Medium Is No Longer a Lucrative Platform for Writers
Writing on Medium is not sustainable
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know of the drastic changes that happened on Medium recently.
Newsflash: Medium is no longer the platform where you can make a decent income. For many writers, including myself, it has lost its luster.
It used to be that discovering Medium was like finding a gold mine. Making a living by writing on Medium was not only sustainable, but a guaranteed income for top writers who consistently produced quality content. All you had to do was to show up and write consistently. Yes, it was that simple.
Those times have changed. The gold mine that Medium used to be has now turned into a desperate survival of the fittest. Writers who used to get thousands of views are now down to hundreds. Their dollars have turned into pennies.
Medium’s subscription base has dwindled, and writers have reported a drop in referred memberships.
To lure more readers in and increase the number of paying subscribers, the company has decided to move in a different direction. And I’m afraid to say, not in the direction that may benefit the writers. At least not from a financial standpoint.
Once again, they changed the algorithm and removed the coveted “Chosen for further distribution” tag, leaving many writers disappointed.
What does that translate into?
I can only imagine how this move may drive many prolific writers away from Medium in search of greener pastures.
It seems that the new changes are meant to benefit the readers, not the writers. The idea is to keep readers happy by feeding them quality content they want to read.
But here’s the thing: No matter how much you try to cater to the readers, leaving the writers out of the equation won’t magically increase the subscriber base.
If there’s no longer incentive for top writers to keep writing on Medium and do it for nothing more than pennies, there will be no quality stories for readers to read. You can’t serve from an empty bowl. After all, writers are producers, and readers are consumers. Consumers can’t thrive without producers. Period.
Time to explore other writing avenues
The reality of the new Medium as we see it today is that it’s no longer a financially lucrative platform. It now merely serves as a platform to host your writing and connect with other writers like yourself. It’s not a place to build a financial empire, that is from writing alone. This means it’s time to move on and not put all your eggs in one basket, as I wrote in my previous article.
If you’re a top writer on Medium who no longer finds the platform appealing, I recommend exploring other options if you want to write online. When one door closes, there’s always another one that opens.
There are a lot of online publications all over the internet. Some of them are harder to get into than others. But it doesn’t hurt to check them out. Plus, new publications keep popping up every day.
Do a little research online and look publications that publish writings in your niche. Send a few pitches and see what happens. This is what I have started doing as I realized I can no longer be dependent on Medium anymore. While I won’t quit writing on this platform, I plan to reduce my output and put my energy into other writing ventures.
The bottom line is, times have changed. Medium has evolved and will continue to evolve in the years to come. There’s no way anyone, including top writers, can depend on this platform for a sustainable income. It’s time to move on.
