Member-only story
Attention Shortform Writers
About that request for donations or “coffee.”
With the downturn in Medium incomes since the last algorithm change came a proportional increase in the number and variety of non-writing means, we can boost our income. But, unfortunately, all of these seem to be the equivalent of busking or begging.
We are now in the business of selling Medium memberships to our warm market readers and collecting a commission. OK. That wasn’t quite what I signed up for.
It’s certainly not what I would direct a prospective reader to. Especially one who paid me the courtesy of looking at my work. Still, it has the feel-good appearance of being in partnership with Ev as we build the Medium community and hopefully our livelihood in the process.
The membership sales model came to the donation option of buying a writer a “coffee”. Again this is a voluntary transaction in support of writers that at one time could have earned a living posting on Medium.
I will share that when a writer’s story has touched me personally, I have made a financial donation. Not often, but I have partaken. Many writers have the donation option at the bottom of every article.
As Medium writer incomes go down, so does the supply of long-form writing. It makes sense that long-form, researched…
