Payment for External Views Has Arrived

Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

1950

Abstract

re may not be any news, as the management seem very resistant to introducing advertising, which would provide an obvious income stream to pay for external reads.</p><p id="7604">Apparently, Medium tried advertising once. According to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_(website)">Wikipedia</a>, “There was an aborted attempt to introduce advertising to the site, leading to Medium cutting its staff by 50 employees in January 2017 and closing offices in New York and Washington, D.C.”</p><p id="68f4">It sounds like it was a disaster. How introducing advertising could have been this disastrous remains a mystery, but they don’t seem to want to go back there.</p><p id="a45d">Almost all Medium writers have seen stories go viral outside of Medium and earned cents for their efforts. At the moment, it looks like for the vast majority of us, that won’t change.</p><p id="fe3b">Right now, it looks like there will be rewards for top writers who do well on SEO, but not for everyone.</p><p id="f560">The rest of us need to continue to work on figuring out what does well on the platform and do more of that. It’s a bit frustrating, and reminds me of the time when they gave bonuses to the most successful writers, just as I signed up, and then promptly scrapped the bonus scheme.</p><p id="e59f">Nonetheless, I’m always hopeful that I will reach the ranks of the most worthy at some stage. I passed the much sought after $100 monthly earnings target in my first year, and I continue to see a general upward trend. Perseverance pays off eventually.</p><p id="f07b">At the moment however, I’d be surprised if I’m invited to be one of those who gets paid for external views. I’m increasingly writing for the Medium audience because that’s what pays.</p><p id="af31">Some of my stories do go viral outside of Medium, and it’s frustrating to earn less than a dollar for those stories, but that’s the nature of the platform and it’s what we all agr

Options

eed to when we signed up. Hey ho.</p><p id="dfdc">For those who do get payment for external views, it could be a nice little earner.</p><h1 id="66aa">An update</h1><p id="a0c1">I have now published an update to this story…</p><div id="5ab3" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/payment-for-external-views-an-update-78a0e39e84dc"> <div> <div> <h2>Payment For External Views — An Update</h2> <div><h3>How people on the SEO Incentive Program got on</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*Pv7x6M7XbcjJg4Wk6mYwWg.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><p id="9331">© Susie Kearley 2022. All Rights Reserved.</p><p id="b45b">More from me…</p><ul><li><a href="https://readmedium.com/blogger-who-made-6-is-sued-for-150-000-over-creative-commons-image-a1fa4f33cb9c?source=user_profile---------8----------------------------">Blogger Who Made $6 is Sued for$ 150,000 over Creative Commons Image</a></li><li><a href="https://readmedium.com/my-420-story-on-beating-a-copyright-troll-went-viral-in-a-week-10419ce32d9a?source=user_profile---------1----------------------------">My $420 Story on Beating a Copyright Troll Went Viral in a Week!</a></li><li><a href="https://readmedium.com/on-the-topic-of-niches-whether-i-need-one-de1bc1dd94d7?source=user_profile---------2----------------------------">On The Topic Of Niches & Whether I Need One</a></li><li><a href="https://readmedium.com/mediums-new-ceo-is-listening-acb97ff4ac98?source=user_profile---------2----------------------------">Medium’s New CEO is Listening</a></li><li>Join Medium and read unlimited stories, using <a href="https://susiekearley.medium.com/membership">my referral link</a></li></ul></article></body>

But only a few are benefiting at the moment

It was maybe a week ago that someone sent me a private message, asking if I’d been contacted by Medium about participating in their test run of payment for external views. He wondered if it was a scam. I hadn’t received an email invitation of the same nature, but I was interested to hear the news.

Anyway, Medium customer services confirmed that the email was indeed authentic and this person had been selected to take part in the trial run. So, Medium is now rolling out payment for external views — but at the moment it’s in a testing stage, with only a handful of people selected to take part. I’m *not* one of them.

I wasn’t going to tell anyone about this because the information was given to me in private. But since Kristina God broke the news yesterday, I figure the cat’s out of the bag, so I’ll share my thoughts.

At the moment, only a select few have being invited to take part in the trial. When questioned about payment for external views in the summer, Tony Stubblebine specifically said he thought payment should be made to those who brought in a lot of external traffic — but not to everyone.

In this YouTube interview with Zulie Rane, posted five months ago, Tony said they’d pick a handful of writers who consistently bring Google traffic to Medium and reward them for their SEO efforts.

What about the rest of us? No more news on that yet. I fear there may not be any news, as the management seem very resistant to introducing advertising, which would provide an obvious income stream to pay for external reads.

Apparently, Medium tried advertising once. According to Wikipedia, “There was an aborted attempt to introduce advertising to the site, leading to Medium cutting its staff by 50 employees in January 2017 and closing offices in New York and Washington, D.C.”

It sounds like it was a disaster. How introducing advertising could have been this disastrous remains a mystery, but they don’t seem to want to go back there.

Almost all Medium writers have seen stories go viral outside of Medium and earned cents for their efforts. At the moment, it looks like for the vast majority of us, that won’t change.

Right now, it looks like there will be rewards for top writers who do well on SEO, but not for everyone.

The rest of us need to continue to work on figuring out what does well on the platform and do more of that. It’s a bit frustrating, and reminds me of the time when they gave bonuses to the most successful writers, just as I signed up, and then promptly scrapped the bonus scheme.

Nonetheless, I’m always hopeful that I will reach the ranks of the most worthy at some stage. I passed the much sought after $100 monthly earnings target in my first year, and I continue to see a general upward trend. Perseverance pays off eventually.

At the moment however, I’d be surprised if I’m invited to be one of those who gets paid for external views. I’m increasingly writing for the Medium audience because that’s what pays.

Some of my stories do go viral outside of Medium, and it’s frustrating to earn less than a dollar for those stories, but that’s the nature of the platform and it’s what we all agreed to when we signed up. Hey ho.

For those who do get payment for external views, it could be a nice little earner.