Why Did Medium Give a $500 Bonus?
$500,000 was granted to 1,000 Medium writers for April
Surprise! The Facebook groups about Medium are abounding with posts about the lucky people who received a huge $500 USD bonus for engagement across the month of April 2021. Medium says that it was a once-off (surprise) bonus to reward writers with “highly engaging” content on Medium.
READ THE UPDATE:
https://readmedium.com/why-medium-gave-me-a-50-bonus-1b8a5706d093
Bear in mind that the email newsletter for those in the Member Partner Program used to give statistics for how many people fell into which bracket of earnings, as shown below, for February 2020. Could not Medium have given $250 to 2,000 people? While the chosen 1,000 are celebrating this wind-fall, are they sparing a thought for the tens of thousands who missed out?
I didn’t receive the bonus and I think this is likely (speaking for myself) because I have never earned over $100 USD per month. The earnings reflect the Member Reading Time (MRT) and the number of reads of my April stories was around 80. I haven’t calculated the total member reading time for my stories in April but can report that I earned $60 USD in April.
Some who got less than $100 for April 2021 received the bonus, but their stories may have been read by a lot of non-paying members, boosting their total “engagement” for April 2021 (whether they ever received $100 USD for a month or not).
If your stories have mass appeal for readers who want to read about newsworthy drama, or who are interested in tips, poetry, stories and experiences related to mainstream living, or who want to make money or try out things to build better relationships, and you can publish stories on Medium every day (or have built up your Followers by high volume publishing at some stage), then your stories likely will receive a lot of engagement.
The snapshot below which someone posted in a Facebook group clearly tells why the bonus was given. Your stories in April got a lot more reads, claps, and follows (assuming this means overall number of Followers as followers don’t relate to specific stories) than most of the other active writers on Medium.
$500 x 1,000 = $500,000 if my maths is right.
If you didn’t receive it, please don’t be jealous of others because this is Medium’s call. This may provide incentives to others to step up their amount of stories on Medium which have mass-appeal.
I think that it will encourage the high earners to continue writing on Medium, in high volume, if possible (while boosting Medium’s share taken from the paying members’ revenue).
On a high note, my opinion and observation, having written and read on Medium since November 2018, is that the majority of stories published on Medium are of great quality.
Some high earners say that they write quality stories which earns them a lot, but they confuse content that people want to read with quality. Many quality stories are not what many want to read. The content that earns money has a wide appeal to big sectors of people across the globe.
I stand by my case that more engagement happens with greater promotion of one’s articles, and with articles that give “value” to the mainstream audience, in terms of giving usable tips or advice about mainstream goals, or providing widespread entertainment value.
My most read articles on Medium are about working with Medium. I have come across those jealous of writers like me, who earn from writing about Medium, but this does not worry me. I know who I am.
We are all great writers with a lot to offer. And I LOVE writing technical things and supporting others with this information. Plus I have my niches and can write poetry, short stories, novels, and mainstream articles too.
Although I try to promote my work and I have more than 1,000 followers currently on Medium, I feel that my Followers are itinerant (or that people Follow others just to bookmark the person, in case they have time later to look at the person’s stories or profile again), and I have very few acquaintances and friends, and that is okay. Not everyone is a Bon Jovi or a George Clooney.
My game plan is to keep writing and publishing on Medium as much as I humanly can, and aim for curation (yes, curation does help a small-fry like me). Medium is full of surprises, and for that reason, I am not too attached to Medium. The small-fry can try out other paying writing platforms too, and I am doing just that also.
I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed that Medium will help the “small-fry” to be “more relational” by showing the stories of writers, with a good number of followers, to a lot of people. ( Hey, Medium, are the stories of a writer with 1,399 followers, worth promoting? )
Your number of Followers builds up organically (naturally) over time as long as you consistently publish on Medium. I have always aimed to have 3 stories a week published on Medium, though this has fallen by the wayside recently, as I look out for “other pastures” and due to other commitments.
Writing is a fantastic way for all word-smiths on Medium (whether in the hallowed hall of fame of earning $100 or more per month or not) to express themselves and to share their experiences, thoughts, and knowledge.
Reading and helping others on Medium is the real bonus for me.