

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Final thoughts: get creative.

Truthfully, I wish writing online was as easy as picking a platform and getting paid from it. But, like most things in life, earning money is nuanced.

And, your strategy will decide entirely on your specific goals.

So, if you’re a fan of Medium, I would implore you to decide: ✍️👏

• What’s important to you (exposure, upfront money, growing an audience, developing as a writer, etc.)

• How you plan to get paid (through the Partner Program, affiliate links, or client work)

Then, set a plan and be open to pivoting. Finally, feel free to ask me questions. I will answer them as best I can.

Happy writing!

Hudson :)

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