Medium on the slide?

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   PaulGoodman67posted 4 weeks ago

   There are a number of writers I follow over at Medium. I've noticed that not only do most of them only write sporadically nowadays, a number have deleted their accounts in the last few months.
   
   Although I can only speculate, I suspect that declining readerships and earnings are the main problems.
   
   It feels like we lived through a "golden age" of writing online.
   
   There are few, if any, good options left for those who want to earn from their craft. Substack is the only one I can think of and I'm not convinced that it's much of an earner for the average writer (i.e. not famous).

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      OldRosesposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

      I agree.  Medium is clearly throttling my traffic.  Followers have complained to me that my articles no longer appear in their feeds and I've had a couple of subscribers complain that my articles are no long emailed to them.  Readers have to do a search to find my articles.
      
      Medium is also holding me below a certain threshold for earnings no matter how many reads I get.  I used to earn thousands per month on Medium (no exaggeration - I am willing to provide proof), now I rarely earn more than $350 - $400 per month.
      
      Substack seems to work best for well-known authors and pundits who have a built-in audience who follow them to Substack.  The rest of us struggle to build even a tiny audience.

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         Kenna McHughposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

         Caren, since it's on the Internet, we cannot see behind the scenes that the owners use smoke and mirrors to keep their coffers full. It's frustrating in so many ways.

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   Rupert Taylorposted 4 weeks ago

   I killed my Medium account last year. Earnings were pitiful and I strongly objected to the platform's late, late banning of AI content. Also, I didn't like the acceptance of profanity - I'm a bit old fashioned that way it seems.

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      PaulGoodman67posted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

      Sadly, in my opinion, there are lots of good writers on Medium that get hardly any views. Meanwhile, there are others who aren't so good who gain views through the generous appliance of a "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" strategy.
      
      The long term result is that too many good writers quit while weak writing gains undeserved prominence. That's one reason why I'm pessimistic about the site's survival.

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         OldRosesposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

         They did a survey recently and I told them about my throttled traffic and earnings and pointed out that if they don't pay their writers, there will be no readers.  No one wants to pay a subscription fee to read junk.  No reply from them, of course.

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            Gregory DeVictorposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

            Some of SubStack's authors have the bad habit of writing paragraphs that are 500+ words long. When will they learn that many readers don't want  to plow through long paragraphs like that anymore.

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               Patty Inglish, MSposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

               Well-known writers I followed there included long requests for more subscribers daily in the first third of their posts, so I unsubscribed from several. I never posted anything there and probably won't.

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   FatFreddysCatposted 4 weeks ago

   I've only posted three pieces on Medium, but none of them got any love or views whatsoever, so I decided to bail out. I guess I'll move them over to Substack and try my luck there.

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   1. 67

      PaulGoodman67posted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

      Unfortunately, it's become more like a social media site. You have to do a lot of "interacting" with others to get attention.
      
      Unless you spend time liking and commenting on the work of others, you will generally struggle. I suspect many of the "top writers" on Medium nowadays actually spend more time on the interacting than on their articles.
      
      I think the site will go under at some point.

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         viryaboposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

         I’m beginning to think so too.
         
         The only reason why I stay partially active is because some posts out there are inspiring me, letting me see other ways to earn online, asides content marketing.
         It’s making me think out of the box.
         
         That, I like.

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         FatFreddysCatposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

         That explains a lot. I ain't got time for that.

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         1. 67

            PaulGoodman67posted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

            Yes, I prefer the idea of putting articles out there and they either sink or swim. I'm certainly not against interacting but when people are doing it purely to attract views or earnings, it can start to feel a little fake/artificial. I try to avoid that.
            
            Medium has changed a lot since it swapped owners. Ev Williams pumped lots of money into the site and was always introducing radical upheavals. Coach Tony is way more conservative in his approach and has no money to invest, it seems.

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            Solarasposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

            Bubblews

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            1. 67

               PaulGoodman67posted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

               Yes, it could be argued that Medium was a more sophisticated Bubblews, certainly under Williams, in the sense that the high writer earnings were coming mainly from the investment funds, not the membership fees/revenue.
               
               To the casual observer, it looks like the company is doing well but they're really just burning through money and hoping that they'll eventually be successful enough to make a profit.
               
               Without a huge increase in members, it's unsustainable in the longer term. By the time that Coach Tony took over, it was inevitable that writer earnings would fall.
               
               Once earnings fall, many of the best writers leave and it begins to look like a death spiral.
               
               There is a difference, however. Bubblews were always somewhat sketchy. They often didn't pay writers what they owed, for instance. They were run by scammers.
               
               Medium are a legit company, they've just never found a formula that works.

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