Are You Missing 28.2% of Your Earnings Too?

Something is afoot…

I’m going to start this by saying that I love Medium (practically sycophantically), and the potential it offers to its users. As someone working in the professional-writing world, I can tell you that the rates it pays based on read time are quite impressive. It really is unparalleled.

The truth is I’m impressed and happy with what we can earn on the platform. I’d be here even if there were no Medium Partner Program (albeit I’d post less). I think the rates are really good, but I know many, many, many people disagree with me. I’ve heard the payments referred to as peanuts, but I think it’s more like macadamia (rich people nuts) money.

But we are missing almost 30% of our earnings.

The Medium payout pool of funds going to the platform’s writers — should be 30% higher. Ooh, a payout pool sounds fun — I’m picturing waves of dollars floating in a grotto-style swimming pool. Fuck yeah.

So, why are we missing almost 30% of earnings? Well, here’s why:

Writers aren’t required to be members.

If all writers (specifically those in the Partner Program) had to be members there would be about a 30% uptick in payouts / the money available in the money grotto. Because paying members are paying 30% of their money to non-member writers.

How I Came Up with 30%

Ok, I rounded up a little — the actual number is just over 28% because math makes my brain bucket hurt and I don’t have the exact number (the closest accuracy I have is 28.2%). But I came to that by seeing that almost 30% of my views are external, but in a very particular pattern.

Here’s what I’m talking about (all screenshots by author):

*Pay attention to how the blue external-traffic line follows the green internal traffic line

If you average out the percentages of external traffic from those 5 articles it is 28.2%. I feel that with the total views of those articles, this is a fair representation.

Did you notice how the amount of external traffic parallels internal? If this were a horror flick this is where the narrator would say ‘the call is coming from inside the house!’ That traffic is coming from Medium itself.

Now let’s look at the source of that traffic:

The screenshots above just show that the traffic didn’t come from external sources like Google or Facebook. And I wish I had hundreds of people on my email list (I don’t — not even close). It indeed comes from within the house. I think 30% of that Medium traffic is unpaid members.

External traffic is normal of course. Here’s the thing — all those articles are meta articles about Medium. Nobody is googling that, people who are only readers don’t give a shit — at least not to the tune of 30% of people on here.

It is Medium writers.

It is Medium writers learning about Medium news…and how to buy a Ferrari from earnings in two months.

You Don’t Have to Be a Member to Earn Money?

Did you know that you don’t have to be a paid member to earn on Medium? To some of you…surprise! It’s true. Medium doesn’t require you to be a member to extract money from the Partner Program.

It’s right on their homepage for creators:

But uh….why?

Why does Medium allow people to earn but not be a member? Do these people really value the platform? They aren’t supporting others. They’re taking out without putting their dollar in the pot (well, five dollars).

This not only gives other creators in the Partner Program more competition for those dollars (which is fair — this platform is competitive and that’s the nature of business) — but from a smaller pool.

If my numbers above are correct, the 70% of us who are paying our five buckaroos are funding the 30%. Those non-paying members are making the pool smaller twice over, by not paying into it — and taking money out of it.

Why Can Non-Members Read So Many Articles?

If 30% of my traffic is non-members — why/how are they getting so many article reads? Yes, it could be a different 26–30% of viewers every time purely coincidentally…but I question coincidences.

I know there’s a hole in the paywall restrictions on Facebook. Lesley Dewar alerted us it, and wrote an article about it. She is right, you can open Medium links on Facebook and read as many articles as you want, without being logged in — without the paywall limitations kicking in.

Lesley says you can clap too, but I didn’t find that to be the case on my iPhone or iPad. Yeah yeah, my basic-bitch ass is part of the brainwashed Apple Illuminati.

Medium — What’s Up?

So uh, Medium — can you plug that hole? There might be other holes too though, because somehow people are reading my articles too without a membership. And I don’t post my articles on Facebook.

But also…can you have everyone in the program be a paid member?

I don’t see the point of letting people use the platform parasitically and having your valued members pay them.