Medium had a “partner program” where one could possibly earn royalties on their articles — I thought this was a great model and while I’ve been struggling with some creative blocks recently I felt it was a fair deal — I even signed up for a paying account as a member to contribute back to others etc.
However, they recently raised the bar for being a partner
Apparently, I don’t have enough followers to stay in their program — I had enough that they sent me a 1099 for the pittance I made in 2021 (it was more expensive to have to deal with the things it did to my taxes than I made and did not even cover my $5 monthly subscription
Long story short: I thought Medium had a great model for possibly allowing me to share writing and make a tiny bit back but apparently the overhead of small voices is too much for them to bother with.
So now if I stay I can’t even have a chance at making a tiny share for my work while Medium still makes money off me. No thanks — if I wanted to be abused like that I’d have made a YouTube channel.
