Episode 88: How I Paid My Mortgage from Medium.com Earnings

Speaker 1 (00:00):

You are listening to episode number 88 of inspire your success podcast. On today’s episode, I’m going to take you through my best month writing on medium.com and how I use it to actually pay for my mortgage plus what we’re going to give you some tips on how you can get started and crush it on medium coming up.

Speaker 2 (00:21):

Hi, I’m Michael Leonard and I built a full time online writing business that offers me the freedom to never go back to a cubicle in a nine to five if you’re like most people, you want to make more money to pay off debt, have more freedom, travel, and actually enjoy your life. Whether you want to earn $500 per month as a side hustle or scale writing business to five figures per month and quit your job. Making money as a writer has never been easier in this podcast. I want to inspire your success as a freelancer and show you how I 10 X my income in one year and made $20,000 in one month as a freelance writer. If I can do it, I know you can too. Thanks so much for being here.

Speaker 1 (01:07):

All right guys, welcome back to inspire your success podcast is your host, Michael Leonard. And as always, thanks for, for tuning in and being here today. So as I teased in the intro, a wanted to talk a little bit more about medium because I am spending a lot more time on the platform. A lot of my students inside freelance to five K are having a lot of success with medium and I think it’s a really, really, really good opportunity, uh, for you to get started. So even if you’ve never written anything online, uh, if you have thought about writing or you just have some, uh, extra time with all this pandemic and everything, uh, this is an awesome, awesome opportunity to get started. So that’s really what we’re going to talk about today and kind of take you through one of my best months, um, only after really, um, being, being on it for a few.

Speaker 1 (01:54):

And, uh, again, just give you some tangible tips so that way, you know, as soon as you’re done listening to this, if you’re feeling inspired and ready to go, you can start taking action on medium. But before we dive into that, I did want to share a one random factors, always a about myself. And it’s actually something I’m very, very proud of. And it was actually, if you’re listening to this live on the Tuesday that I came out on Monday, May 11th actually marked three years on the day since I left my nine to five. And I’ll tell you what, it has been an absolutely insane three years. Uh, when I quit a yelp.com I had made $200 ever online. Uh, my blog was just, just barely getting started. Uh, I had just published a self, published a book. I had no idea what I was going to do.

Speaker 1 (02:41):

I just knew that if I had time, uh, that I could try and figure this online entrepreneurship out. So just goes to show that sometimes you do have to take a risk bet on yourself. Um, it was a calculated bet. Uh, it wasn’t something where I just had a bad day and decided to quit my safe, secure corporate job. Uh, for me, it was something that had been in the works for about 14 months. I mean, I was planning, I was learning about online marketing. I was learning about blogging. I was trying to be a better writer. I had a long ways to go, uh, but I was really setting myself up for it. So when I did, uh, exit, I thought I had a plan. Um, those first eight months were pretty Rocky. But, uh, once freelance writing got into the mix, uh, everything really started to take off.

Speaker 1 (03:23):

And so, um, you know, I never would have thought three years later I’d have a podcast with, uh, 90 episodes almost and get to interview some unbelievable guests and, and just to be pursuing my passion every single day and to help help, uh, so many people on medium and inside freelance to 5k and on this podcast, I’m just so grateful. Uh, so again, just, you know, sometimes you have to kind of know when, when it’s your time to, to make a big switch in life. And so that, uh, marked the three years for me and I’ll definitely be sharing a lot more of kind of what it’s been like, uh, in some future episodes, but want to jump in now to really what it takes to, uh, to get started on medium because, um, I actually didn’t get started really into it until the beginning of January of 2020.

Speaker 1 (04:07):

So I actually started my medium account looking back, uh, before this episode, it was back, uh, what was it, December of 2017. So I quit, uh, the nine to five, may of 2017 tried blogging and side hustles and all kinds of stuff for a long time. Um, about six, seven months, nothing really worked. Uh, and then I found out about medium. So I, I thought, okay, maybe that’s what it was. And so I, uh, I got on the platform, uh, tried it out for about six months, but I was just doing too many things. I was trying to blog, write on medium, uh, was, uh, starting freelance writing. I mean, I was just writing way too much and I, and I burned out. And so I basically, at that time I went where the money was and, uh, you know, I knew I needed to create some income streams or else I was going to have to go back to the corporate job.

Speaker 1 (04:50):

And so freelance writing is really what took off for me. And I’ve definitely made a lot more money from writing, um, as for clients and freelancing than I have on medium. But, um, I really missed it. And so that was kinda my big initiative. So 2018, 2019, didn’t write on medium, um, at all. I don’t even think I had maybe more than one or two posts, uh, each year. Um, I would read some stuff on there, but I mean, I was so busy working with three to five clients in my business and, and golfing for, uh, that dream. And so I was really spending all my time writing for other people. But, and December of 2019, I really got clear about what I wanted to create in 2020. And, uh, one of the biggest things for me was, uh, wanting to get back on medium because I knew there was a lot of potential.

Speaker 1 (05:32):

I had interviewed Anthony Moore, uh, who’s been on the podcast now twice, had a lot of success on it and I just kinda missed writing for myself and, and, uh, so I was like, you know what, let’s give it a shot. And so, um, when I launched back in, uh, I think I published one article December 31st, 2019 and then I really started in January. And I think that first month in January I made about 300, or maybe it was about 260 bucks from the medium partner program. Um, I think it was close to 400 or 500 the next month. And then March, all of a sudden I had one article just blow up and I was able to earn, uh, nearly $1,100. Um, so it covered my side of the mortgage and I couldn’t really believe it because not only had I made a good chunk of income from, from writing and really it was just one post that really took off.

Speaker 1 (06:19):

Um, and we’ll talk more about that, but it was that one post on and it pretty much, you know, just kind of helped people find me and then they clicked on other articles. And so I had a lot of readers just on there and you might be listening to this and you might’ve found me on medium a few months ago or you might’ve found me recently. And so not only did I get to earn a lot of money and obviously help people, but it also helped other parts of my business. So that’s one of the cool things about medium is that, you know, you don’t have to have a big following to start. You don’t have to have tons of experience, you don’t have to have an ad budget. Um, you can really get started so fast. And that’s what I talked about back in, um, last week in episode number 86 is that there’s so many great benefits to getting started and you can launch so easily.

Speaker 1 (07:01):

And so that’s really what I like because even though, I mean, when I started back up in January of this year, I think I had 500 followers or so. And I’m, you know, not, not a ton, obviously when people got, you know, 50, 60,000, um, but in about four months, I’ve already grown it, uh, to 2.6 followers, uh, two point 6,000 followers. And, uh, you know, just having some articles really take off and so kind of want to talk about what I was doing there. Because again, it wasn’t like I was writing all day. I still had a lot of freelance writing work I was doing, um, in March. And so really what what it was for me was just getting that one article. And so I had one post, I think it looks like here. So I’m doing the math. So I did an total of eight, uh, posts.

Speaker 1 (07:44):

So I had eight different pub, um, stories that I published on medium, uh, in March of this, uh, March of 2020. And so only eight articles guys, they were probably, I don’t know, I would say about 13 to 1800 words on average, but I mean, they were all about freelance writing. They were all about things I’m really passionate about. They didn’t take, you know, tons of time to research things like that. Um, again, I was just trying to help all those writers out there who are looking for what to do. And so I was just trying to share a lot of my experience and kind of go over some of the biggest things about how to land clients and routines and stuff like that. So in March, I had a total of eight articles get published. And again, it made over a thousand dollars from that.

Speaker 1 (08:24):

And I had one post which was, uh, worth $446. And that’s just again from the medium partner earning. So I did make money from affiliates. I did make money from core sales, all of that as well. But just from medium alone, um, I was able to make over four figures and in my third real month writing. So that just goes to show you guys that, you know, you don’t need to have a ton of background, you, you just really need to get into publications. And that’s kind of the biggest thing. So looking at kind of my month there, um, you know, if you see all eight of the articles, I believe all of them were published in a publication. So I think to me, um, you know, kind of looking at that, if you are starting on medium right now and you have no followers or maybe you’ve, you know, maybe published five, 10 posts, something like that, and you’re just getting started.

Speaker 1 (09:10):

I would say the biggest thing you can do is to publish in publications. You gotta get in there because it, you don’t have to promote your stuff as much cause there’s a built in audience. So you know, looking back into March of this year, I had pretty much all of mine were featured in either the startup or better marketing. Um, yeah those are really the main two that I focused on that month. And I have ventured out a little bit since then, but I’ve just found a lot of success on there. So the biggest thing is whether you’re writing about the same kind of stuff I am, or business or personal development or tech or whatever your niche is. I would say the biggest thing I could say is to please get that stuff featured in publications. Otherwise you’re going to publish all this awesome stuff on your story and you might not get it picked up and it might not get curated by medium and you might just not have your work seen, which means you’re not going to make as much money from medium a partner.

Speaker 1 (10:05):

But then again, you’re not going to have your stuff read and that’s what’s impacting people. So that’s why I want you to submit to publications. Again, every publication is different. Um, you know, you basically just need to kind of scope out your niche and your space and see what are the good ones that you should be publishing in. You know, for example, with business, uh, you know, the startups really good, better marketing’s really good, uh, for writing. Uh, I publish in better marketing. I uh, publish now in publishes, I believe it’s called, uh, the writing cooperative. I mean, so you just need to kind of figure out which ones and then follow their guidelines, whether it’s submitting a draft or sending them an email. Um, there’s a lot of different ways that each publication does it, but you just need to kind of find, uh, the, the actual one research, the publication.

Speaker 1 (10:50):

And it’ll be pretty straightforward on how to get there. But once you really get in there, you can start to see what’s working and what’s not. And so that to me is the, the best part of this is there’s a really quick feedback because with blog writing, you know, you could spend 10 hours on an Epic post, but then all of a sudden you have to put it up, push publish, and then no one reads it. And so you don’t know if it was good or bad and you have to wait for SEO or then you have to try and promote it on Pinterest or to Facebook ads. I mean, it’s exhausting. Being a blogger is not like just being a writer. And so that’s again, like I talked about in episode 86 is why I love freelance writing and why I love writing on medium because you don’t have to do nearly as much.

Speaker 1 (11:31):

You get to focus on the fun stuff, which for me and probably you is writing. So again, that’s just kind of looking at it for me. Um, you know, it’s just pretty crazy. The third month back at it was able to pay for my mortgage, um, with, with that, and again, I only published eight articles. A couple of them, you know, had maybe 10, 15 bucks and then one of them had 400 another one had 200. So you know, that’s thing guys, if you want to really make it on medium, I would say you do have to have some consistency. I think that will help your writing, which will then get you accepted into more publications and obviously have people resonate. But biggest thing is is that if you have time right now with his pandemic and his crisis or maybe he got laid off or had your hours cut, you’ll spend some time and really read what’s working on medium.

Speaker 1 (12:14):

I think that’s one of the biggest things I did. Um, back in December as I was just looking at all the stuff that was working and I just made it, made it my own and I figured out how to add my spin to it and share my experience. But you know, study what’s working. As Tony Robbins always says, success leaves clues. So again, follow what’s working out there. Do a lot of reading. Joined that $5 a month, medium partner program. So that way you can read all the stories and then start to bookmark ideas and see, you know, get some topic ideas, things like that, because then you can really get a writing. Sometimes it’s hard if you’re just trying to create topics out of thin air and things like that. So you know, see what’s working, figure out what publications you want to get featured in and then just start, because again, you don’t need to have anything else.

Speaker 1 (12:58):

You don’t have to worry about designing a website or doing any of that. And it’s cool too because even if you are freelancing, it’s still a fun side hustle. You can write about your own stuff and you can share your own message or story or whatever it is. And so that’s again, so many reasons. I love it and that’s how I was able to pay for my mortgage with medium. Um, and again, I’m making a big push actually here in may. Um, my goal is to have, I believe 15 articles out and I haven’t published any yet. And so we’re going to have to really crunch, uh, now, but I’m excited. That’s going to be a big, big push for me in 2020 so you know, if you have any questions on it, always let me know. You can email [email protected] Um, but wanted to let you know too that I have an extra little bonus for you.

Speaker 1 (13:42):

So if you’ve listened to this long, obviously you’re someone that’s ready to figure out what it takes to get published on medium and how to really get your work read so you can start making money and make an impact on people’s lives. So to help you out, I actually just finished a medium publishing checklist. So this is kind of like what you should do and make sure every article has these 10 things before you hit publish or before you submit it to a publication. So you’re going to want to download this. It’s an awesome resource that we put together to help you. Um, so that way when you’re pitching these new publications or you’re a writer in certain publications to make sure you’re publishing really high quality content. So you’re going to want to download this. So go ahead and go to inspire your success.com/ medium and you can also just take a look in the show notes for that.

Speaker 1 (14:30):

Um, but again, you’re going to want to download that. And then I’ll also send you some tips on some other ways to get started with medium, but very, very excited. I think there’s a big opportunity for writers, even though it’s been around three, four, five, six years, that’s really been taken off. A medium continues to grow. People are really flocking to it, especially right now. So again, if you’ve been on the sidelines, it’s time to get in the game and it’s time to start writing. Let people read your words, test what’s working, get your name out there. And a lot of amazing things can happen and you never know. You might just pay your mortgage with your medium earnings. So again, if you have any questions, always let me know. [email protected] Stay safe out there. Again guys, I know we got a lot going on and one final update.

Speaker 1 (15:15):

Uh, just want to say the inspire your success team is growing and I’m so excited, uh, just brought on someone to help me edit all my content on medium. Uh, just brought, uh, Sarah who has been working with me the last nine months. She’s going to be taking over a new role here as a project manager integrator role and then we’re going to be hiring another virtual assistant to help get this message out to more people. So, so excited. Thank you again for being here, tuning in, sharing this, uh, leaving reviews, all that has helped me, uh, get this message out to more people. So thank you so, so much. I really appreciate you and uh, again, just stay safe out there. So if you have any questions, again, let me know. Thanks for listening and as always, I hope you have an Epic day.

Speaker 2 (16:02):

Thanks for listening to this episode of inspire your success podcast. If you’re the kind of person who likes to help others, please leave a positive review on iTunes so more people can learn about the show. Also, if you have any questions about freelancing, I’m here to assist. Please email [email protected] and I may even use your question for a future episode topic, and if you want more inspiration and freelance writing tips to build your business, follow me on Instagram. My username is at, I am Michael Leonard. Finally, if you’re ready to learn how to make your first thousand dollars as a freelance writer, check out my free seven day [email protected] 

Speaker 3 (16:45):

thanks again for listening.