Are You Earning More With Friends of Medium Too?

The biggest earnings shift on Medium is coming…

Image by mrsiraphol on Freepik. Badge by Medium. Googly-eye addition by dis gangsta author.

Medium’s new ‘Friend’ membership tier is badass. And that’s big praise coming from a smack-talkin’ smart ass.

In my humble, snarky, smart-assed opinion — Medium’s new Friend tier is one of the most McAwesome-est things to happen to Medium writers in a long time. And it’s going to get better, like — a lot better.

I signed up for the new tier faster than you can throw a greased-up hotdog down a hallway. I upgraded because I wanted my reads to pay out more money to my favorite writers. As a happy side effect though, my own earnings have gone up.

Being a Friend of Medium doesn’t mean you make more money. It does however make us all more moolah-lah. Like, four times the skrilla. Well, not quite, because only some readers are on the tier — but, more cheddar, clams, bread or whatever other food euphemism for money.

I did some digital sleuthing, that has made me very optimistic about the new tier. I looked at:

How many people have signed up so far
How many might join in the future
And how much more we’re making already

To me, this is the biggest (earnings) change Medium has made since the boost. It’s bigger than their August earnings calculation changes. And it’s going to get bigger.

Friend Tier Basics

If you already know the tier, skip ahead to the next section on this choose-your-own-adventure post. If you haven’t heard about the new membership tier Medium launched a month ago yet, I wrote about it here. For those who ‘ain’t got time fo dat’, here are the basics:

It’s $15/month or $150/year (compared to the standard membership of $5/month or $50/year).
On the friend tier, your reads will pay out 4X to the writers you read.
You get a badge on your profile saying you’re a “Friend of Medium”.
You can share Friend Links for any paywalled story — even stories that aren’t written by you.
When people view your friend link, the author is compensated for that external read, via your membership. It’s like lending them your Medium library card. Reads only pay out on other authors' stories, not your own — and are capped at your membership fee.
You don’t earn anything by being a ‘Friend of Medium’, only your reads pay out more.

How Many People Became ‘Friends’

The giant floating head known as The Great and Powerful Moz hasn’t released data yet on how many people have upgraded. So I did some highly unscientific digging, because I’m a seriously nosy fatherfucker.

I took a look at a mix of six posts from different writers, looking at the people who clapped and commented — noting which ones were regular members and which ones were ‘Friends’. Some of these are (probably) boosted posts, which reach more readers. Some (probably) aren’t boosted so they reach more writer's networks.

**The post tallies with significantly more regular members than Friends members were the posts that were likely boosted.** (My penmanship is brutal — this is why I don’t do hardcopy).

Overall, 123 out of 475 on the survey upgraded (which is about 26%). However, that’s heavily skewed toward readers who are also writers. On the boosted posts, which were largely readers who clapped or commented it’s closer to 10%. But I suspect readers who don’t engage have lower volumes of Friend tiers than that.

So, what this wildly unofficial, fake scientific data collecting told me is…writers upgrade to the new tier way more. But, no surprise there.

This is bitchin’ news for those of us who have been engaging in the community and building a following of fellow writers. We should be getting paid more now since ‘Friends’ readers pay 4X.

For those getting those boosty mcboostertons, not as many readers are upgrading. However, the boost already pays a multiplier (they haven’t said how much but in my research it looks to be around 10X) so you’re doing even better.

Are They Paying 4X?

I’ve heard some naysayers that this was all just a Medium money grab, and that it won’t really pay 4X for reads. After all, how can paying 3X as much for the membership pay out 4X?

But the math works.

They don’t need the same % of the membership to cover their overhead. Using example math (these aren’t the exact numbers, which are unknown):

Let’s say a standard membership puts 50% of its money into the earnings payout pool.
On a $5 monthly membership that’s $2.50 to the payout pool, $2.50 to them for overhead.
On the $15 monthly membership, they would only need $10 of that to payout 4X $2.50 to the pool.

In this scenario, reads pay out 4X and Medium now makes $5 instead of $2.50. Which, is fair (they should’ve raised their price a while ago in my opinion) — we can’t be paid as writers without Medium’s long-term safety and profitability.

But let’s take a look at my earnings before and after the Friend tier launch:

Earnings BEFORE the Friend Tier are on the left and middle — AFTER the Friend Tier is on the right. (no posts were boosted)

While there are more variables in Medium earnings calculations than a Vietnamese restaurant menu — I think it’s safe to say I’m making a lot more. Not 4X, because not everyone upgraded, but — definitely more. I’ve checked with numerous other people, and many are seeing the same thing.

And this is only the beginning…

It’s Going To Get Even Better

With any new release, there’s a technology adoption lifecycle curve. We’re one month in, which is still in the ‘innovators’ or ‘early adopters’ phase.

Image courtesy of Pnautilus on Wikimedia Commons.

What this tells me, is that there’s going to be a lot more ‘Friends’ coming onboard. I don’t expect it will ever be at 100%, or anywhere close to that. But there will be more ‘Friends’ on Medium than a boomer’s Facebook page one day.

I personally don’t care who upgrades to the Friend tier. Everyone has their reasons to do it or not do it. I only care that some people are. Not just because it’s more money (and I like money), but because it’s the community supporting each other. And that’s beautiful.

But also — the Friend tier is going to get better.

This first launch is cool, but I know that behind the scenes, Medium is figuring out what will inspire more people to upgrade. I don’t know what features they’ll roll out to it, but I am pretty confident the new tier will offer even better incentives in the future. The pot is pretty sweet already, but I’ll bet money that they’re going make the pot sweeter than a strawberry Pop-Tart.

If you’re on the fence about it, question for you — what ‘Friend’ perk would you love to see? And you can’t say “give me money”, or Ryan Reynolds in a whipped-cream bikini.

Conclusion for People Who Skimmed The Above

So, about 25% of the writers I counted joined the Friend tier. Likely, less than 10% of all Medium members upgraded though when you factor in readers only. And the numbers weren’t scientific in the slightest. But the proof is in the Pop-Tart, and many writers I know are making more money this month.

I’m making almost 30% more this month over last month (comparing 4.6K reads this month to 4.4K last month). I’ve heard others say the same.

And the best part — I think in the future we’re going to see more ‘Friends’ than a Central Perk.

Mo’ friends, mo’ money.

Money isn’t everything of course. But there’s nothing wrong with enjoying earning money on here. The struggling artist thing, and idea that writers shouldn’t write for money is a stereotype that needs to die.

For me, knowing so many people bought the new tier just so we could support others is beautiful. And I think this is a brilliant addition from the Medium team.

~Robin Wilding, reporting from…a big ole pile of googly eyes