Your Checklist for the Latest Updates in the Partner Program
The latest evolution gives you more control over your earnings and distribution on Medium
Over the last year, we’ve launched updates to strengthen the connection between Medium creators and their readers. As part of this, we’ve evolved the Partner Program in a way that aims to bring this relational quality to earnings on Medium. Your feedback let us know that the earnings model was opaque — so we’ve launched this update to help make the model simpler, and more directly tied to your readership. In short, we’re working on making the earnings model clearer for Medium creators who want to make money through writing.
See the announcement here. It’s got all the details you need to know on the eligibility requirements and referred memberships.
Here are the top things to keep in mind with the latest update in the Partner Program. If you’re interested in earning for your writing on Medium, read on.
✅ Read the announcement.
The announcement is linked above, but just making sure you’ve read it. If you haven’t already, take a moment and read through it before continuing. It will answer a lot of questions that come up.
✅ Set up your email subscription landing page.
The subscription landing page gives you a link to allow readers to easily subscribe to your posts by email. This makes it much easier to promote your email subscription.
- Head over to your settings page at settings and go to the audience development section. Click the “Promote subscriptions” button to get to the “Promote email subscriptions” page. There you’ll find your subscription landing page link. Note this link — and use it to promote your writing.
- Customize the subscribe message. Consider some brief additional context that encourages new readers to subscribe.
- Check the box under “On profile and story pages” to promote your email subscription on your profile and stories.
✅ Make a plan to get to 100 followers.
One of the new eligibility requirements of the Partner Program is to have at least 100 followers. If you don’t have 100 followers, this guide is the best place to get started. If you’ve already reached 100 followers, these tips will help you grow your audience further.
Note that for growth and connecting with your readership, a regular cadence is crucial. For the Partner Program, you’ll need to publish at least once every six months — that’s the minimum. Aim to publish once a week, and if not that, once a month. You can experiment and adjust the publishing cadence to see what resonates with your readership.
✅ If you’re not already in the Partner Program, and you meet the criteria, apply.
Make sure you’ve met the following criteria:
- You’ve published at least one story.
- You’ve gained at least 100 followers.
- You publish at least once every six months.
Check all the boxes? Awesome, we’re looking forward to your application.
✅ Find your referral membership link.
When you’re a Partner Program writer, you have a personalized membership referral landing page. You can find this link in the audience development section of your settings.
This link allows readers to become a paying Medium member through your referral. They will receive unlimited access to your metered posts as well as unlimited access to metered posts across Medium. This will count towards your referred memberships earnings. Learn more about the details of referred memberships here.
✅ Promote these links on social.
Keep your subscription and member referral links handy and share them on social, in your emails, and (tastefully) in your posts. You can test out different strategies to promote your subscriptions and memberships.
For example, you can cast a wide net in sharing your subscription link through social and existing channels. And then you can share the member referral link in a more targeted way in your email newsletters. These links correspond to two phases in your reader’s journey. Grow your audience with the email subscription, and then monetize by sharing the member referral page to highly engaged readers. If readers already love your writing, they’ll be more likely to become a subscriber.
Beyond this, you can experiment with which stories are free, and which stories are metered.
The key here is experimenting and exploring. Consider the email subscription landing page and the member referral page as two tools in your earnings toolbox.
