Join Me On Substack for Free!

Since Medium now works extra hard to limit the reach of my writing, I ask myself: Why should I penalize the readers by making them pay?

Dear readers, friends, and fellow concerned citizens, I am here to announce that it is more important to get out the message than to earn the pittance that Medium now passes on from you to us, the writers. I earned more from my 16 followers and five articles in 2020 than I do from my supposed 8000+ followers and 26 articles five years later.

How can that be, right?

Having given up, though, on regarding writing as a part-time job that helped cover some of life’s rising costs, I started focusing my attention more on reaching people. Herein lies the problem. Medium can’t completely shut off earnings for “engagement,” (remember, the formula for engagement is clapping+comment+hightlight+time=more money). Like good internet-savvy folks, we obeyed, and in some cases returned some of the lost earnings.

Now, though, they are simply pointing the algorithm in a different direction, away from writers like me, and toward their favorites, big names, publications, etc. A good day for me is 200 reads. Two years ago, a slow day was 500 reads. Maybe I whine too much. Maybe my writing has become irrelevant, or, dare I say, perhaps I am not a good writer.

Here’s what I am proposing.

Join me for free on Substack. I will post the title of my articles and the first paragraph here on Medium. If you want to read more, you click on the link.

Try it with this article.

Join Me On Substack for Free!

To all of my paid subscribers on Substack, I plan on doing once-monthly “long reads,” like articles over 15 minutes, so that you don’t waste your money by becoming a paying subscriber.

With this move, I will voluntarily drive my Medium earnings to near zero. Let the money-obsessed Medium fat-cats enjoy the pittance. Nonetheless, I will not be ending my relationship with Medium for an assortment of reasons.

Here is what I will ask of you. I created an account on Kofi. Clicking this link will take you to the latest article on Substack. If you like it, you can “tip” me $2 for the month, week, article, or year. Whatever you like. Leave a comment, say hi, whatever. It’s up to you!

Join me. I no longer want to be taken advantage of by the platform that claims to “love writers” so much. I respect Medium for what they were and what it did, but the platform has lost its way. I am not canceling my account, however, in the hope that they get their shit squared away.

Good luck to all of you, and Medium. Hope to see you on Substack.

B Kean