So why would a writer do that? To build a reputation that can be turned into money elsewhere, like being able to charge higher consulting fees.
> So why would a writer do that? To build a reputation that can be turned into money elsewhere, like being able to charge higher consulting fees.
Why would a writer do that specifically on Medium and not on, say, Substack?
Maybe they really have a unique and loyal audience. It's hard to say without knowing their traffic data. But if a lot of their readers come from social media, does it matter to the reader if the shared link leads to medium.com or substack.com?
If it made Medium the go-to place for people looking for high quality content that was free of SEO spammy articles, that would be an excellent reason.
Heck, I write articles and I'd pay to have my article posted on a well-regarded site. But I see no point to posting it on free sites with a reputation for low quality. There's an old saying "it's free and worth every penny".
Instead I post them on sites under my control, like digitalmars.com, where I can control the quality of the site.
That being said, you Medium folks - as it looks like you’re actively reading this thread - should work in priority on the global perception that Medium is hosting more and more clickbait and superficial content, as that is a possible concern for people like me who’d be willing to give you corporate money so that our possible readers would bypass the paywall.
In a nutshell: work on an option (or pivot to?) making good writers pay for publishing content and get rid of the others. Some of those writer will be fine with paying (corporate branding is their goal), while some others will ask for their share of the fame created and you may want to go the Patreon way for them, i.e. asking readers to pay as an option (?)