Earn Money Blogging In The Philippines
How to sign up on Medium using Payoneer and earn a lot of dollars!
Author’s note: As of October 2020, this method seems to be ineffective. I will research and update this article accordingly to help my fellow kababayans earn money on Medium.
Writing is a career that isn’t as easy as it sounds. I started out writing about a year ago for small business owners who need a copywriter. Of course, as a freelancer, the pay wasn’t really as good as I want it to be.
In the first month of my writing, I only earned roughly $40. This went down to $10 the next month. It took me another 2 months to go back to $40.
Since writing is just my hobby, I didn’t mind the low pay. I wasn’t focused on writing like other people who made a career out of it.
This changed when I was introduced to Medium.
Medium Partnership Program
While any Filipinos can write on Medium, it isn’t easy to be a part of the Medium Partnership Program.
Sadly, to become a member of the Medium Partnership Program means you have to have a Stripe account. As of the moment, while you can apply for a Stripe account, the Philippines is not one of the serviceable areas.
I am also new to the writing game in Medium, but I have received my first paycheck recently. It truly made me happy that I can earn money just by putting my thoughts into words.
Medium Vs. Wattpad
A lot of Filipinos are currently writing on Wattpad. It’s easy and convenient to put your works out there on that platform. However, it’s rare to earn money when you publish your articles through Wattpad. Your readers usually read your works for free.
Of course, you can try publishing your works and selling them. However, it’s easier said than done. Aside from finding a publisher, you also have to make sure that your books will sell.
On Medium, you don’t have to worry about all of that. You can publish your articles, poems, or prose and earn money depending on how many people read your works!
Medium Vs. Blogging
Medium is also a blogging website, but you don’t have to worry about technical stuff such as HTML coding, SEO, or Google Ads, to earn money, unlike self-hosting websites.
Medium pays you based on how many paid members will read your works (and there’s more than 85 million paid members on Medium as of writing). You can also submit your works to big publications with thousands of followers to boost your income.
If you want to create a Medium account in the Philippines, you have to go through an extra step of creating a routing bank account for your profile. But don’t worry, it’s straightforward as long as you follow the steps below.
Table of contents
1.Create A Payoneer Account
2. Apply For Medium Partnership Program
3. Create A Stripe Account Through Medium
4. Add Your Tax Information
5. Start Writing!
FAQS
Step 1. Create A Payoneer Account
Not a lot of people are familiar with Payoneer. But to summarize, it’s basically the same as a Paypal account. It’s a payment processing system that allows you to receive money online and get it in your bank account.
We need a Payoneer account and not a Paypal account because it has a feature that can let you open a U.S. routing bank account that we will need later on.
You can use my referral code so we can both earn a bonus of $25 when you reach $1000 on your Payoneer account.
Signing up on Payoneer is pretty straight forward. You will fill out the needed details such as your name, birthdate, phone number, email address, password, and bank details. You will receive a verification code on your phone number which you need to input to confirm your number.
You also need to have a valid ID. In the Philippines, the acceptable IDs are SSS, Driving License, National ID, or Passport.
Payoneer will review your application, and you will then receive a confirmation email. If you are having trouble, you can contact their Support Center for help.
As soon as you have a Payoneer account, you can move to the next step. You can now create a Medium account.
Step 2. Apply For Medium Partnership Program
You can sign up on Medium if you don’t have one yet. You can use Google, Facebook, Apple ID, Twitter, or other email address to sign up on Medium. It’s fairly easy and straightforward.
Next, you will click your icon on the top right corner and click on the “Medium Partner Program” on the menu. This will allow you to monetize the articles you are posting on Medium.
It will lead you to a page where you can see a green “Join the Medium Partner Program” button. Click this to go to the next step.
The next step is creating a Stripe account with the help of the Payoneer account you created a while ago.
Step 3. Create A Stripe Account Through Medium
Stripe account is the technology that allows Medium to pay their writers. It’s one of the requirements for being a member of the Medium Partner Program.
This is where it gets tricky. If you try to create a Stripe, you will see that the Philippines is not one of the countries where Stripe is available. But don’t worry, there is something we can do about it.
Even though you can’t create a Philippine account using Stripe, you can still create it with a U.S. Stripe account. Just go to SMS Receive Free to get a temporary U.S. phone number.
I picked the first number, which I then used to sign up on the Stripe account. You can follow the format below.
You choose “United States” as your country and “Individual, sole proprietor, or single-member LLC” as your Type of Entity. Then, copy-paste the number from SMS Receive Free in the box for Mobile number. Lastly, you will enter your email account.
Medium will then send you a verification number that you can see by refreshing your SMS Receive Free number.
Important Note: Do NOT close your SMS Receive Free tab yet
The first page is fairly basic. You need to input your name and email address. Then, for the “Business Website”, I just used my Instagram account. You can choose to “add a product description” instead and write that you are a freelance writer. You can now click “Next”.
Before you panic when you reach this page, there is an easy solution to this. Open your Payoneer account once again, and you will see the “Receive” on the upper-left corner of the menu. Click “Global Payment Service”.
This is Payoneer’s advantage over Paypal. It allows you to have a receiving account from anywhere around the world. As you can see in my next screenshot, I currently have 3 receiving accounts.
Since I signed up using a United States number and bank, I clicked the USD receiving account. The following image popped up on my screen.
You can easily see “Routing” and “Account Number” here. Just copy-paste the numbers back on Medium, and you’re good to go.
Congrats! You’ve made it this far. You’re now an official member, and you need a few more things to start receiving money.
Step 4. Add Your Tax Information
This is now the easy part. We don’t need Payoneer or SMS Receive Free anymore from here on. You can safely close those tabs and fill up your taxpayer information.
Click “Individual” and fill in the information needed. As you can see, you can now put your Philippine details here.
Click “W-8BEN” since you are not a U.S. citizen. Afterwards, fill in your data as you normally would. You can use your BIR number in the “Foreign Tax Identity Number” section. But if you don’t have one, other people are putting in their ID number.
Medium will then send an email, and you’re all set!
Step 7. Start Writing
Now that you’ve done everything, you can start writing! Medium is an avenue for all kinds of blogging. Whether you want to write about your life story, some tips, or even opinions, Medium is a place to earn while blogging.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
I don’t have the required IDs, is it impossible to sign up on Medium?
Actually, no. It’s fairly easy! If you don’t have an SSS, Driving License, National ID, or Passport at the moment, you can either get one ASAP.
Both Driving License and Passport takes weeks to get. But you can get an SSS Number online. Just follow this link, and it will lead you to the My SSS Portal where you can conveniently sign up as an SSS member.
It will send you an email of your SS number that you can use to sign up on Payoneer.
I have a U.S. bank account, do I have to go through all of these?
If you already have one, lucky for you, you need a U.S. phone number! In fact, if you have an account in any of the serviceable areas of Stripe, you can skip this hassle process and input your details.
How much will I earn on Medium?
It totally depends on how many readers you have on Medium. You can also submit your works on publications to instantly get more viewers! It’s fairly easy to submit works to publications. In fact, I am creating one specialized for Filipino readers.
You can only earn an income when a paying member reads your article. This is why one of the most important factors of being successful in Medium is marketing your articles to people who are already members of Medium. But don’t worry, many Facebook groups allow you to post your blogs!
Do I have to be a paying member to earn money?
Certainly not! You can earn money through Medium even if you are a free member. You don’t have to upgrade membership unless you want to read more articles from other writers.
You can certainly choose to support your favourite writers by paying $5 a month and reading their content. That’s just 250php a month!
If you want to be more serious on Medium and you happen to have enough funds, I certainly recommend paying a membership fee even just for one month just to read all the useful tips by the most successful writers here on Medium. I’m a paid member, and I can earn that money back within a single month by posting more articles here!
Income During COVID-19 In The Philippines
Medium is definitely worth trying, especially now that we’re in lockdown. A lot of Filipinos are now stuck at home. It’s more difficult to find a sideline now that most of the establishments are temporarily closed.
While we are waiting for updates from the government, it’s nice to have another income source doing nothing but writing our thoughts down.
I will be honest that I have not earned that much like other people on Medium who earn $1000 per article. But I’ve received enough income in my first month to convince me that it’s definitely worth trying.
Now that I can write for both income and enjoyment, I do not plan on going back as a freelance copywriter earning just a few bucks. Being a writer in the Philippines is truly hard because of the low pay. But with Medium, I was able to make it. The Medium Membership Program certainly helped me pursue my dream.