I recently posted a video about my “grand return” back to Medium.
I discussed how the changes back in 2018 had spurred me to leave the platform. I had since had a change of heart and returned to Medium at the tail end of 2020, publishing a post that garnered over 30,000 views.
Now Medium is enacting more changes, this time to the Medium Partner Program.
Medium had already made some major moves in the first half of the year, first by buying out a sizeable portion of their editorial staff, then by rewarding the top writers on the platform with a monetary bonus.
The new changes Medium will implement will mirror Youtube’s barrier of entry for making an income. Here are the new requirements:
1. Must Have at Least 100 Followers
Similar to Youtube’s minimum requirement of having 1000 subscribers, users must first have a minimum of 100 followers before they can reap the benefits of the Medium Partner Program.
Although I had been inactive for over a year, I was fortunate to have started my page back in 2018; this had provided me with ample time to grow an audience, so I have since satisfied this first requirement. But I imagine this task can be very daunting for individuals who are just signing up now to the program in 2021.
2. Publish at Least Once Every 6 Months
In order to be eligible for the Medium Partner Program, writers should be active on the platform; that is, they have to create a post at least once every 6 months.
I assume this is to discourage the one-off viral posts from users with no intent to grow their content on Medium (what immediately comes to mind is the post by Bezos shortly after he was blackmailed by the National Enquirer).
Again, my goal for 2021 is to write a post once a week for the entire year. I don’t see myself going inactive from writing for large stretches of time, so this requirement is easy for me to fulfill. However, those that hope to write that one viral post and never visit the platform again will soon realize they will need to put more investment into Medium.
3. The Minimum Payout Threshold is now $10
In the beginning, any money that was accrued during the month was paid out at the beginning of the following month by Stripe.
Now with this new rule (which I have yet to see mentioned explicitly on Medium but is implied to be implemented in the near future), writers will only receive payment for their writing if they’ve reached the minimum payout of $10.
This news hits me the hardest. In my return to Medium post, I boasted that one of the reasons I preferred Medium to other writing sites like Vocal Media was because I would get paid by Stripe regardless of how much I made with my writing; now this looks like it’s no longer the case.
However, even if I only make money every OTHER month as opposed to every month, I still prefer Medium because of its reach and domain authority.
Excluding tips and bonuses, I’ve made barely $1.00 from the views on my writing at Vocal Media; contrast that with Medium, where I easily quadruple my earnings with the exact same written content.
It’s a no-brainer that I should continue to write for Medium. However, I now have a newfound appreciation that I enrolled relatively early in the lifespan of the platform, and because of that I’m minimally affected by the changes that are to be enacted on the Medium Partner Program.
Zulie Rane of Youtube does a great job at explaining all the potential repercussions of the changes to the Medium Partner Program: