I’m Returning to Medium When Jessica Wildfire and Umair Haque Are Sort-of Leaving…

Let me share my reasons with you.

Me, in Porto, Portugal, December 2021.

I first started writing on the web in 1999. You will agree that after 24 years of writing on various websites, I might have learnt something about content writing sites — what makes them succeed, and what, eventually, makes them fade into oblivion.

Screenshot from Facebook (me to my friends).

Screenshot from Facebook (me to my friends).

There used to be many different content writing sites on the web. Then, in about 2011, Google created Panda. It resulted in many of these sites closing their doors. About the only one that struggled through was Hubpages.

That said, I have noticed the same set of circumstances replaying in every single content writing site I have written for. It goes like this.

1. The site starts up offering writers payment. It pays well for a while.
2. As more and more people join the site, the site expands. That’s because one of the reasons that Google will give a good page rank to any site is…