I’ve been writing on Medium a long time, a couple of years now, and began posting just as the partner program opened up. I’ve never had an article featured, although a lot of my stories are chosen for curation/distribution by the editors. I’m happy to make a few hundred dollars a month, which is gratifying not because I need the income but because it’s rewarding to be paid a little for writing.

One thing I’ve noticed is that writers I follow and enjoy suddenly leave the platform and a new crop of writers emerges. They all arrive with the same enthusiasm and desire to make a living wage on Medium, then disappear within a few months to a year.

Medium isn’t profitable yet, from what I’ve read, so it stands to reason that they would continually tweak their platform. The one thing I’ve learned here is that nothing is carved in stone and it pays to remain flexible.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that their featured articles aren’t getting as much traction as they used to. Go back through and click on some of them, and you’ll see what I mean. I don’t know if that’s because they’re more focused on a political agenda or if their own in-house publications aren’t publishing stories that appeal to as many writers. Maybe they don’t offer enough viewpoints, but if they want to make more money it would make sense to appeal to a broad swath of the population.

I still enjoy it here, although with so many people always exiting the platform it’s an ongoing process to engage with new readers/writers. However, we want to do that anyway.

Thanks as always for an excellent article.