Before I start this article, I want to clarify that I’m not trying to complain about or insult Medium. Medium is an awesome platform, and it’s given the power of self-expression to millions of people around the world. That being said, I don’t think that the medium partner program is ideal for a lot of creators who would like to share their expertise and thoughts online. Let me explain why because it’s pretty simple and can be broken down into two simple reasons.
- There isn’t enough money on medium to feed all the writers.
Doing a quick Google search, there were last reported to be about 150 thousand writers on this platform. This means that for all of them to make an average of $2,000 per month, Medium would need to be paying out 300 million per month after expenses. This is not going to happen any time soon, as the subscriber base was only 700,000 people in 2021. Even if this number increased, I struggle to see how Medium could be bringing in more than $7 million per month in revenue. This works out to less than $50 per author per month. This means a strong Medium author is still not earning a living wage as of yet (although it is getting close).
2. Putting your articles behind a paywall limits your exposure
We living in an attention economy. If you can bring value to lots of people, they should be able to pay you. Even if it means crowdfunding your next project. I’ve barely spent time on this blog, and I already have a small audience. Soon, there’ll probably be a bunch of people viewing and commenting on my work. Even if they aren’t, being able to pick my brain creates trust. The more people trust me, the more money I can make.
Make money selling products or services.
Writing blogs is fun, but unless you’re selling books or news you aren’t actually selling your writing. Perhaps you sell your expertise in the form of a book, but that’s about it. This means that you’ll need to combine writing with whatever knowledge or skills you have. For me, this is health science. I’m currently a student, and I’ll have some courses and coaching services ready once I’m qualified. I’m looking to eventually enter the world of bioinformatics, so that will perhaps also lead me to a true product in the distant future. I have a lot of articles out, but they’re all vaguely on the topic of “life coaching” because I know that the content will serve me well in the future. I could be wrong, but I think this is a better use of Medium for many, rather than trying to make it big from the Partner Program.
