Friend of Medium — My Review After Two and a Half Months

Is Friend of Medium still worth the cost?

Friend of Medium (FOM) has been around for roughly two and a half months. If you don’t know, it allows you to upgrade your membership from $5 to $15 a month to help support other writers on the platform.

Upgrading to FOM allows you to support writers four times more than a basic membership. Sometimes, these numbers don’t always add up, but maybe I’m just bad at math.

My Experience After the Upgrade

I know being a FOM doesn’t technically help my account, but I noticed a big increase after making the upgrade. December was my best month, and January was not quite as good. I’ve provided a breakdown of my earnings since I returned to Medium back in August.

August — $96.46

September — $113.06

October — $48.40

November — $65

December — $347.18 (Friend of Medium)

January — $288.16 (Friend of Medium)

You can see that my earnings are much higher after making the upgrade. However, my earnings are projected to be lower in February than last month. I’ll most likely finish the month of February with $210-$260. Will this downward trend continue throughout the year, or will things go back up?

Should You Make the Upgrade?

Upgrading your account is a great decision if you enjoy Medium and want to support other writers. You may even get an income boost, but it’s not guaranteed. Medium is extremely unpredictable, and it should never be relied on for your primary income.

Also, it’s important to know that your account will likely be more of a target for AI spam and clap and runners. The big yellow heart badge is like a bright light on a porch at night that attracts flys. Using the block button is recommended if you don’t want them to kill your read ratio.

My Plans for the Future

I plan to keep my FOM membership and renew my account again in August. Of course, a lot can happen in six months. New features will most likely be available for FOM members, and it will be interesting to see what’s in store for the future.

My Biggest Complaint — Too Many Fake Accounts

I’m hoping Medium will find a way to get rid of all the fake accounts that copy and paste AI content without adding a disclaimer. (Just to be clear, I have an account to create horror stories/poems, and I mention the use of AI at the beginning of each one.)

Filling Medium with AI spam hurts the reputation of the platform and it also insults the intelligence of the reader. These accounts also drain the earnings from the Partner Program. A lot of these accounts are also Enemies of Medium, I mean “Friends of Medium.”

I can’t wait to read one more article with “Let’s dive in,” “Delve deeper,” “In conclusion,” “Moreover,” and all of the other common AI phrases. It’s also interesting that many writers used to make mistakes and had bad grammar a few years ago, but now nearly everyone can write perfectly.