These Are Unique Times in the Creator Economy — How Lucky Are We to be Involved?
Medium has undergone big changes and we have the opportunity to embrace them
Did you have the opportunity to join the live webinar held by Medium staff last week?
As a relative newbie still on Medium (I am now reaching the end of my second month), I felt truly inspired by the presentation that they delivered. Despite thinking that it would be more of a workshop on writing, and initially feeling a little impatient as a result, I soon realised just how valuable it was to hear all that they were sharing.
I have read all sorts of speculative comments and stories, by other writers, on the changes that have been rolling out, but nothing beats hearing it straight from the horse’s mouth.
Giving more opportunity to new writers
The introduction of the affiliate side of The Medium Partner Program has provided an opportunity to earn chunkier amounts more quickly for those who joined recently while expanding the overall readership on Medium. In addition to that, writers can still earn from the time that paying members spend reading their work, which is not a new feature.
The Medium representatives on the webinar also explained how they are pushing more self-published work to the forefront of the feed, and featuring new writers among the stories chosen for further distribution. Again, I have noticed some very new writers getting work repeatedly chosen for further distribution. Kirsty Kendall is one who has done extremely well, as you can read about in this story.
This is truly encouraging for all of us newbies.
The downside…
I realise that seasoned writers here on Medium have felt very put out recently because their views are down and, it seems, some of the subscriptions are going to creators as affiliate commissions, leaving less to be paid out for reads. Which, ultimately, reduces the income of the high earners right now.
I understand their frustration. Having been in the Facebook Business space for some years, when Facebook announced that it was no longer going to give much organic reach to business pages, it really annoyed me. I had been building a page and an audience for some time, got the number of followers up to nearly 6,000, and suddenly I was going to have to pay to get them to see my posts.
What do you do when these changes happen that are out of your control? Pivot. Spread your wings into other places. Nurture the growth techniques that are working.
When it comes to Medium, despite the annoyance of the seasoned writers, they did still have the interests of the creators at heart, and so I feel that this was a valuable change created by Medium, in order to reward new writers a little more generously.
They are experiencing the harsh lessons of the creator economy.
One of the cruellest lessons some creators have experienced across all creator platforms is that the income from these platforms can never be relied on.
You couldn’t walk into a bank and expect to secure a mortgage based on the number of YouTube video views, or the product sales you are making through your Facebook group. The platforms are volatile places to be making money and they are the last place a bank would consider viable income to guarantee a loan.
You see, just as we saw a couple of weeks ago with The Great Facebook Shut-Down, these platforms can disappear, freeze your account without warning, or simply change their reward policies.
Medium is simply going through the changes that it has deemed necessary for the current level of growth, and to give lesser-known writers a fair chance. Just as we saw from the results of the Medium Writers Challenge when a writer who was brand new to Medium, with only 7 followers, won the grand prize.
There is one vital thing to remember as a creator in the creator economy
When people become followers, fans or buyers, don’t just assume they will keep making you richer and richer through your social media channels, vlogs, and blogs. Capture them and take them elsewhere.
Find a way to get them to give you their email address — in return for a free guide to whatever your expertise is in, or in return for a free mini-course or eBook. Take them off of the platforms where you have no real control over the changes to the algorithm, the rules, or the hackers, and take them to a place where you can nurture them with greater direct access.
There are all sorts of free and paid ways to build a subscriber or email list. Substack, MailChimp, and MailerLite all have free accounts that you can open. Once there, you can keep emailing them even when everything else goes down or Facebook decides that your account is suspicious.
Yes, this recently happened to a million-dollar-per-year public figure that I know. Did she care? Not a bit. She had her email list and her LinkedIn profiles to keep building on.
Takeaway
We have an amazing opportunity to tap into the different platforms and their desires to reward creators in this day and age. These are special times and we are very fortunate to have such opportunities.
But, don’t assume that your income will be guaranteed from one day to the next without you taking some wise action to move your fans and followers to a place that won’t just change the rules without warning, or run into technical glitches that put your entire business on hold.
Take a leap, throw your heart into creating, enjoy the journey, and embrace the lessons that you learn on the way. How does it get any better than this?
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