How to Use Medium: A Beginner's Guide to Writing, Publishing & Promoting on the Platform

Jana Rumberger

Published: October 19, 2023

Medium is a platform for writers. If you're not a writer, that sounds pretty straightforward. But if you write, you understand just how huge that statement is.

How to use Medium graphic with typewriter, computer enter key, and pens to symbolize writing online.

Is it a blogging platform? Social media or an SEO resource? An online community or a way to earn money writing? Yes. All of the above.

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You could be a poet publishing on The Coil, a new UX designer learning your craft, or a business owner sharing stories about early challenges and triumphs. No matter who you are and what you want to write about, there's a place for you on this platform.

I've been writing about marketing since 2017, I've used many different platforms for publishing and promoting content. Now, I'm going to tell you how I use Medium, and how you can too.

What is Medium?

Medium is a social publishing platform that is open to all and home to a diverse array of stories, ideas, and perspectives. Anyone can write for the platform, so it's great for beginners.

Popular topics on Medium range from mental health to social media, from world affairs and trending news to productivity hacks. This makes it a solid choice for anyone who wants to start blogging.

What is Medium

As Medium founder (and Blogger creator/Twitter co-founder) Ev Williams wrote when he launched the platform in 2012:

"Medium is not about who you are or whom you know, but about what you have to say."

How does Medium work?

The first thing you'll notice on the Medium website is its site design. As former HubSpot Senior Content Strategist Erik Devaney says, "It's minimalistic, featuring lots of white space and limited formatting options. Want to change the header typeface to Comic Sans? You can't. Medium won't allow for such atrocities of design."

This decision makes great writing the focus. But that's just one of many nuances of Medium.

Medium is for two types of people: writers and readers, through online content publishing. When I started my career in content writing and strategy, I wasn't sure what that meant. I discovered Medium because I was trying to figure out where to build my writing portfolio . I'd heard Medium was a good choice, but the first time I signed up I wasn't sure how to use it.

If you're just getting started on the platform, there's a fair amount to learn before you hit publish. Let's get into it.

Quality leads to discovery.

Many writers go for years without sharing their writing. But once you decide to become a writer, whether you're finishing a first novel or writing content for brands, you need to find a way to share your skills.

Medium is great for writers who invest time and energy in their work. It rewards in-depth, well-researched, and useful articles, not just popularity or brand awareness.

Platform-enabled reader engagement.

Comments and likes are popular in online media. But when you're new to writing, it's helpful to know exactly what people are responding to and why. To meet this need, Medium gives readers a chance to highlight and comment directly within the text of each article. This process is like the way professional editors engage with writers.

Curation and publications.

Medium has curators who review articles for quality. If a curator chooses your article for wider distribution, it gives you a chance to introduce your content to more readers. This might include highlighting your article on the platform, showing your post to readers they think will want to read it, or adding it to subscriber emails.

how does medium work, publications example, The Startup

Most curators are publication editors. Some of the most popular publications on Medium in 2023 include:

  • The Startup
  • Towards Data Science
  • Personal Growth
  • UX Collective
  • The Writing Cooperative

Medium’s curation and publication models aren’t just great for writers. They also give avid readers and fans a chance to support their favorite writers.

Paid opportunities.

Medium also gives writers the chance to earn money with their stories. As a member of the Partner Program, you can put stories behind a paywall to earn income.

In this program, you can increase earnings with repeat readers, engagement signals, and more.

Writing for Medium

Anyone who has a Medium account can write for Medium — there's no other vetting process involved.

To get started, simply sign up for a free Medium account (or upgrade to a $5/month membership for unlimited access), and you're ready to start writing from there.

But articles must adhere to Medium's content guidelines and rules. For instance, as a writer I can't promote controversial or extreme content on my Medium account. I can't do third-party advertising. And there's a separate set of policies if I want to write about cryptocurrencies .

Affiliate marketing links are allowed, but writers must tell their audience that they're including these links. For the full list of rules for content, take a look at this post on Medium Rules .

writing for medium, medium rules

As a marketer, Medium presents an opportunity for you to reach a new audience with your content. The platform is open, so some topics lean toward sharing longer-form, more well-thought-out content while others are short and topic-focused.

In this way, Medium is like marketing on many other channels, because success in writing for Medium isn't just about great writing. It takes some research into audiences and publications in a specific area of interest. So, what makes Medium a great channel for writers?

In the next section, I’m going to get into the topic above, and talk about how I chose between Medium and WordPress.

Medium vs. WordPress

This post offers an exceptional breakdown of WordPress vs. Medium for pricing, blogging, and SEO from a business perspective. So, I want to use this space to share my personal experience with the two platforms.

How I've Used WordPress as a Content Writer

I worked with a designer to build my personal website on WordPress and built a separate side project on my own with Elementor . I've also used WordPress professionally as a content manager and freelance writer. Altogether I've been using the platform for 6+ years to create and promote content.

WordPress is an excellent platform for sharing content online inexpensively. It also makes it easy to add plugins, features, and tools to connect my sites to other relevant channels, like social media feeds or payment gateways.

I like WordPress as a content writer because it lets me run independent sites online that I can use to test ideas before widely broadcasting them.

That said, it took years of learning about search engine optimization ( SEO ) to begin generating traffic on my personal sites. With the rapid recent changes in SEO, I've been investing more time in researching social channels for marketing and promotion.

How I've Used Medium as a Content Writer

As you can see above, I chose to go with WordPress for my portfolio. But I started using Medium when I was managing content for a small ecommerce startup.

I was looking for effective ways to promote content for our blog. I wanted a channel that could help expand the influence of the excellent writers on my team. So, we started with Medium.

I asked writers on my three-person team to write an original piece for Medium once a month in addition to their scheduled blog assignments.

While some posts sat on our brand's Medium page without much traction, a few grabbed valuable attention. Specifically, we had the most success with posts that we submitted to popular publications on the site.

For example, I submitted this post about Ecommerce Easter Eggs to the Marketing and Entrepreneurship publication curated by Larry Kim, and Bryce Patterson submitted this piece on the content writing process to the publication " The Writing Cooperative ."

These publications have dedicated audiences, which helped us show our writing to more people and build followers for our branded Medium account.

WordPress vs. Medium — which is right for you?

While these are both excellent platforms to showcase writing, they’re quite different. I use both platforms, but I spend more time on WordPress because of my goals as a creator. But many writers will find that Medium is the best platform for them because of its focus on writer discovery, monetization, and community-building.

At this point, you may be ready to try using Medium. Let’s take the first step.

How to Use Medium

  • Create an account.
  • Follow people, publications, and topics.
  • Recommend, share, and bookmark content.
  • Highlight specific words.
  • Write responses.
  • Format text in your posts.
  • Add images and media.
  • Share drafts and publish posts.
  • Measure your results.

Getting Started With Medium

1. create an account..

Anyone can view free Medium content. But to publish and interact with folks on the platform, you need to have an account and log in.

So, the first step is creating an account. Signing up was super easy for me. I headed to Medium.com and clicked the "Get started" button at the top of the page. From there I had three different sign-up options to choose from: Google, Facebook, or email.

How to use Medium, Join Medium sign-up page

I used my Gmail account to create an account first, which was super fast and simple. They even made adding my name to my profile easy, because it auto-filled based on my email.

I also set up a separate account, this time signing up with email. All I needed to do was click a link in my email to complete setup, and the process was otherwise the same.

How to use Medium, email confirmation

During signup, it helped to remember that Medium is part social media. It's not just a platform to write blogs, it's a space to share, comment, and curate content within a community.

So, I felt like some parts of the signup, like choosing topics, felt more like signing up for Twitter (X) or Pinterest than creating an account on a blogging platform.

How to use Medium, topic selection

I like keeping my blogging and social media accounts separate, but Erik Devaney recommends signing up for Medium using Facebook. He says, "That way all of your existing connections from Facebook who are on Medium will automatically be following your account once it's created. This saves you the trouble of having to build up a new audience entirely from scratch."

Regardless of what you go with to start, you can always link your Twitter (X), Mastodon, or Facebook to your Medium account later in the "Security and apps" tab in the Settings menu.

The Settings menu is also where you can update your username, profile page URL, profile design, and more. You can also control what email notifications you receive from Medium in this menu.

How to use Medium, profile information

To complete my profile, I added a photo and wrote up a short (160-character max) bio for my Medium profile page. I use the same bio across my social media accounts, so I just copied and pasted this from my Instagram account, emojis and all.

2. Follow people, publications, & topics.

In a Medium feed, the content that's surfaced comes not only from the accounts of the people and organizations you follow, but also from publications and tags. What's more, when searching for content on Medium, people, publications, and topics all show up in the results.

How to use Medium for writing, results baseball publications

First, figure out who you want to follow. Whose writing do you want to read? Who’s making content you can learn from as you begin your new writing adventure?

There's a wide variety of writers on the platform, and I'm interested in a little bit of everything, so this step was quick to complete. Whether you're interested in politics or people-watching , computer science or world travel , you're likely to find some writers you want to follow too.

Publications

Medium publications are collections of stories based around a common theme. Anyone can create them — yourself included — and the way they work is fairly straightforward.

As the creator of a publication, you're an editor by default. This means you have the ability to:

  • Add writers to your publication
  • Edit and publish the stories submitted by your writers
  • Review the metrics for all the stories that are part of your publication

As the publication's creator, you'll also have the ability to appoint new editors (so they can do all that stuff I just mentioned).

Creating a publication is easy to do. First, I needed to submit payment to become a Medium member. Then, I clicked on my profile image in the top right, and scrolled down to "Manage publications." A pop-up appeared, and I clicked "Create a new publication."

How to use Medium, manage publications

This led to a new page where I needed to enter information on the name, description, social accounts, and topic for my publication. I also needed images ready to add an avatar and logo.

How to use Medium, new publication

The avatar image appears on featured pages around Medium, while the logo image appears on the homepage of the publication. You can learn about image sizes for these requirements and more in this Medium post .

Once I finished entering this information, I had a chance to create a custom design for the home page of my new publication.

This publication will give me a chance to not only share my own writing, but also connect with other writers on the topics I care about.

Once called "Tags," Topics are the hashtags of the Medium ecosystem. When you publish a story on Medium, you get the option to add up to five topics, which appear at the bottom of your story.

So, when I click a topic it brings me to a page where I can see more stories with the same topic. It also gives me suggestions for other topics I might be interested in.

Instead of surfacing content based solely on the social graph (for example, the people/publications you follow), Medium uses topics to surface content that's based on specific interests.

For example, this article from Beth Dunn , a recent Marketing Fellow at HubSpot, includes five topics:

  • User Experience
  • Inclusive Design
  • Content Strategy

How to use Medium, topics example

Following topics like these can help personalize my Medium experience and make it easier for my readers to find more of my content.

Now that I've set up an account, started following some accounts, built a publication, and followed some topics, let's start engaging with content.

How to Interact With Medium Content

3. recommend, share, and bookmark content..

Clapping hands are the "Like" of the Medium world. It's a way to show that you support and appreciate the content that someone has shared.

When reading a story on Medium, you can support it at both the top and the bottom of the actual story, where you see the clapping hand symbol.

In either case, I just click on the clapping hand icon to support a story. Once clicked, the hands will change from an outline to solid black. The first time I supported a story, I accidentally clicked the number beside the clapping hands icon. This was a happy accident because it let me see the full list of people who recommended that story.

Note : You can clap up to 50 times per post, and you can clap for as many posts as you want.

When you recommend a story, the writer, by default, will receive an email notification. (But that's something you can control in Settings). The more support a story receives, the more likely it is to be shared around the Medium network. Stories that receive the most likes within a given time period get featured on Medium's home page.

In the same two locations where you can recommend a story, you can also save, listen to, or share that story. To save a story I wanted to spend more time reading, I clicked the bookmark icon and it saved the story to my reading list. I can also create specific reading lists in this part of the platform.

To listen, I just clicked the play icon, but if you want to use this feature, it's good to know that it's for members only. Finally, I shared the story by copying the link or sharing it on LinkedIn, Twitter (X), or Facebook.

When you bookmark a story, it will appear on your reading list, which you can access from your Medium profile page or from the Medium homepage at the bottom of the right-hand sidebar.

4. Highlight specific words.

Now that I know how to support, share, and bookmark Medium stories, it's time to unlock a second level of interaction. I do this by selecting sections of text with my cursor.

Once I highlight some text, a pop-up menu will appear that gives me four options:

How to use Medium, highlight text

Clicking the highlighter icon (highlighter symbol) puts a green highlight around the text I selected. This is visible to my Medium followers. By default, a story's writer will get a notification when anyone highlights a section of their stories.

Clicking the speech bubble icon lets me write a response to the story I'm reading. The section of text I've highlighted appears at the top of my response. (More on responses in a second.)

Clicking the Twitter icon generates a " Text Shot ," which is a tweet that automatically pulls in the text I highlighted as a screenshot.

Private Note

Some stories will also show a lock icon in a speech bubble. Clicking this icon lets me send the writer a private note. If you don't see this icon, it's because the author has turned off private notes.

You can choose this on or off in your settings, but I chose to leave it on because I read that editors sometimes use private notes to offer feedback to writers before publishing.

5. Write responses.

Unlike traditional blog comments, Medium responses are treated as individual stories . Besides appearing at the bottom of the stories I respond to, I can also publish my responses to my profile page.

This is helpful for me because it lets me engage with people on the platform without having to commit to writing a full-blown story. It also helps me come up with ideas for stories.

Medium's approach to responses gives comments the potential to take off and get circulated just like traditional stories.

A quick note: Responses are engagement signals on the Medium platform. And, responding is a tip that shows up in many articles about how to promote your writing on Medium.

For me, this makes it important to respond genuinely. While responses are a way to increase my visibility on the platform, I work to be thoughtful in the ways I support and engage with the writers I respond to.

How to Write and Publish on Medium

6. format text in your posts..

Ready to start writing my first Medium post, I click "Write" at the top right-hand corner of the Medium home page. I can also get there by clicking on my profile icon at the top-right of the Medium page, and then scrolling to "Stories." I can create a new story by clicking the green "Write a story" button. That action pulls up a screen that's ready for my content that looks like this:

As Erik Devaney says, "Writing in Medium's editor is highly intuitive and — from a stylistic perspective — nearly impossible to screw up."

As usual, it’s the writing that’s tough, but a tool can help with the details. When I write, I often use a template, like one of these free blog templates .

Then, I copy and paste my writing into my chosen publishing platform. Medium makes this step easy. It retains links and other formatting from pasted text.

If I want to make a change to the text, All I have to do is highlight a section to reveal several basic format choices such as bold, italics, or hyperlinking. It also lets me designate text as an H1 or as an H2 using the big T or little t:

And I can choose between two different styles of block quotes —

Or Option B:

If I really want to get fancy, I use Medium's drop caps function.

Know those enlarged, stylized letters you sometimes see at the beginning of sentences? Those are drop caps. According to the Medium team , they're useful for "pacing, starting a new chapter, or just a little typographical delight."

Another option for creating some separation between different sections of a story in Medium is to use a separator. To insert one, I click the little plus icon that appears on an empty line of a story:

Clicking that plus icon will open up a menu with six options. The one on the far right — the icon with the two little lines — is the separator.

Here's what it looks like on the page:

Check out this story for more formatting how-tos, such as adding inline code, mentions, or emojis.

7. Add images and media.

Adding images, videos, and embeds to a Medium story can be as simple as copying and pasting URLs into Medium's editor. The editor, in most cases, can automatically recognize the media's format and render it accordingly.

For example, I want to add a couple videos to my in-progress post. For the first video, I just copied and pasted the YouTube URL, and then clicked "Enter." Then I added a TikTok video by clicking the video icon that shows up after clicking the plus icon. The final result was the same no matter which steps I followed.

You can add a range of media to your Medium story including:

  • Uploading an image from your computer
  • Adding stock photos with Unsplash
  • Inserting a video with a URL
  • Inserting an embed code for approved media

There are also different size and orientation options for displaying media.

For example, the options below appeared in a pop-up menu after I inserted my YouTube video. There are three choices for sizing a YouTube video on Medium:

How to use Medium, youtube

8. Share drafts and publish posts.

When I finished my story and was happy with how everything looked, I headed up to the top navigation to choose between two options: "Publish" and an icon with three dots. The three dots highlight a range of choices for writers. These include sending a draft link, checking the appearance of the post, unlisted publishing, and more.

For example, "Share draft link" generates a link to the draft of my story, which I can share with anyone — even if they don't have a Medium account. And the people I share the draft with can also leave me notes.

Clicking the "Publish" button, meanwhile, opens a menu where I can choose up to five topics for my story. It's a sort of pre-publishing dashboard, with reminders to add a featured image and a link to learn more about what happens after publishing. I like that it also offers a chance to schedule my post if I want to share it later.

It's also where I hit the "Publish" button to share my story with the world. 

How to Get Paid on Medium

Now that I've gone through how to use Medium, I'm thinking about how to make the most of it. I’ve done some research and found a few ways writers monetize with this platform.

First off, there's the Partner Program. If you want to earn money with your stories, this is an exciting way to get paid on Medium.

The Medium Partner Program pays writers directly each month. To get paid on Medium I first need to become a paid Medium member. Then, it’s time to apply for the Partner Program. The requirements for this are simple. I need to:

  • Have published at least one Medium story
  • Be 18 years or older
  • Live in an eligible country

This process also includes signing up for Stripe, to collect payments, and Tipalti, for tax purposes. Once I'm part of the Partner Program, I can put new and already-published stories behind a paywall for premium members. When someone reads my story, I'll earn a percentage of their membership fee.

This is the lowest lift choice, because it's monetizing something I'm already doing — writing stories for the platform. It also uses engagement metrics to decide how much I get paid for each story, connecting what readers love to what I make from the platform as a writer.

While I'll be trying the Partner Program to earn on Medium, I'm also curious about other options. For example, I set up tipping by going to "Settings," then "Publishing" and updating the settings under "Manage tipping on your stories." I can add a payment link and I'll be able to receive tips from readers. There are options to use Patreon, PayPal, and other popular platforms.

Another way to monetize is using my stories on Medium to promote a business or brand. The new audiences I introduce to my stories on the platform can drive new interest to my business. This approach is like what I mentioned above when I talked about my past experience using Medium.

9. Measure your results.

I published my first Medium story and I’m set to earn money on the platform, but the impact I can make with Medium will depend on how my stories perform. To see metrics for my Medium content, I clicked my profile icon in the top right-hand corner of the Medium homepage and scrolled down to "Stats."

When I arrived on the "Stats" page I didn't see much (yet). But soon, I'll see the aggregate number of views and claps my stories and responses have received over the past 30 days.

There's also a graph that provides day-by-day granularity, with details on follower counts and highlights.

Image Source

As I scrolled down the page, I has the option to click on specific stories to view individual stats. The Medium team is also making changes to the Stats pages . It looks like most of these changes are for tracking payment metrics or helping writers tie payment to performance.

Here's a quick rundown on what metrics Medium currently tracks:

  • Claps : The number of claps a story receives.
  • Responses : The number of responses a story receives.
  • Lifetime earnings : The total amount a story has earned.
  • Views : The number of people who visited a story's page.
  • Reads : Tracks when someone views a story for 30 seconds or more. Scrolling to the bottom of the story used to be required, but isn't anymore. Views and reads for individual stories live on story detail pages.
  • Member read ratio : This stat tracks member reads divided by member views.

Quick note : Member-only and non-member activity is tracked separately in Stats.

The Medium App

I travel frequently, so consuming and interacting with content on the go is best for me. For this, I'm using the Medium app. The app includes the same stories and content I can find on my laptop, with the added bonus of a mobile-first interface.

On the app, I can surface content related to my interests. These curated lists depend on the tags, publications, or authors I follow. I also use the app's Explore feature to find new, interesting content and to engage with fellow readers, joining conversations as they're happening. I was hoping I could start drafts in the app, but no. That said, I can check story stats wherever I am, which is helpful.

Use Medium for Writing and Sharing Your Best Stories

Medium is a powerful platform for writers and content creators to share ideas, engage with readers, and even earn money. By following the steps I shared in this article, you can unlock the full potential of Medium. So, start writing and exploring the possibilities. Your audience is waiting.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Don't forget to share this post!

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How to Be a Writer on Medium

October 10, 2018 • Rehack Team

Writers of every class and caliber have the opportunity to share their work with the world through Medium, an online publishing platform anyone can use. If you’re interested in promoting your work, expanding your network and making your mark — you’ve found the right site.

With engagement metrics that are simple to grasp for non-analysts, streamlined interfacing with social media platforms like Facebook and popularity among top-tier publishers, Medium is the choice for authors of all varieties of content, both short and long. Learning how to be a writer on the site is a simple process.

The only obstacle between you and success is a basic understanding of how Medium is structured to work. By following the steps detailed in this article, you’ll learn how to move your piece from concept to execution. If you’re ready to begin, then let’s jump right in!

Step One: Create an Account

Typical of almost every site you want to contribute to, participation requires an account. To publish on Medium, users only need to link their Facebook, Twitter, Google or email to gain access. You’ll find the “Get started” button located at the top right corner of the homepage.

I recommend you link a social media account if you want to keep your existing audience — otherwise, you’ll have no followers to start. From there, you can customize your account in the settings by adding or changing your picture and bio, reconfiguring email preferences and so on until satisfied.

As you develop your profile, you’ll have the option to follow different people, tags and publications. Much like Tumblr’s dashboard or a standard Twitter or Instagram feed, the content you see comes from other accounts who share items of interest. With the number of creators on Medium, your choices are nearly limitless.

Step Two: Writing Content

Now that you’ve set up an account and made it your own, you can interact with the broader community. Medium has an integrated editor that allows users to outline and compose their content within the site itself. Simply click the “Write here” button and you’ll transition to the editor.

With all the essential functions of an editing program — such as hyperlinks and highlighting — you’ll have no trouble mastering the art of a perfectly formatted piece.

From features like bold typeface to drop caps, you’ll find everything you’re looking for. Just don’t let the bells and whistles distract you from the task at hand!

As you’re working through your content, you can add different media like images and videos with different size options. After you’ve placed the finishing touches on your final draft, publishing is the easiest part. In the next step, I’ll show you how to turn your work in progress into a finished product.

Step Three: Publishing

When you feel like your work is prepared for public consumption, look towards the top navigation bar where you’ll find two buttons — “Share” and “Publish.” Though they seem similar, these separate links have very different functions, so make sure you don’t mistake one for the other.

Clicking the “Share” button generates a URL to the draft of your piece, which can copy and paste into several different contexts. Those without a Medium account can still view your draft and offer comments and constructive criticism which will aid you in editing before you move on to official publication.

Choosing the “Publish” option leads you to a menu where you can select tags relevant to your topic. Tags will dictate how your work is categorized and where other users can see it.

Once you’ve decided on your tags, press “Publish” and voila — you’re now a contributing member of the Medium community!

My Success Story

Many budding writers like yourself have found incredible success on Medium. Few other platforms I know allow for the same flexibility or degree of freedom. I use its compatibility with WordPress to sync posts and reach a wider audience, producing articles on everything from ways to improve your charisma to the power of naming tasks and its effect on productivity.

In addition, Medium makes it easy for me to submit work to multiple publications at the same time, and its backlog serves the secondary purpose of a portfolio that I can use to pitch to other publishers. For creators who want attention, Medium is the premium choice.

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This Online World

This Online World

Side Hustles, Making Money Online, & Finance

How To Make Money On Medium – Ultimate 2024 Guide!

Posted on July 21, 2023 - Tom Blake - This post may contain affiliate links that compensate us if you click or sign up. Please read our affiliate disclaimer for more information.

I started writing on Medium on March 25, 2018 after someone recommended I try publishing on Medium to drive traffic to This Online World.

All I did was republish my phone farming guide and write one more short post on personal development.

And within 24 hours, I made $100 from republishing my content on phone farming. I couldn’t believe the screen when I saw how much I had made from just one story.

Over the next few months, I also continued to earn money for my Medium writing, and have recently passed the $1,000 mark and now earn passive income every month from my articles .

If you have ever wondered how to make money writing on Medium, this is absolutely the post for you.

I’m sharing how  anyone  can earn money writing on Medium, my tips for getting started, and some advice I’ve learned along the way to find more success on the platform.

Table of Contents

What Is Medium?

If you haven’t heard of Medium , I can only describe it to you as being one of the easiest, minimalist blogging platforms out there.

Medium is a publishing platform that was created by Evan Williams, the former CEO of Twitter, and officially  launched in 2012. The platform offers publishers and bloggers alike to share their works or create new articles entirely .

Medium

All in all, the Medium platform is one of the simplest ways to get into blogging or to read some great content.

The most popular topics on Medium (as seen on their homepage) include :

  • Entrepreneurship
  • Digital marketing
  • Productivity

How To Make Money On Medium

As mentioned, I’ve earned over $1,000 by writing on Medium. And since I joined the platform, it’s been a nice way to earn money on autopilot , even for articles I wrote years ago.

In my opinion, Medium is one of the best ways for new writers to grow an audience and earn money online . However, the process of making money on Medium has also changed a  lot  over the years.

So, this guide is covering how you can make money writing on Medium as well as some critical tips I’ve found helpful to grow your profile.

1. Meet The Medium Partner Program Requirements

In the past, anyone could join Medium’s Partner Program, which is the program that pays you for writing on Medium. But these days, there are new requirements for becoming a Medium Partner Program member :

  • Publish at least one Medium story
  • Be 18 or older
  • Be a paid Medium member
  • Publish a story every six months to stay active

Medium Partner Program requirements

If you meet these requirements, you can apply to the Medium Partner Program. You should get a response within a few days, and if you are an active and engaging writer, you should get into the program.

Also note that the Medium Partner Program isn’t available in every country. Check Medium in your country to see if it’s available.

Update : Medium just announced some major changes to how it pays writers. One of these changes is the removal of the 100 follower requirement, but you now need to be a paying Medium member to join its Partner Program.

2. Start Writing On Medium

The main way to make money on Medium is to write stories. That’s because Medium pays writers when other members spend time reading their work and engage with it.

That’s right: how much money you make with Medium depends on how many paid members read your content, how long they spend reading, and how they engage with your content .

Mediun’s 2023 payment model update is also now factoring in more engagement-based metrics like claps, highlights, replies, and follows. So, the longer people read your content and the more they interact with it, the more you get paid.

Medium payment model.

As you can see in Medium’s graphic above, the new payment model factors in engagement points, follower bonuses, boost bonus, and then multiplies it by the read-through rate.

Note : If someone spends less than 30 seconds reading your article, it doesn’t generate any revenue and doesn’t count as a read. So, maintaining a high read ratio and getting engagement is the key to earning more money.

This is part of Medium’s on-going effort to reduce clickbait content that just generates views but doesn’t add anything of value.

When I first joined Medium, how much you got paid depended on how many claps, or likes,  a story got from people.

However, the new Medium author payment model rewards engaging content. So, the more paid members read your work, the more you get paid.

Just note that this means you have to mark stories with the “meter my story” box if you want to earn from them. This also means that free Medium members won’t be able to read your metered content if they use up all their free reads in a month.

3. Refer New Medium Members

The other method to make money writing on Medium is to earn referral bonuses by inviting new paid members to the program.

This program pays you for converting your readers into paying Medium members. The Medium referral program pays you half of a reader’s membership fee. This works out to about $2.01 per month per referral .

Medium-referral-program

I’ve seen a lot of Medium writers pushing this heavily, encouraging people to become paying Medium members with links in their bio.

But, I don’t know many writers who make meaningful income from this referral program. And I haven’t been able to convert many readers with my stories either.

It’s nice that Medium is adding more ways for authors to get paid, but this program feels a little spammy to me.

Plus, Medium is becoming more saturated, and if every author starts clamoring for people to sign up with their link, I don’t think it’s a winning strategy to chase after given the noise.

UPDATE : Medium is retiring its referral bonus program and now pays authors more if their articles get more followers. This new follower-bonus program is designed to once again reward engaging content.

4. Earn Boost Bonuses

Another change to how Medium pays writers is its addition of boost bonuses.

Medium’s curation team can select certain stories that it thinks are high-quality and engaging and boost these on the platform. Boosted stories are seen by more readers and appear on more places on Medium, so it’s a massive benefit to authors.

With the new payment model, boosted stories also get a boost bonus multiplier on engagements, which ends up with writers getting paid more.

This is good news since Medium is retiring its referral program. All-in-all, it’s clear that engagement is the name of the game now.

5. Earn Author Bonuses

Occasionally, Medium pays out author bonuses to certain writers for making great content. In fact, this is how I got my $100 bonus from submitting my phone farming guide to the platform.

Medium-earn-money-blogging

All of this started when Medium announced it would be paying out bonuses to Medium Partners for quality work.

Now, you shouldn’t rely on Medium bonuses as a reliable source of income since Medium Editors will only be rewarding bonuses to a few dozen stories every week, as they explained in a Partner Program email to me.

However, you have to admit that if you’re looking to make money by writing, choosing a platform that actively rewards quality submissions should seem like a no-brainer.

Ultimately it’s really promising to see Medium making an effort to reward quality, pay their authors, and encourage interesting content.

Here’s some other stats Medium included in one of its Partner Program email:

  • 48% of authors or publications who wrote at least one story for members earned money. The average amount earned for the month was $77.04.
  • $7,924.22 was the most earned by an author, and $2,400.40 was the most earned by a publication.
  • $1,744.21 was the most earned for a single story. 10.6% of stories that earned money made over $100.

The fact that a single story on Medium earned $1,744 blows my mind. And one single author earned $7,924!

6. Get Paid

The last step in writing on Medium for money is to actually get paid.

Your Medium earnings get paid out by the 8th of every month. You get paid for the previous month of reading time from paid members, and payment can take about a week to actually settle in your bank account .

Medium also uses Stripe to pay authors. I’ve been paid on time for years by Medium, and I’ve never had issues with getting my money on time.

medium-payment

If you want an online job that pays you daily, Medium isn’t for you. In this case, something like freelance writing or using gpt sites might be up your alley.

But if you want a free platform that has the potential to reach millions of readers and pay a lot, Medium could be worth the delayed gratification.

How Much Money I’ve Made Writing On Medium

As mentioned, I joined Medium in early 2018. Since that time, I’ve written or republished 22 stories and have amassed about 1,400 followers. I’ve also gotten nearly 100,000 views on my content and have earned over $1,200 from my stories :

$1,000 On Medium

I don’t write full-time on Medium. In fact, I haven’t published a story there in over a year since blogging is my main side hustle these days.

However, my Medium stories still make a few dollars a month to this day. And some of my main stories earned hundreds of dollars, which just goes to show the power of the platform.

To make a lot of money with Medium, you need to write engaging content. And, you need to get a bit lucky. Plus, most writers won’t make $5,000 a month or anything crazy from their work.

However, I think my experience is proof that anyone can start making money on Medium, even with a handful of articles.

Can You Make Money On Medium?

Yes, you can make money writing on Medium if you join its Partner Program and write engaging content consistently. In fact, anyone can begin earning with just a few stories, and my first story on Medium made me $100.

Granted, I think Medium is intimidating since it’s now over 10 years old and has thousands of writers on it.

But the name of the game hasn’t changed. If you create excellent, engaging content, you can make money on Medium.

Tips For Making Money On Medium

Now that you know how to make money on Medium, I want to share some of the most important tips I’ve learned over the years to help increase your odds of success with the platform.

1. Promote Your Blog & Brand

Medium is a great way to earn income from your writing. But the Medium Partner Program is just  one  way you can leverage Medium’s audience to make money.

In fact, many of the top Medium authors make most of their income through other means, like :

  • Affiliate income
  • Selling sponsorships
  • Selling their own products like eBooks and courses
  • Selling coaching
  • Building email lists

New-Medium-layout

As you can see from my Medium page , my profile promotes this blog as well as my new YouTube channel. So, all of my Medium readers have a chance to come to my other properties where I can then earn more money.

I also know plenty of Medium writers who make $10,000 a month or more just from affiliate marketing on Medium, so you have a lot of options!

2. Submit Stories To Publications

If you’re struggling to gain views or to make money writing on Medium, you can also reach out to various Medium publications and request to write for them.

Medium has an incredible amount of popular publications, and many of them regularly accept guest writers or regular contributors.

Currently, I’m able to contribute to 3 different publications, and I actually didn’t have to apply to 2 of them (one of the editors reached out via email to ask me to share some of my work) :

medium-publications

The best part about writing for Medium Publications is that you can still earn money for your work, even if your story is syndicated (like most of mine is).

Once you’ve been approved to contribute to a publisher, you can edit any of your published stories and send in a request for them to be added to a publication:

Medium-Add-To-Publication

If your story gets accepted, your story can be seen by everyone following the publication, and you might find your work gets a nice boost in views, claps, and ultimately money!

So, don’t be afraid to apply to Medium Publications or to send out some emails or DM’s. You might find the process increases how much money you make on Medium every month.

3. Design An Eye-Catching Medium Profile

Another tip for making money on Medium is to redesign your author page to create a more personalized feeling for their profile.

Thankfully, you now have more control over how your profile looks, and Medium is definitely making the push to help writers build loyal followings and to become less of a clickbaity volume game.

Don’t get me wrong: compelling titles and volume are still important if you want to make money writing on Medium, but it’s slightly less pressing than before.

Additionally, one recent tip I’ve learned is to build your email list with your Medium profile. 

As you can see from this profile (August Birch is a pretty stellar writer on Medium), you now have more real estate to collect emails and generate outside sources of revenue :

Medium-author-example

This isn’t a change to how earnings are calculated, but don’t be afraid to get creative to put your profile page to work!

4. Write Consistently

While this should go without saying, writing consistently is also a key to earning money on Medium.

Any online side hustle takes consistency to find success. This is because you need to test what works, doesn’t work, and to ultimately learn the ropes.

My advice is to come up with some sort of publishing schedule you can stick to. Even if it’s one story a week, consistency makes a massive difference in the long run.

I talk about this concept, as well as nine other tips, in my first ever YouTube video that shares advice for how to write on Medium and get paid.

5. Engage With Other Medium Authors

If you want more views on your Medium content, try engaging with other authors and people on the platform first.

I’ve found that calling out other excellent writers in your own stories can often get writers to do the same for you. And the same goes with commenting on other people’s stories.

In other words, don’t be afraid to help others first. Karma has a funny way of always coming back to us!

6. Focus On Engagement

Medium’s July 2023 update to how it pays writers makes one thing clear: engagement is now what matters most.

This means it’s important to avoid clickbait, misleading readers, and writing short content that doesn’t provide any value. Tactics like asking readers questions and trying to foster engagement and discussion is also a good idea.

Avoiding AI writing that’s clearly not unique is also a must. In short, focus on quality over quantity and give people a reason to read your stories from beginning to end.

7. Cover Trending Topics

One final tip to earn money writing on Medium is to cover trending topics and niches.

Medium is great for evergreen content. But it also has a social nature to it, so writing about pressing issues in your niche can get a lot of traction quite quickly.

Extra Reading – The Best Ways To Make Money Online For Beginners .

Medium Vs WordPress – Where Can You Make The Most Money?

In my experience, it’s easier to make money on Medium than it is to make money with a WordPress blog. However, blogging has a much higher income potential since you own the platform and have more control over how you monetize .

For example, I earned about $1,000 from Medium in 2020. That same year, I made $22,000 blogging . And fast forward just a few more years, and This Online World made $272,000 in 2022 .

In fact, my blog now makes $50,000 a month or so between running display advertisements with Mediavine and by using affiliate marketing. And this sort of income isn’t something most Medium writers are earning.

A lot of this stems from how limiting Medium is. You can sort of do affiliate marketing, but you can’t do too much of it. And running display ads just isn’t possible.

So, I think it’s possible to make money on Medium, and it’s likely faster for new writers than starting a blog from scratch.

But, never discount the power of owning your own platform. It lets you get more creative with monetization, build a brand, and even sell your website down the line for an exit strategy.

My final advice is to give Medium a try and put some content up to see what happens. But, never be afraid to start your own blog either. You never know what can happen, and it’s so low risk I figure it’s something everyone should try once!

Ready to start your own blog?

I always recommend using SiteGround hosting for new bloggers.

SiteGround is incredibly affordable and reliable. It’s also the host I used to scale This Online World to 50,000+ monthly views per month, so it has my vote.

Extra Reading – The Best Side Hustles To Start With No Money .

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does medium pay per 1,000 views.

How much Medium pays you per view depends on if paying Medium members read your story and for how long they read. Since there are multiple factors at play, Medium doesn’t have a set rate per 1,000 views. Some stories might earn more or less than others, so focus on increasing read time by writing engaging content.

Is Writing On Medium Worth It?

Yes, writing on Medium is worth it if you want a free and quick way to get your writing out there. It’s also worth it if you want to monetize your writing without creating your own blog .

However, making money with Medium is becoming harder each year as more writers join. Personally, I think running your own WordPress blog has way higher income potential than Medium does, so this is where I spend most of my focus.

You can still use Medium to create a freelance writing portfolio or to dabble in online writing. But I think blogging is a better business model if you want to earn a full-time income online.

How Much Can You Realistically Make On Medium?

I think most writers can set a realistic goal of making $20 to $50 per month if they consistently write great content. It’s also possible to scale to $100+ per month, and some Medium writers write full-time.

However, most writers don’t make over $100 per month; this is a competitive environment with lots of writers, so you need to grind to increase your income.

How Does Medium Make Money?

Medium makes most of its income from paid memberships. Free readers on Medium can only read five metered articles per month. If readers want to enjoy any content past that limit, they must become a Medium member for the price of $5/month .

Interestingly, traditional advertising practices haven’t been too successful for Medium .

Between their commitment to quality and minimalist design, crowding the platform with banner ads just isn’t an option. So, Medium has ultimately come to rely on monthly subscriptions and rounds of fundraising to power their platform thus far.

It will be interesting to watch Medium move forward as a business, and I am genuinely curious to see how they will monetize their platform.

For now, however, it’s all about content quality and Medium members.

Extra Reading – How To Make Money With Your Laptop .

Final Thoughts

I hope this guide on how to make money on Medium has helped explain how the platform works and how anyone can begin earning money with it.

At the end of the day, you can make money on Medium and also use the platform to promote your other websites/businesses. All it takes is some time, patience, and work (like everything else worth doing!)

I mean, I made over $1,000 on Medium without much effort. And I truly think it’s a powerful platform for bloggers, writers, and creatives alike.

Once again, to learn more about how you can optimize your Medium profile and gain more claps, check out part 2 of this post !

Also, be sure to read my post on the best sites like Medium you can also try to make money with your writing.

Thanks for reading!

Looking for more money-making ideas? Checkout :

  • The Best Ways To Make $1,000 A Day .
  • The Top Free Online Jobs That Pay You Daily .

Tom Blake

Tom is a full-time blogger and freelance writer with a passion for side hustling, passive income, and the gig economy. His work has appeared on dozens of personal finance websites like Money Crashers, The College Investor, Investor Junkie, and more. This Online World is all about providing people with honest ways to make and save more money by using technology. To learn more about Tom, read his About Page !

If you’re interested in freelance writing services or want to partner with This Online World, please use our contact page to get in touch!

Reader Interactions

Priya Viswanathan says

June 6, 2018 at 9:48 am

I love this article and your whole philosophy on passive income especially with the constant demand for writing in all forms in all industries! I’m only just getting started on Medium, I’ve spent so much time on there reading and learning and now starting to plan my own pieces to publish. I look forward to keeping up with your content both on here as well as Medium!

Kunwar says

June 25, 2018 at 6:38 am

Very Nice !!

Nicely Written, I Like this blog and found this applicable and helpful for me !!

Thanks for Sharing your Views…

Mr Tee says

July 19, 2018 at 2:52 am

I come from Vietnam. The medium works in Vietnamese or not?

Tom Blake says

July 20, 2018 at 4:11 pm

Hi Mr. Tee. You can write on Medium, but only writers from countries that support Stripe (the Medium Payment processing system) can earn money. Sorry for the bad news, but hopefully it is supported in the future! https://stripe.com/global

Dan Jordan says

July 20, 2018 at 2:13 pm

Hey great article, I was recently introduced to Medium by Gary Vee on one of his vlogs and it really took me by surprise in seeing how much opportunity and creativity can be in one place. Thanks for sharing your insights and experiences with Medium so far. I too am into the online marketing and trend world.

I have followed your social platforms too 🙂

Look forward to reading more of your writing!

July 20, 2018 at 4:08 pm

Hey Dan, thanks so much for the kind words! It really is incredible how much opportunity there is on a platform like Medium. I followed you back, can’t wait to read some of your content tonight! 🙂

August 4, 2018 at 4:21 am

This service is not available for Nigerians. I hope medium looks into it.

August 4, 2018 at 4:31 pm

Hi Amaka, sorry to hear it is not available. I hope they add more coverage for Stripe soon. If you like, you can head to https://stripe.com/global and sign up with your email to be notified if/when Stripe becomes available in Nigeria (or any other country you might have a bank account). Additionally, you can also write on Medium to grow an audience and drive the traffic to another blog/website that you monetize. Best of luck 🙂

Rachel Blue says

August 10, 2018 at 4:01 pm

Can you repost content you already published on your website to Medium or do they insist on new content that they thereafter “own?”

August 10, 2018 at 4:08 pm

Hi Rachel, great question! You can definitely republish content you have already published onto Medium! They have an ‘import story’ tool which automatically adds a rel=canonical tag (letting Google know that your imported story is the original source). It’s a great form of content syndication and importing stories is what I do with most of my content on Medium. Hope this helps!

August 16, 2018 at 6:30 pm

Great article, Its good of you to share it with us. It seems like a good way to increase your blog’s exposure and make some extra money – a win, win!

August 16, 2018 at 10:27 pm

Hi Ged, thanks so much for reading and for the comment! It definitely is a win-win if you ask me 🙂 there is so much potential!

Manan Shah says

September 8, 2018 at 9:32 am

Very nice article. Helpful. From here I want to go open medium account. Thank you for inspiring me.

September 9, 2018 at 9:33 pm

Hi Manan, thank you so much for reading! I’m glad you’re opening a Medium account! I truly think it is a great platform and I wish you the best of luck.

Richard Reader says

December 6, 2018 at 6:08 pm

Hi Thomas. You just open my mind with this article. For a long time, Medium has caught my attention. But I ignore it. With this article, you have opened the door of my mind to do something for my blogsite through Medium. Thank you for your kindness in sharing this valuable experience with the readers of your blog.

However, I have one important question.

Does Medium limit the number of articles that can be posted by Medium authors? Explanation please.

Regards. Richard Reader

December 9, 2018 at 12:38 am

Hi Richard, thanks so much for reading and your kind words! As far as I know, Medium does not limit how many articles you post. However, in order to not appear spammy I would definitely suggest not importing/writing more than a story or two a day. I’m really happy to hear you have something exciting in mind for your blog! 🙂

Ashraf Jan says

January 28, 2019 at 5:36 am

Hi, Such a wonderful post, I also listed some easy ways to make money with Medium. You can check here https://threadsp.com/how-to-make-money-on-medium/

February 7, 2019 at 1:07 am

Awesome post, Ashraf!

March 9, 2019 at 11:39 am

I would love to write for medium, but it’s sad stripe is not available in my country.

I hope it is soon, though.

March 24, 2019 at 6:41 pm

Hi I’m underage and don’t plan to be a paid member until a few quality articles are posted and with some traffic. Is it possible to have a robust blog on Medium without paid partnership for the first few months, also without paid features to thrive there? Or do I have to upfront pay for the features?

April 10, 2019 at 12:22 pm

Hi Isha. Thankfully, joining the Medium Partner Program is free! So, you can start writing and earn money with Medium without having to pay to be a member. I think you might have trouble since you are under 18, but I would still write to grow a following and then monetize when you can be accepted!

Marjorie Vernelle says

May 26, 2019 at 12:12 am

Tom, I was researching Medium and found your article. What a piece of good news! I have been looking for a way to post writing, and maybe draw more attention to the art blog I started a few months ago. Medium sounds perfect, and your details about it make it of great interest. I am signing up today.

May 26, 2019 at 11:25 pm

Hi Marjorie! I’m really happy to hear my guide to write on Medium was useful! 🙂 It really is a decent (and almost effortless) way to drive some traffic back to your blog through content syndication, and writing original content is quite fun too! Best of luck!

Tracy Karol says

July 1, 2019 at 5:12 am

Thanks for the information, just what I’m looking for. I do wish I could make some money from all the answers I devote to Quora, but at least it’s writing I enjoy and benefits others.

Navin Rao says

September 4, 2019 at 7:21 pm

I actually didn’t know, that one can earn through writing on medium too. I love writing quora. Infact i landed to this article from there. This article was certainly an eye opener for me.

Kudos, you are doing a fantastic job spreading all the info around and letting everyone making money online. I truly appreciate.

Thanks, Navin

Duston says

September 8, 2019 at 7:55 pm

Oh, nice! Thank you so much for this article. I have finally made the commitment to start blogging and not only am I new to it all but I still have to take courses for how to use WordPress from the very beginning (free of course as I have found several). Your insight into Medium is great as I was not aware one can earn money from their articles on WordPress but also use it to earn additional income from their primary blog articles! Thank you again!

September 10, 2019 at 12:01 am

Hi Duston, thanks for reading! I’m glad you liked the article! I definitely think syndicating your old blog content is the way to go if you want to get started with making money on Medium and growing a second channel alongside your blog! 🙂

jimmyu says

September 17, 2019 at 2:35 pm

Really Helpful article I am going to try this

Sagar Arakh says

October 18, 2019 at 4:17 pm

Thank you for writing about your journey on medium. I have started blogging since 3 months and inspite of a considerable hard work, I’m not reaching anywhere. So I’m kind of demotivated and now thinking to speak my heart out on medium. Let’s see how it goes. 😊

Garvish says

November 20, 2019 at 11:04 am

This was a long read, but definitely one of the most informative article written on how to make money online via Medium. I’ve always wondered of doing that but didn’t know if I would be successful. After reading the article I surely will be trying the method again. Hopefully this time I make some money.

Anthony Boyd says

November 22, 2019 at 2:56 am

Great article!

I made my first $.39(lol!)on Medium by importing articles from my website and left it alone for awhile. Ever since then I’ve been importing more of my work because I do see this as a future form of passive income.

November 22, 2019 at 2:58 am

Thanks for the kind words Anthony!! That’s definitely a great way to start out and how I got the ball rolling! With Medium’s recent changes to their payment algorithm, I think it’s a great time to do just that.

Dropping some Medium links once in a while on relevant Reddit communities or somewhere on social media can help too if you want to spur some growth now and again. Just an idea 🙂 thanks for reading and your comment

DG Kaye says

January 22, 2020 at 10:53 pm

Great informative article. I’m actually surfing around to find what Medium will take from us for taxes? Especially if I’m Camadian. 🙂

January 24, 2020 at 2:01 pm

Hey DG, thanks for reading and for the question! Medium has a pretty awesome document that outlines a bunch of their tax info: https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/sections/360001924873-Taxes

I had to fill out a W-8BEN but that’s about it! Pretty simple process so far! 🙂

JD Mumma says

February 2, 2020 at 6:04 am

“have recently passed the $600 mark and now earn passive income every month from my articles” I’m confused on your total earnings. Is your total earning the $602.46? From March 25, 2018 – June 25, 2019? About $500 over 15 months (I took off the first month and the $100 from that first month)? About $33/month?

Temeka Stanley says

February 6, 2020 at 10:01 am

Where do you add the tag “rel=canonical tag” when importing a story?

February 7, 2020 at 3:04 pm

The ‘rel=canonical’ tag is added automatically if you use the import a story function 🙂 you can double-check your published post by right clicking on the post and selecting ‘view page source’ as well (look for the URL pointing back to your site, you should see it says rel=canonical). Hope this helps!

Jodi Henson says

February 16, 2020 at 6:53 pm

Thank you Tom for this incredible, in-depth review of Medium. I joined Medium innocently because I stumbled onto a blog post that led me here and I have been hooked ever since. But I was so confused when I started getting emails with my stats. Results? I couldn’t figure out why I had results much less what was the source. Now I get it! I seriously appreciate your explanations and even better the tips, tricks and suggestions. My website is currently being overhauled and as soon as it’s done, I’ll start linking my blog posts. Thanks again!

February 17, 2020 at 4:13 pm

Hi Jodi. I’m so happy to hear this little Medium guide has been helpful! 🙂 Thanks so much for reading and for the comment. That is exciting about your website redesign; it will be awesome to import your content to Medium and to watch both platforms grow!

Lydia Herrera says

May 6, 2020 at 5:25 pm

Nice Informative article. Thank You. I just signed up for medium subscription and partner program and connected my stripe acct. I suppose this is the time to start. I had ran into medium a couple years ago…

May 12, 2020 at 12:27 am

Hi Lydia, thanks for reading and the comment! That is awesome that you’re going to start writing on Medium and are joining their partner program. Congrats on taking the first step, I hope you find success on the platform!

Ramrkrishna jena says

May 18, 2020 at 2:34 pm

I am from India and my stripe account was banned by stripe team, so i want to know how i create a stripe account for medium.

Jon M. says

June 18, 2020 at 2:14 am

Really informative post. I’m curious if you know whether Medium backlinks are ever dofollow? I always leave at least one link to my blog in my Medium articles, but I looked at the html and the link is marked nofollow. However, when researching this question online it seems there is not consensus. If the links can ever be dofollow it seems Medium could be a great way to build authority for a blog.

July 7, 2020 at 9:39 pm

Thanks for the awesome question Jon and for reading! 🙂 from my knowledge, they are never marked as do-follow but I agree there isn’t a consensus. After submitting dozens of stores, some of which have hundreds of claps, I’ve never had links change over (I know links can change on Reddit based on upvotes so I don’t think there’s a mechanism like that in place). So, ultimately, I think it’s purely no-follow unfortunately 🙁

sa7sa7 says

July 3, 2020 at 12:02 am

Hello, One question please: If my story gets curated and one publication emailed me to share my work with them, what happens if I accept to work with that publication? Does my story stop being recommended by curators? Help please 🙂

July 7, 2020 at 9:37 pm

That is a pretty common occurrence since publications want a curated story to be in their publication! You can submit it and your story will still be recommended as far as I know 🙂 thanks for reading!!

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Merrick Garland Is Too Weak to Be Attorney General

Over and over again, the biden appointee has proven to be painfully naïve in the face of republican bad faith..

Merrick Garland testifying before Congress in 2023.

When Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Robert Hur as special counsel overseeing the Justice Department’s investigation into Joe Biden’s retention of classified documents during his time as vice president, it was tempting to see the move not only as a slam dunk , but as an extension of Garland’s larger effort to restore the DOJ’s  tattered reputation . After all, it was clear from the very beginning that Hur would not find any criminal wrongdoing—the documents Biden possessed were clearly kept by mistake. 

In a stark contrast to Donald Trump—who had been accused of not only willfully retaining sensitive documents but refusing to return them—Biden’s wrongdoing was minimal, accidental, and common. The appointment of Hur, a Trump-nominated United States attorney, seemed similarly obvious. A Republican could not be accused of bias; his findings would have to be taken seriously by Biden’s critics in the GOP and right-wing media. 

That’s almost what happened. Hur’s report , the findings of which were released late last week, cleared Biden of criminal wrongdoing , as expected. It revealed Republican efforts to attack Biden’s handling of classified documents as what they were: a smear aimed at clouding Trump’s brazen criminality. But none of that mattered. Instead, the report has been an unmitigated disaster for Biden, all because Hur used his 388-page report as a means of pushing another of the right’s favorite attacks: that Biden is not only old and doddering, but senile. The Hur report, in gratuitous fashion , presented the president as a Mr. Magoo-like figure, unable to remember basic facts like the year of his son’s death or his own term as vice president—details that were wholly irrelevant to the investigation itself. 

Garland should have seen this coming. He didn’t. Three years into Garland’s term as attorney general, it’s clear that he has failed. Far from rebuilding the Justice Department’s reputation, he has failed to carry out some of his basic duties out of fear of being attacked as a partisan. His rigid adherence to “norms” has instead aided Republican bad faith attacks. For all of the efforts undertaken to cleanse the agency of the politics of his predecessor, Garland has allowed a more insidious politics to seep into the Department of Justice’s affairs—and it only appears that he has given it his blessing.

When Merrick Garland was sworn in as attorney general in March 2021, he promised to restore the Justice Department’s reputation after it was left tainted by the corruptions of William Barr, who often ran the DOJ as if it were Donald Trump’s legal retainer. Where Trump had weaponized the department to attack his enemies and protect himself, Garland would be straitlaced, a no-nonsense prosecutor above the petty realities of politics. “The only way we can succeed and retain the trust of the American people is to adhere to the norms that have become part of the DNA of every Justice Department employee,” Garland said shortly after being sworn in. 

“Those norms require that like cases be treated alike—that there not be one rule for Democrats and another for Republicans, one rule for friends and another for foes, one rule for the powerful and another for the powerless, one rule for the rich and another for the poor, or different rules depending upon one’s race or ethnicity,” he continued. 

Garland’s aim of depoliticizing the Justice Department is a laudable one. Garland had little choice but to try to rebuild trust and an air of nonpartisanship. But during his tenure, Garland’s noble goals have, again and again, rendered him overly passive to the threat posed by the right. Perhaps fearing backlash, the attorney general slow-walked the investigation into Donald Trump’s role in the January 6 insurrection, only appointing Jack Smith as special counsel in late November 2022, after Trump formally declared his bid for the presidency. With Hur, Garland appears to be back-footed about the threat posed by a Republican-aligned special counsel. And when Hur presented his lengthy report, which was full of irrelevant information about Biden’s cognitive faculties, he did nothing—again, perhaps because he feared that stepping in would make him seem political. 

But stepping is exactly what Garland should have done. Hur’s report deviated from Justice Department norms in many key ways. It is not standard for lengthy reports to be written in cases where criminal charges aren’t being sought. Hur’s report goes to great lengths, however, to weaponize one five-hour interview, taking several drive-by attacks on Biden’s mental state, calling him “an elderly man with a poor memory,” among other things. The report may have ended one Republican attack, but it provided ammunition for another even more potent one. 

Biden’s attorneys are understandably furious. “Mr. Hur’s criticism of President Biden mirrors one of the most widely recognized examples in recent history of inappropriate prosecutor criticism of uncharged conduct,” Biden’s lawyers wrote to the DOJ. “The FBI and DOJ personnel’s criticism of uncharged conduct during investigations in connection with the 2016 election was found to violate ‘long-standing Department practice and protocol.’”

I am less convinced that Hur’s report mirrors the email scandal that helped derail Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Biden’s age is a legitimate campaign issue and it’s one that voters are rightly concerned about—having a president who is 81 years old and who has clearly aged in office is a serious issue. It is legitimate for voters to factor it in as they assess his fitness for office. 

But Biden’s age had nothing to do with Hur’s investigation or with Biden’s retention of classified documents after his time in office. Hur simply used his report as a back door to sneak derogatory information in, and out into the public view. It was brazenly political—exactly the kind of thing that Garland promised to snuff out. Instead, he deviated from norms, all in a futile effort to appear nonpartisan. 

Garland, it’s worth noting, should know better. He is arguably the poster child of the GOP’s deviation from norms and their general adherence to bad faith in all areas of politics. He should be sitting on the Supreme Court right now. He isn’t because Mitch McConnell invented a precedent to keep him from being sworn in back in 2020. And yet, somehow, he has learned nothing from that experience. If anything, he’s paid it forward, onto fresh victims. It’s not yet clear just how much the Hur report has done to Biden’s standing. Whatever harm is done, however, is Garland’s fault. 

Alex Shephard is a staff writer at The New Republic .

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Biden administration cancels student loans of more than 150,000 borrowers under new plan

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Wednesday is canceling $1.2 billion in student debt for a bout 153,000 borrowers who took out relatively modest student loans and have been repaying it for the last decade or more.

A borrower can qualify for the forgiveness if they're enrolled in the administration’s Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) repayment plan and "have been making at least 10 years of payments, and have originally taken out $12,000 or less for college," a White House fact sheet said. It also said that "for every $1,000 borrowed above $12,000, a borrower can receive forgiveness after an additional year of payments."

Demonstrators march from the Supreme Court to the White House after the court stuck down President Biden's student debt relief program on June 30, 2023.

As an example, the fact sheet said, "a borrower enrolled in SAVE who took out $14,000 or less in federal loans to earn an associate’s degree in biotechnology would receive full debt relief starting this week if they have been in repayment for 12 years."

Those who receive the relief are expected to receive an email with a message from President Joe Biden saying, "I hope this relief gives you a little more breathing room."

"I’ve heard from countless people who have told me that relieving the burden of their student loan debt will allow them to support themselves and their families, buy their first home, start a small business, and move forward with life plans they’ve put on hold," the email says.

The White House said Wednesday that the relief provided under the plan, which was launched last summer , was originally planned for July and the loans are being canceled about six months early.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told reporters Tuesday that the forgiveness will happen automatically and brings the total amount of student debt canceled by the Biden administration to nearly $138 billion for nearly 3.9 million borrowers.

"These are historic efforts that reflect the president’s commitment, again, to deliver as much relief as possible to as many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible," he said. "Bottom line is this: We’re providing real, immediate breathing room on an unacceptable reality where student loan payments compete with basic needs, like putting food on the table and accessing health care."

The Department of Education plans to directly contact other borrowers next week who are also eligible for early relief but are not enrolled in the SAVE plan, the White House said.

Biden said 7.5 million people are now enrolled in the plan of the 30 million who are eligible . The debt relief program was introduced last year after the Supreme Court  struck down Biden’s original student debt relief program , which aimed to cancel up to $20,000 in debt for about 43 million borrowers.

how to become a writer at medium

Rebecca Shabad is a politics reporter for NBC News based in Washington.

Tara Prindiville is a White House producer for NBC News.

Ring stops selling its Car Cam dash cam

Ring blamed “ongoing delays” for the decision, and it doesn’t appear to have shipped a car cam in months..

By Jennifer Pattison Tuohy , a smart home reporter who's been testing connected gadgets since 2013. Previously a writer for Wirecutter, Wired, Dwell, and US News.

Share this story

A small camera on top of a long black stand fitted onto a car windshield.

Ring confirmed to The Verge that it has stopped selling its Ring Car Cam , a dashcam / security camera hybrid that records the road and the driver while in motion and acts as a security camera when a vehicle is parked. The product, which launched at CES 2023 , has been hard to come by since going on sale last January, and customers who tried to purchase one in the last few months are finding those orders canceled.

"We've experienced ongoing delays with Car Cam and have decided to stop the sale of the device," Ring spokesperson Andrea McDonald told The Verge in an email. "Customers who purchased a Car Cam will continue to receive software updates and support. We remain excited about opportunities to innovate in the auto space." 

McDonald declined to elaborate on what type of delays or whether Ring will resume sales in the future.

“Customers who purchased a Car Cam will continue to receive software updates and support. 

As I noted in my review , the Ring Car Cam had a novel approach but seemed to fall between two stools. It wasn't that useful if you wanted a dedicated dashcam (thanks to low video quality and high monthly fees), and as a security device for protecting your car, it felt like overkill. It also didn't capitalize on its Ring and Alexa connections, with limited integrations and few voice-enabled features.

In an email Amazon sent to Verge reader Henry Williams canceling his order for the device, it shared a similar response to Ring's, citing "ongoing delays with Ring Car Cam's availability." He had placed the order in October, but it was delayed until December and finally canceled this week.

The email Amazon sent to Williams this month, cancelling the order he placed in October.

Posts on Reddit and Ring's support page indicate people have had trouble getting the device since it first went on sale in January 2023. One Redditor ordered theirs on January 31 and canceled the order after being told July was the earliest it would arrive. Another ordered one in March and was told it wouldn't arrive until October. Now, it appears all of those orders have been canceled.

Based on online reviews, the Car Cam did ship to some customers early on, but since that initial rollout, the product has been essentially vaporware.

Updated Saturday, February 24, 8:45 AM: Added a screenshot of the email Amazon sent to a Ring customer canceling his order.

A former Gizmodo writer changed his name to ‘Slackbot’ and stayed undetected for months

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