Method To The Medium Madness
An opportunity for a community to be a community.
I’m fairly new to Medium. But I think I have an idea that will help achieve the goals of everyone on Medium: Become a successful writer (and yes, reach 100+ followers). But the emphasis is on successful writing. More followers would just be the bonus.
I have a blog that gets next to no traffic. I didn’t find much success trying to market it on other social media platforms. Therefore, I’ve been less motivated to continue to contribute to it. Then, one day I happened to meet some new friends who were kind enough to read some of my content. Impressed by the posts and our conversation, they recommended Medium to me. From there, it was history. I did a little research on Medium before joining, even discovered a few neat perks.
You’re telling me I can contribute content to a platform specifically for writers, AND I can get paid?
Sounds like a no-brainer. I found, to my surprise, that in order to get paid by Medium, there was a very specific benchmark one must attain. You all know it by now. It seems to be the topic of so many articles I come across on Medium. You guessed it, 100 followers.
Apparently, this was not always the standard.
What I’ve learned from exploring the many reaches of Medium is that this is a somewhat recent change to Partner Program policy. I’ve noticed it has sparked a great deal of disdain from many contributors. I don’t blame any one of you at all. I don’t claim to know why they would put this policy in place, but I can take a guess or two.
Perhaps the creators of Medium are hoping to have writers on the platform for a while, paying to be members, without having to be paid for their content right away. Maybe they want to make sure we writers are dedicated enough to this platform to obtain and maintain 100 followers, making us more deserving of their partnership.
Or maybe, and hear me out, Medium wants us to truly come together as a community.
I like to think this is Medium’s way of challenging all of us to come together as the community we claim to be, and properly support each other. Follow one another, share each other’s work, clap, respond and give feedback. I believe this is our opportunity to assist new writers in breaking into a new platform, while helping established writers reach higher heights. Together, we can uplift each other.
This is a platform where dreams can come true for all of us. Not only that, but it sounds to me like we, writers, creators, contributors, have the ability to make one another’s dreams come true in addition to our own. In fact, supporting our fellow writers can spur them to support us as well.
Now, I don’t just mean pandering for followers and unfollowing others once the goal is achieved. I mean genuinely exposing ourselves to the vast number of fellow creators here on this platform. Learning more about one another and the unique experiences, knowledge, and styles that each and every one of us brings to this massive table.
I follow you because I am truly interested in the things you have to say. I clap for articles that express a genuine part of who you are or the knowledge you choose to bestow upon the rest of us. I don’t expect a follow back. One is always appreciated, don’t get me wrong. I just hope you actually take a moment to check out some of my content, for I will definitely peruse yours.
But the thing I love most about this platform is the ability to interact with so many of you. Being able to respond to your posts and receiving responses from you on mine are what bring me back to Medium every single day. The more of you I get to interact with and meet, the more I feel myself growing and expanding who I am as a writer and as a human being.
So, I hope, after reading this, you will not only follow me, but follow as many other contributors on Medium as you can. Learn from us all, grow with us, and get paid with us. I don’t see why it isn’t possible for us all to realize the dreams we seek. After all, that’s why we joined in the first place, isn’t it?
Reach out, respond, introduce yourself. Share something about yourself, as a writer and a human being. Something that you would want others to know. Bring your genuine, positive, powerful energy. I love that. I will follow that. And I will reciprocate it. We don’t just write on Medium. WE ARE MEDIUM.
