Medium is a Ponzi scheme — I just need to decide if I’m okay with it…

Am I just being cynical or is anyone else seeing this?

It’s not exactly a secret that some of the most popular articles on Medium are about how to make money on the platform.

There is nothing wrong with this — what’s popular is popular — but it does very quickly start to look like a Ponzi scheme.

A Ponzi Scheme

Some people come to Medium to make money, and some come across it and feel like it could be a good idea.

Either way, these individuals read articles about how to make money on Medium and soon realize that the best way is by writing about how to make money on Medium.

These articles reveal no ‘secrets’ or deep expertise — they are often just the same handful of points recycled infinitely.

It’s therefore not hard to reproduce for newbies who then ALSO make some money going from $0 to a few hundred dollars in a few weeks, which they write about.

This then has appeal to the newer newbies or others who haven’t figured this out yet and who find that all they need to write about is how to make money on Medium with their only expertise being that they made some money on Medium writing about making money on Medium…

And so the cycle continues as long as there is a constant influx of new members to pay the older ones and as long as people are drawn to the idea of easy money.

I’ll admit, I’m guilty of this too

A lot of the engagement on the platform is part of a game too — follow for follow, comment for comment, and so on — the AI comments are particularly hilarious. It all feeds into ‘the game’.

I have nothing against Medium (I have written about my love for the platform in the past) and I’ll admit, I have been guilty of this kind of behavior myself.

There is undoubtedly a certain appeal.

But seeing someone go from $0 to $1000 in a month…. mainly talking about how to go from $0 to $1000 in a month tore at my soul.

Perhaps I’m just jealous that it wasn’t me but either way, it was both the catalyst for this article and it (thankfully) shone a light on my own transgressions.

This is not a new concept

How to make money is one of the easiest things to sell.

“I’ll help you make $1000 and it’ll only cost you $100.” It’s a no-brainer!

My issue is when that $1000 is made by telling other people how to make $1000 the same way.

There is no valuable information being relayed. The only expertise here comes from the OG Mr Ponzi himself.

The same happened in the coaching space.

Coaches who struggled to build health coaching businesses realized that they could make more money telling people how to build their own health coaching businesses…

The ‘proof’ of expertise was the fact that they were successful…. except their success came from teaching others how to build a coaching business rather than building one themselves.

If someone makes money writing about writing do they then become an expert writer?

Should they be rewarded more than better writers who are not playing the game?

It is what it is, so the question is — am I okay with it?

I am not suggesting we change anything here. It would be a ridiculous thing to enforce and for right or wrong, there is an audience for this content.

The only question becomes whether I want to engage in it myself.

I ultimately closed down my health coaching business because I got sick of parroting the same stuff on social media. I refused to make the increasingly extreme claims needed for anyone to pay attention.

I got sick of playing the ‘money game’ when I wanted to play the game of coaching.

So, although I’d love to make money as a writer, hammering out articles just to please the algorithm is NOT what I signed up for (as tempting as it is).

Coming from other social media as a coach, I had accepted the fact that I would make less money than if I fully embraced the ‘game’.

I also accepted that I needed to play the game to a degree but the core idea was that I wrote about what I cared about and that hopefully, some people would be interested.

I even shared a Venn diagram in a previous post acknowledging this…

Content creation became a trap

Unfortunately, I found that my content was inexorably moving toward a game that I didn’t want to play.

I found myself publishing “Earning’s Reports” or “How I was going to make $1000 on Medium”.

These were quick and easy to write and hyper-palatable — people couldn’t get enough of them.

The food equivalent of this is junk food. Empty calories that are easy to consume with zero fulfillment.

This started to grate at me but I couldn’t put my finger on why.

Then, I came across a video that resonated.

It talks about how content creation can trap us when we become obsessed with chasing the algorithm over pursuing what we love.

Money at any cost?

There are many ways to make money and I’ve experienced a few. On my journey, I realized that for me, it is no longer about simply making money at any cost. There has to be something more.

Ideally, I could make money doing something I love.

Is this even possible? I don’t know but this is something I am exploring with writing.

I realized I’m not okay with it

Like in health, a little bit of junk food probably won’t cause any harm, however too much can make you sick.

And like junk food, once you start, it can be hard to stop.

I am not okay with going all in on the money game at any cost, not because I am better than anyone (and I’m certainly not judging) but because I am at a stage of my life where my priorities have shifted.

Maybe I’ll still publish an Earnings Report once in a while to document my journey and insights. Maybe I’ll wean myself off entirely.

But really, I want to write about what I care about.

If that works then great. And if it doesn’t bear fruit, then it’s back to the drawing board for me which is also okay.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.