It's adapt or die time on Medium - will you quit or fight? (This Week in Side Hustling)

Whenever I write about my earnings on Medium as a way of teaching what does and doesn’t work, most people respond in a positive way.

They are genuinely interested in learning the platform and getting better, and they see my earnings as aspirational - not something to be jealous of.

But there is a small segment that responds with “Wow, must be nice to be one of the chosen ones” or some variation of that.

Nothing encapsulates a loser’s mentality better.

Let me explain why.

Writing on Medium is a roller-coaster, with good times and challenging times. (Licensed by the author under the Unsplash+ License)

The roller-coaster that is Medium.com

I did well pretty fast on Medium and I earned it.

I found a couple of small sub-niche communities that responded to my writing, published 30+ times a month in the beginning, and spent 20-40 minutes per day (EVERY DAY) on top of that reading and interacting with other people’s stories.

I’ve been writing on Medium for 2+ years and let me tell you: it has not been a smooth path.

Prior to the August 2023 Medium Partner Program changes, I was living high on the hog.

At that point, I was one year into my journey and I had really figured out who I was as a writer and what people wanted from me.

I did big views and made good money.

Between the high RPM that Medium paid at the time and the high exchange rate, I was pulling in close to $4,000 per month.

And I thought it would last forever.

“All my money problems are solved!” I’d say every month when a big payment would drop in my bank account.

Then, in a flash, almost all of it disappeared.

The new MPP heavily subsidized engagement metrics, which meant that short-form scammers and spammers could suddenly make thousands of dollars posting complete and utter s**t (as I predicted would happen at the time).

Meanwhile, writers like me - you know, legit ones who had large back catalogs and who posted 800-1,000 word stories that a lot of people wanted to read - suddenly found ourselves earning 70% less overnight.

The big drop in earnings in August 2023.

I am not ashamed to say I went through a bit of a depression at that point.

When you’re rolling along and everything is cranking on all cylinders, it’s a great high.

When that high wears off, the withdrawals are bad.

Withdrawal pain

It did take me a while to shake it off.

My pity party lasted a full two months.

And you know what was born from that pain?

My Publish Every Day project, which as of this writing is on day 496 and has earned me $36,763.

It occurred to me in October of that year that what I was earning under the new system would have thrilled me as a newbie writer.

So, I decided to take a beginner’s mentality and build from the ground up again under the new system.

After a small earnings recovery, I was getting 50% of my previous pay.

I could have kept crying, but I resolved instead to double my views to make up for the shortfall (and I did).

PED update 1: Day 496

PED update 2: Day 496

I’ve had other hiccups.

Twice my account was suspended because it got caught up in the new spam filters (I still couldn’t tell you why) and I lost several days of earnings.

I thought I’d accidentally run afoul of the rules and was worried each time that it was all over for me.

I kept writing through it all, because I believed in the platform and believed that, for all the foibles, the execs there were doing what they thought was right and would adjust when they figured out how bad things were getting for top writers.

That was until a couple months ago, when I pledged to walk away.

I wasn’t going to quit because I was mad or sad or jealous.

I just did a calculation of the best use of my time and Medium wasn’t it.

While I could swallow a $30+ RPM (down from $60+ after the 2023 MPP changes), when it plummeted $8 in early January and my views got torched, I’d had enough.

I always kept my mouth shut even as changes affected my earnings, but this time I left a respectful comment where I knew execs would see it explaining how Medium had pushed all its top writers away by rewarding engagement cheaters and paying a ridiculous 10x escalator for Boosts.

I genuinely expressed my fears that this was an existential risk.

And then, other than a couple test stories here and there, I basically shut down my efforts there.

Earnings recover huge

But as you may know if you’ve been a subscriber to this newsletter for any amount of time, I have seen a monstrous bounce-back in both my views and earnings the past couple of weeks.

Things can only get better in my opinion.

Already it appears they’ve moved back to paying less for comments and more for read time (as it should be).

And in my view, the site’s moves to torch 4,000 partner program accounts that were gaming the system and un-paywall meta stories starting in March mean Medium is turning back into a meritocracy.

And that’s where I thrive. That’s what gets me going.

I like to play, to fight, to win.

As long as the game isn’t rigged (which I felt it was at points over the past year and a half), you can sign me.

For people who made a bit of money writing “how to get rich on Medium” articles when they hadn’t actually earned dick or accomplished anything, well … it’s not ideal for them.

But it’s adapt or die time.

I’ve been crushed by earnings and algo tweaks before too, and I’ve shifted my writing style 3-4 times in two years to keep pace with those changes.

So the people who shout “you’re just a lucky chosen one!” are not only petty but misinformed.

You have two choices now: You can either cry about it and quit or you can get back to work figuring out how to thrive in the new system.

If you’re a great writer who can stay motivated for 6+ months writing and/or interacting in your niche every day to build an audience, I honestly believe you have a future there.

But if you believe Medium is a get-rich-quick platform (the way many people are treating Substack right now), don’t waste your time.

I’ll play the writing game as long as I don’t feel like it’s rigged against talented players. (Credit: James Julian/Gemini)

Medium earnings this week: $509.66

My stories are finally back to getting normal views after glitching out the previous month, which is great.

My RPM is in the $35-$39 range, which is better than it was in the wake of the August 2023 MPP changes.

Also great.

If you haven’t guessed already, I’m all in on Medium again.

YouTube earnings this week: $0.98

This is totally pathetic, but not at all unexpected given I blew up my channel.

I hid all my old Medium vids and decided to pivot to finance, but I also haven’t posted any more videos since that shift, so everything is kind of in limbo right now.

With Medium back in play as a legit side hustle, I may fire up some videos on it again, but I’ll be doing so at my second channel here. Subscribe if you want to see those.

Stock dividends earnings this week: $0.63

Also pathetic, but most of these pay out and the beginnings and ends of months so we’re in a bit of a dead zone here.

Substack and KDP earnings this week: $0

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I would highly recommend you try it if you’re finding you don’t have time for anything. You probably have way more than you think!

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What’s going on with your side hustle journey this week?

Let me know in the comments!