Warning: This New Feature Attacks Medium’s Earnings Model
it distracts your readers and reduces the $$$ ‘reading time’
Yesterday, I was in the middle of reading an interesting story about virality since I wanted to write about my first viral post.
It was already late in the evening and all I wanted was to read a story from a fellow writer.
No chance!
As I was scrolling down suddenly on the right side corner a so-called ‘Related’ box popped up. I’d rather call it a banner as you can see below.
It takes the reader’s attention away from reading
Unfortunately, I couldn’t just click on it and it disappeared. It was stuck on the right side of the article.
Although I really tried to stay focused and concentrated on the story, I was thinking about the images. The smiling boy, the pink sponge, and the dollars on the right side.
The ‘Related’ banner was definitely distracting the reading flow.
‘To distract’ means ‘to take someone’s attention away from what that person is doing or should be doing.’
Reading time is the key factor in regard to earnings
In the past, Medium used to pay for an article’s views. Now it pays for the ‘reading time’.
You get rewarded for holding the attention of your audience. If your readers just skim your post, you’re not getting paid (except your views are very high).
In my opinion, this new feature attacks Medium’s earnings model.
It doesn’t really help.
It only distracts.