Why I Include “Friend Links” at the Top of My Medium Articles
It’s simple, really (but apparently not so simple that I can explain it in under 10 minutes)
I received a comment a little while ago that I still think about from time to time. They explained that they had no interest in reading my article strictly because I was willing to give it out to non-paying readers for free.
“It pains me that my dues go into a pool that pays authors who give their work away to freeloaders. I won’t stay long enough to read the article, because I’ll be damned if my ‘engagement time’ is going [to] put money in the author’s pocket. Shame on you,” they responded. It was on an article that I wrote about the value of what I call “scattered alliterations,” and I specifically wanted the information within it to be democratized. I hoped it might be helpful for a local English class, or someone learning the language in another part of the world.
Of course, it’s not most readers who’ve had such visceral reactions to the inclusion of a “Friend Link.” Some have even thanked me for it. But occasionally, people have questioned my decision to add them to articles. I’ve even heard rumors that staff members don’t look fondly at the growing trend.
The story of why I offer free reads to people dates back over half a decade. Before a pandemic ever swept the world, there was a Medium article I read that addressed the seismic changes that we were undergoing as a species. It spoke to me so much that I read the piece a few times over, exhausting the limit of “free reads” that Medium permitted me in the process. It’s an article whose name I’ve forgotten, and whose words are now buried deep within the archives of this platform.
But even while I couldn’t dig up the piece if I tried, its impact lingered with me enough to attempt writing on Medium a year or two later myself. I posted an article about social media addiction, and without the resolve to bear my words going out into the void, I gave up on my Medium dream without even seeing through the very beginnings of the process. When I didn’t achieve overnight viral acclaim and I logged on the next morning without a single new notification, I was disheartened. My words sat there ignored.
I decided maybe Medium just wasn’t for me.
Those words remain there to this day in their shoddily chosen format and clunky wording as a testament to how far I’ve come in the years since — of all that might never have happened.
A couple of years later, I read Julio Vincent Gambuto’s “Prepare for the Ultimate Gaslighting.” Later that night, I decided to read it again. And again the next day because the words resonated with me so deeply. The echoes reverberated through the walls of my being until I began to write again here in earnest back in 2022. Reading his piece, I saw precisely the sort of thing I wanted to offer the world one day myself. It stirred a fire inside me, and embers simmered and churned until “Is the Future a Thing of the Past?” emerged.
The hard start to my career on Medium was humble, and that philosophical diatribe that started at all isn’t one that holds to my current standards. But it’s one of my most cherished pieces of all, because if it hadn’t crawled free from the digital void and found those first few readers to whom the words meant something, this pursuit would be little more than a loose hobby rather than the full-time career it is today.
On numerous occasions throughout my time here, I’ve posted articles that people have found predominantly through Google searches or social media shares. Between “Lucid Dreams Vs. Vivid Dreams,” “Artificial Intelligence, Pornography and a Brave New World,” and my entire body of work from my two and a half years here, the number of people who’ve found my pieces through external sources is well above 100,000. Most fittingly of all, “The End to Free Non-Member Reads on Medium,” has been found over 6,000 times through Google searches, as well as 2,000 times through alternate browsers, email, and direct message.
I’ll never know precisely the number of people who, in one of the 600 articles I’ve written, have found a reason to be a part of this community. I know that it’s more than a dozen and it may even be as many as a hundred people by now.
Gambuto’s article was read by 21 million people in 98 different countries. But today, Medium’s policy doesn’t seem to allow for such success stories. If a comparable piece were published here tomorrow, a paywall would prevent it from achieving such critical mass.
It’s heartbreaking to think that any of those same readers who opened one of my articles might, under this new policy, have instead found a cause for distaste with the platform rather than a call to be a part of it. Without those free reads, there’s no escaping the fact that many articles here will have precisely that effect on outsiders.
The only means it seems that I have to fight this is by including Friend Links directly at the top of my articles.
In the two and a half years I’ve written here, there are few changes to which I’ve objected. In every one made, I’ve seen some level of sense. And even in the decision to remove free reads from prospective members, I don’t believe that the policy shift is devoid of logic. It’s a transition that’s similar to one that has taken place across the world of publishing at large, and it’s been cited as spurring a significant increase in new member signups.
But for me, I can comfortably say that it would not have had that effect. When I encounter new platforms, and among my first experiences with them are being bombarded by a paywall, I don’t join. Generally, I’m so put off by the feeling that I’m a product that I turn away from the platform completely and make a concerted effort not to return when I see their links resurface in my feed.
Fortunately, that was not the case with Medium, and my first impression of the platform was that they were generous enough to allow me to get a taste of the experience before buying in. For any of those readers who might encounter Medium for the first or tenth time through one of my articles, I don’t want their impression to be a negative one. I want them to know I value their humanity enough to give them the leeway to make an informed decision with their money.
I believe the members who come into the platform through that more natural and less coercive means are more likely to be the sorts of conscientious community members that we should aim to attract. I can’t help but be a little cynical of the people who buy into a service without research or a proper free trial.
Of course, there are many writers here whose work isn’t behind a paywall, and no one is under any obligation to monetize what they publish. There’s a checkbox we can fill before any piece goes public to confirm whether we’d like it behind a paywall.
But most serious authors prefer to be paid for their efforts, and for Medium to make things so binary puts writers in a strange position. The shift means that if any writer wants to hold the door open to those prospective readers who haven’t yet joined the platform, the only way they can do that is to turn off their ability to be paid for their time — or to attach Friend Links before the body of their articles begins.
Through those inclusive links, non-members can still read enough of my work to know whether it’s worth paying for. This approach is similar to the route that many writers on Substack have taken, where most of their articles are free, but enough are behind paywalls to entice people to become paying subscribers.
When I write pieces that cover important political or social topics, I don’t want to prevent others from reading what I have to say. Even if they have no interest in joining Medium whatsoever, I don’t want to erect that wall between us.
Sometimes when people chance onto a Medium article, it’s because they simply want an answer to their question. They wanted to learn something. Throughout my life, countless quandaries have led me directly to Medium. And when enough people realize that many of the answers to their questions can be found here, the platform’s value becomes self-evident. People won’t be shoehorned in. They’ll recognize Medium’s worth and the platform will grow authentically.
I believe that these free reads, even if only 1 or 2, may play an invaluable role in helping to cultivate the better internet that Tony Stubblebine is trying to create.
If my message is that, “it’s important to vote and that democracy is on the ballot,” I want any potential voter within this country to be capable of reading that message. But that doesn’t mean I don’t still deserve to be paid for the hours I put into getting my thoughts on paper.
Including free read links introduces a middle ground where we can still be paid for our efforts, but also hold open the door to anyone who might benefit from what we’ve written. When I write about the chaos within our country, I can imagine nothing worse than swing voters who might be receptive to my words opening the article only to be paywalled after a few paragraphs. Some words are too important to keep locked away.
I feel the same way. Sites that demand membership to read put me off. And people that demand writers greedily paywall every word put me off too. I've always said the people that paid a membership won't click the link. They'll read and know they're contributing. If they don't feel comfortable with their pennies going to you, then why force them to decide between actually reading and contributing? I think Medium would do well to make that an auto option- turn friend links on at the beginning of articles. It could even be per article, in the submit options along with send email and paywall. It just makes sense to do that.
Free Reads
Please
Yes, I am 81 years old....my pension is always spent on survival necessitiss.
The Public Library privides free reading, but I can not get there on my mobility scooter.
Medium membership is out of reach for me...
So with a kind heart I for one appreciate your stance on sharing your writings.
BRAVO.