5 Ideas to Make Money on Medium Outside of the Partner Program

If you can establish thought leadership, you can start monetizing your content.

Anangsha Alammyan

01 Dec 2023 • 5 min read

If you can establish thought leadership, you can start monetizing your content.

Hello everyone, my name is Anangsha Alammyan, and welcome back to my page. If you are a writer on Medium, then today’s video is going to be full of value for you because we’re discussing unconventional ways you can make money on Medium.

So, for writers from countries like India, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc., the Medium Partner Program is still not active. That means you cannot make money directly based on the partner program earnings that you get. But, there are other ways in which you can make money, and as well, all of these take a little bit more time and effort investment from you. But once they kick off, it’s going to be totally worth it. And even if you are from a country where you can make money from the partner program, maybe some of these ideas will help you kickstart something that’s completely new and platform-independent for you.

Before we begin, if you’d like to watch a more candid version of this in video format, here’s the link:

1. Writing serialized stories

Yes, I’m talking about fiction. But you can also write serialized non-fiction stories.

With the new Boost program on Medium, emphasis is paid on poetry and fiction as well. Previously, it was hard to make money writing fiction or poetry on Medium, but now, if your story gets boosted, you stand a chance to make good money.

Writing one fiction story is a different thing, but what if you publish an entire novel, chapter by chapter, in a serial fashion on Medium?

It’s something unique that hasn’t been done before, but you can be the pioneer. If I were to go about serializing my novel on Medium, I’d follow this pattern:

I’d publish 80% of my novel for free on Medium,
For the remaining 20%, the readers would need to get the eBook.

You can also sell advanced chapters as eBooks to special subscribers. The business model can be thought of, but the premise is you publish your serial novel on Medium and make money from it while gathering a good following.

Medium has a newsletter feature, but you can’t use it to have paid subscribers. But what you can do is you can start a newsletter on some other platform that lets you get paid, like Beehiiv, Substack, etc. Then you can publicize that on Medium.

Because Medium, as a website, gets amazing global traffic. If your story picks up, you can get hundreds and thousands of views for your story. You can use your Medium articles to promote your paid newsletter if it’s in a similar niche.

Do it by leaving a CTA asking people to support you by joining your newsletter as paid subscribers.

3. Crowdfunding

If you’re working on a big project, like releasing a book or having a dream launch of your business, you can crowdfund it on Medium.

You can write stories about the process of going through with your big project, and while you document your journey, you can gather loyal followers along the way.

Next, you can ask them to crowdfund to support your dream, on platforms like Ko-fi, Patreon, Kickstarter, etc. Host your crowdfunding campaign, and integrate those links in your Medium articles, encouraging your followers to pay.

4. Paid online courses

If you’re good at some topic, be it software development, Photoshop, writing, or anything else, you can document your journey, share behind-the-scenes of your process, and gain loyal followers. Once you have a good following, you can start a paid course.

The next step is to promote them using your Medium articles on that same topic.

You don’t have to create super promotional content. Makre sure to address the pain points of your target customers, add some value, and in the end, add a CTA saying, “If you want to learn more on this topic, you can buy my online course.”

5. Consulting Service

If you are an expert in any field, you can offer consultation calls for a certain price, and you can promote that using your Medium articles on that similar topic.

Quickly summing up, here are the five ways in which you can make money on Medium outside of the Medium Partner Program.

Serialized stories, either fiction or non-fiction. The trick is to gain followers by writing your stories in a serial format and then selling the eBook.
Having a paid newsletter on some other platform, like Substack or Beehiiv, and promoting that on Medium.
Crowdfunding some big project you’re working on.
Having a paid online course and promoting them on your Medium stories.
Picking whatever topic you’re an expert at and offering consultation services on that topic.

You might have noticed all of these 5 ways require you to invest some time and effort on Medium. Before you ask your followers for money, you need to establish yourself as a thought leader or a subject matter expert in your specific niche. If you can do that and gather a loyal following, then you don’t have to wait for the Partner Program to launch in your country. You can start monetizing the platform right away.

I hope this article was helpful to you. If it gave you any interesting ideas, feel free to drop them in the comments.

If you belong to a country where the Partner Program is open, but you’re not able to monetize your content on Medium, then check out my flagship course, Project Medium. It has helped more than 100 writers make their first $100 on the platform. It’s currently running at a 50% off sale, so make sure to check it out.

If you can establish thought leadership, you can start monetizing your content.

1. Writing serialized stories

2. Paid newsletter

3. Crowdfunding

4. Paid online courses

5. Consulting Service