How I’m Responding to Medium’s New Rules

Attempting to do more than just tread water

If you’re reading this, I’m sure you already know: Medium have changed their requirements for writers to earn money.

It used to be as simple as joining the Partner Program, and it was this simplicity that attracted me to the platform. I can publish anything I want, and if people read it I get paid? Sign me up!

But soon we’ll need to ensure we write new articles at least every six months, maintain a minimum of 100 followers and earn over $10 before seeing a pay out.

For most, these changes won’t mean much. But if I’m honest, they would likely have been the difference between me joining and saying pass.

I’ve written before about how much I appreciate Medium as a community, and what ‘reads’ and positive feedback can do for a writer’s self-esteem. But to feel part of the community I’ve had to read the work of others, which couldn’t have happened if I wasn’t a member, which wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t attracted by the simplicity…

But those are Medium’s worries, not mine; I’m here now, and I intend to stay. My point is, the pennies are important. They got me here because even if an article only pulls in 7 cents (it happens, a lot) I’m still being paid to write — it’s validation. Some of us may now have to wait a few months before amassing the grand sum of $10, but the fact remains.

I’m more worried about the other changes.

It should be really easy to write just one story in half a year, but I’ve inadvertently left bigger gaps before (this week-off since my last effort has somehow already turned into two months). But if we’re serious, it shouldn’t be a problem.

The follower count, however, has me nervous.

I took part in the 30-Day Challenge that swept the platform earlier this year, and for the first time I paid attention to numbers. By the time I published the results my followers had risen from 162 to 253.

A significant increase, I felt, so I gave myself a pat on the back. But now I realise it’s still hovering precariously close to the precipice of 100. I’ve gained around 50 followers since the challenge, but thanks to Medium’s recent (and necessary) Bot-Account-Clear-Out I’m in roughly the same position (256 at the time of writing).

What if there is another cull of spam merchants or inactive accounts? Who knows, they could easily make up half of my followers — and then I’m in trouble.

So what am I doing about it?

There’s a lot of advice available on how to succeed on this platform. And I mean a lot. But once you’ve sifted through all of the articles offering Golden Rules and magic beans, you realise there are only a few recurring themes.

I’ve summarised most of them (rather sarcastically) here. I didn’t take it particularly seriously because I had been taken aback by just how many articles about writing to make money on Medium have been written (to make money) on Medium — my takeaway was simply why not do just that, and I’d be a millionaire in no time (spoiler: that article earned around 7 cents).

But much of the other advice on succeeding here was sound, and naturally applies to gaining/keeping followers too. You know the stuff: catchy titles, attractive images, publish often, aim to get curated, submit to publications etc. Genuinely helpful, but if it was simple to do some of these things consistently it wouldn’t have become a popular challenge.

But reading over the advice again, I realised there was a rule I’d overlooked completely: engagement. We can grow our readership simply by engaging.

The mission to grow my community

I’ve always eagerly engaged with any response to my work — I genuinely appreciate when someone takes the time to comment! But for every hundred views I’m lucky to get a single comment — people who have enjoyed a story don’t necessarily have anything to say about it.

As an introvert, I tend to think this way too — I’ve always felt most situations can do without my input. This is true, of course, but it’s also looking at things the wrong way. Just because they’d survive without it, it doesn’t mean my input would be unwelcome.

How would it affect the size of my community if I simply took a few seconds after each story I read just to ask myself, ‘is there anything I can add here?’

I’m not talking about spam responses for the sake of it — no one wants that. But if I’ve enjoyed something, maybe let them know — if they’re anything like me, they’ll appreciate it. It may result in them (or someone else scrolling through the comment section) eventually becoming a follower. If not, the worst that’s happened is I’ve had a pleasant interaction!

Changing my habits

So I’m starting as I mean to go on. This month, I intend to comment on someone else’s work at least daily. Not as an official challenge (I’ll consider 30 comments over the month as a success), but hopefully it’ll make a difference.

I recently stumbled across a story by Nellie N, interestingly offering to read posts by those who replied. I found the idea intriguing, so I commented myself and ended up following a few more from the responders, too.

So I thought I’d get the ball rolling by offering to do the same here: anyone who welcomes engagement with their work, feel free to offer a sample below. When I get a chance I’ll give it a read, and who knows — I might even have something to say.