Medium: "We're Rewarding External Traffic"

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   eugbugposted 3 weeks ago

   Just received an email this evening. In it, Medium say:
   
   "The change shifts 5% of the payouts toward stories that get this external traffic and especially to external traffic that converts to members"

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      bravewarriorposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

      I'm not on Medium. I've heard a lot a complaints about the platform lately.

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      OldRosesposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

      I can't figure out how this will work.  In order to get paid, we have to put our articles behind the paywall.  But non-members of Medium, i.e. external traffic, cannot read anything that is behind the paywall, so how is this going to benefit Medium writers?
      
      I've been writing on Medium for five years.  One thing I have learned is that every time they make a change to the earnings, especially if they tout it as being beneficial to their writers, our income decreases significantly.  I've gone literally from earning thousands of dollars a month to about a hundred dollars a month even as my follower and subscriber count has increased.

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         eugbugposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

         Maybe it's just a carrot-and-stick, loss-leader thing to encourage people to stay and write more. Only 5% of the payouts is mentioned.

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         theraggededgeposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

         Non-members can read. It used to be up to three articles free, I think. Not sure if that has changed.
         
         I've got one behind the paywall that has had thousands (22k) of external reads but has only earned $45 or so.

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            PaulGoodman67posted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

            I share OldRoses' cynicism. Medium tout new schemes like they're going to be a positive transformation, but it always seems to result in lower earnings. So I will wait and see.
            
            They've had a lot of financial issues, so it's hard to see anything improving without a fresh injection of funds, which is unlikely to happen.
            
            Do you still earn there Bev? I thought that they dropped writers from the earnings program if they didn't publish anything for four months?

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               theraggededgeposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

               I have a small balance that rolls over, but I did get paid a couple of months ago. I haven't kept up with the changes for a while.

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                  PaulGoodman67posted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

                  Because of the scheme where writers received payments for gaining subscribers, I automatically got payouts every month until Coach Tony stopped that a few months back.
                  
                  I struggle to reach the threshold now. I earn cents/day rather than dollars/day, much like HP.
                  
                  Coach Tony's outpourings and announcement  make it sound like the site is going from strength to strength, but most of the Medium publications have closed down or are ailing, the most popular writers have left, and earnings and views continue to disappear down the toilet.
                  
                  That said, if you read between the lines, Coach Tony's main focus is to stem the (financial) bleeding and keep the site going. It's maybe a way to survive short term but not thrive in the longer term.
                  
                  I agree with him trying new ideas, it's just condescending when he tells us how well we're going to do and it's another thinly disguised cost-cutting exercise.
                  
                  I don't know if that's the case this time, just explaining why there's a dearth of credulity.

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                     OldRosesposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

                     The answer to all of Medium's woes is so simple: increase the subscription price.  It's been the same for years, while everything else has gone up.  It's ridiculous to keep it at the same $50 that doesn't even begin to keep the site in the black.

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                        PaulGoodman67posted 2 weeks agoin reply to this

                        I feel less than qualified to say what they need to do financially. Running a media company is a tough business. But maybe with the number of subscribers already in freefall, they're reluctant to raise the price.
                        
                        I think that Friends of Medium scheme was an attempt to rake in more money without losing subscribers. It seemed desperate to me.
                        
                        I think the only road to success is to improve the reader experience. Then they could get more subscribers, and it might be possible to raise the prices.
                        
                        Previously, under Ev Williams, most of the money came from private investors, but that was always unsustainable.
                        
                        Coach Tony now claims the site is standing on its own two feet, but I'm far from convinced it has a future without gaining way more readers/subscribers.
                        
                        I still don't think he's stemmed the bleeding yet.

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                           OldRosesposted 2 weeks agoin reply to this

                           I understand what you are saying, but how can they improve the readers' experience and then gain more subscribers when they have lost all of their best writers and continue to hemorrhage the remaining writers?  I think you have it backwards.  They need to raise their subscription rate so that they can pay their writers better, encouraging them to stay and for writers who left to come back.

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      Genna Eastposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

      That's encouraging to know, Eugene.  I hope this proposed change works out well. Thank you for sharing.

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      Cheryl E Prestonposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

      I did not get that email.

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         eugbugposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

         They posted the update here too:
         
         https://medium.com/blog/partner-program … cb28f75bc9

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   eugbugposted 3 weeks ago

   I'm going to remove the canonicalisation from some articles to see whether it makes any difference to traffic.

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      bravewarriorposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

      Let us know, Eugene.

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         eugbugposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

         Will do.

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   PaulGoodman67posted 3 weeks ago

   This sounds good as I get regular traffic from Google and it’s in greater quantities than my internal traffic at Medium.
   
   The development may also mean that moving certain articles from HP to Medium is now worth it.
   
   I hope it’s as promising as it sounds.

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   Jodahposted 3 weeks ago

   This is good news as a few times something I have written on Medium has unexpectedly gone viral with external views, but up until now that hasn’t paid. Now if that happens there should be a nice boost in earnings.

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   Venkatachari Mposted 3 weeks ago

   I have had a medium account for many years, the free one. Only recently, I was thinking of publishing there. There are two articles so far.

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   PaulGoodman67posted 3 weeks ago

   I can’t say I’ve seen much membership gains due to external traffic, though, so maybe I should keep my expectations low. I guess we’ll see what happens.

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   theraggededgeposted 2 weeks ago

   Paying for external views should make a difference to this paywalled article.
   
   

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      PaulGoodman67posted 2 weeks agoin reply to this

      I have a few Medium articles that get big Google traffic too, but I see no change so far in earnings.
      
      In fact, October so far has been particularly poor, and we're already a week into the new system.
      
      I hate to sound negative, but I'll believe it when I see it!

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         PaulGoodman67posted 2 weeks agoin reply to this

         I've become skeptical of the language that Coach Tony uses.
         
         For instance, him saying that 5% of earnings will now take into account certain types of external traffic leaves a lot of room for him to decrease overall earnings again.
         
         He makes it sound like we may benefit until you look closely and then you realize that you may not fit into the category. It's very possible that only a tiny minority of external traffic may fit into the category that he's highlighting.
         
         We can't know for sure, as he gives no clear definition of which traffic he means.
         
         He does this sort of thing a lot. It's tiresome and deceptive.

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