My First Year as a Medium Member

Next week marks my first year as a Medium member, so I would like to share my experiences and observations of the past year - including the many changes that have been made by Medium.

These changes included:

Extending the Partner Program to 12 more countries.
Three Free Reads a Month stopped.
Changing the payout calculation.
Removal of the referral bonus.
Changing the Partner Program joining requirements.
Introduction of "Friend of Medium".

Extending the Partner Program to 12 more countries

In my opinion, this is the best of the changes. I'm very pleased that this will allow more people to earn from their writing. This has been the most requested change since the Partner Program launched.

Three Free Reads

For new writers, recognition may be more important than earnings. This is why I was very disappointed when Medium removed the three free reads per month from their model. Being able to sample authors' stories was one of the factors which contributed to my becoming a Medium member.

Payout Calculation Changes

Some Members have told Medium they want to read - and some authors want to write - deep, nuanced, human stories. The new payout calculation will be more biased toward this kind of story. Unfortunately, I don't write this type of story, so my earnings will be even less.

Many members subscribe because they are interested in AI, cryptocurrency, science, learning, and the environment. Biasing payments against these topics could mean fewer will be written and more readers cancelling their subscriptions.

Medium has kept member read/listening time in the earnings calculation (the primary signal used in the Partner Program). They also started including more engagement signals: claps, highlights, replies and follows. For the purposes of earnings, only the first series of claps, highlights, replies and follows are counted. Subsequent engagements by the same person don't increase earnings. The goal is to get closer to identifying story quality by looking beyond its ability to grab attention. Sparking a discussion or inspiring highlights and claps are signs that it resonated with the reader more deeply. In the other direction, bouncing from a story before reading it for 30 seconds will prevent earnings from accruing from that member.

Referral Bonus

Although Medium says that the Referral Bonus hasn't been a great success, removing it removes yet another earning opportunity. This increases the chances of making a loss.

If you are missing this earning opportunity, you may want to become a Learning Pages Member and get a referral link with similar rewards.

Partner Program Requirements

Medium's original criteria for joining the Partner program were to:

have 100 followers,
have published at least one story on Medium previously (stories must follow Medium rules and guidelines),
be within the geographical enrolment-eligible locations described in the Partner Program guide and
be at least 18 years old.

The changes mean writers no longer need to meet the arbitrary target of 100 followers. Instead, Medium membership will be a prerequisite for joining. This change took effect from 1 August 2023 for writers who have not yet joined the Partner Program. Authors already in the Partner Program will not be required to become members, but this will probably change.

The revised criteria are:

Be a Medium member.
Have published at least one story on Medium previously (stories must follow Medium rules and guidelines).
Be located in an eligible country as listed in the Partner Program guide.
Be at least 18 years old.

Friend of Medium

The "Friend of Medium" membership level was announced on 28 November 2023:

Writers earn four times the earnings when a "Friend of Medium" reads their stories!
Friend-level members can share other writers' member-only stories with anyone to drive more earnings for that writer.
The "Friend of Medium" level costs three times the cost of an ordinary membership!

At first, I thought that there was no way the extra cost would be worth it, but then I read:

Both of these posts reported significant increases in earnings after upgrading to the "Friend of Medium Level" — something I hadn't expected!

This could be because:

of an initial surge of enthusiasm due to the novelty of the idea and the expectation of 4-times earnings;
"Friends of Medium" are reading each others' stories to benefit this new community;
more members are reading "Friends of Medium" stories, hoping their stories will be read in return, bringing them greater earnings.

So, I decided to do some more research. As I had only two and a half months of my annual membership to run, I discovered that the upgrade fee would be "prorated" to $27.87.

This seemed a good time to give the "Friend of Medium" scheme a trial run. I would still be able to downgrade or cancel when my subscription expires. So, I joined on 2 December 2023.

Some writers say they became a Friend of Medium to support other writers. This is very laudable, but the problem with this method is that it is difficult to control which writers get how much. A much better way of rewarding is to use "tipping", as most writers have enabled this feature.

Introducing "Friend of Medium" has changed Medium's atmosphere and tipped the balance, making Medium more like a social media platform. During the initial surge, I felt that I was spending more time responding than writing.

Since being a Friend of Medium, I have also had:

More interactions without reads,
More single claps,
More one or two-word comments,
More AI-generated comments,
My mailbox twice flooded with 20–30 emails within a day of subscribing to receive notifications of an author's new stories,
An increase in my user name being mentioned — along with dozens of other writers — in the same story.
An increase in my stories being added to lists.

There seems to be more emphasis on clapping, highlighting, commenting and scrolling for 30 seconds rather than writing and reading.

I have also noticed that more trusted and respected writers are having their accounts suspended.

In December, my earnings soared; January saw my earnings decline, and this downward trend continued in February, taking my earnings below the $12.50 break-even monthly threshold:

FoM Earnings.png

Upcoming Decisions

I have two decisions to make:

Whether to cancel the "Friend of Medium" subscription or
Should I cancel the "Friend of Medium" and Medium subscriptions?

I will publish my decisions on Tuesday, 12 March.