Walter, you're a peach for the canary in the coal mine thing. I wish I could say the same but I'm going to be holding back things that aren't timely because my last piece made $2 (and it has over 2K claps and almost 50 comments)😆.
It's frustrating, but you're right--Medium are trying to fix it. I don't feel confident we'd get repaid (not that they owe use anything) as last time I got like $14 lol.
My issues with Medium go deeper than that though. To get boosted I have to write watered-down content that my readers don't like as much. I stopped doing that and my read ratios lately have been around 80%, but some boosts were 50-60%. So I can write what readers like, or I can write what Medium likes. It's frustrating. But that's why I'm so happy to have Substack now.
It's not just me either, the writers I love don't get boosted and Medium feels like they're skewing to a high-end, 'fancy' approach. But most of us, aren't. The feed of boosted posts, a lot of them feel like they could all have been written by the same person. There's not enough originality to blow my skirt up.
Also, you said they're working on the AI, however, their solution is to have us editors and readers filter it out and I'm getting tired. Free human labour isn't a solution.
I loooove Medium, I really do, but they have some serious fixing to do. And I genuinely hope they do it. Even if they do, Substack is definitely still going to be a big part of my forward strategy as I'm flourishing here where it's reader-led and stagnating on Medium where it's led by curation.
Yes, I agree with all that you've written Robin. I've found value in writing to the expectations of Boost, and I tried my best to do it, but it has gotten too hard lately. The expectation for free labor is not a sustainable model. I'll keep publishing my work there and if there's evidence that things are improving, I'll share my findings. Then again, what works for me doesn't always work for everyone else. I'll just try to do my best to be transparent. Thanks Robin!
I'm just not publishing any of my work there while things are like this. I am working on other things. The utter lack of transparency there concerns me. However, I'm hoping they do get it sorted. I'll be back if they do. I used to post nearly daily.
I found it hard making $20 a month for all the time I was on Medium, but I attribute that more to only posting occasionally and not writing in their preferred categories to not making anything more substantial. Writers on all of these platforms, though, are being held hostage by limited pay opportunities and a refusal of management to explain how the sausage is made.
There are limited pay opportunities everywhere you look as a writer. I'll always be appreciative to Medium, I hope the better payouts return. But I feel it's also important to be transparent. It wasn't until I wrote this article that I recognized how much I'd mentally switched to Substack.
At least at Substack you are guaranteed a certain amount of money per month depending on how many paid subscribers you have for your work. At Medium, no such guarantee exists.
Thanks for sharing your experiences, Walter. I have not been writing much on Medium during the last six months. Part of that was a health issue in November, but I had slowed down considerably before that because the payout algorithm was getting even weirder than normal (it's already dreadfully obfuscated).
My approach toward the Boost is a bit different than many other folks. I don't write for the Boost. I find it too arbitrary. So I just write whatever I want. The whims of the Boosters change like the wind anyway. Memoirs are on their love list, and then they're not. One month they want heavily researched articles, and then another month they want TikTok-style short stuff for low attention span readers.
The stories I expect to be Boosted usually aren't, and the ones I write that I assume never will get a Boost do. Trying to figure out what they want, for me at least, is a distraction against how I want to write. For that reason, I don't write for the Boost, I write for me, and I write for my readers. One of my Boosted stories earns me $50-$80 a month going on almost a year now, after an initial power boost. I never expected it expected it to get boosted. I just wrote it, submitted it, and off it went.
The Medium payment algorithm is obfuscated, anyway. The old Medium distribution method paid well, too, but it was also arbitrary. Your tips on images and headlines are awesome, but aside from that, I write what I want, and if it gets Boosted, yay.
Yes, that's a good approach and one I've been adopting more myself as of late. Two months ago, I could expect to earn around $50 (sometimes much more) even on a story that wasn't Boosted. But in the last 3 weeks the number has gone down. I used to appreciate the challenge of figuring out the demands of the platform every month. To some extent, writers have to do that just to keep up with what's trending. But lately, I'm finding I get more return out of the effort I put into Substack. Ultimately, that draws me. That being said, there's always change in the writing world, and perhaps Medium will be the more profitable platform in the near future again. We'll see. Thanks for your thoughtful response!
Thanks, Walter. I think Medium will ultimately be fine. They opened themselves up to attack by inviting in writers from something like 77 new countries. That's a noble thing to do, but it is costing them in spam and AI attacks. I've already seen some interesting voices from those countries emerge, so in the long run, I think they'll be happy with the change. It's just going to take some time to iron out the kinks. In the long run, it will be worth it, because we'll all be exposed to some amazing new voices and perspectives.
Hi John! That's very helpful. The problem is that many of us only have a small piece of the total information, so it's difficult to draw accurate conclusions. I'm glad to hear you had a post perform so well. I was feeling down about the program until the last one of mine that was Boosted rebounded so well. Hopefully better days are ahead.
Walter, Thank you. This is the first clear explanation I've heard about what's happening on Medium - the fraudulent activity is draining the payment pool. I posted an article yesterday that made .63 cents on the first day, so the problem has not changed. The editor thought the article was worthy of a boost, although it didn't get one. So, it wasn't a poorly written piece. I'm not giving up on Medium because my archive still makes money, but it's a disaster for new stories. Thanks again!
Nice to see things starting to turn around for you on Medium! I don't seem to have been hit quite as badly as some, but ironically these past few days have been the worst I've seen on there yet since this whole debacle started. I'm still feeling hopeful that whatever this is will turn around soon.
Having just joined Medium in the fall and Substack this past month, my expectations are very low. As a full-time teacher on the verge of retirement, I need to make about $1500 a month after I retire to survive on my teacher pension. At this point, it doesn't look promising that I will reach that on either/both platforms, but I will continue posting on both because I love the community of writers I have discovered. Looks like I just missed the boat money-wise. Oh well, I'd still rather be writing!
I think it's more possible than you might believe, particularly on Substack. However, it did take me about a year to get rolling on Substack. I'll be doing a brief zoom meeting tomorrow to answer some questions (the link will be in the article scheduled for Tuesday morning).
Thanks for letting me know about the zoom meeting, though I likely won’t be able to join since I will be corralling a room full of sophomores. I will follow your posts, though. I appreciate your encouragement.
Thank you Elizabeth! I want to make sure it's worth the time of the people I send over there. 3 weeks ago, it was, today I'm not so certain, but I remain hopeful that they'll get it corrected.
I have a post scheduled on that topic for tomorrow and a zoom meeting at 2PM CST. The link for the meeting will be in tomorrow's post. Hope to see you there!
Your comments and perspective are helpful, so thank you for sharing.
I am struggling on Medium right now. The publication where I had been boosted 5 times last year closed its doors in December. Another editor who’s boosted my work lost his ability to do so (they didn’t give him a reason). And now the two stories I’ve written thus far in 2025 have reads but no earnings at all. Some past boosts have made me a few bucks this month but it won’t meet the threshold for a payout.
Just weird climate overall.
Trying to ride the wave and see what happens. Your articles are always a nice comfort or gift of perspective. Thanks again!
What topics do you write on? I have a writing publication and a culture publication (mainly dealing with injustice). If you have a quality story, please email a draft to me and I can see if I can help you get it Boosted. I'm happy to do that.
That's so kind! Thank you. My specialty is nature, and often, I'll focus on the intersection of nature and history. Here's an example (this one was boosted and was fairly popular):
That's an excellent story. Your subject matter is a bit outside of what I normally nominate. The one you linked is the type of thing they used to Boost a few months ago, but they aren't Boosting anymore (that's an internal change). I'd call your example an informative article and it does have unique information. These days they're looking for more philosophical insight/unique perspective/unique experience. I bet you could do a philosophy of nature type article for Write and Review. Feel free to send me a direct message to chat about what you're working on! WR
Thank you for sharing your experience, Walter. I am unsure what to do about Medium. The drop in earnings is bad, but it's the lack of meaningful feedback that represents which is worse. And when I look at my follower list, it's full of bots, companies and only a minority of people who are real and might read my work.
Appreciate the updates and your point of view. I haven't given up completely yet, I've still renewed my membership. But I will hold off just a little bit and I guess we'll see what happens... Thank you for being the canary in the coal mine!
Thanks James, your perspective from the Ev days is really interesting. I've talked with Justin Cox of the Writing Cooperative a couple of times, and he's written some fascinating articles about how Medium has evolved. They are making an effort to ban AI, but I think they're encountering new forms of fraud all the time. I hope they get on top of things. There have been ups and downs before, but I was quite discouraged when I wrote this article (though I was pleased to see the earnings jump on my last Boosted story).
Walter, you're a peach for the canary in the coal mine thing. I wish I could say the same but I'm going to be holding back things that aren't timely because my last piece made $2 (and it has over 2K claps and almost 50 comments)😆.
It's frustrating, but you're right--Medium are trying to fix it. I don't feel confident we'd get repaid (not that they owe use anything) as last time I got like $14 lol.
My issues with Medium go deeper than that though. To get boosted I have to write watered-down content that my readers don't like as much. I stopped doing that and my read ratios lately have been around 80%, but some boosts were 50-60%. So I can write what readers like, or I can write what Medium likes. It's frustrating. But that's why I'm so happy to have Substack now.
It's not just me either, the writers I love don't get boosted and Medium feels like they're skewing to a high-end, 'fancy' approach. But most of us, aren't. The feed of boosted posts, a lot of them feel like they could all have been written by the same person. There's not enough originality to blow my skirt up.
Also, you said they're working on the AI, however, their solution is to have us editors and readers filter it out and I'm getting tired. Free human labour isn't a solution.
I loooove Medium, I really do, but they have some serious fixing to do. And I genuinely hope they do it. Even if they do, Substack is definitely still going to be a big part of my forward strategy as I'm flourishing here where it's reader-led and stagnating on Medium where it's led by curation.
Yes, I agree with all that you've written Robin. I've found value in writing to the expectations of Boost, and I tried my best to do it, but it has gotten too hard lately. The expectation for free labor is not a sustainable model. I'll keep publishing my work there and if there's evidence that things are improving, I'll share my findings. Then again, what works for me doesn't always work for everyone else. I'll just try to do my best to be transparent. Thanks Robin!
I'm just not publishing any of my work there while things are like this. I am working on other things. The utter lack of transparency there concerns me. However, I'm hoping they do get it sorted. I'll be back if they do. I used to post nearly daily.
I found it hard making $20 a month for all the time I was on Medium, but I attribute that more to only posting occasionally and not writing in their preferred categories to not making anything more substantial. Writers on all of these platforms, though, are being held hostage by limited pay opportunities and a refusal of management to explain how the sausage is made.
There are limited pay opportunities everywhere you look as a writer. I'll always be appreciative to Medium, I hope the better payouts return. But I feel it's also important to be transparent. It wasn't until I wrote this article that I recognized how much I'd mentally switched to Substack.
At least at Substack you are guaranteed a certain amount of money per month depending on how many paid subscribers you have for your work. At Medium, no such guarantee exists.
I’m now part of a newly formed Club on Medium = The $10 Club.
Once you reach it, you’re guaranteed to be paid what’s leftover after Stripe takes its share.
Several people think that things are slowly getting better and I hope they are.
However, I will stay on Substack.
Thanks for sharing your experiences, Walter. I have not been writing much on Medium during the last six months. Part of that was a health issue in November, but I had slowed down considerably before that because the payout algorithm was getting even weirder than normal (it's already dreadfully obfuscated).
My approach toward the Boost is a bit different than many other folks. I don't write for the Boost. I find it too arbitrary. So I just write whatever I want. The whims of the Boosters change like the wind anyway. Memoirs are on their love list, and then they're not. One month they want heavily researched articles, and then another month they want TikTok-style short stuff for low attention span readers.
The stories I expect to be Boosted usually aren't, and the ones I write that I assume never will get a Boost do. Trying to figure out what they want, for me at least, is a distraction against how I want to write. For that reason, I don't write for the Boost, I write for me, and I write for my readers. One of my Boosted stories earns me $50-$80 a month going on almost a year now, after an initial power boost. I never expected it expected it to get boosted. I just wrote it, submitted it, and off it went.
The Medium payment algorithm is obfuscated, anyway. The old Medium distribution method paid well, too, but it was also arbitrary. Your tips on images and headlines are awesome, but aside from that, I write what I want, and if it gets Boosted, yay.
Yes, that's a good approach and one I've been adopting more myself as of late. Two months ago, I could expect to earn around $50 (sometimes much more) even on a story that wasn't Boosted. But in the last 3 weeks the number has gone down. I used to appreciate the challenge of figuring out the demands of the platform every month. To some extent, writers have to do that just to keep up with what's trending. But lately, I'm finding I get more return out of the effort I put into Substack. Ultimately, that draws me. That being said, there's always change in the writing world, and perhaps Medium will be the more profitable platform in the near future again. We'll see. Thanks for your thoughtful response!
Thanks, Walter. I think Medium will ultimately be fine. They opened themselves up to attack by inviting in writers from something like 77 new countries. That's a noble thing to do, but it is costing them in spam and AI attacks. I've already seen some interesting voices from those countries emerge, so in the long run, I think they'll be happy with the change. It's just going to take some time to iron out the kinks. In the long run, it will be worth it, because we'll all be exposed to some amazing new voices and perspectives.
Hey Walter, thanks for the update on your experiences.
I have been writing quite a bit less (work commitments), but I was fortunate to receive one Boost on Medium in December and one so far in January.
The Boost in December has crawled to a total $45.44 (25th out of 25 Boosts, my worst Boost ever by far. First time I made less than $100)
However, the Boost in January has already made $527.52 (3rd best out of 25)
Similar content, completely different results.
I'm hoping, like you, that the newer Boost is a sign of better days ahead.
Hi John! That's very helpful. The problem is that many of us only have a small piece of the total information, so it's difficult to draw accurate conclusions. I'm glad to hear you had a post perform so well. I was feeling down about the program until the last one of mine that was Boosted rebounded so well. Hopefully better days are ahead.
Walter, Thank you. This is the first clear explanation I've heard about what's happening on Medium - the fraudulent activity is draining the payment pool. I posted an article yesterday that made .63 cents on the first day, so the problem has not changed. The editor thought the article was worthy of a boost, although it didn't get one. So, it wasn't a poorly written piece. I'm not giving up on Medium because my archive still makes money, but it's a disaster for new stories. Thanks again!
Hopefully they get it fixed. I’ll keep providing updates as to how my stories perform.
Thank you for being so transparent!
Nice to see things starting to turn around for you on Medium! I don't seem to have been hit quite as badly as some, but ironically these past few days have been the worst I've seen on there yet since this whole debacle started. I'm still feeling hopeful that whatever this is will turn around soon.
Having just joined Medium in the fall and Substack this past month, my expectations are very low. As a full-time teacher on the verge of retirement, I need to make about $1500 a month after I retire to survive on my teacher pension. At this point, it doesn't look promising that I will reach that on either/both platforms, but I will continue posting on both because I love the community of writers I have discovered. Looks like I just missed the boat money-wise. Oh well, I'd still rather be writing!
I think it's more possible than you might believe, particularly on Substack. However, it did take me about a year to get rolling on Substack. I'll be doing a brief zoom meeting tomorrow to answer some questions (the link will be in the article scheduled for Tuesday morning).
Thanks for letting me know about the zoom meeting, though I likely won’t be able to join since I will be corralling a room full of sophomores. I will follow your posts, though. I appreciate your encouragement.
" I can be the canary in the mineshaft." You are kind to do this.
Thank you Elizabeth! I want to make sure it's worth the time of the people I send over there. 3 weeks ago, it was, today I'm not so certain, but I remain hopeful that they'll get it corrected.
I have never gotten boosted on Medium and now I'm also on Substack. How do you all get paying members on your newsletter? Did it take long?
I have a post scheduled on that topic for tomorrow and a zoom meeting at 2PM CST. The link for the meeting will be in tomorrow's post. Hope to see you there!
I'm also heavily affected by Medium's weird processes right now, even though I have never earned more than 15 a month.
Yes, it's affecting everyone. I hope they get it fixed.
Your comments and perspective are helpful, so thank you for sharing.
I am struggling on Medium right now. The publication where I had been boosted 5 times last year closed its doors in December. Another editor who’s boosted my work lost his ability to do so (they didn’t give him a reason). And now the two stories I’ve written thus far in 2025 have reads but no earnings at all. Some past boosts have made me a few bucks this month but it won’t meet the threshold for a payout.
Just weird climate overall.
Trying to ride the wave and see what happens. Your articles are always a nice comfort or gift of perspective. Thanks again!
What topics do you write on? I have a writing publication and a culture publication (mainly dealing with injustice). If you have a quality story, please email a draft to me and I can see if I can help you get it Boosted. I'm happy to do that.
That's so kind! Thank you. My specialty is nature, and often, I'll focus on the intersection of nature and history. Here's an example (this one was boosted and was fairly popular):
https://medium.com/something-simple/yes-there-is-an-alligator-in-every-florida-lake-heres-how-to-coexist-54926131e7d7
That's an excellent story. Your subject matter is a bit outside of what I normally nominate. The one you linked is the type of thing they used to Boost a few months ago, but they aren't Boosting anymore (that's an internal change). I'd call your example an informative article and it does have unique information. These days they're looking for more philosophical insight/unique perspective/unique experience. I bet you could do a philosophy of nature type article for Write and Review. Feel free to send me a direct message to chat about what you're working on! WR
Thank you for sharing your experience, Walter. I am unsure what to do about Medium. The drop in earnings is bad, but it's the lack of meaningful feedback that represents which is worse. And when I look at my follower list, it's full of bots, companies and only a minority of people who are real and might read my work.
Appreciate the updates and your point of view. I haven't given up completely yet, I've still renewed my membership. But I will hold off just a little bit and I guess we'll see what happens... Thank you for being the canary in the coal mine!
Thanks James, your perspective from the Ev days is really interesting. I've talked with Justin Cox of the Writing Cooperative a couple of times, and he's written some fascinating articles about how Medium has evolved. They are making an effort to ban AI, but I think they're encountering new forms of fraud all the time. I hope they get on top of things. There have been ups and downs before, but I was quite discouraged when I wrote this article (though I was pleased to see the earnings jump on my last Boosted story).