Nope. You can’t earn money on Writing.com. You earn praise. That’s why I said amateur writers.

The Atlantic closed on Medium in October or November last year. It was the last mainstream publication to go.

From what I’ve seen, the ‘new leaders’ have no idea how this all works. I think that Ev Williams got lucky with SEO because the inclusion of the mainstream magazines gave it to him. I don’t think he, or the others who run this magazine realize what it takes. It’s like rich people take for granted various things, and they don’t realize it’s their wealth that gives it to them.

With regard to clickbait, neither I, nor Google mentioned clickbait. I’m not quite sure why others think Google is talking about clickbait. Google is talking about low-quality, spammy articles. Let me give you some examples. I’m just scrolling through Medium

“No. God often gives us more than we can handle.”

“I’m glad my mom died”

“The evolution of my writing.”

“Minecraft is a Terrifying Lesson in Solipsism and Existential Horror.”

“Here Is ONE Essential Step Churches NEED to Begin To Change.”

“Becoming a Rorschach Inkblot Woman”

“Soul Realms.”

“It Is 1 AM, And I’m Watching An Italian Man Make Sandwiches On TikTok”

All search engines work on people searching for information, and then producing an article that answers that question. So when you look at the above articles, what questions would the searcher be asking for.

“Does god give us more than we can handle?”

Most certainly that is a question that is asked. However as there are thousands of recognized biblical publications on the web that have far vaster authority than Medium, Google is not going to give any credibility to that answer.

“I’m glad my mom died.” No searcher is going to ask if a particular person is glad his or her mom died. Again, Google is going to relegate the article to the bottom of the pile.

“The evolution of my writing” Nobody is going to search for how the writing of this particular author evolved. And if someone did google how writing evolved, Google would give precedence to a writing site or a university.

Do you understand?

Good SEO writing is geared to answering questions that searchers ask for. It is not magazine writing, and Medium focuses on writing the way magazine writers write. That is, they have a snappy headline (title) that catches the eye of scrolling readers.

When I first came to Medium, I was accustomed to writing to reach the top of the SERPS (Search end results page). Medium completely ignored everything I wrote, even though those same articles had been at the top of Google for five or six years, many of them placed at number one.

I then studied Medium closer and discovered that the site did not write for the web. The powers that be treated articles as if they were a newspaper or a print magazine. In those kind of publications, because people aren’t searching for information, they are looking for news or entertainment.

Google searchers are looking for information. People on the web primarily search for information.

If you’ve read any of my articles on how to write, one of the things I constantly mention is that readers don’t give a damn about how long it took one to earn $5.50 or how they felt about this or that. Nobody is searching for information as to how a particular writer felt about this or that, and unless s/he is famous, they have no interest in their lives.

In other words, Medium has a lot of articles that are really nothing more than the longer ramblings on social networking. I have written about this as well. People get upset when I mention this. They think this is writing.

It’s certainly not the kind of thing that any established magazine would pay for. And Google is not going to give it credence.

Good writing and enjoyable writing are different things. Novelists aim for enjoyable writing. Literary writing aims for meaningful writing. Both can utilize good writing, or be badly written. And then there’s interesting writing!

Good writing is simply the ability to write well – good rhythm, a good command of language (being able to put things into words), excellent grammar, structure, punctuation, etc. One can be a good writer, and write the most boring, trivial things on earth. One can be a bad writer and have such an amazing story that people will read you.

For the record, Medium has completely disavowed me. I have not had my work distributed (in their magazines, etc) for 8 months. The only people who see my work are either newbies or people who are following me. Even then, the numbers have dropped off. This is because I have dared to tell Medium several things, and the editors don’t like it.

1. That the people who won the writing competition last year couldn’t write to save their lives

2. I’ve dared to criticize woke, and I haven’t played nicely with people who don’t know what they are talking about.

3. And, of course, I’ve told the new owner that I don’t like success-guru stories. It is what his magazine ‘Human Parts’ specializes in.

It’s part of the reason I’m focusing on other things. I can no longer earn a living on Medium.