Why, After 3 Years, I Canceled My Medium Membership

The platform feeds off writers like me.

I first began writing on Medium around 2016.

The first account was canceled by Medium for being promotional after a couple of years, which it wasn’t.

I then started with another account around 2018, which is the account I’m currently using.

In the late part of 2022, I started writing more seriously on Medium and became a member, which I’ve been until now.

For a few months, I was even a Friend of Medium, but the rest of the time just a basic $5/month member.

I’ve published 145 articles so far.

I’ve decided to cancel my basic membership, yet it will still be valid for four days from today.

Most writers on Medium will understand why I’m canceling, yet I would guess I stuck it out longer than most — three years of continuous membership.

All in all, I’ve probably made around half of what I’ve put into the platform, and for the most part, the articles on Medium aren’t worth paying to read — unless you want to hear about how successful the liberal-minded writers are who fit the mold here (the small click that actually makes money).

Medium isn’t a place where conservative-minded people can do well, as far as I’ve seen; judging by my own experience as a conservative and having never seen another conservative being boosted or doing well.

I’ve never been boosted or curated here.

The struggle for me is I like this writing platform, yet it doesn’t like me…

All the writers who did like me over these years are gone as far as I can tell.

As far as I can tell, all there is here is a hundred or so liberal-minded writers who fit the mold and make money; the rest are bots, spammers, and fly-by-night marketing types — the ones who follow thousands of people and then unfollow them after they get a certain amount of followers, etc.

Medium isn’t about rewarding people for their writing, nor giving writers an equal chance to be read and appreciated; rather, it is simply a place where they suck the money from the vast majority of writers and reward the click of brown nosers who fit their liberal-minded mold.

Maybe, I shouldn’t expect any more from a place called “Medium”, which alludes to occultic practices…

Medium, in my opinion, has the best design and experience for writers and readers, yet this benefit no longer outweighs the negatives for me.

The biggest negative is losing money every month. This trend has been getting worse and worse until now I make nearly nothing (less than .50 cents) even with 5–10 articles published each month.

I find that publications don’t help much either.

Medium simply doesn’t give the vast percentage of articles any visibility. The management actively suppresses 95% of the writers, so they lose money each month.

That is the model Medium has in mind — market the platform as a place where any writer can come and make money, yet actively suppress 95% of them, so the 5% and management can make money off them…

Well, they are no longer going to make any money off me each month. I know it isn’t much, but that is the attitude they are counting on, for us to continue paying the $5-$15/month thinking we can somehow build ourselves on the platform and eventually make money.

Well, I’ve done this consistently for 3 years, writing 145 original articles, and I haven’t built anything except for their bank accounts.

Think about it, 200k writers paying $5/month = $1 million each month. Plus the “Friends of Medium” suckers…

Then, they pay about 4% of writers enough to keep them hoping (say $5-$100/month) and about 1% of writers above $100. There are probably about 100 writers who make more than $500/month, and a dozen that make more than $1k/mo.

Overall, they probably pay out around $1 million to writers each year, which leaves the management and owners $11 million/year just from membership dues…

Think about it writers, Medium is a scam.

Funny, they make a big deal about booting scammers off the platform while they are the real scammers…

And we are the real suckers.

This is why I’m done trying on Medium as a member.

I will continue to publish articles here because it does have good SEO authority, yet I will be $5 richer every month.

Plus, I like being a conservative Christian on a very liberal-minded platform; what good does it do to preach to the choir always?

So writers, don’t follow me or read my articles thinking I will help you make money.

Maybe they will even boot me off the platform as a useless eater…Oh well…

The sad part is I’m not losing anything, I’m actually gaining something from canceling my membership — and you might consider doing the same.

Blessings in Jesus my writing friends, it’s been fun. I’m moving on to more equitable efforts.

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