The 7 Unexpected Things That Are Wrong With Medium (From a Former Journalist) [Premium]

Unlike most writers on Medium, I didn’t start my writing career by writing on Medium. 

I’ve been contributing to magazines, companies, and more for almost a decade before I joined the platform. Yet when I first started on Medium, it actually took me a while to get adjusted because it was completely different than anything I’ve done before.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very grateful for Medium in a lot of ways. I’ve gotten to build an audience, showcase a lot of my ideas, and help people live better lives. (That’s what motivated me to join Medium in the first place.) 

But as with all things, it’s not without its faults. 

And here are some brutally honest problems that I’ve discovered about Medium after writing on it for almost two years.

It Encourages Simplistic Articles

There is only one rule to Medium: 

Go viral.

The problem with Medium’s Partner Program is it incentivizes viral articles ONLY. Less than 5% of all the articles you ever write lead to more than 95% of your earnings. (This isn’t hyperbole; this is based on all my earnings as well as conversations with other writers.)

That’s why everyone is incentivized to write really trivial articles like “7 things to change your life” (and three of them are, like, drinking water, sleeping eight hours a day, and basic stuff any eight-year-old knows is good for you).

Why? 

Because that shit goes viral. 

Articles that are 12-minutes long or more rarely go viral.

Articles that are niche, deep, and nuanced rarely go viral.

Articles that are super high-quality often don’t go viral because maybe they didn’t have the sexiest headline or image (or the timing was just bad). 

You can’t predict what “hits” and, oftentimes, crappy articles do really well because, well, it’s just what a lot of people like.

Speaking of simplistic articles, here’s an interesting secret you probably didn’t notice:

Some of the biggest names on Medium built massive audiences entirely by using other people’s work. 

For example, they just wrote a bunch of articles like, “10 Quotes from [Famous Dead Person] That Will Change Your Life Forever.” 

Each article went viral because the title formula is sexy and they were able to grow an audience—but they didn’t write a single damn quote! 

They just Google searched a bunch and then slapped an article together. (Yes, I’ve written a compilation of quotes before, but just 1 or 2; not ten.)

Copy Cats

Again, the name of the game is virality because that’s what Medium pays you to do. (It’s very binary: Because of its algorithm, an article either does very well or very badly—even if you have 50,000 followers.) 

If you get an article to “explode,” it can make thousands of dollars while most other articles you write get three dollars (or less).

And because everyone’s chasing virality, people will take a viral article and almost instantly rehash it: They’ll take the same headline, same format, and more and slightly adjust it so they can try to ride that same wave.

Now, there are obviously A LOT of articles on Medium. And honestly, there have been times where I drafted an article for a week and was about to press “publish” when I discovered that someone else had just written about it… nine hours earlier. (Damn you, Tim Denning!)

So I understand that situation. 

But I’ve had to block a number of people because, several times, I caught them writing the same exact article I wrote.

What happened was that my article did well so they just tried to ride on my coattails. And to do so, they basically just copied my article and changed enough of it so it’s not technically not plagiarism.

Everyone Sounds The Same

The first time I ever wrote for Medium publications, every editor kept rejecting my articles. 

I was dumbfounded. 

I’ve written articles for leading magazines so I thought I knew what was good and what worked.

But as I studied their style guides, I realized that, basically, they want everyone to write the same exact way. 

And because of that, it makes everyone sound the same.

Sure, you can sprinkle a little bit of your unique voice every now and then, but it can’t be over-the-top, otherwise, the publication will NOT accept it. 

And, again, to go viral and feature your article to a bigger audience, you have to do what the editor says because it’s their discretion.

Thus, things like using bold, using italics, not quoting things the same way, swearing, or telling jokes are often eliminated because it just doesn’t fit their guide. (Not that any of these editors have ever worked at a magazine before.)

Hilariously enough, in comparison, when I wrote for Esquire and GQ, I could basically write whatever the hell I wanted. (So I did.)

Every publication has its own style guide. Curators have their rules. (Curation means some random person at Medium deems your article good enough to be distributed on Medium.)

And because of that, everyone, for the most part, sounds the same.

(Oh, it’s also because every editor forces you to use Grammarly.)

No Barrier to Entry

Anthony’s Corollary: If everyone can do something, everyone will do it. 

If everyone can ride a certain bus, you will find everyone on that bus. If everyone can go to a certain place, you will find everyone at that certain place.

To write on Medium, all you have to do is write on Medium. 

There is no qualification. 

So you end up with a lot of people who are utterly unqualified to write the things that they write about.

For example, you get a lot of young adults writing articles about how they’re going to become a millionaire… when they haven’t even moved out of their parents’ house.

Then, astonishingly, everyone claps their hands and tells them how awesome and brilliant they are for saying that and their article goes viral… but they haven’t even done anything yet.

(Am I the only one that sees something wrong with this?)

They are being praised and congratulated for not even doing anything. 

It takes years to get good at something. But because they’re all in a race to get famous quickly (on Medium), it waters down the level of writing.

Sure, there are a lot of morons who write for magazines. (And hey, maybe you can throw me into that pile.) But at least those morons have some credentials. Because no reputable editor in the world would accept a writer who can’t prove that they know something about that particular topic.

That’s actually why I picked the article’s photo: Because you see this person’s work, but you don’t know anything about them. And they might not be anything like what you thought they were or what they say.

Quantity > Quality

To do well on Medium, you need to write a lot and, when you write a lot, your articles aren’t always… good. 

Again, you can’t predict what article does well or not. There is literally no rhyme or reason why a certain article becomes viral and other articles don’t. (It doesn’t matter how well-researched, thorough, informative, etc.)

On Medium, quantity is infinitely more important than the quality of your articles. Quality almost doesn’t matter (to a point). (It still has to be readable.) The name of the game is just to crank out as many articles as you can to increase the odds that something goes viral.

To me, this is a huge flaw in the system. 

When you’re a writer for magazines, quality is far more important than quantity. After all, there are a limited number of pages in a magazine anyway. (There are only so many articles that a publication can publish.)

And with a team of other freelance writers — plus an editorial staff — there is a finite amount of articles they’re looking for. (You can’t just crank out 20 articles a week like certain writers on Medium do.)

Then, keep in mind, you already know you’re getting paid the same rate for every story (for the most part). So there’s no need to pump out article after article in the hopes that, again, 5% of them will create 95% of your earnings.  

When I wrote articles for print magazines (with millions of readers), I spent A LOT of time on those articles. Because when I go to the newsstand and see my article, I want to feel proud of what I’ve done.

On Medium, however, you just don’t get that same spark. In fact, taking that long to write a high-quality article works against you because, now, your odds of going viral are slim-to-nil. 

“The Shiny Penny Syndrome”

Here’s a brutal truth: A lot of people on Medium are just regular-ass people (or worse) with regular-ass lives (or worse), but because they write—and have a writer’s perspective—they make their lives seem a lot more amazing than it really is.

I call this the “Shiny Penny Syndrome.”

For example, if you walk down the street and you see a shiny penny on the sidewalk, you might pick it up, put it in your pocket, and go about the rest of your day without thinking twice about it. 

After all, it’s just one cent.

But for someone else, they’ll see that shiny penny, go home, sit at their computer, and write an elaborate article about it. 

They’ll say something like:

I found a shiny penny today…
and it’s such an analogy for life…
that you need to follow the omens…
that you need to trust in the world…
all because of a shiny penny…
go forth and find your shiny penny, my friends

In essence, they portray their lives as this really amazing thing—and portay themselves as really profound and brilliant—but, in reality, all they did was find a fucking penny on the ground.

You could do it too if you wanted, but it isn’t even worth your time (and you don’t even think that way).

Often, the more people toot their own horns on Medium, the more people think that they have all this great stuff going on when they really don’t.

So don’t fall for the “Shiny Penny Syndrome.”

The Dog Chases Its Own Tail

Once you gain some success on Medium, the automatic thing to do is to sell coaching… on how to gain success on Medium. 

Once you build an audience on Medium, the automatic thing to do is sell coaching… on how to build an audience on Medium.

I almost never see someone with a massive following on Medium who hasn’t tried to sell or teach people how to do the same. 

Now, there’s nothing wrong with that per se (since clearly there’s a huge demand), but it really brings the question of why people are writing on Medium in the first place. 

Too many people come there just to make money. They come there to build an audience and then teach other people how to build an audience.

And that’s a big thing that’s wrong with Medium. 

You will never see an article in the New York Times titled, “How I Made $XX,XXX/mo Writing Articles in the New York Times.” 

But you’ll see that all the time on Medium.

It’s very bizarre to me… and there’s something not quite right to me about that.

When I started writing on Medium, I wanted to just share my thoughts with people. That was it.

That’s why, you will never see me write an article about how I made $XXXXX on Medium, gained XXXXX followers, had XXXXXXX views, etc.

Because those aren’t metrics I care about. 

After all, how can you say you care about high-quality writing and helping people… but then flash these big numbers at people?

Look, I still plan on writing on Medium because there are a lot of people on it who enjoy my writing and I want to help them. 

But at the same time, I know that it has limitations. (And that’s why many leading writers on the platform have packed their bags and left over the last several months.)

So while many people don’t want you to know “how the hot dogs are made,” I want to reveal what it’s like behind the scenes. Why?

I believe it’s going to make you a more-informed reader so you can get the best advice, support, and lessons possible to help you in your journey (whether that’s reading me or anyone else). 

I hope it helps.