It’s one of the most common questions I get asked: “How do I get into this Medium publication?” or “This Medium publication won’t accept my work and I don’t know why. Can you help?”

The reason it’s such a common ask is because publications can be the jumping-off platform from writing for yourself and your followers, to writing for a much larger audience. My stories that get into publications typically do much better than those that don’t. It’s not a guarantee, but it’s a chance for your work to really fly.

For anyone trying to write on the internet, it can feel a bit like shouting into the void. Sometimes it actually hurts, because you’ve poured your heart and soul into a story that tells of your heartbreak, or your crowning achievement, or how you overcame your biggest obstacle - only to get crickets. The perfect title will help you avoid that.

How do you write a successful story? One of my favorite things about writing is that there’s no 100% guaranteed recipe. You can’t just plug words into a formula that spits out money. But there is a structure to certain stories that lets you easily showcase the best elements of your voice which leads to recognition from readers.

How much money can you make by writing on Medium? This is one of the most important and most frequent questions I get asked. And honestly, I understand why.

Although the best and most successful writers are those who don’t write for money but rather for the love of the craft, it’s totally natural to want to know how much you’ll be compensated for spending hours working. Of course I love to write, but I’m motivated by knowing that I earn when I write.

It’s no secret that Medium habitually changes its all-mysterious algorithm. They tweak how they recommend stories to your followers, how they decide to curate stories, and where your views come from. It’s hard to guess what they’ll change next, and it means it’s hard to predict how successful (or unsuccessful) you’ll be.

But by examining their homepage, you can get some hints for what’s happening. For example, for the last few days, I noticed my recent stories weren’t getting hardly any traction. Seriously: all curated, and all under 150 views, despite the curation and alleged 5.7k followers I have.

Spoiler alert: this is not for people who want the easy answer.

One of the toughest things about writing on Medium is that your followers don’t have great engagement. As of this writing, I have 10k followers. That means, when I publish a story that doesn’t get curated, I can guarantee maybe 100–200 views.