Medium Is Updating Its Compensation Model

I think the changes are exciting and should be positive for writers

Less than a week ago, Medium posted a very exciting article detailing some upcoming changes to its compensation model. You can read the article here, it’s important for anyone who is serious about writing on Medium to become familiar with these guidelines.

These changes are set to go into effect on August 1^st, so how they affect earnings remains to be seen. However, from the sound of it, I feel these changes should be positive.

To put it simply: they’re placing a greater emphasis on quality.

“Oh no! The sky is falling!”

What’s likely to happen is that some writers will see a boost in earnings and some will see a drop. In my experience, the complaints from people making less are always louder than the applause of people making more. This is a built-in social response to change everywhere, so it’s important not to jump to conclusions.

Also remember that things can change fast on Medium, and it’s important for all writers to be up to date on their current publishing model. Everything changes fast. The whole world changes fast. Writers have to be among the first to adapt to new systems. You must always be true to your unique voice, but you must also learn the preferences of your platform.

I saw a drop in earnings earlier this year

Like many writers, back in January/February of 2023, I noticed a significant decline in my earnings. For a while I wondered if my time on Medium was coming to an end. I’ve had that happen with a countless number of other platforms throughout the years.

My first response was to go back to writing a couple short stories each month to submit to high-quality magazines. That’s the kind of thing that pays off two or three months down the road. I started up a Ko-Fi and employed a few other tactics to supplement my earnings. I also paid attention to shifts in Medium’s expectations and tried to adjust my work to conform with what seemed to be performing well. I didn’t change the topics I write about, instead, I worked to add more of a personal element to each article.

It didn’t happen overnight, but my reads began to climb back up.

Whether you’re writing on Medium or any other platform, you should always read the articles that the internal staff decides to feature. If you read, clap, highlight, and comment, you start to absorb the format. It’s a good practice to engage in habitual participation (casually reading in your downtime, etc.), but also take the time to make deliberate assessments of the platform. Robin Wilding does a great job at this. She has a knack for zeroing in on the most important changes and discussing the probable effects in a way that’s clear and actionable.

One of the biggest upcoming changes to the compensation model is an increased importance on read ratio. This is the metric they use to determine if readers are engaging with a story. I’m both concerned and hopeful about this change.

First, the concern

My concern comes from the fact that I don’t typically have a high read ratio on my stories. Sometimes my stories get funneled of to pages like Flipboard.com, and I get tens of thousands of external views. I don’t know why this happens. Maybe there’s somebody at Flipboard who subscribes to my emails who likes how my titles are designed to get a rise out of people.

I think that sometimes external views drive down read ratios. You can see that in my recent article that got 24k views and only has a 4% read ratio. That article earned very well and I think that means the internal read ratio must be much higher than the external read ratio.

Why I’m hopeful

From the article outlining the new changes, it sounds like the assessment criteria for determining read ratio is going to be softened. I’ll be curious to see how my read ratios change. I wonder if the new assessment criteria will be applied retroactively? Again, we’re in a wait and see phase.

The change in read ratio also makes me wonder if the “sweet spot” for article length on Medium is about to change. Right now, I get the best results when I write articles in the 7-9 minute range. I think the longest article I’ve ever published is around 19 minutes.

I don’t feel any reluctance to write longer articles. At this point, I rely on the readers who subscribe to my emails, and I’m confident they’ll take the time to read a long article. With the new changes, might the “sweet spot” change to a 4 minute article? Might it become 14?

Again, this is exciting. You should be experimenting. Tell me what you discover.

An interesting time for writers

Every now and then it’s important to take a step back and be impressed by the tools that are available to modern writers. How do you think Hemingway or Salinger would have felt about a tool that showed them the precise point in their stories where the engagement of their readers began to wane?

“86% of your readers didn’t like your word choice here.”

Imagine having access to that kind of tool!

Some people really love getting their hands dirty with statistics. Some people are naturally inclined to find applicable value in them.

One other thought I have is that I tend to write on “controversial” issues. I don’t necessarily tell the public what it wants to hear, I tell them what I think they need to hear. For example, misinformation can be devastating for a society, but a high percentage of misinformation sounds really good (“You’ve got nothing to worry about!”). You know, lies are always more beautiful than the truth. Therefore, if the analytical tool showed readers getting annoyed, perhaps that could be interpreted as a good thing.

I feel that society needs an intervention, and that sometimes provokes a hostile response.

A renewed focus on quality writing

Lately, I’ve felt empowered to produce higher quality work for Medium. I feel confident I can write a good story and it will perform well on the platform. I believe that shifting away from the quantity model to the quality model is a good thing.

I’m finding that I’m able to use more of my storytelling skills on Medium lately (this one for example). I’ll keep doing that. I have some ideas for themes I want to explore and I’m looking forward to writing them and sharing them.

As always, leave any questions or comments below. Don’t forget, I’ll be giving a talk on Medium Day, so sign up (it’s free).