I’m a Friend of Medium Advocate

And this is why I’ll stay a Friend of Medium, despite my initial skepticism

It’s already been a few months since Medium introduced Friends of Medium, the $15 subscription tier.

At first, the opinion about this was mixed. Some were skeptics. Others embraced it right away. And although the official statement was clear (this will help those we read, not us), many people got on the wagon, thinking it would help them directly in some way or another.

The rest is history.

By observing things in the last couple of months, I finally have my conclusion.

Just as Medium said (duh), Friends of Medium does not affect your earnings directly. I’ve seen people with a normal $5 subscription earn insanely more than Friends of Medium.

However, we can’t deny that there were some indirect benefits that came into play once Friends of Medium was implemented.

What happens when a considerable number of people, all of a sudden, pay three times more to have full access to Medium?

The answer is simple. Medium gains more funds. More funds that they can use to pay both their staff and their writers better.

We all know that Medium’s main and most reliable source of revenue is the money they get from our subscriptions. Or at the very least, that’s what they use to pay us, writers.

Out of every premium subscription (be it $5 or $15), Medium takes its cut (an undisclosed percentage), and what’s left of that goes into a money pool that gets distributed to every monetized story published on Medium (based on stats and performance).

Well, it’s safe to say that since Friends of Medium came along, that money pool has seen a considerable increase. Just look around. Most people are making more money than before. Even the newbies.

This is why I will continue to be a Friend of Medium. I’ve been making a decent amount of money since the $15 came along, and if that will bring more money for a lot of people, I’m willing to give back to the community.

Of course, that comes with a few limitations since I’m not directly contributing to everyone, but I’m happy to do my part and be a small cog in a better-paying system.

You know, it just doesn’t seem fair to me for someone who makes several hundreds or even $1000 after taxes to be on a $5 subscription, like people who barely make $100.

If you make more, you have to give back more to the community. That seems only fair when you cover the $15 subscription in one day or half a day.

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