Why Should You Write on Medium
Medium can be a great place to start your writing career because it’s a dedicated blogging platform ready for you to start writing after creating an account.
There is no limitation on what type of stories you can write. If you are a beginner writer, choosing a niche may be hard for you.
That’s where Medium shines the most. You can start your blogging journey here without any kind of niche. Just write about what you love, and people will appreciate it. The community and the readers are very positive-minded, they will definitely support you if your writing is good.
Also, sometimes many beginner writers can’t afford a website or they don’t want to go through the process of buying a domain and hosting—in this case, Medium is a good choice as you don’t need a website.
The advantage here is you also get a dedicated audience who are looking for better articles to read.
Medium also has a compensation program called the Medium Partner Program. It allows the platform’s writers to earn for their stories—more about that below.
So, Medium can be a great platform to start writing no matter if you are a beginner or an intermediate writer. If you are an intermediate writer and have the ability to write good stories this platform can generate a lot of side income.
What Is the Medium Partner Program
The Medium Partner Program is a program offered by Medium that allows writers to earn money for their content. In this program, Medium shares the revenue generated from member subscriptions and how much time they are spending reading your story.
This means the more readers a writer has and the more member reading time their story gets, the more money they can earn through the program.
You can also earn with referrals on the platform. If someone joins the platform using your referral you will get a commission.
A few years back when I joined Medium there was no requirement to join the partner program. But now Medium has some requirements before you can apply for the partner program.
However, these requirements are very easy to achieve if you are willing to apply for the program. I’ll share exactly how you can join the Medium Partner Program in the next section.
How To Join Medium Partner Program Step-by-Step
Here are the steps on how to join Medium Partner Program:
1. Create an Account
Skip it if you already have one.
You can use your Gmail or any other email to sign up. It is very easy and straightforward to create an account, just follow the steps and you should be done in minutes.
2. Meet the Requirements To Apply for the Partner Program
This is probably the step most beginners will not have the motivation to accomplish. However, this is very easy. Just follow along with me.
As I have said, Medium has new requirements for writers to join the partner program. Before you can apply for the partner program, you need to make sure you have:
● Have Published at Least One Article:
You can write about anything you like. Just make sure they follow the Medium rules. Remember, commenting doesn’t count here. You need to publish a story.
● Have at Least 100 Followers:
Yeah, this is the hard part. Well, it shouldn’t be. If your first story is very good, you will easily gain a lot of followers.
You need to engage in the community for a few days to gain 100 followers. Just start commenting on the stories written by other writers, appreciate them, and send some claps. You will easily gain 100 followers in a few days.
You can try to join some beginner publications as they will sometimes mention your profile in posts which will gain you some followers as well.
● To Set Up Payments Make Sure You Are From the Supported Countries:
Medium sends payout using Stripe. So, you need to be in the supported countries of Stripe to actually get the payments. If you don’t have a Stripe account make sure are from the supported countries to create one. Currently, the supported countries are:
Once you have completed all the requirements you can continue with the steps below.
3. Apply for the Partner Program
Medium requires you to complete a form before getting approved for the program. You can fill out the form below:
You will be asked some basic questions. After you complete the form you will see that your application will be reviewed by Medium to see if you are eligible or not. Typically they will reply in 24-72 hours.
If you are approved you will see an email like this:
4. Setup Payouts on Stripe
After you get the confirmation email from Medium stating that you are approved, you can now set up payouts. Just go to the medium partner program link and agree to their terms. On the next page, you will be asked to set up payouts on Stripe.
You have two options now:
● You Have an Existing Stripe Account:
If you have an existing Stripe account you can simply link that account using the email address of that Stripe account, just follow the steps—should be very easy.
● You Don’t Have an Existing Stripe Account:
If you don’t have one you can create an account right away from this screen. You will need to provide the pieces of information below to create an account:
- Email Adress
- Mobile Number
- Legal Name, Date of Birth, Mailing Adress
- Bank Account Information
- SSN or ID number depending on the country you are living
- Proof of ID
- 2FA
Just simply put all the information correctly and follow the steps to easily create and link the Stripe account.
If you want to know how to use Stripe from unsupported countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Israel, Panama, etc I’ve written a detailed guide here.
5. Submit Tax Information
Next, Medium will ask you to submit your taxpayer information to receive payments. There is an option to skip this step now but I recommend completing this as soon as possible because, without the approval of correct tax information, you won’t get paid.
There are two types of forms. One is W-9 which is for US taxpayers. The other is W-8BEN/W-8BEN-E which is for non-resident aliens. Complete the one which applies to you and you will be done for now.
Now just wait a few days, medium will verify your tax information. After a few days, you will receive an email from Medium stating that your tax information is verified.
Congrats you are now fully ready to earn from the partner program.
However, there are a few checks that are needed before you go writing.
A Few Steps Before Writing
Before you start writing make sure to do the following:
● Check Your Stripe Account:
If you have created a new Stripe account while joining the partner program, then you must check your Stripe account for a few days regularly. Because sometimes they will ask for more information if they find difficulty verifying your SSN or Government issued ID number.
In my case, they asked me to resubmit my ID card. Once I did that they completed the verification and I was ready to get paid via Stripe.
So, remember to check your newly created Stripe account for a few days or just keep an eye on the email account you used to create the Stripe account. You may have to resubmit your ID card or SSN sometimes.
● Use Medium’s Paywall on Your Existing Articles:
You may have written a few articles by now. But wait, you need to put these behind Medium’s paywall to start earning. To do this:
- Go to your existing articles and click edit story.
- Click the 3-dot(Settings).
- Click manage meter settings
- Check the box, done.
Your stories will now be eligible to start earning money if a Medium member reads these.
Apply to Publications:
Because you are new and don’t have that many followers or audience you can apply for publications on Medium. Publications have a built-in audience. Publications make sure that your story reaches as many readers as possible.
So, it’s better to start applying to good publications and submit your stories with them.
Join Medium:
It’s worth it. You get to read great articles and reading is an important part of being a great writer. I mentioned exactly this in my article about strengths in writing. You can join Medium via my link if you want.
To Sum Up
In this article, I have covered how to join Medium Partner Program.
Medium can be a great platform for writers who want to reach a large and engaged audience, as Medium has a built-in audience of readers who are interested in reading and discovering new content.
Medium also offers a variety of tools and resources to help writers improve their writing skills and grow their audience.
Medium’s algorithm also helps to surface content to readers, making it easier for your articles to be found. It is definitely one of my favorite places to blog. Everything is ready for you here. No need to create a website or do SEOs, if you have the ability to write great content—you can start earning right away.
So, what are you waiting for? If you haven’t already—go and apply for the Medium Partner Program to start earning for your writing.