I started writing for Medium in January 2019, and I also joined the "Partner Program" that month, which allows me to earn money. Here's a retrospective of four years of writing and earning, as of year-end 2022.
During 2019, I had five months in which I earned less than $1, and the other seven months I earned nothing whatsoever ($0.00). The first half of 2020 was similar. My total earnings for this 18-month period were US $2.09.
Starting in July 2020, something changed. I earned $47.39 for the last 6 months of 2020.
Jul 2020 — $2.52
Aug 2020 — $2.36
Sep 2020 — $11.09
Oct 2020 — $13.37
Nov 2020 — $9.07
Dec 2020 — $8.98
Which is to say: As it costs $50/year to belong to Medium to have the chance to earn money, my first year (2019) I essentially earned nothing and therefore the $50 was not earned back, but my second year (2020) I earned back my membership fee and broke even.
In 2021, I earned $204.42.
Jan 2021 — $9.47
Feb 2021 — $12.06
Mar 2021 — $12.87
Apr 2021 — $17.71
May 2021 — $47.00
Jun 2021 — $20.51
Jul 2021 — $11.90
Aug 2021 — $9.40
Sep 2021 — $9.38
Oct 2021 — $7.47
Nov 2021 — $32.26
Dec 2021 — $14.39
In 2022, I earned $374.95.
Jan 2022 — $14.05
Feb 2022 — $18.37
Mar 2022 — $14.08
Apr 2022 — $14.96
May 2022 — $16.10
Jun 2022 — $27.11
Jul 2022 — $39.43
Aug 2022 — $28.16
Sep 2022 — $38.59
Oct 2022 — $51.91
Nov 2022 — $57.91
Dec 2022 — $54.24
During this 4-year period, I posted 269 articles. That's what it took to earn $628.85. How have these articles performed individually?
To investigate, here are my 15 articles with the most views (i.e., someone clicked on them). 9 have over 1,000 views, and 6 have 500–999 views.
Please realize what this implies about the other 254 articles. Of those, 187 articles got 20–499 views, and 67 articles got fewer than 20 views.
The rough breakdown is: 5% get over 500 views, 70% might get a few hundred views, and 25% get basically zero attention.
Of statistical relevance: Of the 15 highest-performing articles, most were clearly about transphobia, while ZERO of the 67 zero-attention articles bear titles suggesting they have anything to do with transgender people or issues. To be fair, I must admit many of those titles were unclear and unappealing and it wasn't obvious what, if anything, the article would be about at all. But my overall takeaway is that my readers really only want to read what I'm writing about trans issues. That's the topic most likely to persuade at least 500 people to click on the article, and it's the only topic that will get more than 20 people to "clap" for the article.
Note: The articles with the most views don't necessarily earn the most money. An article earns money if it's read by a paying subscriber, and it earns more money if the reader spends more time with it. This means that articles that tend to be found by Medium subscribers (because subscribers are "clapping," commenting, and highlighting them), and that are long, will earn more. Articles that tend to be found elsewhere on the internet (by Google searchers, for example), or that are short, will earn less.
Also, the older the article is, the longer it's been available to gain new readers and earn money. Some articles get a lot of attention when they're first posted, and then interest drops off sharply — a common example is for "breaking news" topics whose value soon expires — but articles on "evergreen" topics (e.g., classic literature) may keep a steady stream of readers over the years. So, when comparing two articles on evergreen topics, the one with higher lifetime earnings may simply be older, not "better"; both articles may be earning $10/year. On the other hand, there's a different reason why new articles may make more money. Writers generally increase their follower count over time, so articles posted more recently were likely made visible to a larger follower list (than had they been posted on the writer's early days on the platform when the writer started off with no followers).
Thus, as might be expected, of my 15 articles with the most total views:
1 is from 2019, my first year on the platform. It was in a publication, which must have helped it get views.
4 are from 2020. All were in publications. I still had few personal followers.
8 are from 2021. Only 1 of these was in a publication. During this year, my followers grew from about 200 to about 350, so it seems I no longer "needed" the help of a publication to get lots of views.
2 are from 2022.
| Article title and keyword tags | clicked on article | read to the end | minutes to read | fans | earnings | my followers at the time | date/publication |
| The Flaws in ‘Mere Christianity’ by C. S. Lewis C S Lewis - Apologetics - Book Review - Argumentation - Fallacy |
11.8K | 1.7K (14%) | 38 | 7 | $21.74 | 23 | 2019 April 20 — self-published |
| One Billion Crabs Have Had It Snow Crab - Alaska - Climate Change - Ice - Fisheries |
5.6K | 3.3K (59%) | 2 | 15 | $1.34 | 497 | 2022 October 15 — self-published |
| How Did Richard Dawkins Undermine Transgender People? Richard Dawkins - Transgender - Dignity - Humanism - Diversity |
3K | 362 (12%) | 36 | 26 | $39.36 | 273 | 2021 April 27 — An Injustice! |
| What’s Odd About ‘The Purpose-Driven Life’ Books - Reading - Christianity - Evangelicalism - Theism |
1.91K | 408 (21%) | 9 | 1 | $4.66 | 258 | 2021 March 14 — self-published |
| Why Did Richard Dawkins Tweet About Rachel Dolezal? Richard Dawkins - Rachel Dolezal - Transphobia - Disinformation - Cultural Appropriation |
1.4K | 630 (44%) | 9 | 24 | $41.05 | 273 | 2021 April 27 — self-published |
| What Does Tucker Carlson Say About LGBT People? Tucker Carlson - Homophobia - Transphobia - LGBTQ - Fox News |
1.2K | 190 (15%) | 12 | 12 | $10.33 | 323 | 2021 October 17 — self-published |
| Why Fascists Target Gender Transition Transphobia - Fascism - Trumpism - Philosophy Of Time - LGBTQ |
1.2K | 553 (44%) | 3 | 44 | $13.24 | 447 | 2022 July 6 — self-published |
| For those who don’t want to read the new ‘Robert Galbraith’ serial killer tale Books - Reading - Jk Rowling - Robert Galbraith - LGBTQ |
1.2K | 388 (32%) | 8 | 19 | $6.87 | 129 | 2020 Sept 16 — Books Are Our Superpower |
| Empathy for Cis People Cisnormativity - Empathy - Ignorance - Social Exclusion - Politics Of Bad Faith |
1K | 173 (17%) | 46 | 12 | $25.40 | 346 | 2021 Dec 12 — self-published |
| The Moral of ‘The Plague’ by Albert Camus Books - Reading - Camus - The Plague - Fascism |
913 | 481 (53%) | 5 | 11 | $5.65 | 171 | 2020 Nov 21 — Books Are Our Superpower |
| There Is No War on Christmas Christian Supremacy - Antisemitism - War On Christmas - Religious Tolerance - Coexistence |
795 | 111 (14%) | 18 | 8 | $3.46 | 196 | 2020 Dec 19 — An Injustice! |
| 30 Terrible Ways to Express ‘Skepticism’ of Transgender People Gender Critical - Transgender - Transphobia - Fallacy - Homophobia |
751 | 183 (24%) | 13 | 28 | $25.95 | 338 | 2021 Nov 4 — self-published |
| Read This Man’s Story of his Escape from North Korea Books - Reading - North Korea - Fascism - Starvation |
701 | 366 (52%) | 8 | 2 | $1.58 | 196 | 2020 Dec 3 — Books Are Our Superpower |
| In This Novel, Sixth-Century Femininity and Masculinity Are Pitted Against Eunuchs Books - Reading - Eunuchs - Byzantium - Stereotypes |
697 | 163 (23%) | 7 | 2 | $0.71 | 258 | 2021 Mar 6 — self-published |
| Books Like This Cause ‘Irreversible Damage’ Irreversible Damage - Abigail Shrier - Trans Kids - LGBTQ - Transphobia |
508 | 63 (12%) | 42 | 11 | $4.14 | 298 | 2021 July 24 — self-published |
11 articles have at least 20 "fans", meaning someone "clapped" (the equivalent of the "like" button). One of these articles was a general introduction to myself as an author, which I put in a high-visibility publication for that purpose. The other 10 articles were all about transphobia. They tended to be short, which makes sense, since if people don't reach the end of the article, they won't have the "clap" button at the bottom.
| Why Fascists Target Gender Transition | minutes to read: 3 | fans: 44 |
| Right Wing Lies About Trans Suicide | minutes to read: 6 | fans: 31 |
| 30 Terrible Ways to Express ‘Skepticism’ of Trans People | minutes to read: 13 | fans: 28 |
| How did Richard Dawkins Undermine Trans People | minutes to read: 36 | fans: 26 |
| Why Did Richard Dawkins Tweet About Rachel Dolezal | minutes to read: 9 | fans: 24 |
| About Me — Tucker Lieberman | minutes to read: 4 | fans: 24 |
| What We Can Learn About Helen Joyce in Two Sentences | minutes to read: 5 | fans: 21 |
| How the Far-Right Comes for Trans People | minutes to read: 4 | fans: 21 |
| It's Easy for This Guy to Challenge Transphobia | minutes to read: 5 | fans: 21 |
| 'And You Know What That Means' | minutes to read: 5 | fans: 20 |
| Oh, It's About Sports, Is It? | minutes to read: 11 | fans: 20 |
How my followers grew over time
| — | Total | Growth |
| Dec 2022 | 553 | +27 |
| Nov 2022 | 526 | +29 |
| Oct 2022 | 497 | +22 |
| Sep 2022 | 475 | +12 |
| Aug 2022 | 463 | +16 |
| Jul 2022 | 447 | +36 |
| Jun 2022 | 411 | +20 |
| May 2022 | 391 | +9 |
| Apr 2022 | 382 | +7 |
| Mar 2022 | 375 | +10 |
| Feb 2022 | 365 | +9 |
| Jan 2022 | 356 | +10 |
| Dec 2021 | 346 | +8 |
| Nov 2021 | 338 | +15 |
| Oct 2021 | 323 | +6 |
| Sep 2021 | 317 | +8 |
| Aug 2021 | 309 | +11 |
| Jul 2021 | 298 | +5 |
| Jun 2021 | 293 | +2 |
| May 2021 | 291 | +18 |
| Apr 2021 | 273 | +15 |
| Mar 2021 | 258 | +24 |
| Feb 2021 | 234 | +18 |
| Jan 2021 | 216 | +20 |
| Dec 2020 | 196 | +25 |
| Nov 2020 | 171 | +19 |
| Oct 2020 | 152 | +23 |
| Sep 2020 | 129 | +23 |
| Aug 2020 | 106 | +5 |
| Jul 2020 | 101 | +5 |
| Jun 2020 | 96 | +9 |
| May 2020 | 87 | +6 |
| Apr 2020 | 81 | +6 |
| Mar 2020 | 75 | +7 |
| Feb 2020 | 68 | +4 |
| Jan 2020 | 64 | 0 |
| Dec 2019 | 64 | +3 |
| Nov 2019 | 61 | +2 |
| Oct 2019 | 59 | +5 |
| Sep 2019 | 54 | +12 |
| Aug 2019 | 42 | +7 |
| Jul 2019 | 35 | +6 |
| Jun 2019 | 29 | +2 |
| May 2019 | 27 | +4 |
| Apr 2019 | 23 | +5 |
| Mar 2019 | 18 | +5 |
| Feb 2019 | 13 | +6 |
| Jan 2019 | 7 | +7 |
March 2024 update
In February 2024, I published seven stories in English. I translated one into Spanish and made it a separate post, so there were eight posts.
That month, I earned $61.07 (including $4.54 in referred member earnings), so $56.53 on all 473 stories I've ever posted to the platform during the 29 days of February: $1.95 per day on story earnings.
During the first week of March, I published no new stories. During that week, I earned less than $1 per day on my back catalog of 473 stories.
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