Medium is changing the Partner Program — I think. I only skimmed the email. And I guess they're making monthly changes moving forward? I don't know.
The fact is, I've been working on this particular piece for a few weeks, and the timing happens to coincide with Medium making changes. In my over 11 years on the platform, Medium makes changes all the time — this is nothing new.
Instead of focusing on Medium specifically, let's talk about money — one of the things I hate most about being a "voice" online.
Roughly a year ago, I asked people on Mastodon what their strategy was as online creators: Did they give everything away for free? Did they have a subscription wall to keep out the AI bots? Did they charge? Was it a mixture of both?
The overwhelming answer a year ago was that they gave everything away for free — the ethos of the original Internet, and one that I strongly support. The issue I encounter is that I believe art has value, and if we want people to continue creating, we must support them financially in some capacity.
I ran that same poll a few weeks ago to see if sentiments have changed. Interestingly, they have not. A small percentage have a mixture of free and paywalled content, but nobody is exclusively using a paywall.
I asked all of the people who responded follow-up questions about their thoughts on AI scraping and making sure that their art or their creations have a value behind it. The answers were overwhelmingly aligned with the cat being out of the bag regarding AI. There's no real going back from this point without incredibly extreme Internet regulations, which we all know is not coming any time soon.
When asked about value, most people said they primarily create for themselves. They hope that others find the same level of enjoyment as well.
I've been thinking about these results a lot for the last few weeks. I've watched creators I care about and enjoy their work talk about the burnout that comes with being a "presence" online.
Those of us who have been on the Internet since its early days have seen different phases come and go.
I was on Medium for six years before there was any kind of monetization program. When payments started, it felt exciting — but that excitement quickly turned into strategy. Suddenly, people were gaming the system for money instead of connection, and the fun disappeared.
I guess people come at things for different reasons. I come to writing to engage with others, share ideas, and see what happens. The money is nice, but it's not the reason.
When I moved my primary writing hub to my own website rather than Medium, I followed in the footsteps of every other newsletter writer or online creator and added a paywall. There are people out there who want to support me, and I feel like I should let them, but like most writers who write for the enjoyment of it, marketing myself or anything related to sales of my own writing is the furthest thing from my mind, and, frankly, it all feels a bit icky — even writing this article feels weird.
So, today, I'm going to adjust how my website’s paywall works. The free tier will remain the free tier. You can have access to everything with or without a subscription. I'm also moving all of the Write Now interviews from the subscription wall to just being free on the website. Like everyone has said, the AI cat is out of the bag, so it's time to stop worrying about AI scraping and just focus on what I enjoy most — actually writing.
The supporter tier will remain at $5/month or $50/year, but I'm adding a permanent coupon for $2.50/month. I'm doing this because I know there are people out there who want to support my work, but the current levels aren't conducive. I understand that with so many subscriptions these days, it's hard to decide where to put your money. So, if you want to support me for a small amount of money, you can.
I thought about going lower to, say, $1/month. But, the way Stripe's charges go, there is actually a penalty for "small transactions." For example:
- $1 transaction, Stripe takes 33%.
- $2.50 transaction, Stripe takes 15%.
- $5 transaction, Stripe takes 9%.
If there are any current $5/month supporters who wish to move to the $2.50/month coupon level, send me an email, and I can figure out how to do it manually for you.
I'm also making it very clear that everything that I write is free. If you want to support my work, you're helping to ensure that it stays that way. There are costs for the website, sending emails, and all the administrative stuff that keeps what I do going. By being a supporter, you help ensure that it stays free and accessible to everybody.
I want to be clear that supporting me financially is not a requirement to read my writing, to engage with me, or to respond to any of the emails — all of that is free and why I write. But by supporting my writing, you help enable the same for those who are unable to provide financial support.
Anyway, as I said at the very beginning, Puff Daddy was wrong (about so many things) — it's not all about the Benjamins. Instead, it's about the connections that we make through writing online.