A tweaked and faulty algorithm caused thousands of writers to lose their income in an order of magnitude reducing daily rates to cents or ZERO amounts persistently.
Thank you for shedding light on this situation. I don't have a very large Medium following, but I was stoked to have 1K followers with 25 subscribers. I was earning enough to pay for premium membership plus a tidy sum, somewhere between $50 and $100 monthly if I really applied myself.
I was preparing to go all-in on Medium when my earnings dried up to about a cup of coffee per month. My own curiosity lead me to your article, here.
Prior to that, I reached out to an online friend (and former prolific Medium writer). I asked her how long did she know that Medium was being sketchy with revenue sharing. She told me she's known since two years ago, when she stopped writing there, opting to return to WordPress, of all places.
I'm still weighing my options, but I'm leaning towards creating here on Substack, leveraging it with my Medium following. I'd hate to leave behind the wonderful community I've forged at Medium, but signs do point to me making that move.
I never expected to make a windfall at Medium, nor did I expect to earn a living wage from writing there alone, but I do have my pride. The thought of me earning pennies while Medium pockets dividends off my content -- all without being transparent on what revenue is being earned -- it doesn't sit well with me.
I couldn't participate in the poll because I am unsure and I've also started posting on Substack, but keeping up with all of this is dizzying! Still, Mehmet, I so appreciate your activism and wise advice.
I agree with your findings. I started out on Medium and only got a few cents over my time there. They wouldn't even pay out until I reach a certain amount but I never could. So I just left. That's why I'm here now.
It's so sad that I earned 1.14 cents in January. I hardly made money on Medium, but I made a little more, and the kind comments made it fun. That little incentive made me want to work more, and I loved it. Writing does not come easy for me. Seeing the money go up a little and the comments was the dopamine I needed. I am still writing but it isn't quite as exciting as it was,
I'm the pay-in-advance kind, usually. I might have to rethink that since I'm paid through September 2025 on Medium, along with a FoM subscription, also prepaid.
This morning, I actually saw a tiny uptick in Medium earnings. But I've pretty much withdrawn from there. I've only published three pieces since Jan 1, two of them quick and easy stories. Still 4500k claps and and 230 reads for those three. Along with stories from 2024, my total earnings on Medium are under $10 this month.
Trouble is, I've lost my momentum. I haven't been writing much, even for Substack. I've put more focus on Storyworth, which is not for pay, but for a hardbound book at the end of a year--mine ends in June.
Eager to learn more about how to make money here on Substack, though that isn't my main driver. I'm not a marketer and I'm not usually interested in stories on how to make money. I just want to write.
Absolutely true! Last few months Substack also suspended accounts as the platform became target to scammers. But they assess the situation and recover authentic writers unlike Medium which does not even answer the pleas. Thanks for your valuable feedback.
You are welcome. I contend this is a phase. Medium is changing its monetization algorithm yet again, and it will be a rough time until its predictive analytics algorithm learns. For instance, a writer who has been making $1k per month for the last 3 years has dipped to $50 with this change - all things being equal as before (velocity, quality, readership, etc. - that use case is bound to raise a flag and human intervention to review what went wrong, tweak and run again. I would not give up yet! ;-)
Medium is playing with fire. They are going to lose good talent and lack of transparency will cause mistrust for quite some time. I've been very disillusioned with this platform lately and I can't speak for all writers but I believe the platform collapses when those they depend on for content goes elsewhere.
Médium kicked me off 2 years ago for insulting myself, and didn’t let me know my payment method was no longer valid until last week. Over two years, I “forfeited” over $700.00. The email notification allowed me to update my payment information, but why didn’t the money just go to Stripe, which has been paying me reliably from two other platforms for years?
If you got booted or decide to quit, take everything down or make sure you’re still getting paid.
They are fighting scammers. In order to do this, they are adjusting the algorithms. They can't share much detail, nor are the ever going to be able to tell us exactly how we're paid, because they can't write a new algorithmic playbook and hand it to the scammers. I am riding it out.
I was never a fan of the boost program. Forcing writers to conform to what the gatekeepers at Medium wanted is, in my opinion, a form of censorship. Want to make money? Write exactly what we want.
At this point I don't even know where our money is going. There's a lot of money going somewhere, and it's not the writers.
I've made the move over to Substack (something I dragged my feet on for far too long). It's really unfortunate Medium is doing this. I don't think they realize just how many writers are going to bounce (and how many subscribers they take with them).
This tragedy has been hard for me because I have never done what I was accused of doing. I never even had a chance before I found it was taken from me.
However, knowing that you care deeply for the authentic writer and want us to succeed is heartwarming. It is appreciated. Sincerely. Thank you.
As has become painfully apparent, Medium has kicked off 2025 by brazenly snatching its friends pocketbooks.
As a gesture of solidarity with those who’ve protested by downgrading from FoM to regular membership, I attempted to do so according to instructions by Sam W:
"If you go to the ‘settings’ section under your profile, you can find the Membership and Payment section. Right at the top, there’ll be a button called ‘manage membership.’
That one will take you to the page where you can change your membership level."
Surprise! — the “Membership and Payment” function has been disabled.
“501 error — apologies, [ha!] but something went wrong on our end.”
Seems management has caught on to the mass exodus.
Dear friend, I've requested that you're a great and senior author, I think you can write an article about the substack— how it processes and all. Well, there is already info available, but we really need to know from your experience here so far.
Hi Anam, I wrote 2 books about Substack in 2024. I shared the chapters on Medium and free versions on my website links to each chapter on the top. You can also become a member of this publication to read and listen to all chapters. In addition our editor and media coordinator Aiden turned my books into education programs and share the videos here. We have a lot educational content. You might start with this doc on Medium which will give you access to relevant chapters.
I've upgraded because "anyone upgrading to monthly $5 will get my founding membership value of $500 annually, including my personal mentoring/coaching services plus the Tier 3 privileges of the Substack Mastery Boost pilot."
I came to medium late. Started January last year. Have around 200 plus articles there. Maybe 50 subscribers and pennies for articles. I started my crazy old man here a couple days into this month. I think I already have 30+ plus subscribers and as of yesterday 5 paying subscribers. Still learning the platform but I'm pretty sure I'm not focusing on medium. I like the platform (medium) but feel the entire mindset is off. I'm not ranting about the payment plan. It is what it is. I think there philosophy got skewed. It's like education. Stay stuck in a belief while the world passes you by. Think about it. We have notes, podcasts that connect to you tube and other platforms. Read aloud articles. No real moderators. I mean come on. I was wasn't sure at the start. But really. My monkey brain just found a banana in a tree. That means only one thing. Time to set up camp
Thank you for shedding light on this situation. I don't have a very large Medium following, but I was stoked to have 1K followers with 25 subscribers. I was earning enough to pay for premium membership plus a tidy sum, somewhere between $50 and $100 monthly if I really applied myself.
I was preparing to go all-in on Medium when my earnings dried up to about a cup of coffee per month. My own curiosity lead me to your article, here.
Prior to that, I reached out to an online friend (and former prolific Medium writer). I asked her how long did she know that Medium was being sketchy with revenue sharing. She told me she's known since two years ago, when she stopped writing there, opting to return to WordPress, of all places.
I'm still weighing my options, but I'm leaning towards creating here on Substack, leveraging it with my Medium following. I'd hate to leave behind the wonderful community I've forged at Medium, but signs do point to me making that move.
I never expected to make a windfall at Medium, nor did I expect to earn a living wage from writing there alone, but I do have my pride. The thought of me earning pennies while Medium pockets dividends off my content -- all without being transparent on what revenue is being earned -- it doesn't sit well with me.
I couldn't participate in the poll because I am unsure and I've also started posting on Substack, but keeping up with all of this is dizzying! Still, Mehmet, I so appreciate your activism and wise advice.
Very fed up with Medium and the lack of response to anything!!
I agree with your findings. I started out on Medium and only got a few cents over my time there. They wouldn't even pay out until I reach a certain amount but I never could. So I just left. That's why I'm here now.
It's so sad that I earned 1.14 cents in January. I hardly made money on Medium, but I made a little more, and the kind comments made it fun. That little incentive made me want to work more, and I loved it. Writing does not come easy for me. Seeing the money go up a little and the comments was the dopamine I needed. I am still writing but it isn't quite as exciting as it was,
I'm the pay-in-advance kind, usually. I might have to rethink that since I'm paid through September 2025 on Medium, along with a FoM subscription, also prepaid.
This morning, I actually saw a tiny uptick in Medium earnings. But I've pretty much withdrawn from there. I've only published three pieces since Jan 1, two of them quick and easy stories. Still 4500k claps and and 230 reads for those three. Along with stories from 2024, my total earnings on Medium are under $10 this month.
Trouble is, I've lost my momentum. I haven't been writing much, even for Substack. I've put more focus on Storyworth, which is not for pay, but for a hardbound book at the end of a year--mine ends in June.
Eager to learn more about how to make money here on Substack, though that isn't my main driver. I'm not a marketer and I'm not usually interested in stories on how to make money. I just want to write.
Even Substack can treat you as a spammer or bot and ban you from your own business despite writing 200 posts for over a year and paying them 10% of earnings. When algorithmic changes are made or faulty trust and safety ones are deployed without user feedback and pilot testing, this is often the result. here’s my story - https://open.substack.com/pub/techmadesimpleguide/p/getting-caught-in-the-algorithm?r=1si0oc&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Absolutely true! Last few months Substack also suspended accounts as the platform became target to scammers. But they assess the situation and recover authentic writers unlike Medium which does not even answer the pleas. Thanks for your valuable feedback.
You are welcome. I contend this is a phase. Medium is changing its monetization algorithm yet again, and it will be a rough time until its predictive analytics algorithm learns. For instance, a writer who has been making $1k per month for the last 3 years has dipped to $50 with this change - all things being equal as before (velocity, quality, readership, etc. - that use case is bound to raise a flag and human intervention to review what went wrong, tweak and run again. I would not give up yet! ;-)
Medium is playing with fire. They are going to lose good talent and lack of transparency will cause mistrust for quite some time. I've been very disillusioned with this platform lately and I can't speak for all writers but I believe the platform collapses when those they depend on for content goes elsewhere.
Médium kicked me off 2 years ago for insulting myself, and didn’t let me know my payment method was no longer valid until last week. Over two years, I “forfeited” over $700.00. The email notification allowed me to update my payment information, but why didn’t the money just go to Stripe, which has been paying me reliably from two other platforms for years?
If you got booted or decide to quit, take everything down or make sure you’re still getting paid.
They are fighting scammers. In order to do this, they are adjusting the algorithms. They can't share much detail, nor are the ever going to be able to tell us exactly how we're paid, because they can't write a new algorithmic playbook and hand it to the scammers. I am riding it out.
I am 100% with you.
I was never a fan of the boost program. Forcing writers to conform to what the gatekeepers at Medium wanted is, in my opinion, a form of censorship. Want to make money? Write exactly what we want.
At this point I don't even know where our money is going. There's a lot of money going somewhere, and it's not the writers.
I've made the move over to Substack (something I dragged my feet on for far too long). It's really unfortunate Medium is doing this. I don't think they realize just how many writers are going to bounce (and how many subscribers they take with them).
This tragedy has been hard for me because I have never done what I was accused of doing. I never even had a chance before I found it was taken from me.
However, knowing that you care deeply for the authentic writer and want us to succeed is heartwarming. It is appreciated. Sincerely. Thank you.
(posted on my page)
Un-Friending Medium
It’s a one-way friendship— their way
As has become painfully apparent, Medium has kicked off 2025 by brazenly snatching its friends pocketbooks.
As a gesture of solidarity with those who’ve protested by downgrading from FoM to regular membership, I attempted to do so according to instructions by Sam W:
"If you go to the ‘settings’ section under your profile, you can find the Membership and Payment section. Right at the top, there’ll be a button called ‘manage membership.’
That one will take you to the page where you can change your membership level."
Surprise! — the “Membership and Payment” function has been disabled.
“501 error — apologies, [ha!] but something went wrong on our end.”
Seems management has caught on to the mass exodus.
Dear friend, I've requested that you're a great and senior author, I think you can write an article about the substack— how it processes and all. Well, there is already info available, but we really need to know from your experience here so far.
Regards
Anam
Thank you
Hi Anam, I wrote 2 books about Substack in 2024. I shared the chapters on Medium and free versions on my website links to each chapter on the top. You can also become a member of this publication to read and listen to all chapters. In addition our editor and media coordinator Aiden turned my books into education programs and share the videos here. We have a lot educational content. You might start with this doc on Medium which will give you access to relevant chapters.
https://medium.com/illumination/listen-now-the-audio-version-of-substack-mastery-is-available-for-subscribers-bd2b91adacdf
If you are not on Medium you may check this on Substack.
https://drmehmetyildiz.substack.com/p/audio-files-for-substack-mastery
I've upgraded because "anyone upgrading to monthly $5 will get my founding membership value of $500 annually, including my personal mentoring/coaching services plus the Tier 3 privileges of the Substack Mastery Boost pilot."
Yay!
I came to medium late. Started January last year. Have around 200 plus articles there. Maybe 50 subscribers and pennies for articles. I started my crazy old man here a couple days into this month. I think I already have 30+ plus subscribers and as of yesterday 5 paying subscribers. Still learning the platform but I'm pretty sure I'm not focusing on medium. I like the platform (medium) but feel the entire mindset is off. I'm not ranting about the payment plan. It is what it is. I think there philosophy got skewed. It's like education. Stay stuck in a belief while the world passes you by. Think about it. We have notes, podcasts that connect to you tube and other platforms. Read aloud articles. No real moderators. I mean come on. I was wasn't sure at the start. But really. My monkey brain just found a banana in a tree. That means only one thing. Time to set up camp