The Medium Partner Program
Why I am yet to sign up
I started my journey of writing on this website 3 years ago now, and I have always been keen to try and monetise my articles, as I believe they are of a standard which people would enjoy enough to consistently read. Whilst I may not be an avid Medium user other than writing, I do enjoy the app and I would like to use it more.
The new update for Medium has removed the requirement for a person to have 100 followers or more to earn money on their work, something much maligned by me and other newer users. Instead, a person is now required to have a medium paid account for $5/£4 a month. This would be a pretty good deal if you are a keen Medium reader, but I do struggle to find the time to read other people’s work, plus when I read into it, I found another issue I had with it.
In order for a person to make money on this website, your articles are only fully accessible to people who are also members on the site. Therefore, it would mean those who are not regular users of Medium and therefore do not pay for a membership cannot read the articles I post. I would potentially like to make money in future for writing, but it just feels wrong, and it would ruin the positive mental benefits I receive from having interactions with readers.
I have stated previously, but people I have not spoken to in years have told me how my articles have helped them. In one instance, it was realising the mistakes of the past and to apologise for their prior behaviour in order to grow; another time, it was somebody feeling heard and feeling a little less alone in this modern age; there was also a former friend who shares the same passion as me to write, and wants to follow my confidence and courage to write and publish it to the world.
It even goes further than that. People who I consider friends, or who I work with, have told me in person how much they enjoy my work. Those little interactions offer dopamine from unusual and random interactions, and when I am at my lowest or suffering with low self confidence or feeling down, these minor conversations do me the world of good. This would cease to be if I decided to make my account for subscribers/members only.
Again, I would love to make money to write in future, but I will not sacrifice it to lose some of the best compliments a writer could received. Making £0.89 a month is not worth it if I can’t share my opinion with the people I care about and cannot show my personality to people who know me but not this side of me. So, I will continue to write for passion and a release, and if I ever seriously consider the prospect of joining the partnership programme, I would find a way to still share my writing with those friends and colleagues who want to read my work.
