- Starting August 6, 2024, Medium is expanding its Partner Program eligibility to include writers from over 77 new countries, including several African nations.
- The newly included African countries are Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Tunisia.
- As a result of this expansion, writers in these countries can now earn revenue when Medium members read, listen to, and engage with their stories.
Moreover, the online publishing platform can recruit and pay Boost nominators from these African countries. The Boost Nomination Program helps highlight top stories for extra visibility, using internal curators and independent community editors. Nominators receive a flat fee for each story selected for a Boost.
On why the company is extending its platform to several countries, CEO Tony Stubblebine, said, “At Medium, we believe there are great stories everywhere.
“We are trying to build a better Internet because we want to be a home for perspectives from as diverse a set of countries, demographics, cultures, and lived experiences as we can. In expanding our Partner Program, we hope these new voices will help deepen our collective understanding of the world through their writing.”
How to determine your eligibility for the programme
The Medium Partner Program lets writers earn money based on engagement from Medium members.
To qualify, writers must be Medium members, have published a story in the last six months, have a bank account in an eligible country, and be at least 18 years old.
Earnings are based on the time members spend reading and listening to stories, and engagement signals like claps, highlights, replies, and new follows. The read ratio is calculated by dividing the number of people who read their stories for 30 seconds or more by the total number of views.
Writers can choose to place their stories behind a paywall, making them accessible only to paying Medium members. Payments are processed through Stripe.
Getting started as a Medium Member
- If you’re not a Medium member yet, sign up here. Memberships cost $60–$180 per year or $5–$12 monthly. For a limited time, new members can enjoy a 20% discount.
- Now that you’ve met the eligibility criteria, click this link to get started.
- Upon receiving your Partner Program status and agreeing to Medium’s Terms, follow these steps to complete your enrolment:
Onboarding Process:
- Click “Continue with onboarding” to start.
- Complete the required information to create or connect your Stripe account.
Set Up Payouts:
You must link your Medium account with an active Stripe account to set up payouts. Per Medium, Stripe confirms that all the new countries the reading platform is expanding into can now receive cross-border payouts.
- Check if your country is eligible for Stripe payouts here.
- Once confirmed, read this article to learn how to set up payouts with Stripe.
- After setting up or connecting to Stripe, provide your taxpayer information to Tipalti, a third-party payment service for Medium payouts.
- You will get an email confirmation after submitting your taxpayer information. Please note that Tipalti may take up to 5 business days to review and verify your forms.
Note: Medium now requires a minimum of $10 in story earnings before sending payouts to your Stripe account. If you don’t reach $10 in a month, the amount will roll over to the next month.
- Once enrolment is complete, start putting new and existing stories behind the paywall to earn revenue.
How to place your story behind the paywall
As a Medium Partner Program writer, you can decide whether to enable monetisation for each story. When activated, the story will be accessible only to Medium members and placed behind a paywall.
Here’s how to make your posts eligible to earn money:
For Desktop:
- Once you’ve finished writing your story, click Publish
- Make sure the “Paywall your story” checkbox is selected.
- Click Publish now to make your story live.
For iOS/Android:
- Once you’ve finished writing your story, tap Next.
- Enable the “Members Only” option to make your story eligible for the paywall.
- Tap Publish now to make your story live.
Once your stories are behind the paywall, you will start earning based on Medium member activity such as reading, listening, claps, highlights, and replies. As members engage with your stories, you will receive a share of their membership dues.
Stories highlighting your expertise and personal insights generally perform better and generate more revenue. Track your earnings in your Partner Program Dashboard.
It’s increasingly clear that global platforms are now actively finding ways to help content creators in Africa monetise their work. In June 2024, Meta updated its policy to enable content creators in Nigeria and Ghana to earn ad revenue on Instagram and Facebook, starting from June 27.
On August 6, 2024, Meta also rolled out these monetisation tools to content creators in Kenya.
With the rise of digital media and online content, these platforms are opening up new opportunities for African creators to monetise their content and reach a global audience. This shift reflects a growing recognition of the rich talent pool in Africa and the demand for diverse voices in the digital space.
