MEDIUM
Medium Earnings: Is This the Nightmare Before Christmas?
Is it September 25th all over again?
About a week or so after the launch of “Friend of Medium,” referred to as “FoM” from here on, I noticed a slight uptick in my earnings — around 50% of what I earned in August. It made sense since many of my readers are FoMs. So far, I haven’t seen any of them boycotting me due to my non-badged status. But honestly, that has never been my concern because I know my Medium friends aren’t the elitist types. I mention this because I’ve come across various comments about how engagement teams are forming among FoMs.
Now that we’ve established that almost none of my readers’ behaviours have changed, whether they are FoMs or not, the rates weren’t four times as suggested. However, it was still good, about 50% more than October rates but 50% less than August. To put it into perspective, for an article that earned me $4.00 in August, for the same reads, I earned $1.00 in October, and post-FoM, I earned $2.00.
This positive experience with FoM has led me to consider signing up myself. I’ve shared this thought with a few writer friends, and I’m contemplating becoming a FoM if I can meet a personal target for the month. For context, $15.00 holds significant value in Malaysia. It pays for my apartment’s monthly maintenance fees, and with a few extra dollars, I can pay my electricity bills as well. It is also enough to buy lunch for five days, and if I want a Coffee Bean drink, I could enjoy it three times. You might be surprised that Coffee Bean/Starbucks is more expensive than a typical lunch in Malaysia.
So as my earnings seemed quite consistent, I had a good feeling about FoM and estimated that by increasing my publishing, I might be able to achieve my target in a few months’ time, as older articles also earn money.
All this came to a halt a couple of days ago. Actually, it started about a week ago when my earnings dropped to October rates. But since I was used to October rates, I didn’t think much of it. After all, there are plenty of factors that affect earnings. I also figured it might be the holiday season, and at that time, I assumed there were less reads. It didn’t help that the stats page wasn’t updated consistently.
Then, yesterday, for my latest story, it actually earned pennies! And today, as well. So, I took a closer look at the stats, particularly the number of reads and read ratio. To my surprise, all things remaining constant, it wasn’t even at October rates. It was around 40% drop from October rates! Interestingly, it coincides with the new stats page.
So to recap by using estimated figures with similar number of reads and read ratio:
August — $4.00
October — $1.00
First two weeks with FoM (but I’m not a FoM) — $2.00
Now — $0.60
Is anyone else facing the same issue?
I have read a few articles by FoMs stating that their earnings have increased, and these are recent articles too. I would not link them as I am not sure if it would make them feel targeted.
My concern is, does not having a FoM badge affect my earnings? Technically, it shouldn’t because Medium has not announced an increase in rates for FoMs; the 4x increase is only for writers whom FoMs read from.
Could it be a change in their policy? If this is the case, then it is unfair to writers who can’t afford the higher FoM tier. Also, won’t it make this a pyramid scheme? Pay more to earn more? I really don’t think this is the direction Medium is taking, but I cannot explain why my earnings (per read) have dropped, when FoMs mentioned that theirs are consistent.
Anyway, I apologise for writing about Medium earnings again. It’s the holiday season, and with Christmas around the corner, I want to spread joy and happiness instead of rants and whines. But, I know that I can’t let it go until I hear some affirmations on this. It’s not that I wish the same upon you guys, but I’d appreciate it if someone could explain this to me. So, please, if it’s not too much trouble, I’d appreciate if you could share your thoughts in the comments. Thanks!
P.S. Upon further review, interestingly enough, the analysis above is only true for my latest story. For my older articles, they are still earning at post-FoM rates. My latest story is a movie review, which I have not done before. Do certain topics earn more than others? Now, that wouldn’t be fair, would it? Anyway, we’ll find out if this holds true once the earnings for this meta article come in.
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