Summary

A writer on Medium reflects on the unpredictable nature of their income and readership, particularly noting a significant drop in earnings from October to November despite a similar number of reads.

Abstract

The author of the Medium post discusses the variable nature of writing on the platform, detailing their financial and engagement metrics over the past few months. Initially, they made a decent income in October, but November saw a sharp decline in earnings despite a modest decrease in readership. The author attributes this discrepancy to changes in Medium's payment structure and the importance of content relevance and frequency. They also note the potential impact of curation on a post's success, suggesting that being curated in a category can significantly boost a post's visibility and earnings. The author concludes by questioning the optimal posting frequency, content topics, and publication venues under the new Medium Partner Program changes.

Opinions

The author believes that the Medium Partner Program's changes have significantly affected their income, making it less predictable and more challenging to maintain previous earnings levels.
They suggest that consistent daily posting may be more effective than sporadic multiple posts within a short period, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a steady flow of content.
The author opines that curation might be more critical than before, as it can lead to increased internal referrals and sustained readership over time, even for older posts.
They express that the quality and relevance of content, as well as the choice of topics, are crucial factors in the success of posts on Medium.
The author is uncertain about the future of their income on Medium, acknowledging the need for adaptation and learning from past experiences to improve performance.
They encourage other writers to share their experiences with the recent changes, fostering a sense of community and shared learning among Medium content creators.

The Roller Coaster of Being A Writer On Medium

Buckle up and hang on tight…

When you’re writing on Medium, you never know everything is going to shake out. I have to admit that the past few months have a bit of a roller coaster for me on Medium.

Here’s A Quick Look At Last Fall

I made $445.54. During this time I wrote 28 posts. Yeah, that breaks down to about 15.91 per post. Pretty good! I really thought I could hit $500 in November.

Now Here’s A Summary of November

But November did not go as planned. I wrote 14 more posts and still made $85 less than in October. In all, I wrote 42 posts and made $370.75.

Yeah, that’s a whole lot more writing for quite a bit less money.

That breaks down to about $8.83 per post. A whopping 37% less per post. Eeek. Not fun at all.

The part that is a bit shocking is that my reads were close when comparing October to November. I had 6,793 reads in October and 6,345 reads in November.

Shoot, that’s only 448 views a part. Like one decent day of traffic. (Ouch, that really hurts to type out.)

What could explain the extreme difference in revenue? Medium completely changed how we are paid for posts.

What The Medium Partner Program Changes Mean For Writers

Wow, you open up your email and find out… everything has changed. At least that’s what I first thought when I heard…

medium.com

It appeared that income would remain pretty consistent a few days in, and then my views dropped quite a bit for a portion of the month during the month of November.

Normally, I’d point to the difference in number of fans. 1,453 in October vs. 1,163 in November, but Medium said that claps do not affect earnings at all anymore. They only matter as far as exposure goes. The amount of exposure was only 448 views different, which is pretty much the same.

So why the huge difference in income? I think that some of the posts flat out did not land well with others. I believe it is all about where you are posting and how often you are posting. It is better to post once every single day than to double up on the weekends, honestly. It’s hard to promote multiple posts anyways.

The Stat Drop

Any time my stats dropped, I wasn’t creating much new content. For example on November 8–10th, I only had one new post during that entire time and that was a technology post, not something I normally write about. That experiment didn’t help me out. Having a new post in one of your popular topics gives you a traffic surge, while having nothing new causes your views to drop.

A Bright Spot During November

Thankfully, not all of November was a bust. I had some success with one post in particular. Let’s look a little closer at this post. You can read the post right here:

Want To Be A Professional Writer? Here Are The 10 Things No One Ever Tells You.

So you want to be a full-time writer? That’s great. But there are a few things you need to know about…

medium.com

Here are the stats for this post.

This specific post was curated in one category: writing.

Since it was curated in writing, it is no surprise that writing was one of the major interests of those who read the post.

Internal referrals drove this post quite high, even though the post was originally published in early October. This fact makes me think that curation actually means more than ever at this point — especially since it is so rare.

Less curated posts = more promotion of a few posts vs. a lot of posts.

Maybe curation matters a heck of a lot more now.

The Takeaway

It appears that Medium’s changes mean I am going to make less money each month. Will the income levels rise, and the problem resolve itself? It’s too early to tell. The key questions for me include:

How often should I post?
Where should I post?
What topics should I write about?

It’s time to put our thinking hats on as no duplicate posts (more on this here) whatsoever are allowed on Medium. I’m going to learn as much as possible from last month so I can grow and do better this month.

How did you do during the month of November? Did your earnings increase or decrease? Did you write more or less content during the month?

Want to strengthen your writing habit? Join my free 5-Day Write First Challenge here.

Jim Woods is a bestselling author, freelance writer, and writing coach. His work has been featured in Fast Company, Life Hacker, Goinswriter, The Write Practice, and many other publications.