Articles by Glenn Stok
An enthusiastic author asked thoughtful questions about publishing on Medium that many writers want to know. Here are my answers.
That’s correct. Medium does not place ads on articles, so your revenue comes from reader subscriptions. They pay $5 a month to read unlimited across the entire platform.
You will get retroactive payments if a reader buys a subscription within 30 days of reading your content.
Funds from subscription fees are distributed to writers who join the Medium Partner Program. It’s free to join.
While it is true that you need a following on Medium to earn well, those people need to be legitimate readers interested in your continuous work.
I discovered I get a lot of Google traffic on Medium, but as I mentioned, we don’t earn from those readers unless they buy a subscription. And when they do, they may not keep reading what you write. They are sure to follow many other authors.
Writing is not a get-rich-quick business, no matter where you publish. One has to be patient and continuously work hard.
I feel it’s more worthwhile writing on HubPages since the benefits of organic traffic outweigh the need for active followers.
Medium is very different from HubPages. Medium content needs to focus on its subscribers who pay for access. That’s much more difficult to attract than writing for organic traffic that comes through Google search.
Medium is useful for content relating to the specific desires of people willing to pay for access to that information.
However, if you write content that answers questions people may search for online, I recommend publishing on HubPages since you won’t earn revenue from external traffic on Medium.
Rather than posting magazine-style articles that people find via search, Medium is more of a storyteller’s venue. I see everyone calling it a blogging site, although I consider a lot of the content to be individual articles.
Blogs usually follow a structure or a series. Articles that stand on their own merits provide information in a self-contained element. They don’t need to apply to one another.
I see that with most of the posts on Medium, so I tend not to think of it as a blogging site. Nevertheless, I think I’m the only one feeling that way.
You can always consider sharing your work on social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. But it’s best to pay more attention to the quality of your material.
I believe in writing stellar quality content that offers value. That will build a ranking on its own, so you don’t need to promote your work on social media.
That’s how it works on Medium. They share your content with everyone who follows you and with those who follow the topics you specify as “tags.” It’s also shared with followers of publications you might decide to publish in.
Yes, and if you write quality content that keeps readers engaged, the algorithm responds favorably to the long reader duration.
In those cases, your articles will be featured on other readers’ home pages and shared with readers via email and Twitter. (Interestingly, Medium was created by Twitter’s previous chairman and founder, Evan Williams).
That all depends on one’s authority. If you are an authority figure in a particular niche, you could do well with it.
That’s not crucial with HubPages because people find your content via organic search. However, with Medium, writers do better when concentrating on a single niche because they build a following of readers interested in that specific topic.
Poetry does better on Medium because it attracts readers who appreciate its various styles and who pay to read that type of content. In addition, Medium has publications dedicated to poetry with followers who seek it.
On the other hand, when posting poems on HubPages, one is dependent on people finding them via Google search. However, people search the Internet for answers to questions much more than they look for topics that might be in the content of a poem. Therefore, poems don’t necessarily show up in the SERPs.
It’s the same with both. One needs to write stellar quality content to do well anywhere on the Internet. Content platforms that didn’t care about that had gone out of business, such as Bubblews and Squidoo.
Both HubPages and Medium have curators and editors that look for quality. I believe these two platforms will continue to grow for that reason.
It’s definitely better for new authors to publish in a pub with a large following. However, authors who already have many followers could do just as well by posting directly under their accounts.
Medium has many niche publications where writers can have their content hosted instead of being on Medium’s home site. You have to apply to each one you want to write for and be accepted by the editors.
Medium publications benefit both readers and writers:
The best way to attract readers is to publish in publications related to your niche. You can even start your own publication on Medium to focus on a specific niche. People who have done that are managing editors of their publications.
Some publications have custom URL domains, but many are in sub-domains under medium.com. Generally, mixing unrelated content under a single domain is not good for Google ranking since it is considered a content farm based on Google's earlier Panda algorithm.
You first need to get approved by the editor of a pub. Each publication has its own rules and requirements. They usually post their method to register as an author with their pub. Once approved, you can submit your drafts when you complete them.
Most pubs only accept drafts, which means unpublished content. However, some allow you to submit content that you previously published under your account. All your content will be listed in your profile no matter where it’s published, the same as with HubPages.
Articles don’t disappear, but if they don’t get much traffic, they eventually don’t show up anymore in listings, suggestions, etc.
The algorithms will always keep useful articles in view to be found by new readers, and that’s based on a decent “read time” by present readers. For example, if readers stop halfway through, that indicates it's not of value.
Writers can offer non-members free access to read any of their articles that are behind the metered paywall. That is done with a URL known as the friend link.
These links can be posted on social media or used when you want to give them to friends or family. You can see how many views you received through Friend Links on the details page of the stats report.
Non-subscribers can read three articles per month anyway. And if they subscribe within a month, you get paid retroactively for the time they have read your articles.
You need to subscribe as a paid member to participate in the earnings program. It costs $5 per month be a member, which also gives you access for unlimited reading.
You can also provide a “friend link” on social media or for your friends to read your articles without being limited. Of course, you won’t get paid for those views. But if a paid subscriber follows your friend link, you will get paid for their read-time.
Curators will only consider articles for featuring in various topic lists if the author has placed them behind the paywall.
That makes sense because Medium does not make money from your work if it’s free to read. So it benefits you and Medium to place everything behind the paywall.
The main reason for the paywall is to get paid when subscribers read your content. Non-subscribers can still read up to three articles anyway.
Why would you want to block anyone from reading your content? As I mentioned earlier, you can always give non-subscribers a friend link to read even after reading three other articles.
Longer articles will bring more revenue because you get paid for reading time. However, some people prefer to read short articles.
The average read-time is posted at the top of all articles, so people know what to expect before they begin reading.
A lengthy article could work well for you if you are good at holding a reader’s attention. However, if you fill it with useless content or go off on tangents just to increase the number of words, you will quickly lose your readers and your reputation.
That’s an excellent question! It’s actually built into the algorithm. Everyone reads at a different speed, and the algorithm uses an average standard among the English reading population. It’s roughly three minutes for 600 to 700 words or nine minutes for a 2,000-word article.
Medium has changed a lot over the years. They continually upgrade their platform with improvements, but they often break things in the process.
The payment method has been changed to pay by read-time and other reader engagement. That method is much more accurate and favors authors who keep readers to stay to the end.
Being a systems programmer, I would think that involves legitimate scrolling, so people can't game the system by leaving it sitting on their browser, either.
The problem with using applause as an indicator of value was that some people tried to game the system. They set up a Facebook group where they shared links to articles, and all they did was go and clap without reading.
I’m sure they changed the algorithm to pay according to the time people actually read for that reason.
I’ll offer a recap of the most critical thing as a takeaway. When considering where to write, keep in mind the following comparison:
Thanks for your thoughtful questions. And good luck with your writing business.