Get paid twice. The economics of good Medium writing.

Summary

The article discusses the benefits of a "Link Love" culture on Medium, where writers reference and support each other, and the economic advantages of diversifying income streams beyond Medium's payment system by leveraging content for additional revenue opportunities.

Abstract

The author reflects on the positive outcomes of engaging with the Medium community through interviews and the concept of "Link Love," which involves writers referencing each other to foster cooperation and idea exchange. The author emphasizes the value of being part of a dynamic conversation among writers over simply broadcasting to a larger, passive audience. Additionally, the article highlights the importance of not solely relying on Medium's payment structure, as it may limit the time and effort one can afford to invest in writing. Instead, the author advocates for a strategy where writers can get paid multiple times by repurposing their content into books, using articles as marketing tools for coaching services, or as a means to enhance their professional credibility. The author also suggests that conference companies could benefit from publishing on Medium to gain extra distribution and compensation for their authors.

Opinions

The author values a cooperative writing community on Medium that engages in mutual support and idea sharing.
Getting interviewed is seen as an effective way to receive inbound appreciation and strengthen connections within the Medium community.
Writing with the intention of creating a book can lead to additional income and professional opportunities beyond Medium's platform.
The author believes that writing should ideally be financially sustainable without the need for multiple revenue streams, but currently, the economics of writing on Medium necessitate additional monetization strategies.
The author suggests that content marketing, such as using Medium articles to attract clients or enhance credibility, is a form of getting paid twice for the same content.
There is an opinion that conference companies could leverage Medium to further monetize their authors' work and increase their reach.
The author aspires for a future where writers can focus solely on crafting masterpieces and still make a living from their writing on Medium.

Get paid twice. The economics of good Medium writing.

I did a mini-tour to drop in on YouTube channels run by Medium writers and I’m glad I did.

The first thing that happened is that I started getting some Link Love here on Medium. That’s an old term for when one blogger references another blogger. People are referencing me in their writing using Medium’s @ feature, like I did above with Sinem and Anangsha.

A link love culture is probably the number one change that I want to see on Medium. I want to see a community of writers that are cooperating and riffing off each other and encouraging each other. I try to give a lot of love, but getting interviewed was the best thing that I ever did to get some inbound love.

The thing with Link Love is that it makes it feel like your writing is part of a discussion. I’d rather be in a discussion with ten other writers, trading ideas and getting smarter, than merely broadcasting to 1,000 readers (although I do enjoy that too).

The other thing that made me glad is that I got to give some advice, see how it was received, and then course correct. The coach in me already knows that giving advice is fraught. But I can’t help myself. So the best case scenario is that I at least get feedback.

So Anangsha pulled out of me the generalized version of what I’d told Sinem. For Sinem, I said authors should write with a book in mind. I already course corrected to explain how “in mind” is different than literally writing the book on Medium.

But for Anangsha, what I was saying was that it’s nice to get paid twice. If you only rely on Medium’s payment then you are looking at somewhere between $10 and $100 per article on average. But that puts a cap on how much time you can put into it. If you only make $10 then you can only spend $10 worth of your time (I’m leaving out all the majority of writers who write here for many non-financial goals).

So a book is an example of getting paid twice. First get paid by Medium. Then get paid by putting a book out. Actually, most book authors then use the book as resume booster helping them in some other part of their career. That’s getting paid three times. If you write that way then the economics support you putting more work into your articles.

Coaches write here for credibility. Clients read them, look them up, hire them. That’s getting paid twice and is the original form of content marketing. Give value and customers will find you.

The Pragmatic Programmers brought all their books over here. They already get paid when people buy the physical books. Medium paying them is now a second payment.

I’ve been trying to convince a conference company to move their publishing over here. Their speakers write amazing articles for the conference blog. And the whole idea for this publisher is: write here, get extra distribution and some money for your authors, then send a newsletter to your followers every time you have a conference. Get paid twice.

In an ideal world, and maybe this will happen in the future of Medium, writing would pay enough that it was worth your time to only do the writing. Just write masterpieces and trust that you’ll make a living. But in the current world, the economics don’t work out that way and so to live and thrive in this world, I think it’s worth thinking in terms of getting paid twice.