Should I Cancel my Membership or Upgrade to "Friend of Medium"? ✴️

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

My Medium subscription expires in March 2024. As my writing income could have been better, I have been considering whether I should renew my membership.

But income isn’t everything. You will find some of my thoughts on the matter below.

“Should I Cancel My Medium Membership?” was initially part of my monthly results and earnings report. I decided to make it a separate article and update it only when significant changes might affect my decision.

Coincidentally, a significant change — the introduction of the “Friend of Medium” upgrade — was introduced while I was revising this article.

I have added my thoughts and reactions to this at the end of this article.

If I were to cancel my membership…

What would I gain?

I would save $50, plus any interest I would have made on the $50, less my annual earnings (if Medium removes existing members from the Partner Program). Members with a monthly subscription would save $60 a year.

What would stay the same?

• I would remain in the Partner Program. NB: Medium has changed the criteria for joining its Partner Program. Instead of needing 100 followers, new writers must be a Medium member to join the Partner Program. How long will existing participants in the Partner Program be allowed to remain in the program without being a member remains to be seen. See Goodbye Medium? for more information.
• Until 1 September 2023, I would have received a commission for members who have signed up through my referral link, but Medium’s referral program has now ended.

Although I understand why Medium is making these changes, it might not be worth my while being a member if I didn’t get any return. Although I don’t mind writing for a zero return, I‘m not keen on having to pay to write and make a loss.

What would I lose?

• Earnings (if Medium removes existing members from the Partner Program).
• Custom Domain
• Unrestricted access to writers’ stories
• Engagement with other members
• Contributing to other writers’ work
• The members-only weekly newsletter
• My Learning Pages publication
• My Learning Pages newsletter
• My Mastodon account

Earnings
If Medium removes existing members from the Partner Program, I would not have any earnings. Currently, my average earnings are $1.95 per month.

Custom Domain
I have recently linked my Medium account to LearningPages.net as part of my efforts to improve my branding. I had some problems linking it, but I got it fixed with advice from Medium’s excellent customer service.

I like the idea of a custom domain; it certainly helps establish your brand. If I were to lose my custom domain, I could always redirect LearningPages.net to my Medium homepage.

Unrestricted access to writers’ stories
This would be the greatest loss. I would have to consider whether having access to member-only stories is worth $50 a year.

Engagement with other members
I think that my engagement with other writers would decline considerably because I would have only restricted access to members’ stories. I have found this engagement much better than on other social media platforms.

Contributing to other writers’ work
While I remain a member, part of my subscription supports other writers’ efforts. Losing this would be sad as I have learned much about writing from other writers.

The members-only weekly newsletter
Not something I would miss.

My Learning Pages publication
Up to August, I hadn’t had any submissions to my publication, but I received four submissions in September! If you want to write for the Learning Pages Publication, please look at Write for Learning Pages. Submissions get the benefit of my Grammarly subscription. Grammarly checks spelling, grammar, punctuation and phrasing. This publication defines learning in its broadest sense.

My Learning Pages newsletter
The newsletter is a good asset and easy to use. It would be even better if I had some subscribers to it. The minus point is that subscribers have to have a Medium account. If I lose the newsletter, I could use Mailchimp or Substack as a replacement.

My Mastodon account
I would lose my Mastodon account. Many people feel that they don’t get many click-throughs. I would still have my separate Learning Pages account on Mastodon.

Other factors

Views

The number of views has no relationship to earnings.

Claps

Claps can have little significance because some people ‘clap and run’ to draw attention to themselves.

Reads

The number of reads is significant and directly relates to earnings. Unfortunately, Medium has put a “hold” on the “Read”’ statistics since August 2023.

Responses

Responses are also significant as they show engagement with your stories.

Three free reads

For new writers, recognition may be more important than earnings. This is why I was very disappointed when Medium removed the three free reads per month from their model.

To increase engagement with new readers, I could:

• Reduce the number of my member-only stories.
• Increase my use of friends’ links.
• Join Medium’s new “Friend of Medium” membership level (see below).

Friend of Medium

The Friend membership level was announced on 28 November 2023:

• Writers earn four times the earnings when a “Friend of Medium” reads their stories!
• Friend-level members can share member-only stories with anyone to drive more earnings.
• The “Friend of Medium” level costs three times the cost of an ordinary membership!

At first, I thought that there was no way the extra cost would be worth it, but then I read:

• Friends of Medium — Is It Worth It? by Marcus Musick and
• It took me ONE YEAR to achieve my Maximum Daily Earnings on Medium by Katy Ramm.

Both of these posts reported significant increases in earnings after upgrading to the “Friend of Medium Level” — something I hadn’t expected!

This could be because:

• of an initial surge due to the novelty of the idea;
• “Friends of Medium” are reading each others’ stories to benefit this new community;
• more members are reading “Friends of Medium” stories, hoping their stories will be read in return, bringing them greater earnings.

So, I decided to do some more research. As I had only two and a half months of my annual membership to run, I discovered that the upgrade fee had been “prorated” to $27.87.

This seemed a good time to give the “Friend of Medium” scheme a trial run. I would still be able to downgrade or cancel before my subscription is renewed.

I am now a “Friend of Medium”! ✴️

Do you think the “Friend of Medium” level is worth the extra cost?
Are you considering upgrading?
Have you upgraded?