Summary

A Medium writer reflects on the decline in earnings since late September, noting a significant reliance on older content for revenue and questioning the effectiveness of the current Medium payment system and content strategy.

Abstract

The writer expresses frustration with the recent trend of diminishing earnings on Medium, particularly in the first days of October. Despite the challenge, they find some solace in the revenue generated by older articles, which seem to be outperforming newer content. The author shares personal earnings data to illustrate the stark contrast in profitability, revealing an average daily income of $5 over the past three days. They speculate that the removal of the reading time metric and a potential shift to a less rewarding payment system are contributing to the reduced earnings. The writer also ponders whether frequent posting and accumulating a large portfolio of stories could be a viable strategy for sustained income on the platform, especially for veterans with hundreds of posts. The article concludes with the author contemplating the creation of a separate account for high-quality content to attract boosts and distribution from Medium.

Opinions

The author is skeptical about the sustainability of their current earnings, especially from new content.
There is a belief that the removal of the reading time metric has negatively impacted earnings, possibly benefiting shorter reads disproportionately.
The writer suggests that Medium's payment system may have reverted to a less profitable version for authors, with the added complexity of elements from the previous system.
The author questions whether the strategy of consistently producing a high volume of content is the only way to gain exposure and maintain earnings on Medium.
The idea of creating a "serious account" for quality content is presented as a potential strategy to improve visibility and earnings through Medium's distribution system.
The writer implies that the current state of affairs on Medium might not favor long-form content or writers who rely on reading time to generate revenue.

OCTOBER THOUGHTS

Stacking Pennies to the Top

A Medium writer’s musings

**Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay**

As we all know, earnings have been going down the drain since late September and have maintained the same dreadful consistency even in the first days of October.

I’m getting sick of talking about that at this point, but I felt the need to approach the subject briefly once I made a new discovery. This is important, and I will make my points as we push through the context.

Checking my stats in the last 3 days of October made me smile bitterly. I’m making so little on the new stories that my older stories are basically carrying me.

Here are my earnings for the first two days of October:

And here are my earnings after yesterday, the third day of October is included:

As you can see, if I exclude the one referral I got a while back, I have had an average profit of $5 per day in the last three days.

It is true that I’ve also written less than I usually do, but the reason for that is quite evident.

Here, look how my daily efforts are rewarded now:

My two posts from yesterday generated $1,44, while my daily profit was $4,22. This is one of my points and the reason I provided the screenshots above.

It kind of looks like I’m on my way to a small yet steady profit from just my older posts now. But that might be a bit tricky. I’m not sure it will last, and my older posts will be so juicy for the rest of the month. One can only hope so.

The situation seems worse than before August since the reading time metric has been completely removed. For all we know, a 30-second read might generate the same earnings as a full read.

Maybe that’s the hidden breach in the August system, and why there were some concerns regarding “growth hacks” and “manufactured engagement.”

My two cents (quite literally now, lol) are that there was a silent switch to a downgraded version of the old system. A switch that retains some elements from the August system. This new fusion is somehow less rewarding than before.

Before August, even a few seconds of reading time would have made you a few cents, and the more people read, the more juicy the pay was in most cases. Therefore, it favored longer posts if you had a loyal audience or the skills to persuade someone to read a longer post.

Back then, I used to make between 15 and 35 cents per full read. Now if I divide the earnings I got on a post that went a few days stale by the number of reads it got, the math tells me I make way less than that.

Take the above picture, for example. Those are the stats for my latest story. If we divide the 91 cents it produced by the 16 reads it got, we find out that each read amounts to 5.68 cents.

Maybe reading power is different from person to person, but the average alone is enough to paint a vivid picture.

And without the reading time, that happens even on my longest posts. Length doesn’t matter when 30 seconds count as a read — this is my conclusion.

Let’s go back to the other thing I briefly mentioned above: the more articles you have posted, the more return you might get from older posts. Is that really true? And would it remain consistent through the whole month?

Keeping the proportions, that’s what I have experienced in the first three days of October. And I have under 500 published stories. God knows what people who have written two or three stories each day for a few years now can make with just their older posts.

I’ve seen veterans and high-earners who write two or three articles a day too. Even if they are skilled writers and write interesting things, they still do the same thing as us — spitting out fresh content every day.

Cherry on top, some of them have multiple accounts, and if they maintain the same level of “publishing spam” without reading much on 2 or 3 accounts, they flood the gates of Medium more than me and you.

Is this the only way of getting exposure for your posts, besides getting boosted and distributed by Medium? How far would spitting out chunky content get us in the long term?

Should I make a “serious account” to use as a base for my most interesting posts? You know, trying to post a few quality or catchy articles a month that could qualify for a boost on my new account might be a good strategy too.

All that while I continue to write whatever I want on my main account. This kind of feels like the best of two worlds, not gonna lie. If I actually manage to get the boosts on the second account, that is.

What do you guys think?

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