Is Medium dying or growing? Let’s take a look.

Many writers here seem to be overly fascinated with what’s going on with the Medium platform. Some read about one well-known writer leaving and start shouting from the rooftops that Medium is dead. Others see their views drop and assume that means the best days are over for the platform.

What’s the truth?

The reality is that it’s very difficult to tell because Medium doesn’t publicly release much data. But we can still look elsewhere and try to piece together what’s happening.

How many subscribers does Medium have?

Every time someone subscribes to Medium their account will be set to automatically follow the Medium Staff account. That account currently shows that it has 64 million followers. Source: Medium Staff account.

Of course, you can unfollow this account, and maybe some have done so. But we still have a good idea of the number of subscribers.

An article from October 21, shows that they had 54 million subscribers. This means that Medium has gained 10 million subscribers in the last 10 months.

Millions are likely subscribed but no longer visit the site. Only Medium will have this data.

How many paying subscribers does Medium have?

The article mentioned above says that there are 700,000 paying members as of quarter 4, 2020. That’s an increase from 400,000 in 2019.

I know that those figures are now around a year and a half out of date, but it’s the best estimate I can find.

Both the number of general members and paying members appear to be increasing, not decreasing.

How many readers visit the Medium website every month?

For these figures, I headed over to Similar Web. Their latest figures (which are estimates) show that Medium had the following visitor numbers over the last 3 months:

May — 148.5 million

June — 138.7 million

July — 136.1 million

Visitor numbers have fallen during the last two months, but that could just be because it’s summer.

The Blogging Guide reports that over the 6 months from March to August last year, the average monthly visitors was 182 million, with the high point being March, which had 234.5 million visitors.

How many pages does each visitor read?

According to Similar web, during the last 3 months, the average visitor looked at 2.03 pages and spent an average of 1 minute and 56 seconds on the site.

That means that during July, just over 276 million pages were visited.

How does Medium compare to other websites?

Similar Web currently ranks Medium as number 401 globally. That has dropped from number 384 in the last 3 months.

The Blogging Guide mentions that Alexa.com ranked it at number 147 last year.

Different ranking methods are likely used, but it seems like Medium is currently less popular than last year when compared with other sites.

What country do readers come from?

Similar Web shows the following country rankings:

USA 26.43%

India 7.37%

UK 3.81%

Canada 3.16%

Brazil 2.96%

Others 56.27%

What are the demographics of Medium readers?

The following data is also from Similar Web.

65.34% of site visitors are male, while 34.66% are female.

The age distribution is as follows:

18–24 years old — 24.8%

25–34 years old — 35.47%

35–44 years old — 18.96%

45–54 years old — 10.65%

55–64 years old — 6.39%

65 years and older — 3.73%

Over 60% of readers are under 35 years old.

How many writers are there on Medium?

According to the Blogging Guide website, 200,000 writers have joined since 2017. I don’t have any up-to-date figures. I also have no idea how many active writers there are.

How much are writers paid?

According to the Blogging Guide website, Medium had paid out $28 million to writers between 2017 and 2020. The best year was 2020 when $11 million was paid out.

They also mention that around 70% of writers are thought to earn money on the platform, with only 5–6% earning over $100 per month.

How much revenue does Medium earn?

Owler.com shows Medium’s annual revenue at $25–100 million.

Based on 700,000 subscribers paying $50 a year, the revenue would be around $35 million.

Is Medium dying?

Based on all the above information, my take on it is that Medium is not dying at all. I’d say it’s quite the opposite.

I still think it’s the best platform for new writers and more experienced writers.

If you have some patience and are consistent with your writing, it seems fairly easy to make money on Medium.

I’m sure you can already guess what happened

On 14 August I published an article on how I planned to be earning $8,000 a month by the end of 2023 from my 5 side hustles. I hoped this would be a popular post, but it doesn’t always work out like that.

Sometimes the article you think will do well will fail miserably. Then you get those articles that you don’t expect to get many views that end up being one of your top stories.

Anyway, the next day I woke up to see a big spike in my views. I immediately guessed what had happened. I assumed that I got thousands of external views. I hoped I was wrong, but I was right.

The next day, the views spike even higher. On 16 August I got a total of 5,278 views. My previous daily high was on 3 June when I had 4,095 views. I’ve reached over 4K twice. This is the first time I’ve had over 5K views in a day.

On 10 August, my stories got 366 views, the lowest number of views since way back in January.

Writing on Medium is like riding the wildest of rollercoasters

My daily views increased 14X in 6 days. It’s a really wild ride here on Medium. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — writing on Medium is like riding the wildest of rollercoasters.

Two days later, my daily views were 419, a drop of 92%.

From 10 to 18 August, my views went up 14X and down 92%. How’s that for a wild ride? Can you spot me in the photo above?

So, how much did I earn?

My story has received 8,645 views so far. That’s made up of 8,030 external views and 615 internal views.

Earnings are $13.02 over 6 days.

This article is number 3 in my list of most viewed.

Referrals

I thought getting over 8K views might result in a few referrals. I got one, although I don’t know if it was because of this article or not. The next day, my referrals dropped by one, so I’m back to zero for the month.

My 5 most-viewed articles

If you’re interested in taking a look at my 5 most-viewed articles, here they are.

Here’s How Much I Earned From Writing 8 Kindle Books (10.8K views)

Average Net Worth By Age — How Do You Compare? (10.4K views)

My 5 Side Hustles That Will Earn $8,000 a Month by 31 December 2023 (8.6K views)

9 Things That Will Disappear From Our Lives Within 20 Years (7.4K views)

Financial Lockdown Is Coming — Are You Prepared? (6.5K views)

I might no longer self-publish articles

I have often wondered whether it’s better to self-publish stories or submit them to a publication. I always leaned towards publications, as logic dictated that those stories should get a higher number of views.

At the end of May, I self-published a story about 9 things that will disappear from our lives. I was shocked to see it becoming my third most-viewed story of all time.

Did that mean that self-publishing wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it was? After all, I’ve seen some writers do very well with self-publishing. But that doesn’t mean they couldn’t have done even better if they submitted their stories to publications instead.

So, as usual, I decided to dig through the data.

Before I do that, I should warn you that the data has many deficiencies. This is not perfect data and it’s not meant to be a scientific study. So there’s no need for anyone to write an article about the deficiencies.

Data Deficiencies

• The sample size is too small to be statistically significant.
• The sample is from one writer.
• The self-published stories are often different topics from what I usually write about, so may have fewer views simply because they’re not what my followers want to read.
• Some of the stories counted as self-published were originally published in Coffee Times. So the data is really Self-published + Coffee Times vs. Other Publications. I’m too lazy to look through all 59 stories to see if they have the Coffee Times tag.
• I consider quite a few of the self-published stories to be my worst ones, which means they deserve fewer views.
• Not all publications are equal.
• There are likely other deficiencies.

Take this for what it is. It’s one writers data from 384 stories. Take it or leave it.

The Data

Out of 384 stories published between 30 October 2021 and 12 August 2022 they were split as follows:

• 325 were published in publications (85%)
• 59 were self-published (15%)
• 12 out of my 50 most-viewed stories were self-published (12%)
• 17 out of my 50 least-viewed stories were self-published (34%)
• Self-published stories received an average of 359 views
• Stories in publications received an average of 539 views
• Stories in publications got 50% more views per story

On the face of it, the data shows that I should be publishing my stories in publications.

I don’t think the outcome is clear-cut though, due to the deficiencies mentioned above.

There are also a few outliers in that data that are capable of substantially changing the results. I think these are more likely to make self-publication seem even worse though. That’s my gut feeling.

For now, I will probably restrict myself to publishing in publications. One of the reasons I sometimes self-publish is so that I don’t have to wait for my stories to get published. I don’t think that is a good enough reason to do it. Instead, I should plan my story schedule more efficiently.

If I know that certain publications take a few days to publish, I should build that into my system.

Have you analyzed your data to see if your get higher or lower views from self-published articles?

In a future article, I will compare my story views across the different publications I’ve submitted my stories to. I need to be submitting stories to the publications that give me the best chance of getting more views.

I already have a sense that some publications aren’t working as well as they used to. I’ve been more than a little lazy when it comes to searching for new publications that may suit my writing better.

I also have plans to do an in-depth analysis on 20–30 suitable publications that I can use going forward.

It could also work for you!

The main trick to getting views and reads on Medium is to write great stories that have great headlines. If you don’t get that right, the other tricks won’t work so well. Work on that first if you haven’t already.

Doubling your views from 1,000 to 2,000 a day is a totally different ballgame than going from 10 to 20 views a day. You need to get the basics right first. Start with a strong foundation and then build on top of it. That’s how you succeed. After all, building a writing career is like building a house.

Writing great headlines takes a lot of practice. Put in the work to build those strong foundations. These 14 headline-writing tips will help you.

Now, let’s get on to the one trick that increased my views by 100%.

It’s so simple, that anyone can do it. But you have to do it the right way, not the wrong way. I see many people get this wrong. Don’t be one of them.

So, here goes.

The ONE TRICK that increased my earnings 100% was to comment on 20-30 stories a day. But remember what I said — do this the right way, not the wrong way.

Don’t be like some people that just leave a comment saying “Great article” without even bothering to read the story. For this to work, you need to actually read the articles and then leave meaningful comments based on what you read.

As you might have already realized, this takes some work. If you read 30 articles that are three minutes long and also take a minute to leave a comment on each one, that’s 30 articles x 4 minutes. That’s 120 minutes. That’s 2 hours.

If you spend another hour writing an article, that’s 3 hours a day. It’s a big time commitment.

You might not be able to do that every day, but do what you can. If you can only spare an hour a day to comment, do that. Don’t feel forced to do this every day for 2 hours if you don’t have enough time.

What commenting does

• It alerts other readers and writers to the fact you actually exist. They may never have heard of you, but now they have. They may go take a look at your profile, read a few of your stories, follow you, or even subscribe to get emails from you.
• By leaving meaningful comments, you’ll also stand out from other commenters who often don’t put much effort into their comments.
• You’ll start to find like-minded readers and writers that you can build friendships with.
• All the above means you’ll get more engagement. The algorithm, which many hate, will notice the increased engagement and start showing your stories more often.

Show the algorithm some love

The algorithm is not something to be hated. You should love it. Treat it well and it will show you lots of love in return. Hate it and abuse it, and it will ignore you.

Don’t blame the algorithm. Improve your writing and engagement so that it notices you.

The above trick is one way to get the algorithm to like you. Maybe even to love you.

Now, it’s your turn

You won’t magically get extra views just because you read this article. You have to put in the work. Consistently.

Try this and let me know how it goes. It has already worked for others.

This just doesn’t happen in other professions

I’ve been writing on Medium for just over 9 months so far. As well as writing here, I’m an avid reader. Over the months, I’ve followed hundreds of great new writers. But where are they all? Many have disappeared.

Every now and then, I realize that I haven’t seen any articles by some of them. I follow them, but they just don’t show up in my feed.

I then go search for their profiles to see their latest stories.

But what do I find?

Usually, I find that about 20% of them have stopped writing. They may have been writing consistently for a few months but then just suddenly stopped.

It’s possible that some of them are just away on vacation or doing other things, but I’m pretty sure that most have given up. If they’ve been away a week or two, there is often a valid reason. If they’ve been away for over a month, there’s little hope that they’ll be back again.

Why are writers so fickle?

One possible reason is that they’re not real writers. They may just be people that thought they could make a quick buck writing. They found out it wasn’t so easy, so gave up.

Another possible reason is that they have found a better way to make a living. Most writers don’t earn a full-time salary, so who can blame anyone that gives up to pursue a more lucrative job?

Or is it just that most writers don’t have enough work ethic? I see writers say that they don’t expect instant money, but when they don’t get it, they give up.

Successful writers

Most successful writers have spent years learning their craft. They didn’t make it big in a few months. It’s no different from athletes, entrepreneurs, medical professionals, and a host of other people. To build a great career, we have to put in the time and effort to get to the top.

The vast majority of writers don’t seem willing to do this.

Another thing I noticed about many new writers is that they aren’t willing to pay to take a writing course. They think they already know it all or think they can learn everything for free. Why is this?

Imagine you had a medical emergency and found out that your doctor had gained all his knowledge from the internet because he didn’t want to pay for any medical courses. You might end up dead.

Most successful athletes start training as children. They dedicate their lives to doing what they love.

Yet many writers give up after a few months.

I’m not sure why it baffles me so much, but it does.

If you’re thinking of giving up writing, what’s the reason?

I wish I had this list before I started

You won’t get any fluff or fillers here, so let’s jump right into the lessons.

1. Just write and publish. Anything. Congratulations. You’re now a writer.
2. Don’t overthink how your readers might react. You don’t have any. Yet.
3. You’re not perfect. You never will be. Get over it.
4. Practice headline writing. You can thank me later. 14 headline-writing tips.
5. If you come across some great tips, don’t just read them. Implement them. You won’t improve by just reading them.
6. Don’t worry about a niche until you’ve written at least 100 articles. It took me longer. No need to rush it.
7. Experiment with different niches.
8. Follow the top writers. You can learn a ton from them.
9. Don’t expect them to follow you back. You’re still a nobody.
10. Read widely to see what works for other writers and what doesn’t.
11. Leave meaningful comments. Some top writers will follow you if they enjoy your comments.
12. Don’t stress if most of your articles get close to zero reads. You’re new here.
13. Remember the 80-20 rule. 20% of your articles will get 80% of the views.
14. Also, remember that 80% of your articles will get 20% of the views.
15. You’ll start to realize that you’ve learned a lot about writing. That means you’re 5% along the journey.
16. You’ll also realize that the more you learn, the more there is left to learn. It will take you a lifetime. And you still won’t get to the end of the journey.
17. You’ll make mistakes. Lots of them. Learn and move on. Don’t stress about them. We all make them. We’re human. Apart from the bots.
18. Don’t get upset if most of your views are external. You need to get known widely, not just on one platform.
19. But stick to writing on one platform until you’ve mastered it.
20. Share your work on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, or wherever else you think it fits. The more widely shared, the better.
21. Don’t rush the process. Take one step at a time. Trying to take 5 steps in one go means you’ll fall over. It will slow you down.
22. Congratulate yourself on each milestone you reach. 10 stories is a milestone. 100 followers is a milestone. Earning $1 is a milestone. Reaching milestones means you’re making progress.
23. Commit to writing consistently for a year to begin with. You can then take stock and make plans for the next year.
24. Know that the top writers took years to perfect their craft. It will likely take you a similar length of time.
25. Don’t expect instant success. You’ll end up disappointed.
26. Don’t give up too soon.
27. Publish in smaller publications, to begin with.
28. Read and follow the submission guidelines for each publication. Editors are busy. They don’t have time to hold your hand.
29. Treat editors with the utmost respect. Don’t expect them to drop everything just because you submitted an article.
30. Have some patience. You may not get a reply from editors for days or sometimes weeks. It’s not personal.
31. Some readers will love your stories. Others will hate them. You can’t please everyone. Don’t even try to.
32. Help other writers. Build a tribe of readers and writers. Helping each other benefits everyone.
33. The more you give, the more you receive.
34. Don’t expect anything in return. Give because you want to give. Don’t give because you’re expecting something in return.
35. If readers or writers help you, thank them. You will stand out.
36. Write for your readers not for yourself. No one wants to read your boring journal.
37. Ask yourself how readers will benefit from your article. If there’s no benefit to anyone, rewrite the story.
38. Don’t be afraid to be controversial. Controversy pays.
39. Don’t be controversial just for the sake of it. That’s just annoying.
40. Take time off from writing. You also need to take care of yourself.
41. Once you start getting popular, you’ll have haters. That means your articles are provoking a response in your readers. That’s a good thing.
42. Thank haters for their feedback. Don’t let them draw you into an argument.
43. Learn the rules of the platform. They’re important.
44. Don’t engage in follow-for-follow tactics. It’s pointless. Follow other writers whose work you enjoy. Others will follow you if they enjoy your writing.
45. Don’t be frightened to submit an article to big publications once you’re settled into your writing habit.
46. Don’t expect automatic views and reads from big publications.
47. Medium isn’t dead. Despite what some writers claim.
48. Use tags/topics properly.
49. Engage with other writers. Clap and comment where appropriate.
50. Building a writing career is like building a house. It takes planning and time.
51. Read the curation rules if you want your articles to be curated.
52. It takes work to earn a living writing. It’s not a get-rich-quick program.
53. Writing platforms are always changing. Don’t complain. Adapt.
54. Adapt or die.
55. It’s possible to make $19,000 from one story. It probably won’t happen for you or me though. It’s also possible to win the lottery jackpot.
56. Get outside and live your life. You won’t be able to write amazing stories if you don’t have life experience.
57. Don’t neglect family and friends. Family and friends > writing.
58. When the going gets tough, double down. Don’t give up.
59. Check your stats to see what’s working and what’s not. Adjust your strategy based on what you find.
60. Have a strategy. Don’t just blindly write whatever pops into your head. I plead guilty. I have vowed to change my ways.
61. Quality matters. Aim for quality in your work.
62. Sometimes quality doesn’t matter.
63. Writing is full of contradictions.
64. It’s a numbers game. The more you publish, the greater your chance of success.
65. Don’t misinterpret what other writers say. I didn’t say you should write low-quality nonsense.
66. Don’t make excuses. If you want to become a successful writer, you need to make it a priority in your life.
67. Don’t get jealous of other writers that are succeeding. Get inspired. Learn from them.
68. Take a writing course or two. Or three. Or four. I just paid $597 for my second course. Apply yourself and they should pay for themselves.
69. Get a writing mentor if you can.
70. Don’t stress if your stories aren’t getting curated. Non-curated stories also earn money.
71. Eat well. Sleep well. Exercise. Taking care of your body helps you write better.
72. Keep a notepad handy to write down story ideas. I can guarantee you’ll forget them if you don’t write them down.
73. Don’t be a perfectionist. There is no such thing as a perfect story.
74. Write a mixture of short, medium, and long articles. See which works best for both you and your readers.
75. Don’t write about topics you hate. You will end up hating writing.
76. Don’t let other writers tell you what to write about. Many will try.
77. You can earn a great income as a writer if you take the time to learn your craft.
78. Writing is fun.
79. It’s easy to become a Top Writer on Medium.
80. Choose great images for your stories.
81. The more your write, the better you’ll get.
82. How do you become a great writer? Practice, practice, practice.
83. An average writer can earn money writing. You don’t need to be an expert.

Let me know the favorite lessons you’ve learned so far.