A Comprehensive Medium Startup Guide For New Members

Follow these steps to get more views, more subscribers, more followers, and more money

I’m well into my second month on Medium and I’m still discovering new tips on how to set up my account properly.

I haven’t seen a comprehensive guide anywhere, so I decided to create one myself.

If you want to get more views, more subscribers, more followers, and more money you need to make sure your account is set up properly.

Once that is done, you need to follow best practices for writing your stories and publishing them.

Even if you’re an existing member, I’d suggest working your way through this guide just to make sure you have everything covered.

If you’re not already a Medium member, I suggest signing up. You’ll need this to read stories, comment, connect with other writers, etc. You’ll be at a severe disadvantage if you’re not a member. You can join up using my membership link. I’ll get a small commission for this, but it won’t cost you any extra.

Create your Medium Profile

Before you do this I’d suggest checking the profile of other writers to give you an idea of what it should be like. Don’t copy anyone else’s profile, but use this step to get some ideas.

Once you’re ready you can find full instruction at Medium Help — Your Profile Page.

Once that’s done I’d also suggest joining the About Me Stories publication. Click the Submit button at the top for details of how to join. You can then publish a story about yourself. This is very useful for introducing yourself and getting some exposure. If you don’t know what to write, check out some of the stories in the publication to get some ideas. You can read my story at About Me — Mike Lewis.

Update Settings

This is something overlooked when I first joined, and only realized how useful it was a couple of days ago.

I think this is the most important settings to update:

Promote Subscriptions

It’s important to get as many subscribers as possible, as these readers will receive an email every time you publish a story. Once enabled, you’ll get a subscription box at the end of all stories you publish, The exception is if you publish via a publication that has their newsletter subscription enabled.

The subscription box will look like this:

Your stories will be emailed automatically by default. You can switch this off if you prefer. You can still send an email later by sending it manually from your story.

Full instructions on the above, along with details on how to check your stats, are shown in Medium Help — Subscribers.

Publishing your stories

There is a lot to this section, so pay close attention.

Having followed the most successful writers, I have noticed a pattern. What works for them should work for you and me. So I suggest following what they do.

1. Publish at least one story every day. Some of the most successful writers publish 2–3 times daily. I have done this since joining 6 weeks ago. I earned $92.88 in my first 19 days. In the first 10 days of December, I’ve earned $138.47. Publish daily seems to be working for me.
2. Use the correct tags. Liz Porter has an excellent article about using tags. You can read it here.
3. You should also read Liz’s article on 15 Medium Tips You Don’t hear Much About.
4. Make sure your title and subtitle are set up properly. Many people don’t use the subtitle tag properly. See Do You Know How To Add A Subtitle To Medium Stories?
5. Writing the article is also something that needs to be done properly. You need to have a great headline and subtitle, an image that stands out, a great opening paragraph, and main content that backs up the title. The following from Tim Denning’s free 3-day course will help immensely. Read them first, then sign up for and take his course. 14 Key Takeaways From Tim Denning’s 3-Day Writing Course and 10 Key Takeaways From Tim Denning’s Writing Course: Day 2 — Images & Intros are essential reading.
6. You’ll need to get 100 followers before you can join the Medium Partner Program. Don’t try to cheat the system by engaging in follow for follow. See Why “Follow For Follow” Might Get You Banned.
7. Follow these extra tips that I discovered — 7 Ways To Increase Your Medium Views And Income In 2022.

How much can you earn?

There are writers on here earning everything from under $1 a month to $10,000+ a month. If you want to earn higher amounts you’ll need to put in the work. Don’t expect to earn big money early on. It’s the writers that are most consistent that win.

Follow the tips above and treat this as a serious long-term project, and you’ll dramatically increase your chances of success.

Here’s my article about how much I earned in my first month on Medium. This only covered 19 days — 1 Month On Medium, $92.88 Earned, 6,635 Views.

And here’s what I earned in the first week of Month 2 — I’m Not A Top Writer, I’ve Never Had A Story Curated — I Still Earned $94 In One Week.

These two articles may give you an idea of what to expect.

I sincerely hope the above gets you off to a flying start. I’ll keep this updated with any new tips or insights I find.

If you want to read my top-performing story, you can see it at Here’s How Much I Earned From Writing 8 Kindle Books.

Good luck with your Medium writing career.

Don’t forget that you can sign up using my Medium Referral.