Why I Am Pissed at Medium
“If you aren’t cheating you aren’t trying”
-Al Davis
A few years ago I had to write an unusually long letter. It was the first time I have had to string together anything over 3 paragraphs since my early 20s. At the time I was in my late 40’s and it was not pretty.
I knew about Medium and figured I’d blog a little bit to get my writing back in shape. Maybe get back to a 6th-grade English level (a man can dream) and read what the rest of you fools think about the world.
That was January 2019 if memory serves.
I didn’t want to be a writer, in fact, the idea anyone reads anything I write is mind-boggling. But the freedom one gets when you DO NOT have to do something is motivating. That motivation is only intensified by my decision to write under a Pen Name and share my real thoughts and feelings without censoring myself.
I do have a tendency to speak my mind in general but I’ve learned over the years that my level of honesty (especially my level of snark, sarcasm, and shit-talking) isn’t always appreciated. Well, not until I started blogging I guess.
I had no idea how Medium worked, (still dont to be honest) so when I realized people were reading my musings my jaw dropped. Then when I realized an open letter to a guy that owns a football media site had over a 100 reads i was dumbfounded.
That’s when I realized I could use links back to my stories as opposed to cutting and pasting, thus allowing Medium to track reads.
About that time Medium started pestering me about the MEDIUM PARTNER PROGRAM. I had less than 10 people following me and I knew it really wasn’t going to have much value so I half set it up and just ignored it.
Medium wasn’t ok with that and HOUNDED me with reminders and emails until I set up a Stripe account and gave them tax info. From start to finish, I think I took over a year to set the program up.
During that time we had the pandemic in full swing and I was bored at home so I started doing heavy research into things and writing about them. Mostly local Los Angeles Politics, but the topics were all over the place.
A few of the Medium publications wanted to put up things I’d written, so that started happening. It gave me increased visibility within Medium, which was good as prior to that my readers were primarily non-Medium members.
I write for 5 or 6 publications but really gravitate to POLITICALLY SPEAKING. The editor (Scott Tarlo) has mercilessly torn my shit apart for the better part of a year, making me more disciplined. He’ll hate this article and want to rip it to shreds.
Back in 2020, I decided to try and post 3 pieces a month. Not for any specific reason other than it’s more discipline and makes me finish things I’m writing.
During this time I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the PARTNER PROGRAM numbers as I didnt really focus on amassing a huge number of Medium member followers. I also still let things I’d write get out into the world in non-link form, denying me precious data/stats.
The piece with the most Medium recorded readers (A piece about LA Mayor Eric Garcetti) was only 27% internal. Another popular one (Most important Punk Records of All Time) is only 11% internal. So my focus wasn’t to try and get Medium members to read my work, but I had a couple of months where I passed 1,000 reads (small to most of you, incomprehensible to me) which certainly was encouraging.
I had been in the Partner Program for over a year before I checked it. As you would expect my Medium subscription was more than I was recieving through the program. I have actually been paid more than my monthly Medium subscription costs twice. Financially insignificant, but again, very encouraging.
The real value was the prism it offered me to see who was reading my work and how certain topics worked and what didn’t.
So, earlier this year when Medium decided the threshold to be in the program they pestered me for a year to be in was going to be 100 subs, I was pretty pissed. Up to that point getting more subs had never crossed my mind. I wrote whatever I felt like writing and put energy into the world outside Medium seeing it. Ostensibly driving traffic back to the Medium platform.
I am sure it wasn't intentional, but it was also annoying that they waited until I found real value in it to pull it from me like Lucy and the football as Charlie Brown runs up to kick it (it’s a Peanuts reference for those of you too young. Comic strip from the newspaper….doesn’t matter — keep reading).
I feel like they should have given those who wanted to stay in the program the option to be grandfathered in and they could set the bar wherever they want for the new members.
Of course, no one asked me, so I reached out.
I sent two emails with varying levels of pissiness to Medium and received ZERO response. Awesome! Killer respect to show your members. Way to make people you are ‘helping to establish their voice’, feel they have no voice.
I do receive bi-monthly emails saying, “Your audience is growing” and I have only been encouraged to promote my work outside Medium in such a way as to force non-members to read on the platform. Thus helping to build Medium.
A handful of people have signed up specifically to read my nonsense. Between those few misguided souls and my political research pieces, getting the traction they have, I feel like I bring more to the platform than I cost.
So I came up with a plan to rig the system a little. I mean, “if you aren’t cheating you aren’t trying” as the saying goes. It’s also completely within the rules Medium recently changed and threw on me like a piano.
THE PLAN
I am 59 followers from the threshold. If you guys help me out with a courtesy follow, I will not only do the same, but once at a 100 I will randomly pick a follower to gift a year of Medium to.
Here is where it gets good…
Should the person who wins say, “I’m cool, give it to someone who needs it more”, I will add a 2nd gifted membership to a random follower.
Should those two also tell me to “pay it forward”, I’ll bring it up to 4 memberships. As of now, I’m going to cap it there, but I may be willing to let it ride awhile.
The drawing will be from my entire follower’s list once I pass a 100, both current and new subscribers will be eligible.
Let’s all work together to use Medium to Monkey Wrench Medium, shall we?
God, I love the First Amendment.
