Can you monetise the content at all? I assumed Medium was the ultimate "Do it for exposure!" content factory - with the difference that unlike most, you can get some useful exposure from it, maybe.
Update: so there's a monetisation API on the way. So - we'll see how those cheese puffs work out.
Yeah - they've experimented with multiple monetization models over the past year or so. Now there is a beta for a select group of users. I for one really hope they nail it, but I'm not sure it's on the right path yet.
The challenge is that the platform of curation of interesting content for the sake of interesting content, stops working when it becomes the curation of interesting content for profit. As unless you do it based on customer satisfaction in microtransactions (oh I like your content have a cheese puff), then it's based on views or clicks.
Thus begins their decent into clickbait land where everyone gets cheesits (the crunchier, lamer and more disappointing brother of the cheese puff).
You earn low volumes of cash as you don't have a loyal readership. I earn disappointment as your title was misleading, and we both go home and cry in the fetal position at what the internet has become.
So, once again, hopefully they nail it - because right now they're pretty dandy.
> [Medium is] the ultimate "Do it for exposure!" content factory
That's pretty much how all businesses try to get artists/creators to work for free ("it'll look great in your portfolio"). Medium has just found another way of doing that, it seems. Well played, Ev, well played.
Update: so there's a monetisation API on the way. So - we'll see how those cheese puffs work out.