Why Publish on Medium?

Completing the platform’s research survey inspired me to ask myself that question

Like many Medium writers, I recently received an email requesting that I complete a Medium Curators Team survey in support of the platform’s ongoing creator research study.

The study is intended to help Medium evaluate their writers’ experiences on the platform and elsewhere. Survey organizers say they’ll use the data gathered to improve our writer experience. Here’s an excerpt from the email:

“Thinking about our goals for the year ahead, a big one for us is continuing to make Medium a better place for writers like you. And that starts with listening to your story and understanding your needs.

As part of that effort, we wanted to invite you to consider joining an online research study we’re running, where we’ll be looking to learn about things like your approach towards writing, your hopes for the future, and your experiences sharing writing on Medium and elsewhere.”

On the same day, I received a note from Medium’s largest publication, The Startup, announcing their rebranding to “Start it up” and requesting that I consider submitting to the publication again. Here’s an excerpt from the email:

This is Olivia, Growth Editor at Medium’s The Startup publication.

I noticed your past submission below and wanted to reach out to see if you would be interested in publishing your future drafts with us?

We are making some significant changes to our publishing strategy. With the new direction, we’ll be working with a few quality writers on a long-term basis. We’ll also be focusing on publishing stories that target individual creators & entrepreneurs, not just startups.

I have to believe that receiving these two emails on the same day isn’t a coincidence. Those pulling Medium’s strings and those operating its largest publications must understand that there’s a lot of angst among creators on the site. Maybe they’re doing their part to address that angst.

I also suspect there may be a post-Covid hangover among both readers and writers that could be affecting submissions, views, and reading time. We’re all burned out. It makes sense that Medium and its publications would take a moment to look inward and make some course corrections.

Receiving the emails triggered in me a desire to start publishing again. After producing a handful of stories each week last fall, I all but stopped submitting stories for publication earlier this year.

But it also forced me to ask some questions: why would I do that? What is it about publishing on Medium that makes it a worthwhile endeavor for me? What do I hope to get out of it?

Since I don’t rely on Medium for an income, I don’t share the angst many writers experienced when the platform’s algorithm tweaks reduced their views, reads, and incomes.

But since I began publishing on Medium, I too have been underwhelmed by the lack of traction my stories enjoy. This was a factor in my decision to reduce my output. I wasn’t generating significant views or income from my efforts, so other activities simply took precedence.

Another reason was that I burned out on what had become my primary topic. Last fall, as the 2020 elections loomed, I felt an obligation to do my part to help protect our democracy against what I perceived was a dire threat of authoritarianism. I wrote numerous stories predicting and warning against the “election fraud” ruse Trump and others on the Right would employ after the election returns came in. My efforts earned me Top Writer status in the Politics category, and my stories appeared in several coveted publications.

But they didn’t earn much money.

Once the insurrection was over, I couldn’t read political news, let alone write another political story. I was just done.

But I had earned some followers, and I had opened doors with numerous publications. I began to believe I could build on my modest success to create a modest income stream. Buying into the often-repeated trope that “content is king,” I made lists of topics I could write about. Then I showed up each morning and fed the beast.

Some days, it was easy. Other days, I wrote about subjects that barely interested me. When this grew old, I stopped.

Then the Medium survey arrived in my inbox, and I realized how much distance I felt from the platform after only a few months away. And I realized I missed it.

The Survey

Out of curiosity, I completed Medium’s survey. It was more than I bargained for. Included was an exhaustive catalogue of questions about my experiences on Medium and other platforms, including Blogger, Wordpress, MailChimp, Ghost, and others. How often do I publish on each? What is the appeal, if any, to each of these sites? Which platform do I trust the most? The least?

There were plenty of questions specific to my Medium experience. What factors are the most important to me about publishing on Medium? What are the least? Is ease of use a consideration? Customizable layouts? How important is our community of writers? Would I rather have a small group of loyal followers and make a dependable income? Or an enormous following that commands an enviable reach but that doesn’t generate much revenue? Why?

I was queried about my motives for publishing stories. Did I publish to influence readers? Grow my audience? Share information? Offer my point of view? Earn money? Which is most important?

I was also asked how much of my income is derived from writing and how important that is to me. What portion of my income would I like to earn from my writing? And so on.

I didn’t complete the survey for the $5 Amazon gift card I was promised. I completed it in the hopes that Medium’s operators will use my answers to make improvements to the site, for the benefit of all of us.

An unexpected benefit of answering the survey’s questions was that it required me to actually consider them. Doing so forced me to examine my motives for publishing on the site — something I had never really done.

And it occurred to me that if I were to return to publishing on Medium, I should be intentional about it. If I can’t articulate why I would publish — if I can’t pinpoint what success would look like—then maybe I shouldn’t be publishing on the platform in the first place. And if success remains elusive, maybe I should find another way to spend my time. Life is short.

This led me to really consider why, earlier in the year, I stepped away from regular publication. It occurred to me that my lack of intentionality was the biggest reason. I had begun to publish out of habit, out of some weird, self-imposed obligation. The habit itself, and perpetuating it, had become the primary driver for pushing on.

Getting in the habit

A while back, after reading that walking 10,000 steps per day was a key to staying healthy and active, I decided to give it a try. I then proceeded to walk 10,000 steps per day for three consecutive years.

Throughout this period, my walks morphed from a pleasant stroll on a sunny day to a strict daily requirement. I began to meticulously measure my daily and weekly progress. I held myself to task. I beat myself up when I missed a day, and I made up for lost steps with extra mileage on subsequent days.

The result: I took nearly 11 million steps in 36 months, totaling almost 19,000 miles. I practically walked the circumference of the globe. But that’s it. I had little to show for my efforts except a pair of sore feet.

Similarly, in February, I realized that my writing had lost purpose and had taken on a life of its own. I had begun fretting over total views and reading time, referral sources and algorithms. These factors had become more important than the content I was generating.

I abandoned topics that interested me and tried to “crack the code” to popularity and riches. I found myself writing not because I was passionate about something, but out of some misplaced obligation to produce content. I wrote about things that were of little importance to me: How to motivate employees with praise. Self improvement tips. How to earn money on Medium. This quickly grew old.

Medium doesn’t need another self improvement story or a piece explaining how someone generated 5,000 followers in a week or saw her first post go viral. It needs stories written from positions of passion, expertise, and authority. It needs insights and vulnerability and truth. It needs good writing, and it needs readers in search of good writing.

In short, Medium needs fewer mediocre pieces written by writers motivated simply by a self-imposed obligation to generate content. And Medium should reward good writing if the platform desires good content.

As things stand, Medium fills our feeds with lightweight stories, which makes those stories popular and lucrative, which increases the incentive for writers to copy them.

If I publish a solid story that gets thousands of reads generated from organic web searches and shares to my social media accounts, and few from internal algorithms that prioritize what we see, I will feel cheated. If I bring thousands of new readers to Medium, shouldn’t I at least get a finder’s fee? If not, I am likely to publish less.

Many articles tout the need to churn out content as the key to generating followers and to gaining traction. But churning out content for the sake of content isn’t what we should strive for. I’ve done that professionally, as a magazine and newspaper writer, and I got paid for it. It’s called a job.

I have published stories on Medium that were pretty good. Some were published in sought-after publications and included in “best of” lists. Some required interviews, fact checks, and edits, taking as many as 10 hours from start to finish. With only a few hundred views, those stories might earn $5–10, or around 50 cents per hour.

I would never accept a job that pays 50 cents per hour. As a graduate student, I earned $15/hour tending bar. It was much easier, and the tips were tax-free.

When I was a writer and editor for a Gannett daily newspaper, I was paid good money to write every day, whether I wanted to or not, about topics which may or may not have interested me. The pay was dependable and my compensation included health insurance and company contributions to my retirement plan.

I suspect that some publish on Medium to avoid getting a job. I would ask whether there’s as much of a difference as we might think. Sure, there’s the freedom to write and publish whatever we want. But that, too, can come at a cost. I suspect my politically-minded Medium posts have sabotaged my candidacy for at least a few jobs I sought.

So at this point, I have to ask myself: if I have to write every day about subjects that have minimal appeal to me, in order to gather enough followers and views and reads to get paid, and I have no assurance that the money will keep coming, and there’s no security and no benefit plan, well…why do it?

Medium isn’t a job. It’s more of a crap shoot. My most popular stories haven’t been predictable successes. My most viewed stories have come from outside readers inspired by my social media posts.

In light of all of this, I’ve made some decisions about my future on Medium. From this point forward:

I will publish on Medium to:

• Share worthwhile information, insights and expertise
• Develop my craft
• Amuse myself
• Persuade readers to adopt my point of view
• Explore personal issues: vulnerability, humility, compassion, shame, fear
• Write things no one would pay me to write

What I won’t publish on Medium:

• Stories written specifically to titillate
• Filler stories
• “Listicles”
• Click bait
• Stories written out of habit or obligation
• Stories about topics for which I have little passion, interest, or expertise
• Stories intended to “crack the code” for success and riches

Setting boundaries and living by them

I still exercise almost every day, but I rarely track how far I walk. Analyzing my performance was obsessive. Walking had taken on a life of its own. I’d lost sight of my original purpose, which was to get outside and stay healthy.

Likewise, I will continue to publish stories on Medium when I have something to say. I also look forward to submitting stories to Start it up, when a story I’m excited about fits their new submission requirements.

If I am able to generate income from my stories, I will be more likely to produce more content. If my efforts are slim on rewards, I am likely to produce less.

But I am finished publishing content for content’s sake. Medium would be a better place if others joined me.