Articles by Glenn Stok
Earning money from your articles works differently on various platforms. The following discussion will help you chose between Medium and HubPages. The main difference is how revenue is received:
One other consideration is how well you expect your article to do with organic traffic, such as readers who found you via a Google search.
Those readers will most likely not be Medium subscribing members. So you won’t make a penny from them with articles on Medium.
On the other hand, since HubPages uses ads to generate revenue, you will earn from external traffic that somes organically through search engines.
That brings me to the crux of the matter. You do have a choice, and there are significant differences with the type of content you would post either way.
HubPages has a network of over 20 niche sites where their editors curate only the best articles. Google ranks content higher when it’s published on a related niche website.
I am still earning revenue from the first article I wrote on HubPages over ten years ago. It’s evergreen, and still provides the information people need.
At times I started writing articles to post on Medium, but when I finished, I realized it might do better if placed on HubPages.
If it’s an evergreen article that’s useful forever, then it’s better to make it available to any reader searching for that subject on the Internet.
Google indexes Medium stories too, but as I said, you won’t get paid for those eyeballs. Therefore, I consider ad-generating platforms such as HubPages to be the best for evergreen content that provides answers and solutions organic search readers are seeking.
I once published an article on HubPages that wasn’t doing very well. It was not a subject that the general audience outside of our followers would be interested in reading. No one searched for it with Google.
So I moved it to Medium and it did much better. I realized it was just what my followers on Medium wanted to read.
Controversial articles that may not attract many advertisers don’t earn well on HubPages. People do search for that information, but with limited ad revenue it’s a waste of effort.
That type of subject could find an ample readership on Medium, but that takes time for potential followers to discover an author that writes the topics they want to follow.
You need to know your followers when writing on Medium, and you need to write for them.
On the other hand, you don’t need followers when you write content that answers questions people are searching for online. That’s why I continue to earn from old articles on HubPages.
Additional readers will always be coming as long as search engines index your content with a high ranking to appear on the first page of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
While readers stay to read without bouncing back to the SERPs, your listing will remain high up in the search results.
The following is a list of questions people have asked me, comparing the two platforms.
Q: Do you need to be a paid Medium member to earn there?
A: You need to subscribe as a paid member to participate in the earnings program. It costs $5 per month be a member, which also gives you access for unlimited reading. Then you can join the Medium Partner Program (MPP) to get paid for reader engagement.
Q: Since we get paid for all views on HubPages, I’m wondering — Is it true that on Medium we only earn from members?
A: That is true. You get paid based on the time members spend reading your content. That is why Medium tends to have more quality content without editors needing to approve. Authors work harder to keep readers engaged.
Q: I think I’d have to be pretty active to break even if I include a paid subscription. What is your experience?
A: When I began posting on Medium, I did not initially pay to be a member. However, I did sign up for the Medium Partner Program (MPP), and I earned $5 in the first month.
Later I decided to become a member since I was finding so many great articles that I wanted to read. I’ve learned a lot from other authors on Medium. It’s a wealth of information on many topics.
Medium attracts a lot of writers who put their effort into quality content on a variety of subjects you can’t find anywhere else. That’s my opinion, but it’s what I am seeing.
I agree that being active on Medium is part of the process so that subscribers get to know you, but it also requires an understanding of these differing requirements if you were to compare the two platforms:
Q: I’m wondering if any of these sites can last with so many people beginning to use ad-blocking tools.
A: That’s an excellent question. I believe in never putting all your eggs in one basket. If the ad-blocking should ever cause HubPages to fail, at least I’ll have revenue coming from Medium because they don’t use ads. People are willing to pay to read more than three articles because of the value they see when they get into it. That’s what persuaded me to become a paid member, although as I said above, you don’t need to subscribe as a member to get paid for writing.
The idea is nothing new. People pay to subscribe to magazines all the time. That’s why the Medium method works. It’s a different animal. HubPages is a site for magazine-style articles, whereas Medium is more like a blogging site. They each serve a particular purpose. In my opinion, they both work well for online content.
Q: How do Medium publications compare to HubPages niche sites?
A: I’ve discovered that if you publish in the right Medium publications, you can get a lot more traffic than when you post under your own account. But you need to be sure the publication has a large following.
Some pubs are followed by just a few people, but they satisfy a specific niche and can still be quite useful for a particular purpose. If you write for that niche, then you should consider those pubs too.
Each pub’s editor has his or her specific requirements for articles, such as type of subject matter, quality, how often you may submit, and so on. You need to always read their guidelines before requesting to be a contributor.
Similarly, the niche sites on HubPages are for specific content. The difference is that they attract organic traffic from search engines. In addition, each niche site has its own Editorial Policy that needs to be followed to be curated or accepted when submitted.
Q: I see you are the editor of a pub. How did that happen?
A: Anyone can create his or her own publication on Medium. When you do, you have full control over it. You can be the sole contributor, or you can add other authors.
If you do decide to accept other contributors, you can make your own guidelines that they need to follow. To create your own, go to your publications page and click “New Publication” to get started. Then follow the instructions.
Q: Is it better to remove low quality from Medium just as we do on HubPages?
A: Yes, that is true for any platform. I deleted over 100 articles already in the past ten years. Anything that Google ranks poorly has got to go unless it can be improved to meet Google’s Search Quality Guidelines. Removing poor quality content helps increase ranking on our other articles because it leaves only our best work so that our writing skill stands out.
Q: Is Medium better for you than HubPages?
A: I wouldn’t say that one is better than the other. Medium and HubPages are entirely different.
Nothing can beat HubPages for writing magazine style articles. I’m so glad I stayed with it through the bad times when Google imposed the Panda Algorithm in 2012. HubPages was the only one that knew how to combat that by removing poor quality content, dropping thousands of authors who couldn’t write, and creating the network of niche sites. All my articles are on niche sites, which is the only place where we earn decent revenue.
Most of the other sites went out of business, such as Bubblews, Squidoo, Persona Paper, and Niume — as I predicted in my article discussing those sites.
I think Medium will have a successful future because they are immune to ad blocking since they don’t use ads for monetization.
Remember these two crucial points when deciding where to publish:
They both work well for the right content. There is the right place for everything, which is why many authors publish on both platforms.
See a list of my tutorial articles with tips and advice for authors..
