Medium Reviews

Summary: I first began using Medium about 6 months ago as a reader and was instantly hooked on the granular content and high quality writing. The articles or "stories" have an organic feel and ground level perspective to them, much more than nearly all other blogging platforms. Many competitors tend to be heavy in recycled, watered down material where quantity lacks quality.
After about a week of use, I opted for the full subscription to have unrestricted access to all content as well as to explore my aspirations to publish my own articles. The fee is fair at 5 bucks per month. (Note: You can write content without a subscription) The cost per year may seem expensive to some but I personally enjoy knowing that my payment goes to the authors who write the pieces I read and learn so much from. The free version is just fine too and gives access to a wide range of content, but access to the premium articles from top writers will be limited to 3 per month.

As far as writing to earn money on Medium goes, I'll be honest that it is hard work if you don't have prior experience blogging or providing content on a regular basis. The competition is stiff and a relatively small percentage of writers earn over 3 figures a month- and that's even with publishing something every day. Earning on Medium is more of a long game. It can take 1-2 years of building up your catalog and following on the platform. It also takes time to find your niche and step up the quality of your work. But don't be discouraged- if you have a passion for writing and solid knowledge of a specific topic, skill or educational field, persistence will pay off. I have found the Medium platform motivates me to up my skills and other authors inspire me to stay active. I haven't made much money yet, but I've only been at it for a few months. My writing has improved significantly and the experience has been priceless. For now it's just a side hustle/labor of love. Medium pays based on not just number of views/likes (called "claps") but also time a reader spends on your article. It's definitely not a get rich quick gig. Even if you put in the time, you're only as good as your best competition. There are many platforms to get your work out there and I suggest exploring as many as you can. But in my opinion, Medium is one of the best platforms available and stands above the rest whether you're just browsing as a reader or contributing content to the community.
Medium is a highly recommended app that is a joy to use and feed your appetite for information of all kinds!

Positive: -Clean, intuitive app.
-High quality content.
-Real potential to earn as a writer if you can put in the time.
-Affordable subscription fee to unlock all content.
-Engaged community.

Negative: -Mobile app makes in-app writing cumbersome.
-Tends to get laggy and need restarting/refreshing.
-Extremely competitive/saturated market.
-Curated feed lacks variety.
-Unpaid membership only allows a few premium article views a month.

Summary: Medium hosts really good quality content and it is no surprise to find or work or home related searches leading to articles on Medium. However the interface doesn't seem to match the quality of writing.

Positive: Good quality articles.
TTS option - for listening to the article.
Lots of curated collections to group together articles under common theme / topic.
Reading list feature to save articles.

Negative: Cluttered interface - the main reading window is narrow due to the sidebars.
Ads and limited access for free users.

Summary: Medium is fairly priced and professional looking. You don't really need to do much of anything to set it up and have your content look nice. It can be good to use as promo for something else or with another platform, but you'll hardly find an audience if this is all you're posting to and you can't change up much either. It's nice, but it's not for everyone. If you need more, I'd suggest WordPress, but that will come with a lot more work needing to be put into it too. So, there's trade-offs either way.

Positive: It's a solid place to upload information about your company or opinion pieces and start up a conversation in the comments. The look of Medium is very minimalistic, clean and modern. It's good if you've got more to say than can be condensed in a Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter post, and you won't need to do anything to make your content already look great.

Negative: Medium looks good, but you will struggle to stand out from everyone else on the site. There's a lot of people on medium, and opportunities to make money there are slim if all you're doing is posting to Medium. It's okay for posting about your product or in conjunction with other platforms, but not really worthwhile by itself. You get that nice, clean look in exchange, likewise, for being able to customize much of anything.