Is the Medium Partner Program worth it?

I would say that it is worth it to join the Partner Program if you are eligible.

I am laying so much emphasis on the if because all Medium writers aren’t eligible for the partner program.

Why?

Because Stripe isn’t available in many countries around the world (including India). This is one of the biggest drawbacks of Medium, that is, it only offers payments through Stripe.

Many writers whose stories and articles aren’t behind the metered paywall have approached Medium many times but nothing happened. The sole demand of the writers is to introduce PayPal as one of the payment methods. But, sadly, no steps have been taken as of yet.

Now, coming to a point as to why the Partner program is worth it. The sole reason for this question is to earn money from your articles, which Medium pays quite generously if your articles are written keeping in mind the taste of Medium curators and editors.

Top Medium writers earn thousands of dollars every month writing articles on Medium. But, Medium is not a constant source of income for most writers. Most writers on Medium find it difficult to even buy a cup of coffee from their Medium articles.

One of the biggest upsides to Medium is that you do own the content you create (I believe this is true even if you are contributing to a third-party publication). At any point, you are allowed to tweak, edit, or publish your content elsewhere.

90% of writers in the Medium partner program earn less than $100 per month (this includes earning nothing or no more than a few bucks too). Nobody knows how exactly are the earnings calculated and a lot depends on whether Medium editors like your post and include it among the features posts or not.

One major downside of the Medium partner program is that you cannot promote anything in paid posts - you cannot use links to your products or books, for instance, and you cannot use a subscription form to grow your email list.

So, whether it’s worth joining or not depends on how much is the prospect of earning less than $100 per month (in all likelihood) worth to you, and would you rather grow your email list and promote your products or services instead.

It’s also worth noting, though, that Medium pushes and promotes paid stories and tends to neglect the free ones. This means that it’s now harder to get noticed if you publish free stories unless you already have a fan base and large following on social media.

Nevertheless, writers still publish their articles on Medium, even if they don’t earn any money. The reason is just that Medium provides them with a platform for readers who are enthusiastic about reading what others have to say.

Quora and Vocal Media are also great platforms to write articles, but sadly, Quora is so saturated that many quality articles fail to even get over 1k views and Vocal Media also has the same problem, that is, it supports only Stripe payments.

Hence, I would say that Medium is a great place to express your thoughts which have the potential to resonate with the readers. If you are already a writer on Medium and if you were going to do the writing anyway, what have you got to lose (in case you are eligible)? Except for the time it takes to join and read up on the payment process etc

So, that’s all!

I am also a Medium (and Vocal) writer, even I don’t earn any money because I am from India. You can follow me on Medium (and Vocal) for more articles on books, design, productivity, music, and life!