It will be interesting to see how it works out. Substack now has ‘experts’ who a few months ago were not on the platform but now happy for a fee to help others succeed. It’s a shame they haven’t created a Substack on another subject first!
Thanks for the update om Medium, I did not read the Medium blog post yet. I think both points are fair. But my earnings are still rubbish.
Yes, I too don't enjoy get rich quick on substack posts - in reality I don't think you. But the point of Medium or substack is the love of writing and sharing our thoughts to like minded folks. Informing and lifting people with our words.
Off topic, but has anyone applied to be a Yahoo Creator? I think it's still in the beta version and the only creators now are those that received an early invite. The reason I'm asking is because I saw an article posted there yesterday from Sean Kernan. I'm curious to know if Yahoo saw his profile on Medium and sent him an invite.
I tagged you on Medium, James 😁 yeah.. what an update. I'll share my Medium stats for 2025 and then I'll see how I'll proceed. We have monthly Q&A sessions but I'm happy Medium is just one pillar of many inside my Club. You should never rely too much on on platform
The other thing is I am glad things are better for yiu and yiur earnings are returning to Nov 23 levels. I am glad not everyone left Medium for substacks.
I hope my earning improve, I never earned a lot, but it is still painfully low.
I responded directly to Medium Admin that this assertion was incorrect at best and an outright lie at worst. “We don't have immediate plans for further tweaks or changes. Throughout these changes over the last few months, the total Partner Program payouts have stayed at consistent levels.”
Change is a constant force - even more so in the digital world, and even more so in social media.
Medium is a glorified writer's club that we all pay $50 US per year to play on.
Substack is no different.
If one approaches all of these with that mindset, it can be a big shift. Use these platforms to learn, practice in public, connect with others, and... maybe make a few $.
Make that all part of a 'creative ecosystem', and maybe something lasting and sustainable can get built.
Right there with you on the endless stream of Substack 'experts' and 'how to build on Substack' posts.
I've posted a few notes looking for suggestions of people to follow who DON'T write about "how to grow on Substack"
I am happy with these changes, particularly the meta articles. My daily Medium newsletter is filled with articles such as "how to make money on Medium" (from people who started writing 2 months ago) or "How I made $xxx in 3 months of writing on Medium" etc.
I started thinking the only way to be successful was to write about Medium articles or writing about writing, since it seems that's what everyone is doing (on both Medium and Substack).
It's like a big MLM scheme, where people regurgitate the same information as the top writers in their niche. I am happy that I will probably see more real stories than get-rich-retire-on-a-beach fake articles. I am sorry for the writers who actually had very educative content about Medium and who seemed to be really genuine about their experiences.
If their goal is to reduce the amount of Medium stories, it makes sense to no longer allow them behind the paywall. I do think writers should have a way to interact on the platform without being penalized- or maybe management could be more transparent so people would have fewer unanswered questions. It's only natural for writers to be interested in what's working for others.
I'm just happy they finally admitted they changed the Partner Program and it won't be changing back. The way Tony talked about it at first sounded like everything was business as usual.
I'm fine with the meta stories not being behind the paywall. I do think some of them are good, especially for new writers. But that's fine. I understand a lot of them bring very little value to Medium.
I'll also post my earnings on Substack.
I just hope some of my stories actually get distributed. I had one viral article last month, but everything else since then is DOA. I don't know how to break out unless I get lucky.
It will be interesting to see how it works out. Substack now has ‘experts’ who a few months ago were not on the platform but now happy for a fee to help others succeed. It’s a shame they haven’t created a Substack on another subject first!
Exactly, everyone's an expert now
Thanks for the update om Medium, I did not read the Medium blog post yet. I think both points are fair. But my earnings are still rubbish.
Yes, I too don't enjoy get rich quick on substack posts - in reality I don't think you. But the point of Medium or substack is the love of writing and sharing our thoughts to like minded folks. Informing and lifting people with our words.
Off topic, but has anyone applied to be a Yahoo Creator? I think it's still in the beta version and the only creators now are those that received an early invite. The reason I'm asking is because I saw an article posted there yesterday from Sean Kernan. I'm curious to know if Yahoo saw his profile on Medium and sent him an invite.
Interesting, might look onto it
I realize I may have missed the answer to my question, but I’m going to ask anyhow: what is a Meta story?
It's what they call stories about the Medium platform
Thank you 🙏
I tagged you on Medium, James 😁 yeah.. what an update. I'll share my Medium stats for 2025 and then I'll see how I'll proceed. We have monthly Q&A sessions but I'm happy Medium is just one pillar of many inside my Club. You should never rely too much on on platform
You definitely need to diversify
The other thing is I am glad things are better for yiu and yiur earnings are returning to Nov 23 levels. I am glad not everyone left Medium for substacks.
I hope my earning improve, I never earned a lot, but it is still painfully low.
Maybe email support and ask why … if you write mostly about writing though that might be hurting you
I have same meta stories on medium I wrote in the past. Do you think I should remove them from the paywall?
I’m leaving my past ones for now, the note said they’ll remove them if they find them
I responded directly to Medium Admin that this assertion was incorrect at best and an outright lie at worst. “We don't have immediate plans for further tweaks or changes. Throughout these changes over the last few months, the total Partner Program payouts have stayed at consistent levels.”
At least it was from my point of view.
This is encouraging. Thank you 😌
Thanks for reading!
Thanks James! You are right, I did miss the email.
My Medium earnings dropped significantly compared to last year. Better performing stories earn less.
I didn't notice any sign of recovery yet...
Sorry to hear that ... what do you write about typically? How long are your articles? What's your retention rate?
Indifferent.
Change is a constant force - even more so in the digital world, and even more so in social media.
Medium is a glorified writer's club that we all pay $50 US per year to play on.
Substack is no different.
If one approaches all of these with that mindset, it can be a big shift. Use these platforms to learn, practice in public, connect with others, and... maybe make a few $.
Make that all part of a 'creative ecosystem', and maybe something lasting and sustainable can get built.
Right there with you on the endless stream of Substack 'experts' and 'how to build on Substack' posts.
I've posted a few notes looking for suggestions of people to follow who DON'T write about "how to grow on Substack"
I am happy with these changes, particularly the meta articles. My daily Medium newsletter is filled with articles such as "how to make money on Medium" (from people who started writing 2 months ago) or "How I made $xxx in 3 months of writing on Medium" etc.
I started thinking the only way to be successful was to write about Medium articles or writing about writing, since it seems that's what everyone is doing (on both Medium and Substack).
It's like a big MLM scheme, where people regurgitate the same information as the top writers in their niche. I am happy that I will probably see more real stories than get-rich-retire-on-a-beach fake articles. I am sorry for the writers who actually had very educative content about Medium and who seemed to be really genuine about their experiences.
That's always been the biggest trap, thinking writing about Medium was the only way to make it. People with genuine info can always write here
If their goal is to reduce the amount of Medium stories, it makes sense to no longer allow them behind the paywall. I do think writers should have a way to interact on the platform without being penalized- or maybe management could be more transparent so people would have fewer unanswered questions. It's only natural for writers to be interested in what's working for others.
They should subscribe to my newsletter!
Yes, I upgraded to the paid version this month. :)
Pretty interesting development. I saw the email today as well. Sounds like a potentially good move but let's see how things will unfold.
James, I wonder what Kings of meta stories will do after 1st of March? 🤭
I'm just happy they finally admitted they changed the Partner Program and it won't be changing back. The way Tony talked about it at first sounded like everything was business as usual.
I'm fine with the meta stories not being behind the paywall. I do think some of them are good, especially for new writers. But that's fine. I understand a lot of them bring very little value to Medium.
I'll also post my earnings on Substack.
I just hope some of my stories actually get distributed. I had one viral article last month, but everything else since then is DOA. I don't know how to break out unless I get lucky.