How To Earn on Medium Without the Medium Partner Program
How To Earn on Medium Without the Partner Program. This guide covers proven strategies to monetize articles without the Program, including SEO, affiliates, tipping, events, products, newsletters & more.
Medium is a popular online publishing platform that allows anyone to share their stories, ideas, and expertise. With over 155.9 million monthly visits, it provides a great opportunity for writers to build an audience and potentially earn money from their content.
However, to monetize your articles on Medium, you traditionally need to join the Medium Partner Program.
But you can’t always join because:
- Currently, enrollment in the Partner Program is only available in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Gibraltar, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States
- This program is very selective, accepting less than 10% of applicants.
So what can you do if you want to earn money from your Medium content without getting into the partner program?
This guide will walk you through various proven strategies to monetize your articles and build multiple income streams without the Medium Partner Program.
We’ll cover tips by implementing even a few tools and tricks you can start earning from Medium without relying on their exclusive monetization program.
1. Write Daily For at Least a Year
The first strategy is to write daily. This is the first commitment that you need to be consistent.
Yes! I know. Writing daily is hard.
However, if you can write every day for a year, you’ll never have to worry about income issues again. You need to figure out the things that work for you to be consistent.
On your way to writing daily, you’ll find your voice, your style, your purpose, and your right audience will find you.
Why do we need to make content daily?
The common experience of bloggers, content creators, and writers is that their content can’t all be possibly discovered by readers.
So, our first step is to endure long enough to get noticed.
2. Do Not Create Content. But… Document!
The biggest fear that most writers and content creators have is that they don’t have an idea of what to create.
Most of us have started with a niche until such time that we run out of ideas. Then we will fall into the valley of death. We create! Then, we stop creating especially when there are no views and reads. We write again. Still with no views, and then we permanently stop!
To avoid this valley of death, we need to DOCUMENT our journey, especially when we don’t have ideas to create anymore. Documenting your journey doesn’t mean not creating.
Readers don’t care about you, but your opinion, backed by your journey from struggles to success, matters to them.
So, this is the second step: Document your journey to build readers.
3. Avoid Engagement Fatigue
Engagement fatigue is when your readers will feel overwhelmed, as a loss of motivation, and as something that occurred when they had been online so often and for so long that your content became ‘too much’.
How can we avoid this if I said in step 1 to write daily?
Use Jenna’s JK5 method.
If you’re familiar with it, we can pick five categories that represent our brand, niche, or personality. These five categories should be related to our main niche.
For example: 5 categories from Make Money Online
- Make Money on Medium
- Make Money without the Medium Partner Program
- Passive income ideas using medium
- Psychological aspects of earning online
- Providing value to readers, money will always follow.
Rotate these five categories when publishing content. The bottom line is to determine the two reasons why readers use Medium as their platform.
- They want entertainment
- They want to solve a problem
Tailor your content using JK5 that aligns with these reasons.
4. Utilize Internal Traffic From Medium plus Optimize Your Articles for External SEO
Since we can’t use the Medium Partner Program, we need to rely on two traffic sources: Internal Traffic and External Referrals.
Before diving into specific monetization tactics, it’s important to ensure your Medium content is optimized for organic search. By ranking highly in Google, your articles can drive targeted traffic that you may be able to convert into revenue.
Some key tips include:
- Research keyword opportunities around topics you like to write about, using tools like Google Trends, Google Keyword Planner, and Keywords Everywhere. Find keywords with sufficient search volume but low competition.
- Incorporate the main keyword naturally in your headline and throughout your article content. But avoid over-optimizing.
- Include related keywords in subheadings (H2 and H3 tags) to help establish context and synonyms.
- Insert relevant internal links to your other Medium posts when possible. This helps search engines index your content better.
- Include high-quality images with descriptive alt text and captions. Properly optimized visuals can boost engagement.
By implementing solid on-page SEO fundamentals in your Medium content, you can rank highly in Google and drive more relevant organic traffic. This expands your audience reach and the pool of potential customers.
You can read my Medium article on how I Ranked on the Top page of Google Using Medium
5. Create and Sell Digital Products
Our primary way to monetize without the Medium Partner Program is by creating and selling your own digital products.
For instance, if you publish articles about productivity, compile your best tips into an eBook and sell it on Gumroad or Payhip. (Link to my Payhip Website).
Or record a webinar expanding on your Medium content and offer it for sale or on a membership site.
Within your articles, you can market these related paid offerings you’ve created. Just focus on how they provide added value vs. repetitively pitching people. Readers will buy things that truly help them, not products that feel spammy.
Once you build an audience on Medium, your content essentially becomes a lead generator for upselling higher-priced offerings.
Just stay focused on delivering value before promoting paid products.
You can also directly promote your own products/services or paid offerings. For example, if you sell an eBook or online course on the topic you’re writing about, link to your sales page within the article.
Just make sure these promotional links are adding value for the reader, not just blatant ads.
6. Create Landing Pages to Add Affiliate Links and Promotions
A simple yet effective way to monetize your Medium articles is by adding landing pages to add affiliate links and promotions.
Just like other platforms, Medium doesn’t want affiliate links or links that will divert the reader outside the platform.
Adding affiliate links directly will trigger the algorithm to decrease your reach and your Medium page will become spammy and desperate for marketing purposes.
Remember, the best way to make money from affiliate marketing is not to promote affiliate links but to create engaging content. Readers will find your links through your content.
If you recommend certain products or services related and directly to your content, be sure to disclose your financial connection, per FTC guidelines. A simple “This contains affiliate links” suffices.
Properly communicating transparency helps build reader trust while still allowing you to earn revenues so that this will not decrease users’ experience.
7. Consult, Freelance, or Use Referral Services
Your Medium articles essentially showcase your knowledge/skills around certain topics. You can leverage this to earn money consulting, freelancing, or generating referrals related to those topics.
For example, if you publish articles about social media marketing tips, you might offer 1:1 consulting packages to help people directly implement what you write about.
Or create freelance services around the skills displayed, and link to your professional profiles in articles.
You could also join referral programs, which pay you to recommend qualified leads. If your articles demonstrate your expertise, readers may want your direct assistance via the paid services you offer.
Just be very transparent about your offerings and don’t push them too aggressively. Focus on proving your value first. Then tastefully showcase how readers can work 1:1 with you if they want to dive deeper.
8. Cross-Post Between Medium and Your Own Platforms
You can still gain traffic from Medium by cross-posting content between there and your own sites or blogs. For example, first, publish articles on your personal blog or portfolio site.
Then a few days later, re-post or re-purpose the content on Medium. Retain full ownership while benefiting from their distribution.
You can also do the reverse — publishing on Medium first, then your own channels. Just be sure to always link back to the original source.
This cross-posting strategy allows you to build an audience across multiple platforms. Then you can monetize that audience through your own offerings, not just relying on Medium’s Partner Program.
But remember not to overdo it.
9. Redirect Traffic to Monetized Channels
Similar to cross-posting, you can publish some articles directly on Medium, and then cautiously redirect traffic to your own monetized properties.
For example, create content on Medium that builds interest and intent around a topic your target audience cares about. Then at the end, link to a paid in-depth guide, tools, or products you offer on your own site.
Medium essentially becomes a lead generation channel. You then convert that traffic into monetized customers through your external assets. Just focus on smoother transitions, so it doesn’t feel like a bait-and-switch.
10. Repurpose Content Into Paid Courses
You can also make money repurposing your Medium content into paid online courses. These should expand well beyond your articles into more comprehensive lessons and actionable training. Find the high-volume with low-competition paid courses.
For example, turn a series of posts about copywriting into a multi-week “Become a Copywriter” course. Or transform mindfulness articles into a “Master Mindfulness & Meditation” video class.
Link to previews of the course at the end of relevant Medium posts, enticing readers with more premium value. But emphasize how your courses build on your free content with actionable modules.
11. Compile and Sell Article Collections
As you build a body of work on Medium, consider compiling top posts into an ebook anthology. These collections can be sold on Amazon, Gumroad, Payhip, and other platforms.
Curate your best, evergreen pieces around specific themes to create content bundles with immense value. Then promote these paid downloads to Medium’s engaged audiences hungry for more of your insights.
Just focus on strong continuity between your free posts and paid collections. Show readers the books fully build on the articles with extra wisdom.
P.S.
For those Medium writers/readers who want also to leverage their Facebook Content Creation that aligns well with the algorithm and latest monetization strategies. You can check my ebooks which are packed with tested guidelines and strategies.
Final Thoughts
The Medium Partner Program certainly provides a lucrative path to monetize your articles. But it is far from the only option.
As this guide outlined, you have numerous strategies to start earning from Medium content without relying on their selective model.
Some keys to success:
- Build a loyal, engaged audience on Medium first through high-quality writing and outreach. This forms the foundation for revenue generation.
- Test different passive and active monetization strategies outlined here. See which resonates most with your niche and capabilities.
- Diversify income streams rather than one big bet. Some revenue from ads, affiliate links, consulting, events, etc.
- Deliver immense value and purpose before promoting paid offerings. Readers will only buy things that truly help them.
The overarching focus should remain on using Medium as a platform to provide value and build authority.
Monetization follows.
But by implementing even a few of the techniques covered, you can unlock multiple passive and active income streams from Medium’s large readership.
So get creative, stay aligned with your audience, and grow a sustainable writing business without relying exclusively on their Partner Program. The opportunities await.
