Medium's $500k Bonus Game is Too Strong

A few writers received an email from the platform that sounded fishy or just too good to be true because it had never happened before. This came as a surprise because unlike every other month writers received two emails one which is the usual, regarding the partner program and the second with an additional $500 bonus for the month of April.

What's this bonus all about?

I'm glad you asked... You did ask didn't you? Because I'll answer this either way, thank you very much. Based on the email that only a thousand writers received the $500 bonus was to due to the engagement of these writers for the month of April. This applies to reads, claps and follows.

Since this was like no other mail writers had seen before this wasn't something they considered true or official so most of these writers weren't really exited until they realized that more people received the mail and eventually the changes made sense on their bank accounts and stripe.

All great things come to an end right? Which is why people couldn't help but ask...

Are the bonuses here to stay?

Medium's CEO hasn't made this public yet not because it's an obligation but Evan Williams doesn't miss the chance to make the most interesting changes to the platform himself, or at least under his name if that makes any sense.

Two months ago he made an announcement regarding changes that would take place on the platform this included that Medium would offer deals to some writers in and outside the platform this would include editing, maybe an article under one of their own publications and maybe more bonuses, who knows?

Who actually received the $500 bonus?

Based on the email the writers whose work gets the most attention or at least got (last month) received the email. Medium decided to give the most paid writers on the platform a $500 bonus. Need I remind you that over 90% of Medium writers don't get to make $100?

There's just no promises to those writers yet but to those making a couple of thousands which is a lot of money compared to those who can't pay for the subscription with their earnings more things might be coming your way.

When writers realized the bonus wasn't any type of scam articles about this came up as expected, this is news worth sharing, and so we did. I couldn't help it. I joined the movement and here I am doing it again this time around on Vocal Media. The above screenshot which is a piece of my thoughts around the bonus, the actual article I shared on Medium got me thinking a bit.

This came as nothing but a joke but I couldn't help to think about what and how this change on Medium would actually affect the Vocal platform, and if it would in any possible way. With Medium having over 80 million users and these changes taking place we might be looking at a much impressive number. Not to say that 80 million active users isn't but when it comes to Medium it seems like anything is possible.

On the other hand...

Vocal has over 850K users and 10M nique visitors per month which is pretty impressive. Now, although this wouldn't bring major changes initially if Medium keeps on surprising writers, creators who use both platforms may find themselves investing more time on Medium which wouldn't be the best thing for everybody.

But, Vocal still has competitions which is of course nothing to be mistaken for passive income (that just wouldn't work) but it still gives creators the opportunity to win interesting prizes and significant amount of cash depending on the competition. Now, the only unfortunate fact here or perhaps of a few is that these are only available for vocal plus creators. Yes, changes took place not so long ago.

One of the challenges after the dog challenge was made for everyone but a few hours later it wasn't available to the general public anymore. This made a few people sad because not everyone uses the vocal plus subscription and even though some stopped paying for the same most of the creators still enjoy sharing their mind on this platform. What's next?