Real-revenue cases

How I Grew My Medium Publication to 70,000 Followers

Real demand

Dave Schools runs the Entrepreneur’s Handbook on Medium, growing to 68,000 followers by publishing high‑quality, unique content and building a community, generating a few hundred dollars a month.

Founder interview, self-reported Medium platformTwitter outreachNetworking eventsEmail newsletters

Primary source: View original

Real-demand verdict

Real demand

Provides practical entrepreneurial stories and mentorship, replacing traditional books and in‑person courses, sustaining recurring payments.

How it makes money

Revenue comes from paid memberships ($8/month) and partner sponsorships/ads.

What old behavior it replaces

Traditional entrepreneurship books, in‑person training courses, personal blogs.

Where the first customers came from

Initial members came from Medium readers, social media followers, and entrepreneurs recruited through writing communities.

Acquisition channels Medium platformTwitter outreachNetworking eventsEmail newsletters

Tactics you can copy

01Reach out to authors you admire and invite them to contribute.
02Publish new writers’ content quickly to maintain high frequency and quality.
03Attract readers with unique, untapped topics to differentiate your content.

Moving it to an AI business

AI content‑generation platforms can adopt the same author‑recruitment and differentiation strategy to quickly build a high‑quality content library and attract subscribers.

Evidence and limits

Self-reported numbers are unaudited — treat them as leads, not facts

Founder interview, self-reported

Revenue basis · Founder self-reported, unaudited (see source page)

What evidence is missing

Missing breakdown of monthly revenue sources (ads vs partners).
No data on membership renewal rate or churn.
No long‑term growth trend data.

Primary source

https://www.starterstory.com/stories/entrepreneurs-handbook ↗