Medium Rejected My Application To Join Its Partnership Program — Here’s Why
Feeling gutted… But deep down I was expecting it.
A few months back, I discovered Medium for the first time, by chance.
That faithful day, I was engaging in my habit of aimlessly scrolling through Quora when I found a question about Medium.
After reading the answers, I thought, “So this platform is basically the Twitter of blogging, and even better, you could get paid for writing!”.
“That’s quite an attractive offer”, I thought, so I decided to check it out.
I fell in love with Medium the moment I landed on its homepage. Its user interface looked better than every other blogging platform I had previously been to — and I had been to a handful.
It was clean, clear and clutter-free. It felt good reading through articles in a distraction-free environment (I hate seeing annoying ads and popups while reading).
I immediately signed up and created this profile. Then I published for 5 consecutive days before slowing momentum (due to time constraints from my day job).
It wasn’t long until I became a paying member. For me, $5 per month wasn’t bad for all the content I was getting from the platform.
I also found the community to be supportive. Some writers have complained about nasty comments and trolls, but thankfully I haven’t experienced any of those (yet).
I recently reached 100 followers, which is one of the requirements for joining the Medium partnership program.
And I thought, “why not give it a try?”
I had heard rumors that writers in several countries weren’t allowed into the program, but I decided to try my luck.
Maybe they’ll accept me, who knows?
I applied for the MPP on Thursday and got an email from Medium a day after informing me that my application was rejected.
Even though I tried my hardest not to get my hopes up, the news came as a bit of a disappointment to me.
The reason for the rejection was my location. Apparently, Stripe isn’t supported in a host of countries, mine included.
I hope Medium finds a way to include international writers from unsupported countries (like myself) in the partnership program.
While I’m not writing with the sole intention of making money, we can’t deny that the possibility of earning is, in and of itself, a huge motivator for committing to the platform.
Not being able to participate will surely demotivate international writers from affected countries from committing to the platform.
What’s next for me?
Despite the setback, I’ll continue to publish on Medium.
As I said, I’m not writing just to make money. There are so many other benefits to writing on a platform like Medium. You get to:
- become a better writer,
- showcase your work (and even attract opportunities as a result),
- build relationships with other writers,
- build an audience,
…and so much more!
If you’re new to Medium, here are a few tips for you.
⭐ Write for your readers.
My rule of thumb is to write something that you’d want to read when searching for a solution on Google.
Provide value for your readers, and they’ll naturally follow you in return. At least that’s the way I see it.
A lot of people use other “unorthodox” methods like “follow for follow” to increase their follower count.
I do not have anything against using such a method, I just don’t find it effective at all.
Yes, you can grow your following by playing such games, but these are not people who actually read your work.
They probably won’t even scan your posts after following you, let alone read one of them.
What’s the point of having a huge follower count if none of them reads anything you post?
Just provide value to your readers and do this essential thing:
⭐ Build your tribe
Remember that Medium is a social platform. The only way you can get discovered is by putting yourself out there.
Here’s my personal strategy:
- Find writers in your niche who post on a consistent basis.
- Follow them and turn on notifications.
- When they post, be among the first that reads the post
- Give your genuine thoughts about the post.
- Two things are likely to happen: One, they’ll likely reciprocate the favor. And Two, other people might check out your profile through your comment.
One last tip…
⭐ Forget about numbers
I have seen a few readers lament about poor readership and blame the Medium algorithm for it.
I believe in taking responsibility instead of complaining — complaining won’t solve anything, action will.
Here’s an article from me to help you increase both your readership and average view duration:
Yeah, you’re welcome.
To conclude, if you provide value to your readers and put yourself out there, it’s only a matter of time before you see results!
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