This is the 19th edition of The Essence.
I joined Medium almost a year and a half ago to test how it can help me as a new writer.
One of the most crucial questions was could I earn a living writing there? I realized I must produce viral hits consistently to do so. At the very least, one viral article a month.
Every piece I published carried with it many of my hopes and aspirations. I waited for my viral article… and waited… and waited… and was disappointed.
I didn’t have one viral article, only two semi-viral ones. And even though I didn’t publish there consistently, I’m certain of my conclusions.
It matters not if you can write a viral article a month, it’s not wise to rely on viral pieces to make ends meet. It’s the equivalent of depending on publishing bestsellers consistently. Most writers, let alone beginners, can’t do that.
But it’s frustrating. You see many writers celebrating their viral hits everywhere.
“How I Made $578 with a Single Article”
“How Much My Viral Article Has Made”
They promise you can do it yourself, giving you hope. But there are dangerous implications to this hope. I didn’t realize that until after long months of chasing virality.
Some of the most notable implications are thinking it’s easy to go viral and depending on viral articles for a living. Those had a heavy cost on my mental health and wallet. After almost a year writing here, I found out Jim Woods was right:
“Just one freelance client can pay you more than you’ll make all month writing on Medium every single day.”
It’s hard to think critically when overwhelmed with hopes and dreams. But I’m out of that bubble now.
The tough truth about earning from viral articles
Let’s look at some statistics.
In September of 2020, Medium revealed that only 6.4% of active writers earned over $100. It is a small percentage. And most of them most likely don’t make a living. But because our survivorship bias makes us focus on those high-earners, we overlook those who failed.
Survivorship bias is the logical error of concentrating on those who made it through and overlooking those who failed. According to Wikipedia, survivorship bias can lead to overly optimistic beliefs because failures are ignored.
But hope is such a strong emotion. I’m not trying to kill your hope either. I’m trying to show you a better way to navigate this after falling victim myself.
Why you shouldn’t depend on viral articles for a living
“If I read another article telling you that “you too can make a full-time income on Medium, if only you publish seven times a day,” I’m gonna be sick.”
That’s from Niklas Göke.
He is one of the top 1% earners with over 80K followers. He has been writing on Medium since 2014! That’s three years before the partner program even existed.
“So by the time you realized there was an opportunity to make money on this new platform, I had already practiced in public and tried to master that platform for more than 1,000 days.”
Niklas earns four figures most of the time from his viral articles. But he never relied on them solely to pay his bills. Yet, many hopeful new writers on the platform want to earn a living writing there pretty fast. It may be possible, but it’s very unlikely.
It is very unpredictable too. You never know what article will go viral. And not every viral article produces the same income. Niklas revealed that his best four-figure month was $8,000 and his worst was $1000:
“You can’t depend on eight-fold increases and 90% drops in the source of income that’s supposed to keep your lights on. These fluctuations are normal, but it’s not normal to depend on such fluctuations.”
The platform always changes, and this could harm your earnings too. Many of the top earners’ views dropped late 2020. This could make you nuts and put you under incredible pressure, especially in bad months.
Advantages to not depending on viral articles for a living:
Less heartache because you have fewer expectations.
More control over your writing business because you don’t need algorithms to get paid.
Probably higher-quality work produced because you’re less pressured and stressed.
What to do instead
This doesn’t mean that you should no longer try to write viral articles. Or give up writing on Medium altogether. The platform is still great to practice, build an audience, and connect with other writers or potential clients.
And yes, it can still provide you with a good source of income. But you should never fully rely on it.
Have other sources of income. Try writing for companies and clients. You can also write for publications and magazines. And you can try freelancing sites like Contently.
If you have a job, keep it.
Note: If you want to more in-depth info about the top three ways to earn money writing, sign up to get my free complete guide.
Turn this into a side hustle instead of your main gig.
Amardeep Parmar, for example, was writing on Medium as a side hustle while working a job. Yet he became more successful than many of those writing there full-time. And attracted over 1M views in his first year.
Final thoughts
When writing on Medium or anywhere online, don’t frustrate yourself by chasing virality. Apply the virality best practices. Promote your article on social media or your newsletter, and then forget about it.
After analyzing 100+ viral articles, I wrote this to detail the best practices to increase your pieces virality:
Avoid These 7 Things if You Want Your Article to Go Viral
When you apply those best practices, your articles will be more likely to go viral. After promoting it, move on, and return to focus on your other ventures.
When you no longer depend on viral articles for a living, you’ll likely have more control over your writing business. You won’t need to anxiously check your stats every few hours. You won’t be super stressed because the algorithms aren’t recommending your article to enough readers.
You may even produce higher-quality articles because you are more relaxed. And you’re no longer chasing virality.
You’ll be able to focus on being useful, instead of chasing virality. That’s what readers like, and readers are what your article needs to go viral, not some algorithms’ bots.
I wrote this piece in July 2021. You can find the original here.
Thanks for reading and until next time,
Mohammed