This is such a friendly, non-pushy interview with two honest people. Thank you Zulie and Tony!

Great interview with Mr Stubblebine! I really appreciate his human-first approach as opposed to getting drenched in the AI swamp.

Thank you so much for taking a stance against AI writing! Humans can be creative, and computers can't create, they only copy/steal because they are not human.

Yay. Renewed my faith in Medium.

This was a great interview! It's nice to hear Tony speaking openly about Medium's direction. And, it provided some much-needed clarity on how writers can and should be utilizing the platform. 🙂🙏

This is an awesome post, Zulie. Thank you for landing the interview with Tony. I've been on Medium for years with the intent of growing my brand as a content writer and fiction author but have not utilized it as much as I should. This interview has motivated me to become more involved. Keep up the good work.

As a mindful member of Medium, I am obsessed with you, watching you talk, reading your articles, and enjoying your content❤❤❤

Fantastic interview, Zuie. It's so important for Medium to have this human face plus the explanations really help us to have faith in the changes. It's taken me almost a year to adapt to the new boost system and to be honest, it felt stressful. But I'm able to write at least some boost-worthy posts each month so my income has increased in the new system rather than decreased. I do feel sad that my other merit worthy posts that aren't boosted receive so little attention and garner so little income, but all together I've seen an increase in income each month. I love that Medium is trying to be different than the rest of the internet. I may be the odd person out, but I think it's important to bear in mind that not everyone writes on Medium to launch a writing career. I write on Medium to supplement my retirement income. The last thing I want is the stress of chasing other writing or business opportunities. I know others write on Medium for the sense of community. Thanks again, Tony and Zulie.

Ive been trying to get started writing and I have been watching alot of videos and i think I'm going to give this a go.

I really like these two but I really don't like the boosting idea at all. Sorry, but IT IS GATEKEEPING by definition. And algorithms are not actually non-humans. A good algorithm should be feeding us articles based on what other humans, Medium's readers, are reading and liking. The virality should be because more and more readers like your article not because an editor from Better Marketing or another publication chose a winner. It is the height of condescension and ego for Medium to say boosters know what I want to read more than I do. Simple algorithms like Reddit seem WAY more authentic than Medium. Just let the readers tinker with their own algorithm more than they can now to see what they want to see, that is the better solution. Writers are providing the content for Medium at a very low cost. They want to know their content has an equal chance to compete for readers against more well-known writers without the interference of Medium staff putting their own biases into the mix. Writers are now writing to satisfy boosters instead of readers, this is a disaster. The disappearance of lots of writers from Medium who are still writing on different platforms should be very concerning to Medium but doesn't seem to be. Readers are important but so are the writers, without thousands of writers writing for essentially free there would be no Medium. Writers and readers want to be respected and boosting isn't it.

@londondateideas2536

3 ай бұрын

50 claps for this comment 👏🏻

@donnapeterson1945

3 ай бұрын

Perfectly said!

@paulsaulpaul

2 ай бұрын

His mannerisms when talking about "boosting" make me think they've been doing it internally for a while. Just now doing it in the open. It is gatekeeping. And probably censorship. I'm new to the platform, and progressive articles appear to be way more prominent than the conservative leaning ones. The top publication in the Christianity section spews uninformed blasphemy in their headlines and words. It's disgusting. That's just one example. Can't imagine the team at Medium has some editors that are going to boost a story of rising up from the ashes after struggling with addiction, etc... well, that's a great thing to boost, self help and all that.. But then the writer gives all glory to God at the end of the article.. then does it get boosted? My gut tells me it then gets decided against boosting. And that is based on my initial impression of what I see getting "boosted". And that's not even getting into social-political issues. Forget politics... Can I write about how the destruction of the atomic family has led to the steady decline of mental health among the youth? Might be considered homophobic. Can I write about how our constitution is undermined by the subversion of checks and balances through bribery and cronyism? Can I refer to that as a bad word phrase that conspiracy theorists and trump supporters often use (maybe I can just use an article subtitle like "A deep look at the state of America")? Their "content guidelines" tell me they might just take the whole article down as "conspiracy theory". Even if I write something they want to boost, this guy's team is going to look at my post history and put me on the blacklist. I agree, something like reddit or better yet - boosting based on engagement. Time spent on the post including time reading comments and number of comments. That way controversial and provocative (engaging) content gets visibility. Content where half the readers strongly agree and half strongly disagree causes time spent on the story. From a purely time utilization point of view, it is fair to pay the author of that content more money because the readership spends more time there. But to boost on personal opinion of subjective and vague notions of "quality", as they clearly claim they will do, they will most certainly cause a sort of "censorism creep" - even if unintentional. Would all of this rambling being published into a post get me banned? Probably so. Am I bikeshedding to avoid being judged by my peers? Probably so. Fear of failure and rejection? Probably.

@user-ih8qm5dy3l

2 ай бұрын

I have a crush on Zulie 😇

Congrats on landing this interview, Zulie. Well deserved and very informational.

My reading mind can detect AI generated content because it reads like a term paper that includes IN CONCLUSION. Thanks for your work in helping writers succeed. .

Really insightful interview, Zulie. Thank you. And Tony should get himself out there in front of the eyeballs a lot more. Well done to you both.

Hey Zulie, thanks for providing this insight on the Medium platform. I am on a writing journey, and I hope to be able to earn enough money to survive and continue doing the work of life. Human beings have encoded information into stories since as long as we have remembered being human, it is absolutely vital to our evolutionary process and part of what makes us a distinct species of mammal, and now writing is an integral part of that communication in the major civilizations across the world.

It's true... I appreciate medium for not needing to be a marketer to do well on there and I appreciate the platform and I'm glad there's still a space to go where you can be successful as a writer.

Wow this is brillient, the CEO giving tips. Thanks :)

thank you!

That was really good, thanks Zulie and Tony. I appreciate Medium having a human face, and Tony is obviously very genuine and enthusiastic about the platform. I was thinking only a few days ago you hadn't uploaded a video for a while. Please don't go away . . .

A superb interview Zulie Rane. It's so good to have someone like Tony as the CEO. He understands the writers and the nooks of the platform. Meanwhile, we do have an issue that needs to be addressed. Many recruiters do not rate Medium as much. I don't know why, though. Does this mean the platform needs more public PR?

@ZulieWrites

Ай бұрын

I believe this view is changing! Medium has a long history (been here since 2012!) that can work against it, but IMO perceptions are finally starting to catch up with the New Medium reality.

zulie I'm really thankful for your content, I was really lost about the site to use to publish my ideas, and I found your channel and I'm very enthusiasm now

Great interview. Filled me with ideas and I love the energy that gives me. Thank you!

Gratz on arranging this interview!

Excellent and useful information. Thank you.

Great interview, as always. I am optimistic that Medium will continue to grow and develop.

Bravo! 😊

Hi Zulie, this interview was extremely helpful. Tony has given me a better sense of what direction Medium is heading for this year!

So glad you asked about AI, Zulie. I bega to lose interest in writing fast once AI appeared in the arena of writing.

Fantastic interview 👌👌👌......thank you 🙏🙏

I appreciated what Tony said about incorporating AI in content creation. As a writer, it's necessary to understand that tools like these should not be used solely for generating raw content. As mentioned, it's important for readers to feel emotions in the story. Tools like ChatGPT can be useful for structuring our thoughts more clearly and effectively, which undoubtedly makes a significant difference in enhancing our credibility. They should assist in refining our ideas and expressing them more coherently. However, the human touch, particularly in infusing emotion and a personal voice into the content, remains irreplaceable. Using AI as a tool, rather than a replacement, allows writers to enhance their work while maintaining authenticity and emotional resonance.

I was so inspired by this video that I actually posted my first post on Medium. Thank you Zulie for this Video, Subscribed

Thank you verymuch Zulie for this awesome video. I was looking to start on Medium. First KZread short I found that was yours and now first long video Really love you vision and the one of the CEO on online content, boost, and AI ❤ Thanks

Thanks Zulie and Tony, that was a great conversation. I was writing on Medium for awhile(as Jason Cameron), but life took me on a more destructive path, and I fell off. I also got cold feet when I started making a bit of money and had to face down the idea of managing the business side, and dealing with the taxes. I'm in Canada so there's the extra level of complexity. I was thinking about jumping back in this year because I really enjoy writing, and it's reassuring to hear everything that was said. Thanks again 🙏🏽

Wonderful interview. Insightful.

Amazing! 2024 is going to be a good one…

You are an awesome person I am very much impressed with your thoughts and way of writing

...just humans, humanning

At 36min that was exactly what I'm looking for 🙏

Thank you so much. Please any ideas when the partner program would open to other African countries?

Honestly It's quite easy to spot articles created by AI due to the unique word combinations it produces. However, using AI has significantly helped me improve my grammar errors and make my writing appear more professional. Additionally, AI has enabled me to learn almost any language I desire, making it incredibly useful when used for the right purpose to assist with work tasks.

@ZulieWrites

Ай бұрын

AI definitely has a lot of great, non-spammy use cases! So glad to hear you've incorporated some of those yourself.

You said you don't like the phrase content creating? Why? And this is a great interview.

Yes you need to make it easier for authors to find and apply to write for publications. It's insanity how bad it is currently.

@ZulieWrites

Ай бұрын

preach!

I love Medium. I write an article a day on health/mental health, but within the past week my views have been cut from over 300-400/day to about 100. Something is wrong. Consistently, over the past three months I've been up in the thousands.

Hi Zulie. I appreciate your content so much that I would like to sign up for Medium using your referral link but I don't see a referral link. Do you have a referral link for me to sign up from?

I was wondering what Tony (and you) think about niching as a writer, in order to build credibility as an expert in one area, vs. being a generalist. Sounds like, based on what you both are saying in the latter part of this video, that it's better to niche as an expert in one area, in order to better leverage Medium in terms of making an income outside the direct income from Medium itself. For instance, I'm an expert on exercise and fitness. But I also really enjoy writing about history, cool places, etc. So yes, part of me would like to be a generalist as a writer. But I also really want to make a living, and I feel the surest path towards doing so is to "stay in my lane" as a fitness writer instead.

Hi Zulie! Glad I found your vlogs! I have been exploring many online writing jobs. Maybe I have been searching in the wrong sites because many that I found are pay to write not write to get paid. How do I apply as a writer in Medium?

@ZulieWrites

Ай бұрын

No need to apply at all! Simply create an account and start writing :)

Well, my concern is that I can't earn because Medium only pays through Stripe, which my country (the Philippines) is not eligible to create an account with.

Im trying to figure out how important it is to get your work copyrighted before putting it on Medium. Doesnt copyrighting offer you a level of protection against plagiarism aka theft of your work??? I have not heard this addressed. FYI:I did not watch this interview, I apologize if they covered it in the interview.

@WilkinsMichael

4 ай бұрын

Is there something specific you are worried about? You automatically have the copyright. It unfortunately offers very little protection against plagiarism.

@USAntiCivilWar

4 ай бұрын

Thanks, i didnt realize that i automatically had the copyright. My fathers childhood story is something i want to publish, and i want to protect it as much as possible. How much more protection does it offer me if i register my story with the govt aka copyright.gov. what other avenues could there be that would allow me to protect my work and my fathers work from plagiarism?

Does getting accepted by a "publication" on Medium affect copyright in anyway? Would it limit what you can do with that article or content in the future? EDIT: I found you're video on publications.

❤❤❤

Hii I really love your vid and I'm getting really interested in being a writer in Medium could you please share how long have you been on Medium posting blog and now earning so much money? When was your first start and how much money you got that time? How long will it takes to be successful like you? ❤ It would be really amazing if you could reply thank youuu

@ZulieWrites

3 ай бұрын

Hey, I think I've been writing on Medium for roughly five years now. Of course, there's no guarantee that, after a few years, success will magically find you. Medium is definitely a long game and can be a tough nut to crack! That said, by being consistent and studying your audience you will, at the very least, become a better writer and stumble upon opportunities. Everything else is a bonus. Hope that helps and best of luck to you!

@TaylorSwift4Life1213

3 ай бұрын

@@ZulieWrites ahh thank you so much Zulie I've created my acc for like a few days now and I'm gonna post my very first story on Medium tomorrow 💜 I can't wait for me to actually start earning 3000 USD per month like you do. Hope you will be more and more successful because you totally deserve that. I've checked out your medium and I honestly giving up hope on ever earning 3000 USD per month bc you have sooo many followers. But I'll keep on trying I haven't even posted my first story who would know how much I would earn lmao thank you so much Zulie

I love the idea of only having to pay $5 to gain access to a whole site of knowledge vs $5 to each individual, but I also hate the idea of paywalling any kind of knowledge at all, specially when Medium's whole thing is getting good writing in front of people's eyes. I wonder how much someone could typically make just posting to Medium without paywalling it and having a Paypal/etc available for donations when someone has the time/money or gets that much value from your work and feels inclined. I assume the boost at least works even if something isn't behind that partner paywall, right?

@ZulieWrites

4 ай бұрын

Yep, the Boost should work on all articles selected by the curation team, even those that aren't behind the paywall. That said, I think a paywall incentivizes a lot more readers to pay for high-quality content than donations. All things being equal, I would also prefer that all readers pay the amount they want to pay for each article (even $0), but in reality, this involves a lot more friction and compels very few people to actually pay for high-quality articles that writers poured a lot of work into.

why medium partner program not available in Pakistan? 😪

@ZulieWrites

3 ай бұрын

Unfortunately, people who live in Pakistan can't use the partner program YET. (You can find the current eligible countries here: help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/115011694187-Partner-Program-Guide). However, Medium already announced they're going to admit many other countries soon. I know this sucks for the time being and I wish there was a way around this. But for now, at the very least, there are indirect ways to earn money on Medium. I made a video about that here: kzread.info/dash/bejne/d4JtuLt-ns_fj6w.html Hope that helps!

I have no position either way on the topic of AI written content... but I wanted to contribute a comment that I hope will have some value to the discussion of AI written content. Here goes: I have a side hustle with a quality AI training company where thousands of humans with fair to excellent creative writing skills have been building large language models for the next generation of AI chatbots. One of the exercises that we put the new model through is to compare the next-gen model with GPT-4 on the same user prompts, or very similar user prompts. Here's the news: the next generation of generative AI large language models are improving rapidly above the earlier generation that is GPT-4. The flat, impersonal tone of GPT-4 is going to be obsolete soon as newer, improved language models come to market continually like waves perpetually breaking on a beach. The point is that it would be a mistake to discuss generative AI as a static event. The rapidly developing AI technology is a hyper-dynamic process of innovation that will morph, evolve, and improve rapidly. I use AI for ideation sometimes, or to further develop my own ideas most times. Outlines, research, numerous queries both generic and specific are a part of the AI use cases for the writing that I do. Again, I am on the fence in my evaluation of AI technology relative to my plans for creating written content in the future. This comment is offered to share my experience working with the development of a next generation model relative to GPT-4. Hope this is helpful. Love your work Zulie! This was a great interview and a good get! Congrats to you!

Does medium pay in bitcoin?

@WilkinsMichael

4 ай бұрын

No.

Why Did they Killed Tech Writing on Medium?

Ask the CEO why are African countries not on the list of eligible countries for the program?? That's discriminatory.

The problem with Medium is... 99% of articles involve zero interactions with the outside world. Just some person deciding to write something and spending half an hour or so writing it. All in their head. I expect better if I'm going to pay for it.

Why is medium neglecting African publishers

@YouTubeApp-100

Ай бұрын

Resi##

Zero respect for people publishing AI content. Don't care what the medium is (video, 3D, 2D, writing, music and audio). I especially dislike these content farms that use multiple AI to produce an endless stream of junk. It's shallow. It's contributing to an ocean of content that's an inch deep. It is the product of a shallow mind that dilutes the work of real creators. It's the same shallow mind that cannot discern the output of a transformer model working like a kid in grade school rewriting an encyclopedia article for a research paper. Because that what these transformer LLMs do. Same can be said with these pixel diffusion models. Want to use AI to check grammar or find the passive voice? Okay. Grammarly does that anyway. You're using AI when you're just using a search engine. That's not the issue. It's this obvious stuff that copy-pastes the output from the LLM. It so obvious, and people doing it are either trying to get rich quick or they're utterly pursuing the wrong path. For example, I'm not trying to edit videos or perform music. Want to use an AI generated image for an article thumbnail? Great. But would you go post that to Artstation as your work? You'd be banned, and rightfully so. It's nothing to be proud of. LIkewise, one should not be having the GPT model spew out an article and then change a few words around and then post that to Medium. I'm very happy to hear that this guy doesn't give into the AI flimflammery being pushed on everyone. Pump and dump full of false promises. It's already caused real harm as people have been fired from jobs before the AI has even proven itself. Empty promises by flimflamming snake oil salesmen. It's going to take a revolt from content consumers against this trash before they start hiring real creators again. Same can be said for the price of prepared or processed food. People need to quit buying it. Make it from scratch at home. It's healthier and more spiritually fulfilling anyway (idle hands, and all that). And it punishes the food price gougers and forces them to lower their prices. Just as the content platforms must be forced to reject AI content. edit: what someone asks you, "what you're AI strategy", they've either been fooled by the lie or they're trying to sell you an AI. Usually the latter.