Summary

The article discusses the declining number of writers earning over $100 on the platform, despite high engagement and top earners seeing increased payouts, and suggests that the quality and strategy of content creation may be contributing factors.

Abstract

The Medium platform has seen a significant drop in the proportion of writers earning over $100, from nearly 10% to 5.4% in recent months. This decline occurs amidst high readership and record-breaking earnings for a few top writers and posts. The author, returning after a hiatus, observes a shift in content trends, noting an increase in meta posts about Medium, success stories that may come off as bragging or misleading, a push for high quantity over quality, and content padding for longer read times. The author also points out that top earners are often associated with Medium publications and that the platform's readership is sending a clear message about their content preferences.

Opinions

The author believes that the increase in meta posts and success stories on Medium may not be helpful to the majority of writers and could be seen as bragging or clickbait.
Writing about Medium on Medium is viewed negatively by the author, who prefers to discuss such topics in a newsletter, as these posts are ineligible for curation and may not align with the platform's quality standards.
The push for daily or twice-daily posting to maintain visibility is questioned, with the author suggesting that quality, memorable writing is more important than constant output.
The author criticizes the practice of padding articles to increase read time, emphasizing that concise and well-edited content is more likely to retain readers.
There is a perception that readers are increasingly selective, muting content that doesn't resonate with them, and that writers should focus on excellence rather than chasing views and earnings through quantity alone.
The author implies that writing for Medium publications may be a key factor in the success of top-earning writers, suggesting a potential strategy for other writers to consider.

Fewer Writers Than Ever Earn $100 and it Might Be Our Fault.

When people aren’t reading, they’re telling you something.

Sometimes, we need distance to see clearly. No one knows that better than a writer. You need to walk away from the words and come back with fresh eyes if you’re to do any justice to it.

Places work the same way.

Leave your hometown for a decade and when you come back, you’ll never see it through the same eyes again.

Fewer writers than ever earn over $100 here, now.

When the partner program started, almost 10% of writers earned over $100/month. There was a little dip in the summer, but that number stayed relatively consistent.

October, November, December, January — 8% of writers made over $100. Then a little jump in February. 8.3% of writers made over $100.

In April, only 5.4% of writers earned over $100.

Why the nose dive?

Easy to blame the state of the economy, right?

A lot of people aren’t working. Maybe maybe member numbers dropped off? But no. That’s not it.

The top posts have thousands of reads. Thousands. Which means people are here reading.

The highest earned for a single story in April was $12,797.13 That’s triple the amount a single story earned in January.

The highest amount earned by a single writer in April was $28,622.44 That’s triple the amount a single writer earned in January.

So why are only 5.4% of writers making over $100?

What’s happening here?

Fresh eyes to the rescue?

I’ve been away. Bit off more than I could chew, work-wise. They say the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Took a long time to eat that elephant.

I’ve posted once a week for almost a month now. No time for more than that. Not enough hours in the day.

Came back and hardly recognized this place.

Here’s a few things I noticed.

1. Wow, there’s a lot of meta posts…

Writing about Medium on Medium is kind of like showing up at the playground with lollipops. I’m breaking my own rule with this post.

I do not like to write about Medium on Medium. I prefer to save those conversations for my newsletter. Why? Two reasons…

— 1. The majority of paid members are readers, not writers.

— 2. Posts about Medium are not eligible for curation. I see the curation guide as a quality guide. If Medium won’t curate it, I’d prefer not to write it.

2. And a lot of people writing about their Medium success…

You know the ones. How I made $600 or $1600 or $7600 on Medium. How I got seventy-eleven-gazillion views on Medium. In one day!!!!! How I got a thousand new followers. In one week!!!!!!!

More candy at the playground.

I’ll probably get 30 lashes for saying it but they’re not helpful.

Telling people how much you earned on a site where 94.6% of people made under $100 is not helping, it’s either bragging or bait. Tasty bait. For all the hungry fishies who are earning pennies here.

Telling people you’re helping and actually helping are not the same. Not even close.

Recipes are for cookies. One cup peanut butter, one cup brown sugar, one egg. Chill. Bake 8–9 minutes at 350*. Makes 12–18 cookies. That’s a recipe. Voila. Gluten free peanut butter cookies. Works every time.

Recipes do not work for earning money on the Internet. Except for the person selling the recipe.

Amazingly, everyone figures this out. Eventually.

And then you’re just that skeevy guy trying to sell stuff at the block party. So they stop reading you.

And then you know what you have to do, right?

3. More, moar, MOAR.

Gotta write every day. Twice a day. Gotta stay in that feed, right? Or they’ll forget about you. Right?

No, actually. They won’t. Not if your name means good reading to them. I’ve written 4 posts in a month and I’m still in the top 5.4%.

Trust me, they won’t forget you. Not if they’re enjoying what you write.

Some of them might even email to ask if you’re okay out there. :)

I’m not saying people can’t churn out good writing every day of the week. Journalists and copywriters and other professional writers do it all the time. I’m just not sure that’s everyone.

Quality and quantity are not the same beast. Writing and hitting publish aren’t, either.

Ask any professional writer. They’ll tell you they write thousands of words every day and most of them are crap. The trick isn’t writing. It’s knowing what to publish, what to re-write and what to chuck in the garbage.

If you’re writing every day and you’re not in the 5.4%, maybe that’s something to ponder?

Trading quality for quantity is a race to the bottom. No one wins a race to the bottom. 5.4%. You know? 5.4%

4. Bulk never beats brevity…

I get that we all get paid for read time. In order for that to work in your favor, the reader needs to get through the piece.

Fluff and repetition seldom retains the reader. Here’s a good rule of thumb. If your first draft is a 10 minute read, you probably have 5-6 minutes of good reading in there. My 10 minute reads started out at 15–20. Cut, cut, cut.

I found that since coming back, the number of pieces I actually finish are abysmally low. I don’t know if that’s intentional padding for more read time or whether it’s lack of editing to get it published.

Why didn’t I notice that before?

5. Medium is now telling people HOW to mute…

Just like claps, we’ll all figure out our own system for how to mute.

Some people clap 50 times if they read it all. Others clap once.

In much the same way, people will decide how to mute. I discovered that if I mute all the posts about how to succeed on Medium, and all the shelf-help posts, the pickings get real slim.

When too many folks are busy racing to the bottom, there’s opportunity to be had for those that have the eyes to see it.

Just saying. Do what you will with that.

When people aren’t reading, they’re telling you something loud, and clear.

We can assume the top paid writers — the elite few earning 12K for one story or 28K in one month — they’re likely are writing for Medium publications.

I’m sure you’ve noticed most of the articles in the “Popular” list are from Medium publications. Those pieces aren’t hurting for views.

But everyone else? Scrambling.

When people aren’t reading your writing, they’re sending a message that’s loud and clear. We might not like the message, but it’s there.

/rant

“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence” ― Vince Lombardi