Medium Partner ProgramPOT35

Get paid based on how long paying members spend reading your articles. There's no audience to build a platform for and no gear needed, but per-story earnings are modest unless you write consistently and well.

Speed to first dollarlong term
Investment neededfree
Where you workonline, from home
Skill requiredYes, some skill or experience
Earning potential35/100

Earning potential is a curated estimate of how far this can scale, not a promise. Actual pay depends on your market, hours, and effort. For the investing category, this is general information only, not personalized financial advice.

More in Content & Creator Economy

YouTubeyoutube.com

Ad revenue, channel memberships, and sponsorships once you clear the Partner Program thresholds. You'll need to learn filming, scripting, and editing (or pay someone who can), and most channels earn nothing for months before the ceiling gets huge.

Twitchtwitch.tv

Live streaming with income from subscriptions, bits, and ads. You need to be genuinely entertaining or skilled at what you're streaming, plus a decent mic, webcam, and stable internet, and building a real audience takes consistent, scheduled streaming over a long stretch.

Substacksubstack.com

A paid email newsletter platform with a built-in subscription and payment system. Works only if you're already a strong, consistent writer with something specific to say, not a way to learn writing from scratch.

Patreonpatreon.com

Recurring monthly support from fans in exchange for bonus content or early access. Requires an existing skill or audience elsewhere to draw from; Patreon collects payments, it doesn't build a fanbase for you.

TikTok's built-in monetization for longer videos, once you hit the follower and view thresholds. The lowest production bar of any platform here, a phone is genuinely enough, but consistently making short-form video people finish watching is its own skill the algorithm rewards hard.