Blogging on Medium

The Good, The Bad and The Other

First, the Good. There are great writers on Medium.

Medium is an excellent way to keep your creative juices flowing. There are an unlimited number of stories to read and many fine writers. It is a cornucopia of short reading material in a wide variety of subjects.

There are some wonderful writers on this platform, and some that are not. So, like searching for that perfect shell lying on the beach, you have to look.  You have to sift through a lot of other “shells” until you find that special one.

The more you read, the more opportunity you will have to find writers that “speak to you”, writers that move you and writers that entertain you. Once you find them, you can subscribe to receive their writings and continue to follow them.

You can be one of the writers on Medium.

Keep your writing muscles in shape by writing and publishing on the platform as well. Wherever you are, on your writing journey, there is a place for you at Medium. Reading and writing all in one place.

Reading is important to your writing. It introduces you to other styles and writing concepts. The mostly short format in Medium, gives you a chance to hone your skills. It also allows you to experiment with your style or subject matter. The bottom line is, the more you write, the better you will get.

If you like to read and you like to write, you can do them both at Medium.

The Bad.

Medium is a subscription service. You pay $50 / yr., and you can read and write to your heart’s content. Everyone else pays $50 / yr. as well. Millions of people subscribe to Medium. That is a lot of 50 dollars.

Medium takes that money and awards portions of it to writers each month. Awards are based on reader engagement determined by “claps” (likes), as well as some algorithm, I am sure. Some people make good money, others not so much. There are many other factors affecting your monetary success on the platform.

I have talked to writers that speak of the “glory days” on Medium when they made “good money”. More recently though, changes at Medium seem to have diluted those earnings. While people still earn money for their writing, there seems to be a growing voice of discontent with the earnings ratio or algorithm.

While I say it is a great place to read and write, if your sole purpose for being on the site is to earn money, you might do better elsewhere.

The Other.

Many writers typically earned little on Medium but enjoyed reading and writing. Overall, though, they made their subscription price back and then some. So, it paid for itself. That might not be the case anymore. I have heard from writers that say the payouts are now considerably less for the same type of article.

Medium previously only offered payouts to writers within the U.S. That recently changed as it was opened up to other countries. Can this be a reason for what seems to be a payout anomaly? Is it just the algorithm? Are they financially stable? Is this profit driven? Who knows? I am sure that it isn’t me.

It seems that a growing discontent with Medium services is fueling an uptick in writers moving to Substack and other publications.  I will save the pros and cons of Substack for another article, but it is disheartening to see the changes taking place at Medium.

I still think it is a great place for reading and writing. But maybe it is not the place it once was, if you are looking to monetize your writing.

What do you think?