If I could insert an applause GIF here I would 🤣 You just wrote what I've been thinking for all of 2023 and beyond!
Here's the thing. I believe Medium CAN be good for smaller writers who have lower expectations because if you get one or two boosts per month it's a decent side gig. I had one boost in March that earned me $450. But their earnings are SOOOOO unreliable that its not worth it. At all. I'm just over there cross posting a couple rando pieces every once in a while. Not at all how I used to be back in the hay days of Medium.
You've brought up so many good points here, I have to tip my hat 😁
Yeah I can definitely see the utility in crossposting stuff and making what you can over on Medium. That's fine with me. But seeing Nick go was like a gutpunch. He was always so supportive of Medium--even when Tony came on 2 years ago. To see him flip sides was really crazy.
Yeah that was shocking to be honest. In my vengeful mind I'm glad he bolted because I hope it teaches Medium a lesson 😁 Everything you wrote here is true and shameful on their part.
Tom, writers like you, Nick, Tim, Michael Thomspon and many more, you were there in the golden days of Medium when you made 6 figures from the partnership program. It built you up, it gave you credibility, it helped you amass huge e-mail lists and get featured in BI, HP and who knows where else.
So you compare your current results with that. And you're disappointed. I get that.
But Medium is still a good place to write. It's a good place to meet interesting people. It's a good place to support building an e-mail list. It's a good place to make a few hundred bucks.
And it's one more place where people could find you.
If you love writing long form content, why the hell not?
Maybe it doesn't make sense for everyone--I also saw that Nick moved his stories to his personal website, and maybe there's an SEO reason or some other reason for that.
But Nick is Nick. He plays at a different level.
For many of us, Medium still works great. It's just not THE platform. It's a platform to use.
In any case, it's always good to write on a few platforms to build a sustainable business. Tim is still there. Ayo is still there. I get 100 subscribers per month from there, and I basically share some of my Substack posts.
I just think no solopreneur should count on one platform or another, and it sounds to me that a lot of people counted on Medium, made it their home, and are now disappointed.
I never thought of it as my home, and I don't think that way about Substack, even though I love it.
Your "home" is the audience that would follow you everywhere, and many of your followers here come from Medium, so I just get this bitter taste when I hear you trashing it as much as you do.
That's just me, of course. Still like what you do and sending you blessings.
I understand Maya. I am happy Medium still provides some value to writers. I'm okay with people using it right now to get more email subscribers and make more money. Here's my thing... I would rather go 100% into the very best platform on the internet and make considerable hay than spread myself out on a bunch of different platforms and make a little bit of money everywhere. I did that in 2018 when I had my blog on Medium, my Wordpress blog, my Youtube channel, and my Facebook Page. I was doing way too many things, and if I had just focused on Medium and only Medium, I probably would've made a lot more money. You mention we shouldn't rely on any one platform. I would agree there for sure. The reason I'm so okay with relying on only Substack is because I can export my list if heaven forbid something happens to this place. I don't have to start over like I did with Medium. For me the story of the internet and social media platforms is that they're born, gather users, have a golden age for 4-5 years, then start to die out. It always seems to happen. But on Substack at least there's an upside to growing your audience here.. you can just export your list and go somewhere else. You can't do that on Medium. One last thing.. I want to make HAY on the internet. I don't want to scrounge around for scraps. I want to go to the place of milk and honey and have a party for a few years. That's what I'm interested in, and that's where the real money is. As far as I'm concerned, every writer who is trying to make this a full time/part time thing should go where the returns are the greatest and try to do as well as humanly possible for the time they have. Thank you for the comment. I thought I'd clarify my thoughts on Medium.
Could not agree with you more Tom! It's a nice idea to spread our wealth on different platforms but in reality we work so hard to make a few dollars rather than focusing on building an empire.
I will say that even with the ability to export our list and posts, it doesn't always work well from a technology standpoint. I've had to copy and paste this stuff several times while moving content and subscribers.
Hi Maya, you nailed it here. I only see the former BIG FISH fretting about it. They are all like "OMG I was making 5-figures and now I am only scrapping a couple of thousand. BUAHHH." That business model was unsustainable for Medium (or any other platform). Medium biggest mistake was bringing in professional writers to scribble some pieces while filling their pockets with gold. Medium is about community. Substack is about how big is your personal emailing list. Two completely different games. That's why I play both!
Rui, the only people on Medium now seem to be the people that haven't already left. The people who are content with earning much less than what they're actually worth. You'll see earnings continue to dry up over time unfortunately as Medium becomes more greedy and more writers who were on the fence about using Medium will continue to leave. Just take a look at the comments here. It's full of writers who left Medium the last few months/years. Sure, you're getting the scraps now I guess but the only people who are content with earning those scraps are likely writers who are either just getting started or are at a certain average level of proficiency. They're not attracting truly great thinkers right now because the truly great thinkers are earning more money elsewhere. As the truly great thinkers leave the platform, the quality of writing will decrease, and more people will cancel their memberships because of it. It's a race to the bottom, unfortunately. Enjoy it while you can.
Hi Tom, I get what you're saying. If I were you, and so many others, maybe I wouldn't be happy with the path Medium is threading. I might even consider running for the hills... I get it! I'm only saying things aren't black or white. I'm doing far better on Medium than on Substack. And when I say far... I mean FARRRR! What some call the "last days" of the "golden age" were rather bleak for a Portuguese writer and publisher who was quite famous in our national indie/alternative/underground music media industry, but a total nobody for the kind of audience you find on Medium. It took me months and 100 stories to get one piece distributed (you can guess why, you know how Medium was back then better than I do). Now I'm running several publications on Medium and I'm helping writers grow every single day. I do it pro bono. Is it wrong from a business perspective? Maybe. Am I waisting my time? Maybe. But when I lay my bed on my pillow at night, I know I'm doing my small part in all of this. It's way easier to navel gaze and go where the money is for those who are loved by the "ghosts in the machine." Everyone else has to rely on the community building side of the game. So, what I'm saying is: Medium no longer works for you and that's fine! Sorry, but you guys had your glory days. These are different times, and I hope that Tony finds a way to steer the ship on a route that puts quality first. That puts the story first and doesn't even care for who wrote it. We should all be anonymous and have no following at all on Medium. We should let the stories speak for themselves. Dixit!
You can't agree with my perspective. Okay, that's fine. But why should you agree with Tom's? What I'm saying here is that what doesn't work for Tom or Nick may work for Mary or Ann. I'm seeing positive changes, while others seem to be fading and are only focusing on the negative. People often can't accept change and adapt. Chaos is not a pit... it's a ladder. Namaste, I appreciate you!
I'm not sure I agree with any one point of view at the moment--it's all unfolding as we speak. There are a lot of strong opinions and a lot of different feelings. I'm just watching.
That I understand. As I said, my experience is based on my personal path on Medium, I went from making cents to joining the $100 club, and now I'm slowly making some progress. But my approach is based on community, and Tom's is on the opposite side of that. There was a time his approach worked, but now that we have community editors working as nommers, a "lone ranger approach" to gaming the algorithm doesn't pay as much as it did in the past.
I'm seeing a few different indications that Medium is declining. Fewer quality stories in the feeds. Fewer stories that are unique and interesting rather than formulaic. More and more top tier writers going mute for weeks at a time. Almost zero response or input from management. Medium events have been haphazardly run and managed. Stats are inaccurate and all over the map--they seem to reflect something new as each week passes and no one knows what that is. Recent boosts get less attention and earn less. I write on Medium. I make a bit of money there. I have a good following. But I am watching objectively to see if this is a temporary lull or a big problem.
Yeah this is the kind of crap people keep saying to me. I went from making between $100-$200 a month to $20 or less consistently after the changes even though my stats didn't change. So yeah nice try but no.
I completely agree with your perspective. Medium is a platform that can easily accumulate a large number of readers. While it might not be particularly lucrative to earn money directly on the platform, you can build up an email list of readers. With this list, you can then market and sell your digital products on other platforms.
Nope. Medium is awful. small time writer, and less than 500 followers. And my stats, are under 20 readers a month. They make me feel bad. I would like to leave them.
Thanks, Tom for so eloquently penning what many of us have been thinking.
I've been on the Medium platform since 2019. I awkwardly branded myself as a creative writer and poet, earning me very little but getting me a big following early on. I realized early on, though, what a mistake this was to my earnings and re-branded, shifting toward higher earning pieces. I'd reached very predictable and steadily growing earnings, then BAM. The Partner Program changed. I've struggle-bussed ever since.
But, Medium has given me a place to discover what works and what doesn't. I branched out to freelancing work in the health, wellness, and CBD/cannabis space and have been working full-time as a writer and editor for 5 years. Well, until ChatGPT. When ChatGPT came out I lost nearly every client. In 3 months I went from 6-figure-bound to losing my apartment.
The problem, now, is where to go from here. Applying for writing jobs isn't working because (I'm being told) entry level work is below my current experience level. Fun stuff. So, I am doing freelance work at rates equivalent to my first year in freelancing; 1/4 of what I was making before. I can't blame Medium for this, but if my 1200+articles would earn SOMETHING it would certainly help. Just this month I had an article reach 19K readers. And it's paying less than 10 bucks due to 98% outside traffic.
I've settled on writing regularly but not often with Boosting being the goal. And for a complete overhaul of my author website, with more of my work going there to increase traffic and potential clients.
Otherwise, I'm sinking. 80% of freelance writers don't pass the 5-year mark and I've done that.
Christina sorry to hear you have put so much time and effort in and are now struggling. I think you'll find your not the only one and writing is not the only industry. I'm currently making more money than i ever have in my life and still cannot afford my own home. Its very discouraging. Just when we think we've figured it out, something major changes and we suffer the trickle down effect.
No I have not. Most of what I have written in that space is for clients in B2C sales. I feel those pieces are great for exposure and portfolio pieces, but they belong to my clients.
I am working now on building my own pieces into my Medium and Wordpress sites. It's possible I can collect enough CBD writings at this point to do an eBook. Same for articles about creative writing, freelancing, or poetry and poetry editing. Perhaps eBook space would be a good next step. I edit eBooks for clients anyway so that seems a natural progression for me.
Very thought-provoking, especially for someone like me who was thinking about trying Medium.
But may I ask about the elephant in the room? (Or is it the elephant in the Stack?) I haven't experienced any problems with this issue myself, but just as it's easy to find articles about writers facing declining earnings on Medium, it's easy to find articles about writers fleeing Substack because are what are perceived to be lax content moderation policies.
I haven't seen any of the material that seems to be concerning, none of the authors I interact with are mentioning it as a reason to leave--or talking about it much at all--, and unlike the authors of many of the articles that suggest that Substack is about to implode, I'm not concerned about Notes or the recommendation system creating problems.
All of that said, what's your take? Is this a significant concern, or is it something Substack will handle in a reasonable way?
I don't really have much of an opinion on this to be honest. I'll let Substack handle it the way they want to handle it. If the biggest reason people are leaving Substack is because of its content moderation policies, then I think we're in a pretty darn good place. At least it's not because of decreased earnings or changing algorithms.
I made $5 one month on medium, but that was only because there was a glitch in the system. The following month i had more interaction and more views and got paid less. I stopped reading and found my way over here. Honestly i would rather write here and not get paid than write there and make pennies.
There are writers here on Substack gaslighting those of us who left Medium over this, coming to the defense of Medium, and being insulting by saying things like I just don't know how to adapt very well. I know what my stats and earnings show. It's turned into a popularity contest and a multi-level marketing scheme, and nothing more.
So is Substack where you’re making all your money? Or is it YouTube? I wrote on medium for a while and am kinda lost as to what’s the smartest move to make. Because I want to be abundant or make that “hay” like you said. Also most of the writers being named here are men haha so I’d like to be a female name thrown into the “great writer/thinker” space 🙌🏻
Wow, that’s interesting! Would you give this advice if the writing is not about the money? Let me explain: I am practicing writing in public not for the money, but to learn to write. The other thing is a lot of my writings will be on the technical side, as my goal is to start writing more so I can eventually start writing white papers. Thanks for your feedback!
If you're still practicing your writing, my advice would be not to publish at all. Wait until you believe your quality is high. If you don't have a professional writing background and do not know if you're ready to present to a paid audience, ask some writing professionals for an evaluation.
I’m not seeking a paid audience—I’m simply aiming to improve at expressing my thoughts. Before Substack, we used to blog, and surprisingly, we made a good amount of money from low quality articles. However, that’s not my current focus. Regarding private writing, I already do that in my journal. My goal is to feel comfortable writing mostly technical articles and other topics. But thanks for the advice!
I started on Medium a month ago and got 1.5k followers. If you can get views to your page people are very open to read and your stuff and give it a chance. The community is more open to reading newer pages than substack. This is just my experience. It's just a different game and website. You gotta adjust accordingly to get views and traffic.
“For one, Medium stopped giving people access to 3 free articles every month and put a hard paywall on every locked story.”
Oh wow, I didn’t realize that. That’s a bummer! So as a writer you have to ask yourself whether you want your story getting more reach by leaving it free or trying to get some money by paywalling. Feels like readers lose, writers lose, but Medium gains subscriptions.
Yeah I mean he's done good to make Medium profitable, but I also think Medium is 1/10th of what it used to be back in its hay day for the actual writers. I'm just not interested in that.
Well, his making Medium profitable, along with himself hasn't helped the rest of us, has it? Despite his "feel good initiatives" like Medium Day. I'd wager he's feeling real good about now, especially when he checks his bottom line. Which is why I find my Medium mojo fading by the day. And, why I publish here and repost there.
I rarely make over $100.00 a month, I'm lucky to make enough to download a book from Amazon. I'm moving my writing to my own domain that's not monetized. At this point, I'm looking for writing gigs. My WordPress Domain and Medium are means to an end. I make more money on YouTube. I'm posting more there.
I started out talking about my Medium stories and posting links, I have a lot of younger subscribers who ask me for advice. They call me "uncle,' or "unc," some call me "pops." So, I pivoted into an advice columnist, and I'm not qualified to give anyone life advice. I do it mostly for fun, And I'm happy with ahatever I make.
I'm actually seeing a different picture. Before Tony took the reins, I was struggling to meet my goal of making the $100 club every single month. Since the boost was introduced, my earnings have substantially increased. However, I'm but small fish in the pond, and I can imagine how those earning above 4-figures have to earn less so that the "small fish" may earn slightly more.
Yes, Tom, not bad at all. I read all the stories and I know what you're saying about the so-called "golden age." I've read the stories, I've been published in those great pubs of Christmas Past. Those were the days when if you were among the "Big Fish" the ghost in the machine will put any story you scribbled in front of thousands. Thankfully, those days are gone. Good riddance, I'm happy there's no way will see anyone taking home $60,000 with only seven followers and a single story published as we saw back in 2021.
If I could insert an applause GIF here I would 🤣 You just wrote what I've been thinking for all of 2023 and beyond!
Here's the thing. I believe Medium CAN be good for smaller writers who have lower expectations because if you get one or two boosts per month it's a decent side gig. I had one boost in March that earned me $450. But their earnings are SOOOOO unreliable that its not worth it. At all. I'm just over there cross posting a couple rando pieces every once in a while. Not at all how I used to be back in the hay days of Medium.
You've brought up so many good points here, I have to tip my hat 😁
Yeah I can definitely see the utility in crossposting stuff and making what you can over on Medium. That's fine with me. But seeing Nick go was like a gutpunch. He was always so supportive of Medium--even when Tony came on 2 years ago. To see him flip sides was really crazy.
Yeah that was shocking to be honest. In my vengeful mind I'm glad he bolted because I hope it teaches Medium a lesson 😁 Everything you wrote here is true and shameful on their part.
Is this you Tom? It looks way too much like a Nigerian scam.
I’m with you on every single word of this. Maybe they didn’t owe me anything, but they could have at least treated people decently.
Tom, writers like you, Nick, Tim, Michael Thomspon and many more, you were there in the golden days of Medium when you made 6 figures from the partnership program. It built you up, it gave you credibility, it helped you amass huge e-mail lists and get featured in BI, HP and who knows where else.
So you compare your current results with that. And you're disappointed. I get that.
But Medium is still a good place to write. It's a good place to meet interesting people. It's a good place to support building an e-mail list. It's a good place to make a few hundred bucks.
And it's one more place where people could find you.
If you love writing long form content, why the hell not?
Maybe it doesn't make sense for everyone--I also saw that Nick moved his stories to his personal website, and maybe there's an SEO reason or some other reason for that.
But Nick is Nick. He plays at a different level.
For many of us, Medium still works great. It's just not THE platform. It's a platform to use.
In any case, it's always good to write on a few platforms to build a sustainable business. Tim is still there. Ayo is still there. I get 100 subscribers per month from there, and I basically share some of my Substack posts.
I just think no solopreneur should count on one platform or another, and it sounds to me that a lot of people counted on Medium, made it their home, and are now disappointed.
I never thought of it as my home, and I don't think that way about Substack, even though I love it.
Your "home" is the audience that would follow you everywhere, and many of your followers here come from Medium, so I just get this bitter taste when I hear you trashing it as much as you do.
That's just me, of course. Still like what you do and sending you blessings.
I understand Maya. I am happy Medium still provides some value to writers. I'm okay with people using it right now to get more email subscribers and make more money. Here's my thing... I would rather go 100% into the very best platform on the internet and make considerable hay than spread myself out on a bunch of different platforms and make a little bit of money everywhere. I did that in 2018 when I had my blog on Medium, my Wordpress blog, my Youtube channel, and my Facebook Page. I was doing way too many things, and if I had just focused on Medium and only Medium, I probably would've made a lot more money. You mention we shouldn't rely on any one platform. I would agree there for sure. The reason I'm so okay with relying on only Substack is because I can export my list if heaven forbid something happens to this place. I don't have to start over like I did with Medium. For me the story of the internet and social media platforms is that they're born, gather users, have a golden age for 4-5 years, then start to die out. It always seems to happen. But on Substack at least there's an upside to growing your audience here.. you can just export your list and go somewhere else. You can't do that on Medium. One last thing.. I want to make HAY on the internet. I don't want to scrounge around for scraps. I want to go to the place of milk and honey and have a party for a few years. That's what I'm interested in, and that's where the real money is. As far as I'm concerned, every writer who is trying to make this a full time/part time thing should go where the returns are the greatest and try to do as well as humanly possible for the time they have. Thank you for the comment. I thought I'd clarify my thoughts on Medium.
Could not agree with you more Tom! It's a nice idea to spread our wealth on different platforms but in reality we work so hard to make a few dollars rather than focusing on building an empire.
I will say that even with the ability to export our list and posts, it doesn't always work well from a technology standpoint. I've had to copy and paste this stuff several times while moving content and subscribers.
Hi Maya, you nailed it here. I only see the former BIG FISH fretting about it. They are all like "OMG I was making 5-figures and now I am only scrapping a couple of thousand. BUAHHH." That business model was unsustainable for Medium (or any other platform). Medium biggest mistake was bringing in professional writers to scribble some pieces while filling their pockets with gold. Medium is about community. Substack is about how big is your personal emailing list. Two completely different games. That's why I play both!
Rui, the only people on Medium now seem to be the people that haven't already left. The people who are content with earning much less than what they're actually worth. You'll see earnings continue to dry up over time unfortunately as Medium becomes more greedy and more writers who were on the fence about using Medium will continue to leave. Just take a look at the comments here. It's full of writers who left Medium the last few months/years. Sure, you're getting the scraps now I guess but the only people who are content with earning those scraps are likely writers who are either just getting started or are at a certain average level of proficiency. They're not attracting truly great thinkers right now because the truly great thinkers are earning more money elsewhere. As the truly great thinkers leave the platform, the quality of writing will decrease, and more people will cancel their memberships because of it. It's a race to the bottom, unfortunately. Enjoy it while you can.
Hi Tom, I get what you're saying. If I were you, and so many others, maybe I wouldn't be happy with the path Medium is threading. I might even consider running for the hills... I get it! I'm only saying things aren't black or white. I'm doing far better on Medium than on Substack. And when I say far... I mean FARRRR! What some call the "last days" of the "golden age" were rather bleak for a Portuguese writer and publisher who was quite famous in our national indie/alternative/underground music media industry, but a total nobody for the kind of audience you find on Medium. It took me months and 100 stories to get one piece distributed (you can guess why, you know how Medium was back then better than I do). Now I'm running several publications on Medium and I'm helping writers grow every single day. I do it pro bono. Is it wrong from a business perspective? Maybe. Am I waisting my time? Maybe. But when I lay my bed on my pillow at night, I know I'm doing my small part in all of this. It's way easier to navel gaze and go where the money is for those who are loved by the "ghosts in the machine." Everyone else has to rely on the community building side of the game. So, what I'm saying is: Medium no longer works for you and that's fine! Sorry, but you guys had your glory days. These are different times, and I hope that Tony finds a way to steer the ship on a route that puts quality first. That puts the story first and doesn't even care for who wrote it. We should all be anonymous and have no following at all on Medium. We should let the stories speak for themselves. Dixit!
I'm not a big fish. I see reasons for concern more every day on Medium. I can't agree with your perspective, but I'm glad you chimed in.
You can't agree with my perspective. Okay, that's fine. But why should you agree with Tom's? What I'm saying here is that what doesn't work for Tom or Nick may work for Mary or Ann. I'm seeing positive changes, while others seem to be fading and are only focusing on the negative. People often can't accept change and adapt. Chaos is not a pit... it's a ladder. Namaste, I appreciate you!
I'm not sure I agree with any one point of view at the moment--it's all unfolding as we speak. There are a lot of strong opinions and a lot of different feelings. I'm just watching.
That I understand. As I said, my experience is based on my personal path on Medium, I went from making cents to joining the $100 club, and now I'm slowly making some progress. But my approach is based on community, and Tom's is on the opposite side of that. There was a time his approach worked, but now that we have community editors working as nommers, a "lone ranger approach" to gaming the algorithm doesn't pay as much as it did in the past.
I'm seeing a few different indications that Medium is declining. Fewer quality stories in the feeds. Fewer stories that are unique and interesting rather than formulaic. More and more top tier writers going mute for weeks at a time. Almost zero response or input from management. Medium events have been haphazardly run and managed. Stats are inaccurate and all over the map--they seem to reflect something new as each week passes and no one knows what that is. Recent boosts get less attention and earn less. I write on Medium. I make a bit of money there. I have a good following. But I am watching objectively to see if this is a temporary lull or a big problem.
Yeah this is the kind of crap people keep saying to me. I went from making between $100-$200 a month to $20 or less consistently after the changes even though my stats didn't change. So yeah nice try but no.
I completely agree with your perspective. Medium is a platform that can easily accumulate a large number of readers. While it might not be particularly lucrative to earn money directly on the platform, you can build up an email list of readers. With this list, you can then market and sell your digital products on other platforms.
Nope. Medium is awful. small time writer, and less than 500 followers. And my stats, are under 20 readers a month. They make me feel bad. I would like to leave them.
Thanks, Tom for so eloquently penning what many of us have been thinking.
I've been on the Medium platform since 2019. I awkwardly branded myself as a creative writer and poet, earning me very little but getting me a big following early on. I realized early on, though, what a mistake this was to my earnings and re-branded, shifting toward higher earning pieces. I'd reached very predictable and steadily growing earnings, then BAM. The Partner Program changed. I've struggle-bussed ever since.
But, Medium has given me a place to discover what works and what doesn't. I branched out to freelancing work in the health, wellness, and CBD/cannabis space and have been working full-time as a writer and editor for 5 years. Well, until ChatGPT. When ChatGPT came out I lost nearly every client. In 3 months I went from 6-figure-bound to losing my apartment.
The problem, now, is where to go from here. Applying for writing jobs isn't working because (I'm being told) entry level work is below my current experience level. Fun stuff. So, I am doing freelance work at rates equivalent to my first year in freelancing; 1/4 of what I was making before. I can't blame Medium for this, but if my 1200+articles would earn SOMETHING it would certainly help. Just this month I had an article reach 19K readers. And it's paying less than 10 bucks due to 98% outside traffic.
I've settled on writing regularly but not often with Boosting being the goal. And for a complete overhaul of my author website, with more of my work going there to increase traffic and potential clients.
Otherwise, I'm sinking. 80% of freelance writers don't pass the 5-year mark and I've done that.
With a near-empty tank of gas.
Christina sorry to hear you have put so much time and effort in and are now struggling. I think you'll find your not the only one and writing is not the only industry. I'm currently making more money than i ever have in my life and still cannot afford my own home. Its very discouraging. Just when we think we've figured it out, something major changes and we suffer the trickle down effect.
Hi Christina
Sorry to hear that.
Did you try building a list around your expertise in the health space and then monetizing it with digital products?
No I have not. Most of what I have written in that space is for clients in B2C sales. I feel those pieces are great for exposure and portfolio pieces, but they belong to my clients.
I am working now on building my own pieces into my Medium and Wordpress sites. It's possible I can collect enough CBD writings at this point to do an eBook. Same for articles about creative writing, freelancing, or poetry and poetry editing. Perhaps eBook space would be a good next step. I edit eBooks for clients anyway so that seems a natural progression for me.
Very thought-provoking, especially for someone like me who was thinking about trying Medium.
But may I ask about the elephant in the room? (Or is it the elephant in the Stack?) I haven't experienced any problems with this issue myself, but just as it's easy to find articles about writers facing declining earnings on Medium, it's easy to find articles about writers fleeing Substack because are what are perceived to be lax content moderation policies.
I haven't seen any of the material that seems to be concerning, none of the authors I interact with are mentioning it as a reason to leave--or talking about it much at all--, and unlike the authors of many of the articles that suggest that Substack is about to implode, I'm not concerned about Notes or the recommendation system creating problems.
All of that said, what's your take? Is this a significant concern, or is it something Substack will handle in a reasonable way?
I don't really have much of an opinion on this to be honest. I'll let Substack handle it the way they want to handle it. If the biggest reason people are leaving Substack is because of its content moderation policies, then I think we're in a pretty darn good place. At least it's not because of decreased earnings or changing algorithms.
I made $5 one month on medium, but that was only because there was a glitch in the system. The following month i had more interaction and more views and got paid less. I stopped reading and found my way over here. Honestly i would rather write here and not get paid than write there and make pennies.
Medium might be closer to profitability because it seems they’re taking more earnings from their writers.—EXACTLY
Yep! The part that nobody wants to talk about.
There are writers here on Substack gaslighting those of us who left Medium over this, coming to the defense of Medium, and being insulting by saying things like I just don't know how to adapt very well. I know what my stats and earnings show. It's turned into a popularity contest and a multi-level marketing scheme, and nothing more.
Yeah all the people who are upset about what I said here are people who still use Medium. That's fine. Good for them. But it's dead.
So is Substack where you’re making all your money? Or is it YouTube? I wrote on medium for a while and am kinda lost as to what’s the smartest move to make. Because I want to be abundant or make that “hay” like you said. Also most of the writers being named here are men haha so I’d like to be a female name thrown into the “great writer/thinker” space 🙌🏻
Wow, that’s interesting! Would you give this advice if the writing is not about the money? Let me explain: I am practicing writing in public not for the money, but to learn to write. The other thing is a lot of my writings will be on the technical side, as my goal is to start writing more so I can eventually start writing white papers. Thanks for your feedback!
I would say if that's your goal, then go ahead and publish on Medium as well.
Thanks for your advice …
If you're still practicing your writing, my advice would be not to publish at all. Wait until you believe your quality is high. If you don't have a professional writing background and do not know if you're ready to present to a paid audience, ask some writing professionals for an evaluation.
I’m not seeking a paid audience—I’m simply aiming to improve at expressing my thoughts. Before Substack, we used to blog, and surprisingly, we made a good amount of money from low quality articles. However, that’s not my current focus. Regarding private writing, I already do that in my journal. My goal is to feel comfortable writing mostly technical articles and other topics. But thanks for the advice!
I started on Medium a month ago and got 1.5k followers. If you can get views to your page people are very open to read and your stuff and give it a chance. The community is more open to reading newer pages than substack. This is just my experience. It's just a different game and website. You gotta adjust accordingly to get views and traffic.
I'm happy you're finding success over there Alan. Hope you continue to!!
The more I read this kind of stuff about Medium, the happier I get that I choose Substack.
This reminded me to cancel my Medium subscription. Forgot that place existed. My wallet thanks you for this well-done article
I'm happy to hear this Will.
“For one, Medium stopped giving people access to 3 free articles every month and put a hard paywall on every locked story.”
Oh wow, I didn’t realize that. That’s a bummer! So as a writer you have to ask yourself whether you want your story getting more reach by leaving it free or trying to get some money by paywalling. Feels like readers lose, writers lose, but Medium gains subscriptions.
Yeah Nick I've thought about going back and unlocking all of my stories. It would be tedious as crap but might be the best move.
Oh boy, yeah, that would be a lotta work. But if you then added a link to your Substack and/or courses, it might be worth it!
I said it once and I’ll repeat it here. I believe Stubblebine is poison to the platform. Medium has become shady as hell.
Yeah I mean he's done good to make Medium profitable, but I also think Medium is 1/10th of what it used to be back in its hay day for the actual writers. I'm just not interested in that.
Well, his making Medium profitable, along with himself hasn't helped the rest of us, has it? Despite his "feel good initiatives" like Medium Day. I'd wager he's feeling real good about now, especially when he checks his bottom line. Which is why I find my Medium mojo fading by the day. And, why I publish here and repost there.
I rarely make over $100.00 a month, I'm lucky to make enough to download a book from Amazon. I'm moving my writing to my own domain that's not monetized. At this point, I'm looking for writing gigs. My WordPress Domain and Medium are means to an end. I make more money on YouTube. I'm posting more there.
What do you post on Youtube Lawson? Pretty cool you make money on Youtube. It's not easy to get monetized there.
I started out talking about my Medium stories and posting links, I have a lot of younger subscribers who ask me for advice. They call me "uncle,' or "unc," some call me "pops." So, I pivoted into an advice columnist, and I'm not qualified to give anyone life advice. I do it mostly for fun, And I'm happy with ahatever I make.
I'm actually seeing a different picture. Before Tony took the reins, I was struggling to meet my goal of making the $100 club every single month. Since the boost was introduced, my earnings have substantially increased. However, I'm but small fish in the pond, and I can imagine how those earning above 4-figures have to earn less so that the "small fish" may earn slightly more.
I understand. Rui one question when did you start writing on Medium?
Almost five years ago.
That's not that bad. But you also missed the real golden age of Medium a little bit. At any rate, I'm happy you are finding some success there now.
Yes, Tom, not bad at all. I read all the stories and I know what you're saying about the so-called "golden age." I've read the stories, I've been published in those great pubs of Christmas Past. Those were the days when if you were among the "Big Fish" the ghost in the machine will put any story you scribbled in front of thousands. Thankfully, those days are gone. Good riddance, I'm happy there's no way will see anyone taking home $60,000 with only seven followers and a single story published as we saw back in 2021.
IMO, that contest (and the fallout immeditaely after) was the low point for Medium.
Medium darkest hour! You nailed it here, Kevin!