Navigating Medium’s Maze
The Quandary of Long-Form Content in a High-Output Era
In the bustling world of online content, Medium has a lot of issues. As a seasoned writer on Medium, I’ve observed a trend. Articles have to be around 5 minutes to do good, but you also have to pump out a lot of articles. Articles that not only need to keep readers engaged for around five minutes, but they also have to be paying members or else you get pretty much no money. This is because Medium has no ads. Compare this to most news sites that have short articles, lots of ads, and sometimes even a subscription on top of all of it. This presents a peculiar dilemma for creators like me, striving to strike the perfect balance between depth and frequency. So lets go into why this is not only too difficult, but causes burn out.
The Dual Challenge of Medium’s Model
This unique dynamic on Medium, requiring both lengthy reader engagement and a high volume of content, sets the stage for a relentless and often unsustainable cycle for writers. First, there’s the length requirement. Crafting a piece that can captivate a reader for five full minutes demands a level of depth and quality that’s no small feat. These are not your run-of-the-mill, skim-and-go articles; they need substance, structure, and style.
