Foolproof Strategies For Getting Paid on Medium

*Pulls spectacles up from nose*

Hello and welcome to my Master Leadership Class Part 1: How to Make Money on Median. Oh? It’s Medium? I knew that.

Now, I have read about four dozen articles on how to make money on Medium. So I think that pretty much qualifies me as a marketing expert in today’s … hold on I just got a text … where was I? That reminds me, I didn’t actually reserve this room so if anyone comes in, we’ll have to go meet in the hallway outside.

Mmmkay.

Now, the most important tip for making money on Medium is to get curated.

Tip #1: Get curated, people!

Go it? OK class dismi … what? You have questions?

Alright, I see we have some real Einsteins with us today. Curation, huh?

Getting curated means the editorial staff of Medium selects your piece to be distributed through its network of topics and in-house publications. It puts your piece in front of lots of new eyeballs, and some of those eyeballs will read your story and interact and, well, then you get paid. How? Oh, I don’t know how. They never let me behind the curtain.

But let’s zoom out and look at the 30,000 foot level, people: you get curated, it helps you get paid! And to do that, you should be producing quality content. Regularly. So that sounds like a good tip. Write quality material. Again. Then again. Then again. Then get curated!

Tip #2: Let’s Always Be Writing, people! I stole that phrase from a movie.

Are our brains full yet? No? I can’t hear you… ARE OUR BRAINS FULL YET??? Because guess what? I have another tip!

The third and such an important tip, after getting curated and constantly writing quality, is to publish in the popular member moderated publications. Thank you, thank you, and you’re welcome. *bows* Namaste.

What? Yes, the popular ones. How? What do I look like, a Q&A forum? Just publish in popular publications, Mmmkay? I don’t know. Check smedian or toppub! Click on something! What do you mean they’re not currently accepting new submissions? Find one that is!

Tip #3: Publish in the popular member moderated publications!

Great, class is over … What? What do you mean my advice is as good as telling homeless people to get a job? These are nuggets, people! Pearls, I tell you!

[pause]

OK, look, I have to be honest. It’s not you, it’s me. I do not know how to get curated. I have never been curated. I am not a highly paid author! I made $2.63 last month. Yes for the whole month.

Maybe we have that in common. Maybe this is what brings us together? Or maybe you need more than what I can give, and I’m OK with that. It’s not your fault, it’s mine. To be honest, I didn’t even read three dozen articles on making money on Medium. They were articles on baking. Is this the end? Are we breaking up. Or can we get back to me. I mean back to you. Back to us. To us making money????

Look, there’s guidelines. And curators who curate. Oh, wait. It says here there are only thirty-five curators.

How do they get through the thousands and thousands of articles published each day? The math doesn’t work out. How do they find the gems? Our babies? Our little darlings? Maybe it’s just rigged for the authors who are already popular!

Wait. Breathe. I am not an angry stone. I am a happy cloud. It is not rigged. In fact, I’ve had curators look at my articles! I have proof, too.

They actually looked at quite a few of my earlier articles from August, when I first joined the club where you get the star next to your articles? It’s called what? It’s called the Medium Partner Program? Of course it is, silly. I was just testing you.

Fifteen of my sixteen September articles were not even reviewed. Did they give up on me? Like my piano teacher in college?

There must be something else is at play beyond just waiting for a curator to find your best work.

Traffic stats! Maybe they pay attention to traffic spikes for recently published articles. Stay with me, people. I’m going CSI on this bad boy. Take my idea, flip it, scroll over, and enhance!

If curators pay attention to traffic patterns, then a good strategy to getting curated would be for us authors to self promote quickly and hard, right when it counts, so that our articles get those nice traffic bumps right after we publish. That will help them rise above the rest and grab the attention of the curators! Facebook. Twitter. Even that old gumpy salesperson of social media, LinkedIn.

I only got one “like” for my story post on LinkedIn, but 129 people saw it. That’s 129 business, marketing, and sales people who saw me posting my writing on the Internet, and might think, “Hmmm. That Chris Field guy is a writer.” Not bad, since it cost nothing. And guess what, one LinkedIn person who clicked through actually viewed my article on LinkedIn. Which is one more than the referrals I got from Medium. Curators, I said that’s one more than the referrals I got from Medium. *smiles*

So that’s it. The last tip. We’ve got to self promote our selfs, selves. shoot. You know what I mean.

Tip #4: Use your social networks to share your work at publication time! Get your networks working for you to help draw the eye of the curators.

OK, whew. THIS guy needs a break. I mean I didn’t even have one tip when you all showed up this morning, but four? Wow. Who’s getting the bargain now? That’s right — you are.

What? No, your course fee is not refundable. Class dismissed!