“Quiet Quitting” Medium? Or Just Spending Time Elsewhere.
The best way to have a healthy relationship with the creator economy is to diversify your income streams.
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ISSUE #41
October 18, 2022
Happy Tuesday, PITP Community!
A fellow writer I admire recently wrote a story about writers “quiet quitting” Medium. She mentioned my name as one of the “quiet quitters” - writers just slipping away because the ability to make money and the reach on Medium isn’t what it used to be.
It’s true.
There’s been a mass exodus of great (and not-so-great) writers quietly leaving after every significant change Medium implements. And there have been a lot of substantial changes.
The biggest: In July, Ev Williams, the founder, stepped down, replacing himself with Tony Stubblebine, the chief executive of the online coaching company Coach.me fame to try to grow Medium which has been struggling with its direction, how to pay writers and gain readers to sign up for its monthly subscription.
The writer also mentioned the loud quitters, or as she called it, writers who “flounce.”
I get a kick out of the loud quitters or the “flouncers” (is that a word?).
These are the egos who, before they quit, write a long-winded post before leaving - temper-tantrum style - crap all over the platform that helped build their audience and granted them the opportunity to make money writing.
In my experience, most of the loud quitters eventually return with their tails between their legs, making some excuse for their return.
I didn’t flounce, nor have I quit. Although, I appreciate the mention in her post.
The last story I published was on August 31, so it hasn’t even been a month. Geez. Can’t a girl work on some other projects?
The definition of a quitter is someone who gives up easily. I published on Medium every day for six months and then five times a week for nearly three years.
What I gained in spades:
an audience
a writing habit
the ability to take that habit to other spaces and opportunities
I most definitely will publish on Medium again.
I doubt I will ever totally “quit” Medium. It is just too good of a platform to quickly build an audience with little effort on the writer’s part.
To build an audience quickly on Medium, one must write quality posts and do it consistently.
Here is the absolute I’ve held in my head since I first hit “publish” on my first Medium story,
Medium is a social media platform.
Medium is a social media platform.
Medium is a social media platform.
They own the algorithm. You do not.
Medium is a business. Usually, businesses want to make money. All of them have to turn a profit to stay in business. You may own your content on Medium, but they get to determine who and how many people see it.
Some of you may know I started writing on Medium back in 2019 and had quick success. Making more money than I thought was possible. It was much easier back then to stand out, and writers made thousands a month. I was one of them.
Consistently making 7 - 10K a month from writing on Medium was very possible then.
Shaunta Grimes was the first writer I read and followed on Medium. Her writing inspired me to plunk down the $50 bucks for a yearly membership. I thought, I can do this. I can make money on this platform.
I signed up for her course right away. She had just opened an online workshop for new writers and we’d get together weekly via zoom (this was before COVID!).
The most valuable information she gave was, “don’t put all your writing eggs in one basket. You need to diversify your income streams.”
Especially if one of those income streams is built on the back of a social media platform.
Medium is a social media platform. The algorithm doesn’t belong to you. It’s manipulated by many factors of which you have no control, just like Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook.
Social media platforms control us and our behaviors. They control our minds via algorithm. You may think I’m being hyperbolic, but no, I am not.
We are spoon-fed content based on data points big tech collects every second we scroll.
It is really that simple. And that frightening.
Do not get used to a certain amount of money you make from Medium because it will change. I’m not sure the 7K months will be possible again.
A while back, when everyone’s views started to tank on Medium, like crypto is currently tanking (do not sell, hold), I published a post on Medium titled, “It’s Time to Write for Free.” And while I think that may be true for the newbie writer who doesn’t yet have an audience, it is no longer true for me.
I’ll still publish on Medium when I have something of value to share, but I won’t be feeding the algorithm to stay relevant on Medium or to keep my views up. I can make more money if I concentrate my time elsewhere.
I will no longer work for free or for little money. I will no longer write for little compensation to bring readers to Medium.
So while it is true I will continue to use Medium to gain followers, like any other social media platform, I’m writing and creating elsewhere so that I can build a reliable, sustainable income.
Relevant reading:
Ev Williams calls it quits as CEO of Medium
Thank you to those who subscribe to this newsletter. You keep me writing.
See you next Tuesday! Have a fabulous week.
xoxoxo
I say, BRING BACK #XANGA!!!