$500 Rewards Sounds Good, But What’s In It For Small Writers?

Medium is doing fine feeding top writers with more money, but where’s the motivation for us?

This is us. We are the puppies in the Medium-land trying to make our way to the top.

Medium has given us a new reason to chase the top. Top writers will earn $500 for July as well.

But we are still puppies. We can’t walk confidently enough to make that goal a reality.

Top writers will continue being top writers and we will remain unrewarded.

I once wrote about how annoying it is for top writers to write about their earnings.

Tell Me One More Time About How You Made $10,000 in a Month is my most successful story so far.

Well, Medium is allowing top writers to make $10500 now…

And by all means, I’m fully motivated to chase that goal. I’m confident enough to make it happen. But this doesn’t feel rewarding for new writers and small writers like me.

Vocal Vs Medium

The typical comparison for 2021 is these two platforms.

Now, even more with rewards for both of them.

Vocal

Vocal had rewards for different milestones since the beginning.

Due to that, it made me try it. It made me hunt the chance of getting rewarded. And I got rewarded.

As a newcomer, I created stories and I got some bonuses for them.

Due to the easy to manipulate community guidelines, it’s possible to make $70+ writing only 5000 words.

This is an issue that Medium should avoid if they want to create a more friendly environment for old and new writers on the platform.

Medium

Medium added rewards for top writers and I love it. But I want more from them. I want them to add something for non-top writers. Something to keep them motivated and produce more content.

If their goal is to get more subscribers, they need to add something for newcomers.

I’m not a newcomer so I don’t want anything from them. I will earn more when new people sign-up. They may get their hands to one of my writing guides and that’s enough for me.

Recommendations for Medium

Medium is by far the best pick when it comes between Vocal and Medium. But the reality is, there must be some kind of reward for new writers as well.

Ideas like getting your first curation or having 100 reads in your story can pursue someone to create valuable content.

It can offer Medium the ability to increase the quality of stories on the platform and bring more new writers into the game.

As of now, most new writers are getting lost between the articles of already established writers.

This could change by adding a section for new gems.

Imagine the algorithm picking stories from new only writers (with accounts like 2 months old maximum), and presenting them to all other readers on the platform.

I may start a new account lol!

Final Thoughts

Medium seems to go on the right path.

Things were completely different last year. Publications had the upper hand, curation mattered.

Now, there’s a more solo-writer approach and I’m becoming confident with posting under my own brand and not under the name of a publication. Getting curated doesn't make my piece feel important, though.

The rewards, on the other hand, make me strive to become a better writer. A more consistent one.

But I’m way below the top writer tier. And $500 is much for me, but they will end up filling the pocket of someone that makes a lot of money already.

I believe that Medium should reward us medium (literally) writers with some rewards as well.

We are writing our hearts out sometimes and it would be nice to see our time investment getting rewarded for it.

I think we will see more from Medium in August. July is the last month for the $500 bonus and it had a very good response from writers.

I only hope that next month we will have rewards for smaller writers as well.

It’s vital for the platform to increase its quality, after all.