5 Ways to Benefit from Meduim, Without the Partner Program.
If decisions we’re a choice between alternatives decisions could come easy. Decisions is the selection and formulation of alternatives
-Kenneth Burke
Let me use this opportunity to address the issue of the Medium partner program accommodating only 33 countries, in regions like; North America, Europe, and some parts of Asia.
This setback is demoralizing to Medium writers from hundreds of ‘unsupported countries’ who are welcomed to write and contribute their creativity to the platform, yet not being able to enjoy the monetization benefits that come with the partner program.
Indeed, Medium only utilizes one payment gateway (Stripe), but they’ve retained this payment gateway for over a decade, which seems intentional and calculated, because, let’s face it — there are other viable online payment platforms that are recognized globally, e.g, PayPal, Skrill, BlueSnap, 2Checkout, Payoneer, so on and so forth. What’s wrong with diversifying, and including at least one extra payment option?
Nonetheless, this post is not curated to critique the flaws of the partner program, but to incline towards alternatives that can benefit writers, who can’t access the partner program because of where they are from.
I was inspired to write this post after watching a YouTube video by Zulie Rane, who is an influential freelance writer. In her video, she explained various ways writers can benefit from Medium even though they can’t register, or earn from the partner program.
Honestly, up till that point of watching the video, I already decided to take Medium per-time (like writing once a month per time) and concentrate full-time on Hubpages, which is also a good content platform for any writer or blogger.
However, watching the video also reminded me of some of the benefits I have enjoyed from Medium as well, e.g; blog promotion, guest-post invitation, and community building. And not to sound like an ingrate, Medium is actually a beneficial platform for brand promotion and other online entrepreneurial projects. How?
I) Website Promotion;
This is probably the first and mainstream advantage of using Medium, which is timeless and incredibly effective. If you’ve not been utilizing Medium to develop your personal blog or website, then you’ve been lagging (pun intended).
Back in 2020 when I started my first blog called Shadebizness, Medium was my go-to for generating backlinks, which improved my traffic immensely. If you own a blog or website, having Medium as a side-blog is worth it.
II) Guest-Posting/Freelancing Monetization;
Medium exposes your portfolio as a writer whether you are in the partner program or not. Almost every writer gets a standard amount of views and engagement (especially if you write really well). And this can attract the right audience or publications.
The revenue I’ve made on Medium didn’t come from the partner program (because I’m Nigerian), they’ve come from publications and other Medium users, either asking me to write a guest post or to hire me as a freelance writer.
You can use Medium as an alternative for Fiverr or Upwork, it is productive and efficient for getting writing jobs. Simply stay consistent, and write valuable and quality content if you want to scale your writing career.
III) Affiliate Links;
If used properly, you can make money with Medium through Affiliate Marketing. I haven’t had any personal success with this, but from reviews and testimonies from other Medium writers (who are affiliate marketers), it seems the platform is not stringent on affiliate links (if used wisely).
IV) Showcase Your Brand, Products & Services;
If you are a brand or a business owner creating quality content on Medium can be an effective marketing strategy to increase your traction and ROI for your product and service.
Think of it as YouTube but for writers. Most YouTubers don’t earn much from the YouTube monetization program (a similar case with Google Adsense), but the smart ones know that the actual revenue comes from promoting a product or service using the platform as a form of sales outlet. The same strategy can be applied here.
V) Building Your Online Audience/Community;
Talk about saving the best for last, Medium is a great place for establishing an engaging list of online audiences. Occasionally, it seems that gaining followership is hard on the platform. But the truth is, it isn’t. The trick is to simply stay consistent in writing ‘useable’ articles, and interact with other writers on the platform through their respective content.
In addition, Medium has an amazing feature that allows your followers to subscribe to your profile so that anytime you drop fresh content they get alerted through their e-mails.
Another recent feature on Medium is the ability to import contacts or subscribers from your personal e-mail list to Medium. I am sure most writers got this mail;
“You’ve asked for it and now it’s here. You can now import email addresses from other platforms right to Medium. It’s an easy way to bring your existing audience to Medium, manage your email subscribers in one place, and send stories directly to their inbox. To begin the import, just head to settings from your profile.”
That’s a good leap in the right direction.
If you want a guest post or a freelance writer, you can contact me here- preyeraymondwrites@gmail.com
Develop your mind and improve your productivity with practical self-improvement tips, see more here — https://bit.ly/PreyeRaymond_Hubpage
