Why Earnings are Down

Death by mutual engagement

Medium writers who rely on a steady stream of mutual reading buddies might be in for a shock in the coming months. A few days ago, Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine explained that there’s been a recent change to the algorithm, which may explain why some people’s earnings fell ‘off a cliff’ at the end of September.

In response to a query about the falls in earnings in recent days, Tony said:

“The only change I know of is rate limiting. There’s been an unfortunate belief that the way to make money is to give and encourage engagement. This does go directly against the goal of quality when it is done in an inauthentic way.

“So our take is that the higher the volume, the less authentic the behavior. Or less antagonistically, if you comment on hundreds of stories then a comment from you is less of a signal that any of those stories were the cream of the crop.

“Someone with more tact than me will probably announce something soon. But essentially, manufactured engagement is a form of growth hacking. I wish that were more obvious to the people doing it.”

So while writers who comment on 10 to 20 stories everyday are probably still considered to be selective readers, those who max out their 100 limit in the comments section everyday may be considered ‘growth hackers’. Their reads will now earn less for the writers they read.

While at one time their reads may have signalled quality content, now they do not. So the change may also mean that your story doesn’t get as much traction or circulation as it once did.

This adjustment to the algorithm is to encourage people to write quality stories, rather than churn out variable content, knowing their dedicated band of read-for-reads will show support, regardless.

It brings us back to the situation where writers earn less from people who read more widely. Previously, this was the case because the individual’s membership fee was split between more writers if they read a lot of stories. I thought that policy was scrapped along with read-time calculations, but rightly or wrongly, this new policy will have a similar effect on writers’ earnings.

It will mean writers earn more if they attract selective readers.

What’s the solution for writers? Write good quality stories that have wide appeal, so everyone wants to read them! Not so easy, I know. But you can focus on creating great headlines, so readers flock to your stories due to a sense of curiosity. Then deliver on the headline, so they stay and read.

Of course, writing stories with wide appeal is easier said than done. Some of my best, most high-quality pieces have been my lowest earners. So we all have a learning curve to figure out what readers most enjoy. But paying attention to creating good headlines probably helps.

Some editors who comment on their contributors’ stories feel disappointed by this and I understand their dismay, but apparently, it’s all designed to ensure the cream of the stories rise to the top. Whether it works as it’s intended remains to be seen. Personally, I preferred whatever happened in August when we all got a pay rise!

You might find Tim Denning’s tips on writing headlines helpful — written by me…