Some folks HATE the new Medium๐คฌ
I read a story where one writerโs income TANKED! ๐ Mine is good. ๐Is yours? โ I think Medium did affect his income. ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฒHereโs how!
I was shocked. โ Why was he ticked off?
His income dropped! โ In 2023 he was making roughly a grand a month. On August 1st, 2023 he suddenly was not making the huge bucks on Medium.
I was so surprised! โ He may have been cheating!
I mean, how could his money drop so much? โ I needed to find out. The writer included his Medium income in the story.
All of us work so hard on Medium. โ RIGHT?
So I dove in head first. โ First of all, I have BUSTED MY ASS trying to make a grand in a month here.
I wrote about my insane $1,000 quest on Medium.
I took the entire month of May to see if it was possible. โ I could not make it happen, no matter how hard I tried.
Naturally, I was curious. โSo I started digging!
The month of May was a miserable month for me but I gutted it out because I wanted to know for myself and other Medium writers!
This writer was making great money!
I looked over his July 2023 stories. The writing was great, but he had very few claps and comments.
For the entire month of Julyโฆ
This writer had 15,977 claps from Feb to July and 256 comments, in total.
I want you guys to be the judge.
I may be totally wrong, but I know in my heart, I am not.
TฬทHฬทIฬทSฬท ฬทWฬทRฬทIฬทTฬทEฬทRฬท,ฬท ฬทIฬทNฬท ฬทMฬทYฬท ฬทBฬทOฬทOฬทKฬท,ฬท ฬทWฬทAฬทSฬท ฬทCฬทHฬทEฬทAฬทTฬทIฬทNฬทGฬท.ฬท
Medium stopped it on August first! GAME OVER. ๐๏ธโโ๏ธ Now he has to actually WORK, like the rest of us!
Sorry, this is kinda personal to me.
He had a good run, mind you, but we were working OUR HOLY LIVING ASSES OFF TO MAKE ๐๐๐PIZZA MONEY!
I hate math, but hereโs Wazzupโฆ
๐ ฑ๐ ด๐ ฐ๐ โ ๐๐ ธ๐๐ ท โ ๐ ผ๐ ด, โ ๐๐ ท๐ ธ๐ โ ๐ ธ๐ โ ๐ ฒ๐๐ ฐ๐๐!โ๏ธโโโ๐ฐBased on the average number of claps per view, which is 15, a writer would normally get around 1065 views on average from 15,977 claps.
๐ Hypothetically, 15,977 CLAPS = 1,065 views for 6 MONTHS OF WRITING, total, right?
So, if a writer in the top tier gets 1065 views, The total money for the whole 6 months should have been LIKE $100-$200 for ๐15,977 claps! ๐Not over $6k.
This writer got a total of ๐256 comments total on ALL 32 stories combined.
Based on the average number of comments per view on Medium, which is 0.5, someone who gets 256 comments in July on Medium could have had an average of 512 ORGANIC views on their 32 stories. โ SO CONFUSING!
The numbers donโt make sense.๐๐๐
The total MEDIUM.COM income for this writer from Feb 1 through July 31 was๐๐๐ $6,479.93 with 256 comments.
Here is the breakdown.
The writer posted a screenshot of MEDIUMS ACTUAL STUFF and put his Medium screenshot in the story. I recreated the screenshot in Photoshop.
The writer was following Medium rules as far as I know.
On Aug 1st, 2023, the rules changed. โ GAME OVER!
I asked my new buddy AI, Bard about it.
The math doesn't add up with so few claps and comments I think. The total income for this writer from Feb 1 through July 31 was๐๐๐ $6,479.93 with 256 comments. (https://bard.google.com/)
Bard's response wasโฆ
A read is counted when a paying member reads a story for at least 10 seconds. A view is counted when anyone, whether a paying member or not, opens a story.
๐๐๐๐ So, if the writer in your question had ๐ 15,977 claps and all of those claps came from paying members, then he would have had about 3195 reads.๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฒ At $0.05 per member read, this would have earned him $159.77, not ๐๐๐ $6,479.93
Bard added,
Overall, it is difficult to sayโฆexactly how much the writer would have earned with 256 comments and 15,977 claps. However, it is likely that he would have earned somewhere between $100 and $200.
There are a few other ways that this writer could have made this much money on Medium.com with this many comments and claps:
- He could have been using bots or other automated methods to generate traffic to his stories. This is against Mediumโs terms of service, but it is possible that the writer was using these methods to artificially inflate his income.
The math does not seem to add up. From Googleโฆ
According to Mediumโs Partner Program, writers earn $0.05 per member read, up to 1000 reads per month.
I still, hate math, butโฆ
This means that the writer would need to have had ๐ค๐ซ๐๐ง ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ตโ๐ฑ๐ต๐ต ๐ง๐๐๐๐จ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐๐๐ง๐ฃ $๐ฒโ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๏ฝก๐ต๐ฏ๏ฝก โ However, the writer only received 15,977 claps, which would only translate to around 2,494 reads.
Bard addedโฆ
- It is possible that the writer received some of his reads from paying members, who would pay $5 per month for a Medium subscription. However, even if all of the writerโs reads came from paying members, he would still need to have had over 4,193 reads.
In concusion, it is likely that the writer was using some kind of unfair or unethical methods to boost his income.
I think it is okay to make other writers aware of this.
If this writer is indeed using multiple accounts to boost his income, then it is unfair to other writers who are playing by the rules. It is also unfair to Medium, as they are losing money by paying this writer for clicks that are not organic.
I am not saying a name.
Just sharing the information about the writerโs income and the number of claps & comments he received and that I believe he may be using multiple accounts.
I wrote about this practice was known as โsock-puppetingโ or โclick farming.โ
๐บ๐ ๐ด๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐!
ReviewingโฆHow do they do this?
In โsock puppeting,โ writers would create fake accounts and then use those accounts to read their own stories. โ This would artificially inflate the number of reads that the story received, and the writer would then earn more money from the Partner Program.
In click farming, writers would pay other people to read their stories.
This was a more efficient way to inflate the number of reads, but it was also more expensive.
More Medium money for us!๐ฐCheers!๐Thanks, Medium!
So who is this Jan Sebastian writer chick?
I had a stroke so I am disabled and am kicking major ass.โฆwell in some ways. I canโt walk or talk well but Iโm a writing MO-FO! Kickinโ serious BUTT 100%!
This is my silly stroke therapy video. The focus on my face is hilarious! A crazy-ass redhead who is not at all normal and proud of it. I love people and love helping them. Unconventional seems right. Fearless and focused.
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