The Dark Side of Writing on Medium

It's not all fun and games. Sometimes it's really, really frustrating.

Before I get started here, I feel like I should preface this: I do like Medium. I highly recommend it as a place for writers from all walks of life to get paid and meet some really cool people.

Yes, you can get paid some good money for writing on the site, and I do recommend it to anyone who either has a platform already or is just looking to get started.

However, there are some downsides to writing on Medium that I don’t think many people talk about - at least not much that I’ve seen. And we need to talk about them.

Stats aren’t predictable from month to month.

I’m someone who prefers predictability as much as possible. I like to look at my earnings and think, “Oh, ok… so I earned XYZ this month, so hopefully I’ll get about the same next month” and then plan from there.

It’s a great theory.

But with Medium, that doesn’t always work.

I’ve been back in the Medium Partner Program since May of 2022, and in that time, I’ve come to realize just how much stats can fluctuate from month to month. You can go from having a terrible time in one month to making bank in the next. But the opposite is also true.

For example, in March of 2023, I made $1,101.50 cents from Medium. Not bad at all. But in April, I made $373.97. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for that $373.97 and I put it to good use, but it’s a far cry from $1,101.50.

Some months I get lots of views. Others, are more lean. Is it because my content isn’t as interesting? I hope not, but that may be. Or is it that Medium is getting less traffic during those periods? I’m not sure.

Bottom line, not knowing what each month will look like does make budgeting based on Medium earnings pretty difficult. One month you might do great. The next, you might not.

And from what I can gather from other writers on the site, that variation is pretty common. I’ve written about this on Side Hustle Road too.

It’s hard to know which stories will do well.

There are a few rules which are essential for making sure content you create stands out. For example, it needs to have an interesting title, some eye catching graphics, be well structured, and so on.

But here’s the thing: I’ve found that even when I put a lot of time and effort into a story on Medium, I can’t always predict how well it will or won’t do.

There have been times I’ve spent hours writing a story for the site only to find, disappointed, that it didn’t get much traction oddly. And yet, other stories which I don’t think are that great (like this one: I’m Dumping Notion AND Jasper for a SINGLE Tool) do inexplicably well.

Of course the common sense advice to make sure you have a good title, provide value, keep your reader’s interest, etc, still applies. And I could likely do a better job of work-shopping my titles before hitting publish.

Some readers’ responses can be pretty hateful.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that this is the Internet, and not everyone here is your friend. Some people are simply jerks - to put it nicely.

When you create content on Medium (or anywhere else for that matter) be prepared to be met with some pretty harsh and rude responses. Now, overall, people on Medium are wonderful. I’ve really enjoyed reading what many people there have written, and I’ve had some great conversations with my readers and other writers.

But Medium is certainly not immune to trolls - and there are plenty.

How many you encounter may depend on your niche and the subject of any particular story, of course. I write a lot about Apple - sometimes positively and sometimes negatively.

No matter what position I take, the occasional troll pops up and leaves a rude remark. I’d like to think that’s limited to my niche, but I know it isn’t - as I can see from perusing other writers’ stories.

This is nothing new for seasoned content creators, of course. Any time you’re stepping out on the stage of the Internet, you’re making yourself the potential target of rude, vitriolic, hateful comments.

Be prepared to deal with that if you start writing on Medium.

Fortunately, Medium gives us the ability to hide responses from our stories if we need to, and we can block users if we need. Sadly I’ve had to do both at various times. While I hate to have to, it’s nice to have the ability.

You don’t own the platform.

As much as I love Medium, any time I write there, I’m acutely aware of the fact that I don’t own the platform. I have no control over its future, and that space is only rented, in effect. They could kick me out at any time, or the site could disappear at any point in the future.

That’s true for any platform I don’t own. Even Substack.

It’s a scary thought.

So while I do absolutely encourage people to check out Medium and start building an audience there - one that you can take to other platforms - I would remind those same people to keep in mind the reality that we are only on Medium at Medium’s discretion.

And taking it even further, we should consider the future of the platform. None of us knows how long Medium will be around. Of course I would love to think that it will last for a long, long time, many of us remember sites that have come and since gone - or that have come and since changed their business models, making paid contributions a thing of the past.

This is why I strongly believe - and will say again - that not owning a platform as a content creator is risky. At best.

If you do write on Medium, I highly recommend also setting up a blog or at least another platform as well. You should never rely on a single platform that you don’t own because your access to it could easily disappear at any moment.

I do recommend Medium, but…

Before you accuse me of trying to discourage you from getting started on Medium, I’m not. I do think that Medium is a great place to write and get paid (a great combination) but it’s important to understand what you’re getting into if you do decide to start writing there.

Writing on Medium isn’t all sunshine and roses. There are good things and bad. There’s a lot to like and a lot to… not. But much of this isn’t unique to Medium. Many of the same complaints could apply to any other platform as well.

But even so, understand what you’re getting into up front.