Medium

Mission: Create High-Quality Writing for Medium

Medium's new Partner Program Incentives

Image by the author

I don't write for money.

I write to empty my mind.

I write to have inner peace.

I write to make sense of my thoughts.

I write to make sense of the world around me.

I write because writing makes me feel good.

Writing gives me energy.

Writing takes me into a creative flow state.

Writing is an inner need for me.

I just need to write — if you write regularly, I don't need to explain my feelings.

But I won't lie; getting money for my writing is nice.

Changes to the Medium Partner Program

You can read the entire article about the changes:

New Partner Program incentives focus on high-quality human writing

In summary, Medium aims to promote more original, high-quality personal stories and reward writers who create those stories.

Here's my summary of the most significant changes

Timeline

• Changes begin: August 1, 2023
• First payout reflecting changes: September 2023

Expansion

• Partner Program opens to 12 more countries: Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Hungary, India, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Malta, Thailand, and the UAE (currently, 33 countries are supported)
• Plans to add 50 more countries by the end of the year

Follower requirement

• 100 follower requirement is removed (I know this is huge — it was such an obstacle to lots of writers)

Membership requirement

• To join the Partner Program, you now need to be a Medium member — it'll drive revenue to Medium
• Current Partner Program writers are exempted (well, for now)

Earnings metrics

• Based on reading/listening time
• Now also includes: claps, highlights, replies, and follows
• Bouncing before 30 seconds prevents earnings from that member

Boost feature

• Boosted stories get a distribution and earnings bonus
• Any story can be Boosted
• Partner Program members earn more for Boosted member-only stories

Discouraging clickbait

• Earnings adjusted by read ratio (percentage who read for 30+ seconds vs total views)
• High read ratios = more earnings; low read ratios = less earnings
• Titles, subtitles, and previews should align with the content — that's unclear how it'll be monitored and enforced

Follower engagements

• Reads and engagements from followers earn more
• There's also a distribution boost for stories from people you follow

Referral bonus program

• The follower bonus will replace it
• The referral bonus will be discontinued, so here's your last chance to sign-up via my link if you haven't already

Join Medium with my referral link - Niki Tisza

Medium wants the Partner Program to be more accessible, reward quality and engagement, and eventually create a more meaningful connection between writers and readers.

How the changes affect story earnings

According to the article, engagement points, follower bonuses, boost bonuses, and read ratio will all affect our earnings.

I'm curious to see how these factors will affect my earnings. It'll be a good measure to see when I produce quality writing in the future.

For posterity, here's my earnings from July 2023:

Medium earnings in July 2023 — screenshot by the author

Can it be less than $22.54?

I have just over 50 articles published, but only 5 stories earn me $1 or more each month.

If we do the math, only 10% of my writing is 'quality'.

No, I'm not sad about it.

It signals that I can write quality articles, but only some of my stories will hit the mark. And that's okay.

We all need to create a lot of stuff to find out what works.

I’ll just keep swimming in the ocean of Medium.

Stay tuned because I'm planning to report back in 3 months.

If you're new to me, my name is Niki. Writing about my solopreneur experiments and adventures is one of my favourite things to do. If you'd like to know more about me:

About Me — Niki Tisza

Also, if you don’t mind sharing, I’d like to know what part of the Medium Partner Program changes you find most exciting and/or concerning.