$5 Per Month — A Bargain!

We Get So Much For So Little

I was reading a response to a story that Louise Foerster had made. She had written a comment on a story that struck me (and down the rabbit hole I went.)

What had she written?

“The fact that for $5 a month, I get to read AMAZING, WISE, SMART stories and poems and articles I would never otherwise have access to — the ability to connect with intelligent, interesting people is a treasured bonus.”

She wrote this in response to the following story by Agnes Louise.

Agnes makes a good point and one I’ve thought about often. Most of us get paid chickenfeed for the work we do on here. Only about 6 or 7% earn more than $100 per month. So why do we do it? For the reasons Agnes points out. We love the connections, the community, the opportunity to read and comment on what our fellow writers publish.

I don’t know about you, but Medium has spoiled me. Whenever I read something elsewhere and I can’t highlight, clap or comment on it, I feel cheated. I feel like an important and valuable element is missing. If it was a good read, I want to let the author know I appreciated it. If something jumps out at me, I want to highlight it and maybe come back later and make a comment.

It has even gotten me back into the habit of highlighting print books. When I read, I keep a highlighter beside my reading chair and another one on my writing desk.

On Medium, I love “seeing” who reads my work and what they have to say as a result. (Thankfully, most of the comments are appreciative and encouraging. I suspect that may be due more to your kindness than my writing.)

When you think about it, $5.00 is a paltry sum to pay for what we get. And, if you are even a moderately good writer, you can earn $5 per month by writing a few stories, AND you can have a boatload of fun doing it.

Frankly, I don’t know how Medium stays afloat unless they have a ton of readers who do not write for pay. Being a writer, I cannot imagine foregoing the opportunity to write when it is offered. If I can believe the Medium statistics, some writers get paid thousands and some stories earn tens of thousands of dollars. That’s a lot of $5-per-month readers.

So, as Agnes says, when you get upset about Medium’s policies or what they pay. Stop and think about what your getting for that $5 per month.

After all, as Agnes mentioned, Medium does have to pay staff and the servers and hosting costs in addition to paying us writers. They have to pay lawyers and people to send out those meager monthly payments we work so hard for. Unless they have another source of revenue, I don’t see how they do it. I just hope it is sustainable. Their tinkering with the pay algorithm, no doubt, is an effort to balance money paid out and other costs with revenue. I wish them success. After all, their success helps insure our success.

Like many of my reader-writer friends, I spend a significant block of my time reading and writing on Medium. I do it because I enjoy it. I’m retired, so I don’t have to chase the mighty buck, but I don’t like to waste my time either. After all, we each have a limited amount of time on this planet. (The older I get, the more appreciative I am of that fact.)

Part of the motivation to write this article came from my good friend Rasheed Hooda. He wrote

If I were in Rasheed’s shoes, I’d probably do the same thing.

But I’m not sure I’d have the guts to take the 2nd step he took, though

That’s a new approach to Medium. My guess is that he plans to treat his Medium stories the same way he does his balloon art: give it away and people will give him money in return. If so, I hope it works for him.

To earn real money on Medium, you need a large following of dedicated readers. To get that, you need to write articles that attract and engage your readers and write them well. It’s not rocket science, but it does require skill and dedication.

Many successful writers have a niche and a following in their field. I came across one writer (a programmer in a language I had not heard of) who was bemoaning the fact that one of his stories hadn’t earned $100. Apparently he’d written some that had and was trying to duplicate that achievement. (Sorry, but I don’t remember the writer or the article.)

I think what that proves is that if you have something valuable to sell, something that’s unique, that only you can provide, and if you have a cadre of potential buyers, and if you are a good writer, you can make decent money.

To my mind, writing for money on Medium is akin to network marketing. Most of the “buying” comes from those who know you. And your reputation spreads mostly by word of mouth. We find readers by reading and interacting with other writers. There is a lot of reciprocity. We read them; they read us.

Writers in the hundred-dollars-plus-club are not in my league. I guess its like us hackers watching the golf pros and marveling at how well they play. They’re consistent. Almost every shot is a good one. A big part of how they do it has to do with practice, but natural skill plays a huge role. Also, good coaching makes a big difference. The same can be said of writing here on Medium or anywhere.

Stephen King says you can make a good writer better, but you can’t turn a good writer into a great writer. I’m not sure I agree, but he certainly knows more about writing than I do.

As I said when I joined Medium, I’m not here for the money. I do view it as a fun way to measure my performance each month. For me, it’s a challenge to earn enough to cover the subscription fee. That’s part of what keeps me going and writing.

Happy Reading, Writing and Connecting!