How I Earned $18 In My First 5 Days In The Medium Partner Program

If I can do it, then anyone can

$18 may not seem like much to the big earners on Medium, but I wasn’t expecting this in my first month, let alone my first 5 days.

Strangely, write, yet I don’t consider myself a writer. Sometimes I do, but then I read something by a great writer and wonder who I’m kidding.

But now I’m making money from writing on here. That must mean something? Right?

At least people are reading my articles, clapping, commenting, and following me. Maybe it’s true. Maybe I am a writer.

How did I start?

I first heard about Medium a couple of years ago, but it seemed like a tough place to make money. I was also busy at the time, so just dismissed it.

At the end of October, someone I know mentioned it, so I decided to take another look. I decided to join and made a plan to write every day for a month, and then reassess the situation.

From reading other articles, I expected that it would take 2–3 months to get 100 followers, and then maybe I’d make $5 or so in my first month in the Medium Partner Program. After all, I read plenty of articles from people that made under $1 in a month.

So I was pleasantly surprised to find that I got to 100 follows in just 13 days. I applied for the MPP right away and got accepted the next day.

I have had 5 days of earnings since then, and am now up to $18.62. If I kept earning at that rate, I’d make over $100 in a month. That would put me in the top 6–7% of writers on here. That is better than I could have dreamed of.

The only thing that worries me a little is that my top-performing article is around 60% of my earnings so far. When that fades away, my earning could drop. But it’s still early days, and I’m sure other ones will eventually fill that spot.

It seems that my readers are interested in making money, mainly from writing. This isn’t surprising, given that this is a writing platform.

I don’t feel like I’ve done anything special to get here.

All I’ve done is write about things that interest me. I’ve been running side hustle experiments for the last 15 years or so. This gives me plenty to write about.

I’ve been writing daily, so I’m sure that has helped as well.

If I can do this, then anyone can. When I was in school, my English teacher told me that I was average at best. Yet here I am.