Medium’s Time Isn’t Over. It’s Time to Get Excited.

Have there been changes that will skyrocket your views?

There have been many discussions on whether Medium is going downhill and is no longer a place that good writers can make a living. While as a business person, I would never suggest only counting on one income stream, especially on a platform you cannot control. However, I still think there is a lot to get from Medium.

One recent story by David Majister makes a clear analytics approach to why the “Medium Gold Rush” is over.

While it is definitely worth a read for valuable information and tips for moving forward on Medium, I believe the conclusion from the analytics approach is not as sound as it appears.

The Analytics and Conclusions

David Majister based his analytics on page views per month on Medium provided by SEMrush. Essentially, the number of page views doubled at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, which makes sense as more people were locked inside and had increased free time.

However, since that point, the page views have not returned to that point, and while they are not sharply decreasing they are not increasing.

At the same time, the number of writers flocking to Medium has greatly increased especially since the start of the pandemic. Expanded by analytics reports by Shelby Church, Zulie Rane, Tom Kuegler, and Sinem Günel, writers are coming to Medium expecting to be able to create a full-time income.

Logically, as the page views do not increase with the rise of new writers, David Majister suggests that the capability to make decent money through Medium has decreased because there are not enough readers to accommodate the content from the influx of new writers.

Rebuttal

The argument against his conclusion is that page views do not equate to member sign-ups. In fact, many of the Medium members are Medium writers since success on Medium basically requires being able to access more than 3 stories a month.

Therefore, as new writers join Medium, a proportion of these writers will become members. If there has been an influx of new members, why do we not see the same increase in page views?

This is answered by the time limit in a day. If the majority of members are writers, the more they focus on writing the less time they have for reading. Some members only read two or three stories a month, while others read hundreds.

The potential for increased income on Medium is that not every view is worth the same. If you write for other sites like Vocal Media, you can calculate the total pot of money available from the page views because you are paid a set rate per view.

However, on Medium, you are paid a share of the reader's membership based on how many stories they read. Therefore, when someone only reads 2 or 3 views per month, their views are worth more than someone who reads hundreds. This is why there is still a great ability to make money on Medium.

The Calls for Medium’s Doom

As of October of last year, Medium rolled out many changes to its platform. From press releases, they aim to have a more relational approach to their platform. However, the results of this new rollout were that views tanked across the board for writers. Many have complained about the algorithm needing to be changed so that writers have the same room for growth.

In my view, while Medium had great intentions, the had an imperfect rollout. Primarily with the homepage. I think it is great that I see people and publications that I follow on my homepage, but I am tired of seeing the same stories for weeks at a time. Additionally, the majority of stories are much older such as stories from February of 2020 appearing on my homepage in March of 2021.

This could be the cause of the drop in views. Most people likely find stories from their homepage instead of searching like you would on YouTube. Therefore, if you do not have regular cycling of homepage views, readers now have to put more effort into finding interesting stories. The result is that people read fewer stories.

While many presume that this move was to favor newer creators, it actually hurt new creators more. New creators do not have followers on the platform; therefore, the ability for these creators to get in front of new members was greatly reduced even when publishing in publications.

Is There a Chance at Changes?

When I started pushing to make money on Medium, I was prepared for the severe upward battle. I realized that overall getting curated or even getting published in big publications was getting me little traffic. I focused on improving my craft to be able to make it, but still only saw minor improvements in my stats. However, I didn’t realize that the system had become severely stacked.

However, over the last 2 days, something has changed. Suddenly, I started seeing my homepage stories turning over. Below are screenshots of my homepage at two-time points only 32 minutes apart. Before, I would only see a change in my home page after over a week, even if I had already read the stories. However, below you can see that my homepage is turning over much quicker with the entire homepage changing in less than an hour.

Additionally, you can see that most of these stories have been published in the last two days. This gives a chance for your newer stories to have a higher reach in the first few days of being published.

These changes should mean that people are being exposed to more stories from people and publications they follow. However, it should also mean that writers' recent stories should be receiving more traction. So I dug into my analytics to see if it is true.

I think it is clear that in the last two days my views have increased dramatically. In all fairness, my two recent stories were published in The Startup and The Post-Grad Survival Guide. However, they have both considerably outperformed my previous stories in those publications from only a month ago.

It could be that my stories are just better or more interesting. However — given the timing with the changes we are seeing on the homepage — I feel as though there might be a lift to all writer's stats soon.

If Medium continues in this fashion, it will become important to stay consistent on Medium in order to have stories regularly receiving reach instead of relying on older stories to receive income.

What to Do next?

If you are a writer on Medium, you may be confused with what you should do next. Should you stay on Medium? What if there really hasn’t been a change? Should you leave Medium for other platforms?

I think that from starting my content on YouTube, I have a different perspective from many others. On any new content platform, it will be difficult to grow at first. Yes, algorithm changes can make this even more difficult, but you shouldn’t expect to come to medium and make decent money quickly.

In reality — while I have about the same number of Medium articles as YouTube videos — I have been paid nothing from YouTube due to their monetization guidelines and have received money from Medium.

So, if you are wondering what to do on Medium, I suggest that you focus on honing your craft. Don’t be caught up in the hype of Medium hurting you or helping someone else. Read and connect with other writers on Medium. Take the money you make as a blessing and remember that this type of career was not available 10 years ago.

If you are looking to make a living from Medium, my immediate suggestion is to diversify your income streams. Create a blog off Medium. Dive into affiliate marketing. Create a YouTube channel. Grow a mailing list. This is the only true way to make a secure full-time living as an online business.

Overall, keep pushing forward and make your next story better than your last.