• hayk@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    a slightly unrelated question. do the authors at least get paid for posting things on Medium? if not, why do that? I’m unironically curious. it’s a bad platform no matter how you look at it: it’s closed for unregistered readers, it’s typesetting sucks ass… the only reason I could see, is if the authors actually get some of the ad revenue, in which case I’d much rather pay directly to the authors.

    • sebastiancarlos@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
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      2 hours ago

      Yes, I do get paid. Sometimes considerably (for what tech writing can provide).

      Indeed, writing tech articles on Medium has allowed me to get some extra income/free-time in between jobs, which I use to upskill myself and then share what I learn with the community (with some amount of friction regarding the paywall). This self-reinforcing loop is quite appealing to me, and - I would argue - aligns somewhat with my take on the Kantian categorical imperative.

      For what it’s worth, I like the typesetting. Medium also has extremely good SEO, likely from some direct negotiation with search engines, I assume. Eventually I plan to move my tech writings to my own blog, with some sort of minimal ad system, no paywalls. Also, I usually unpaywall my tech articles after the window of high income dries up.

      I updated the post to use the “friend link” which should allow you to read for free. (I didn’t realize you could edit the link on lemmy after publishing).

      in which case I’d much rather pay directly to the authors.

      All my stories have a link to my ko-fi at the end, but the income from that is significantly less than what I get from Medium directly.

      Edit: Thanks @hayk@lemmy.ml for donating! Much appreciated!

      • hayk@lemmy.ml
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        2 hours ago

        re: Medium I was genuinely curious why people use it, thanks for the clarification.

        still as someone who writes only open source codes, it goes a bit against my religion, but I totally understand if your income depends on it! thanks for the text, and for the “friend link”. as promised… ; )