Medium’s Pay

I came across this article today. The Slow Death Of The Boost On Medium: A Reductio Ad Absurdum | by Marc Barham | Nov, 2025 | Medium

I’m on my third year in Medium. The first I paid 120 bucks just to read the articles I liked. The second year I joined the pay wall, and I hit paydirt with an article on Kim Bassinger. (I’ve since taken down all my articles of erotica). From September of 2024 to June of 2025, I received varying amounts of money that steadily declined each month until I was making only five bucks a month. It came time to reup the membership that was now 150 bucks.

I counted up what I paid compared to what I earned. 120 +120 for two years was 240 bucks. What I earned to date was 680 bucks, for a net of 440 bucks. But with the diminishing returns on my articles, I couldn’t see reinvesting 150 bucks. So, I went off the paywall.

Reading Marc Barham’s post, I feel for the writers trying to make a living on Medium and Substack or other blogs like this. Marc’s article tells me that the game is rigged for the short term to hook the writers and then yank the rug out from under them.

I enjoy reading and writing me articles. The views and reads are miniscule to what I wrote before, but erotica gets old and I had nothing new to say. Most of the erotica written on Medium is so formulaic that I won’t bother reading them, if you’ve read one you’ve read them all.

Then again, I’m an old man with a comfortable lifestyle and write as a hobby. For those like Marc who are trying to keep their head above water financially I find Medium’s whims concerning who gets what boosts disconcerting and I’m afraid soon many of my favorite writers will be going on th greener pastures, if there are any.