Writing / Money — Can You Have Them Both?
You Think You’re Selling Stories, But Medium is Selling You
Have you noticed the fundamental conflict of interest between Medium and its authors?
Medium’s collective success means less success for individual authors. That’s because there is a conflict between what makes Medium successful and how authors get compensated. It’s easy to explain, which I do below.
Why should you care? The dynamic is important for Medium authors to understand because how you feel about it will determine whether you stay and thrive on Medium.
1. The origin and purpose of Medium 2. The money side of Medium 3. The conflict between Medium and its writers 4. Are you on Medium for the money or something else? 5. Focus on your long-term satisfaction
1. The origin and purpose of Medium
While Medium has evolved since its founding by Ev Williams, one thing has stayed constant. Medium wants to attract the greatest collection of original content they can.
As Mr. Williams said in 2018:
I believe bundles are a large part of the future of content monetization…. Medium is one of the largest bundles of original content of its type, so it’s a great value for readers.
Medium attracts original content by making it simple for authors to publish and immediately reach a potentially large audience.
That simplicity and reach are attractive for writers. Medium has hundreds of thousands of writers, publishing many thousands of stories each week. Mr. Williams again:
The best of these stories contain knowledge and insight that can’t be found anywhere else. We take pride that we offer a level playing field for diverse voices from everywhere to be heard. By curating and organizing these stories, we have the equivalent of a publication with more talent than any other — and it’s growing all the time.
Our new CEO Tony Stubblebine says the mission of sharing great content remains the same:
By doubling down, we strengthen Medium as a place for constructive conversation. Ideas and information emerge, are debated and sharpened thoughtfully, then reach readers in ways that improve their lives.
2. The money side of Medium
It’s not all high-minded ideals, because someone has to pay to keep the servers up and the lights on.
Even with more than 67 million readers, Medium is not an obvious financial success: a month after his first post as new CEO, Mr. Stubblebine posted again to announce a major layoff of Medium staff.
Here’s what Mr. Williams said about the money side of Medium:
As it relates to the business model, a subset of the stories on Medium are behind our paywall and contribute to our Membership. Our Partner Program is designed for writers and publishers who wish to get paid for their work.
Because Medium does not sell advertising, Medium’s revenue comes predominantly from member subscriptions — the $5/month or $50/year model you know so well.
Medium holds out the promise of paying writers through its Medium Partner Program.
The program mechanics are simple and reveal Medium’s incentives. A writer gets paid for just two things: reading time and new member subscriptions.
You earn in proportion to the time readers spend time reading and you earn if you attract new subscribers:
3. The conflict between Medium and its writers
Simply stated, it is this:
- Medium wants to attract as many writers as possible who produce as many stories as possible because this makes Medium more attractive to readers. Plus, new writers may attract new readers who turn into subscribers. It is subscribers who monetize Medium.
- The more writers who come to Medium and produce more stories, the less money is available for each writer.
Now some of you will be thinking, “Yes, but the key to success is having a good story that people want to read. It doesn’t matter how many writers add stories.” To which I say your competition matters.
People who already have a large readership will indeed benefit from more people joining the platform. That’s because Medium’s algorithm will recommend their stories to new readers. What previous readers have read new readers are more likely to read.
As a result, popular authors get more popular, while new authors struggle to be heard above the competition.
For new writers referred memberships would appear to be a better way to earn money than reading time. If a reader becomes a member with your referral link, you get half of their subscription amount for as long as they stay a member.
Thus, rather than spending time building followers on Medium itself, you might more profitably spend time getting non-members to subscribe to Medium via your referral link.
4. Are you on Medium for the money or something else?
Medium is diabolically clever in its appeal to writers. It has to be to keep its business model going.
- Medium highlights expanding your reach with minimal effort to get you to join the platform and simply start writing.
- Medium keeps you engaged by dangling the idea of earning money for the writing you are anyway doing. All you need to do is join the Medium Partner Program.
- Joining the MPP requires you to get 100 followers. This unleashes a blizzard of reading, following, commenting, and yes, writing.
- Along the way, you are tempted by people talking about how they are making hundreds and thousands each month with their writing.
If you are here for the money, you may make some. But unless you are in a tiny minority, the money you make will require an enormous investment of your time. You can be in the top few percent of writers and earn a few hundred dollars per month, with more than a full-time commitment.
5. Focus on your long-term satisfaction
For your long-term satisfaction, it seems sensible to keep in mind the other reasons you were attracted to Medium. These might include:
- You love to read
- You enjoy engaging with a fantastic community of writers
- You want your writing to reach a wider audience
- You want to share ideas and learn new things
In each case, I say you’re in the right place. Medium excels in all these areas.
Money is secondary.
Be well.
About James Bellerjeau. More of my articles. Let’s connect on LinkedIn!
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PS — Are you fascinated by the psychology and economics of writing on Medium? I sure am, judging by how much I write about it. See this fine collection of articles about writing. Here are three articles readers found the most useful:
