Fiverr versus Medium, who’s best for your side hustle?
Since I bravely stepped out into writing purely freelance, and not ‘for the man’, I’ve been doing a few side hustle jobs on Fiverr and Medium. This is mostly because ‘the man’ fired me thanks to Covid but I was freelancing on the side anyway.
Both are very different websites and do things in a completely different way, so maybe a ‘versus’ was unnecessary but it does sound more exciting. Plus, if you are going to spend time doing just one site as a side hustle, this will help. Both sites have the potential for full-time income but for the first year, if you don’t have savings or low overheads, keep your job and see how it goes.
So what is the deal and how do they work?
Fiverr
Fiverr is pretty straightforward and of the two, it is the side hustle where I make the most cash. For now. And I should add that you don’t just charge a fiver.
How does it work?
You post a gig advertising what you can do. For me, that is stringing words together in a vaguely readable way. There are a lot of people there doing a lot of impressive things. Graphics and Design, Programming, Coding, Videos, Voice Overs, and so on. I got a book cover done for instance and it cost me $30 and it has sold me quite a few books. You can see my old and new cover versions here.
I posted my first and only gig in August. You can see what it looks like here and what I charge for the packages. You can also see the picture above which is the first thing clients see. When you publish a gig you set the prices for packages (optional) and then you stick a nice picture in advertising what you do. This is important as it is what will first catch someone’s eye when looking at a page of similar ads for writers. I did the above image myself on Canva and I am awful at design. Looks nice though right?
You then sit back and hope clients will book you.
How much can you make?
I might be a bit early to write about this in-depth as I only posted my gig two-thirds of the way through June. I got one client that month, who gave me a nice review.
I got two articles in July and that got me around $160. These gave me more reviews and inquiries started to pick up. Being greedy, I upped my prices by $5. I got 8 clients that month and made around $300. I upped the amounts again ever so slightly.
And so on. I am currently selling articles at around 8 cents a word which is lower than I would do to magazines but not bad. I have found that the clients have gotten better but stayed the same as the prices go up and the reviews roll in. However, it’s best to do it slowly so you have the reviews to back up your prices. It is now the 15th of October and I have made just over $250 this month from seven clients and they were all really nice to work with. I expect to get around $500 this month minimum, which isn’t bad as a side gig that doesn’t take too much effort.
Please note that Fiverr takes a small cut from every transaction.
Advantages and disadvantages of Fiverr as a side hustle or even full-time job
The advantages are that you can set out what you want to do and how much you can get paid for doing it. It is essentially the modern equivalent of putting an advert in a shop window. If you start out humble and offer something people need, clients will come and your money can just climb. Once you have decent reviews you can get picky and raise prices. I found there are a lot of people looking for a professional journalist as opposed to an SEO writer or content/marketing writer.
Also, as a writer, you get to work on topics you might not normally work on and get see some of your work in places you wouldn’t have dreamed of pitching to. I have had some great additions to my portfolio from Fiverr.
The disadvantages are mostly about what you get asked to write. The vast majority of clients are nice and the work has been interesting. However, I have been asked to write some negative pieces about institutions or governments or whatever and I don’t like that. Generally, people chat with you first and so you can just say no. Since my prices went up to a more suitable level about two months ago, all my clients have been a delight.
Another problem is that you might get nothing for three days and then suddenly you get three articles to do. Combined with other things I am working on, this can cause sudden workloads.
Conclusion
On the whole, I really enjoy working on Fiverr and have met some really interesting people and gotten great clients. Some of whom have hired me multiple times. It is a decent place to go if you want to improve your portfolio, make a bit of cash and maybe get a client or two. I think I could turn it into a full-time gig but it will probably stay a fairly lucrative side hustle for now.
TIPS – The main things are to write a catchy gig/advert and to not be too greedy at first. Get some clients and write a few brilliant pieces to get reviews. There are a lot of people who will ask you to do ridiculous things for a pittance but try and filter them out. As you get more work and reviews, slowly raise prices and your clients will improve. There are tools provided that show views and conversions and so on and these really help.
If you want to find out more – click here – and yes that is an affiliate link but will cost you nothing but may get me a cup of tea.
Medium
Medium is also pretty straightforward but is completely different. I make less money there than Fiverr but there is the potential to make a lot more. It will definitely be a side hustle at first and it should be noted that 90% of the people there get less than $100 a month. But the potential is vast. A viral article can make thousands of dollars.
You can see some of my articles here.
How does it work?
When you first start out on Medium, you will feel a bit like you are shouting into the wind. You start by writing whatever the hell you want and then posting it and seeing what happens. It is a bit like social media with followers and likes (claps).
Medium is a bit overwhelming at first because it is impossible to see how you can get noticed. The secret is to try a few things out and see what is popular. Quite a lot of people there write about writing but that could just be my feed. I write a variety depending on my mood. Have a look.
After a while, you will gain followers. You can also pitch to a variety of publications on the platform and if you get published you will gain yet more views, reads and followers.
How do you get paid and how much?
There are lots of people there and my first proper article got read by three of them. As things currently stand, that article has made me no money whatsoever. To be fair, it was an article I imported from this site as an experiment about AIs taking jobs (that’s a link to the one on this site). My next article had 10 reads, which is still shite. My first two articles have yet to make any money. Which brings me on to how you get paid.
You get paid by reads and only by those who are paid Medium members. There are millions of them, so don’t worry. My first articles did poorly. This is really common and you have to be persistent. Keep writing and find something that does ok. There are a couple of things that help you lift off – getting curated and getting in a publication. How do you go about that? Good question.
How to get curated or in a publication
There is no real shortcut here and this is where Medium is a bit more random. It’s a bit like Twitter in that you can never tell what will work or go viral. The key thing is:
Write a lot. Ignore the fact that you are only getting a few reads. That will build. Be persistent.
I must admit, I lucked out. After the first couple of failures, I wrote an article called: The plotting versus pantsing novel writing debate. Which one is best? (Just a link, not an affiliate.) I published it and the top publication on the site – The Startup – got in touch and asked if they could publish it. I happily said yes. Then the curators said they would curate the article in the category of ‘Writing’. I got around 400 reads and was set.
A couple of articles later and I wrote: Is Self-Publishing the New Slush Pile or The End of Publishing? I thought it was good/awesome, so I applied to the biggest writing publication called the Writing Cooperative and linked to The plotting versus pantsing article in the Startup. That got me accepted as a writer and so I pitched the Self-publishing piece and got accepted. That got almost 450 reads and was my first piece to make more than $10. With those two publications accepting me as one of their writers everyone else has let me sign up to their publications.
The money is beginning to come regularly and the huge advantage of Medium, once you break into it a little, is that articles keep being read. This means you keep being paid for the stuff you did before. I still get money every month from both the above two articles.
Some personal advice – I think with a model like this, evergreen content is better. A year from now someone can find a piece you wrote and if they are a Medium member, you will get paid. Or a magazine editor will find it and offer you work. It’s out there and may still be googled.
Advantages, disadvantages and conclusion for Medium
The advantages are that you can write about what you want and when you want. If you are a freelance writer, you will probably realise the psychological value of that. It’s a lot of fun writing about anything that even vaguely interests you.
There is also the potential that anything you write can make you thousands of dollars. It probably won’t though. When you start out, it is low paying side hustle territory but if you stick at it, you should make some money.
The more you write, the more you are likely to earn. Once you are established, you can take a breather and will still get passive income. I love passive income.
Portfolio – this is a big plus for someone starting out as a writer. You can write and publish on the Medium site and you can use that in your portfolio no matter the niche.
The disadvantages are that when you are starting out, it will feel like a waste of time. You might as well be writing a diary. Anyone who has started a blog will know the feeling of hopelessness and loneliness when you write something and no one reads it. You will get that.
As I said, I lucked out and got published quickly but it still doesn’t equal a decent pay, even for a side hustle. You should essentially be looking far ahead and acknowledge your first few ten thousand words will amount to a pittance. But it will grow if you persist.
To conclude, writing for Medium is a poorly paid side hustle. But it is a lot of fun and if you enjoy writing then that should be the point of writing there. There is also the potential, if you stick at it, to earn some really decent cash.
So: Fiverr versus Medium who’s best for your side hustle?
It is a great question and one that clearly has no answer. Sorry. They are really different platforms.
Fiverr puts you at the mercy of clients and what they want to be written. Most of them are great and you will learn a lot. You can vary your portfolio from you normal fare and you can earn ‘beer money’ really quickly and relatively easily. I can see the potential for raising prices further but I suspect there is a ceiling for what you can charge and still find clients.
Medium is a lot freer. (That link will take you to a list showing the variety of articles I have written there.) It is quite therapeutic if the bulk of your work is articles written to client specifications. It is the sort of freedom that made me start this blog. There is an added bonus that you could make a lot of cash there. Some of the top writers on the site are making over $10k a month. They have nearly all written an article or two every day for years, however, so you have to be damned committed.
As side hustles go they both have their place. I recommend doing both as Fiverr pays straight away but there are times where you can focus on Medium. I have been doing both since July and it will be interesting to see how things pan out a year from now. If I was to state a preference in the future, it would probably be writing for Medium every day or two, while having a few well paid Fiverr articles a month.
Or you can buy one of my books and I will just write fiction That would be the best.
So thanks in advance and I hope this article helps someone. Good luck.
