Medium Partner Program Update for February 2026 (Maybe A Lots of Money to Be Made)
They're rewarding stories that bring in new members now
I was looking forward to this update since the 1st, glad it came out. You can read the original update after you take 29.5 seconds here.
I think this update was the most transparent one since the additional earnings have already shown up on my dashboard bravo.
Medium is definitely looking for more ways to grow the platform, not just internally, but more outward for external growth.
We can already see from the many updates that Medium tries to experiment, and most of them weren’t that effective because it does not do anything new or allow the writer to do more or better.
Most importantly is transparency on each update just wasn’t there.
The January update promises that regular articles will start to earn more. I see no difference, and instead, I see a firm lower earnings per read; it could just be me.
The core of the update
This is the central message of this update.
Medium has been finding ways to get writers to attract readers from outside of Medium and wants to reward those articles that can convert non-member reads into paid members.
It said a small cut of the Partner Program funds will be going to the writers who have converted and helped Medium grow as a platform.
I guess that’s why it’s called Member growth earnings instead of a referral program, because this is why Medium has more control over how much they want to pay for such conversions.
All in all, this is a good start, as you can see, I had an extra $11.68 this month for whatever reason, or somehow someone became a member because of me, which does feel good even without knowing the backend numbers.
It will be updated daily, by the way, that’s pretty cool. (It means you can track it yourself if you want)
In the message, Medium also said they’ll soon add the conversion report per story for you to see how many or how much you earn from each story from the new conversion earnings update.
Most of my stories make less than $1, so this is a big deal for those who happen to get more non-member reads and are somehow able to convert them into paying members.
I’m guessing my conversion came from those readers who want to become a member and become a writer who gets paid. I’m not sure if the Medium Partner Program is still halting new writers from joining.
One thing Medium also tracks is how fast the member cancel their membership, which sounds a bit odd, since the conversion earnings are updated per day and a person would not cancel at least a month in.
I think it is to pretend fraud of someone trying to become a member and then cancel due to some shady stuff, like stolen credit cards or some kind of self-dealing to boost their earnings that way.
Medium did constant advise not to write a clickbait article to convert readers into members. I would think they will remove your right if they see you really go above and beyond what a normal person would do with clickbait related article for this conversion earnings.
Clickbait policy for your reference.
The two points that I would like to look at
My thoughts on these two points
For stories that have a lot of non-member reads, it’s good get an idea what types of articles they are and try to write more of them.
I’m assuming most writers that wants to earn already got most, if not all, their articles on paywalls, and for those who didn’t paywall, they’re not here for the earnings anyway.
The way to think about it is how to improve those kinds of articles and see if you can use them as an edge.
The second point is about writers using their Friend Link at the start of their paywalled article for non-members to read for free.
This is a good gesture, but it does hurt Medium and the earnings pool for all writers to see growth in their earnings.
Now with the conversion earnings, I think it does make sense to drop this practice if you want to have a chance to earn more.
This is also a way for you to be confident that your writing is worth reading. Since most people respect things that cost money or effort rather than those that are free.
It’s more of a psychological thing with attachment to value in terms of human behavior.
I think this update alone is more powerful than the 4 update combine because visible incentive motivate creative growth.
Let me stop here before I make this longer than it should.
Thanks for Reading
Medium official update for your reference, mine is just a walk in the park.
Partner Program update: Starting February 17, we’re rewarding stories that bring in new members
Right after I publish the article, the earnings are just updated.
And my silly note about it.
We can really see how the earnings for member growth increased.
$13.35-$11.68 = $1.67, I’m assuming that is one person signing up for being a Medium member, since I don’t think it can be more than that with my reach, but hey, you never know.
This story was originally published on [Medium] and is cross-posted here for a wider audience.
Medium.com was hush-hush about how much writers could expect from the new Member Growth Earnings program, but $1.67 per new subscriber is insulting, given the $60 in yearly earnings a subscriber earns. Furthermore, they're not spending new money to reward customer acquisition. They're taking it from the existing writer payment pool.
Nice surprise for once. It will be interesting to see how it works out.