For the sake of transparency, and because I have a small but curious group of readers who seem pretty invested in my Medium activities even though I’m one of the bottom earners on that platform, I figured I’d give you a solid number, and attempt to explain the why, how, and what-now.

If all you care about is how much I’ve made in a single year (April 2022 — March 2023), the exact amount is $1,066.93 USD. Yes, there are a few writers on this platform who make that kind of money in a single month, but I’m not one of those writers, so do what you will with it.

FYI, if you’re new to Medium, read this guide for all the new Medium writers. And if you have yet to join Medium as a member (I highly recommend it), you can do so now using my referral link 🙂 Just click the button below!

Some background

I joined Medium toward the end of 2017 and have been writing there on and off since then.

But it wasn’t until June of last year (2022) that I started to publish somewhat regularly, and in true Medium spirit, have managed to churn out a decent amount of mediocre content for sheer quantity.

But a 12-month period sounds better. It’s an entire year, after all. So, here’s what the numbers look like when I break them down from month to month.

How much I earned on Medium over the last 12 months

There are four columns in the table below: Month, Net Followers, Net Referrals, and Earnings corresponding to the month.

I added a “Net Referrals” column which indicates how many referred members I’ve had each month, in case you’re curious about that.

Adding all the earnings from the fourth column, we get $1066.93 across a 12-month period.

The patterns from the data (the what and the why, as far as I can tell)

You can safely ignore the data between April and June of 2022, because remember, even though I was on Medium, I wasn’t really publishing regularly until around mid-June, 2022.

So, really, all we care about are earnings starting in July 2022.

And here things get curious.

As expected, we see steady growth in both followers and earnings. July is when I made over $50 in a very long time. Then, for the next three months, this growth seemed to persist, with September being the highest earner for me, with a whopping $196 bucks — The most I’ve ever made on this platform in a single month.

And then, things started going downhill.

What happened?

As far as I know, the slowness of my growth on this platform neatly coincides with the time Medium did away with their “Distribution” system. Until then, most of my stories were being chosen for further distribution, but no more.

So, steady decline in both followers and earning growth from there.

And even though Medium introduced the Boost in February, I have yet to get boosted, so still a slow decline over at this end of the woods.

[Related: Everything You Need to Know about Medium Boost]

So, what now?

Medium was never a business strategy for me. I enjoy being there for the sake of being there. I love the reads, the laughs, the occasional hair-pulling frustrations, and many an amazing writer and editor I’ve had the opportunity to interact with.

But I do spend a decent amount of time on that platform, so some form of compensation is always nice and welcome.

Also, increasing earnings and followers are not just numbers. They’re also strong indicators of whether people are finding value and/or entertainment in my work. And that’s important for me as a writer and creator.

So, what now, you ask?

Recently, I started some serious experimentation on Medium. I used to mostly focus on the marketing and audience growth niches, but this month I’ve published personal essays, cultural commentary, and a photo essay too. Just to see if something stands out.

Well, so far no luck. But then again, it’s too early to make any solid conclusions. All I know is that Medium is an ever-evolving platform and you can’t really take things too easy there; not if you’re trying to build an audience and make [some] money from the platform’s Partner Program.

So, I’ll keep experimenting, but I’ll also publish some tried and tested topics from time to time. Worry not, I’ll keep you posted on my findings per usual 🙂

In any case, I’m excited to try writing and publishing different types of stories on Medium and see where it goes. I welcome questions and comments, so scroll down and share your thoughts with me below.

[Related: About External Traffic and Earnings on Medium]