Medium is like a social media platform for writers, but it is not. Let's talk about that in a minute. First, let me tell you about some background info on my journey with Medium. Last week I was contemplating on joining Medium, then someone here encouraged me to do so. After I joined Medium, I uploaded a few of my old articles from here because they allow you to do that. Also, I don't want to waste my time writing for new platforms if I'm not getting paid. Anyhow, I did it day after day. I did not upload all the articles in one day. Anyhow, can you guess how many views I received? I received a whopping ZERO Views On all my articles. It's been a week and still no views. So frustrating. If I took that time and wrote new articles here, I would at least have gotten a few dozen to hundreds of views. Do you know why I have 0 views?
Medium has no built-in distribution system
Even though they market it as a social media platform, it lacks the fundamentals of being a social media platform. Unless you have a following there, you get no views. It's a funny thing, you know. They only distribute to your direct followers, but to get followers, you need free recognition from the system, which normal social media sites offer. You would try hashtags and stuff, but the system won't show you to the people because it doesn't "trust new users". What kind of social media platform does that?
Medium tries too hard to sell
When you join Medium, they choose interests for you. They don't ask. They just choose. Later you can change these. But do you know what they chose for me? They chose me some clickbait, scammy, money-making type hashtags to follow. I disgusts that type of stuff. For so many years, I was fooled by them, but no more. Those articles were very well constructed in a manner to get your attention. They even got my attention. So I clicked a few of them. All of them had put the "information" behind a paywall. Medium very much likes to distribute these paywalled articles, not newcomers' ones. I mean, can't they at least put a new posts section like here on Publish0x, so that wat new commers have a chance to get recognition. But no, they won't do that. They need you to do all the hard work and build a follower base. They need you to bring new users from your other social media accounts. Another funny thing is they say in their rules they hate clickbait. But they also promote clickbait. Guess it's a double standard.
Partner program conditions
This is something I wanted to know before joining Medium. but had to find it on my own. They want you to be an active user for at least 3 months with at least 6 articles published. You must have a bank account and must file taxes in a supported country. Must be 18 years or older. They do not mention how many views you need or how many followers you need to have. Guess you're gonna have to find it the hard way if you want to earn from Medium.
My opinion
Because I joined Medium, I might stick around and try to join the partner program. But I hate doing bitch work. I'm not going to read and comment on posts just because I need to get attention there just to get them to check out my profile. I'm not going to spam my other social media accounts. Unless they create a "new posts" page, I'm going to delete my account and look for something else. By the way, I think you need an article that has at least 5 minutes of read time. Use Google to find how many words that is. That is the standard sweet spot for the Medium platform. Also, even though you don't get paid before you get accepted to the partner program, they put ads on your articles. Just saying someone makes money.
That being said, that's it for this article. Hope you learned something.
