There are a few profitable niches in Medium. Self help, anti-racism/woke and upbeat advice to writers are a few of them. If you aren’t interested in writing those sorts of pieces then your work doesn’t travel as far and doesn’t get monetised as often. That wasn’t always the case but it is now.

That’s market forces. People want to read those things and other people want to write them. For those of us who want to read and write other things though Ko-Fi can be considered an additional appreciation stream. Offsetting some of the bias of the algorithm and market forces.

Medium goes through changes all the time and whenever it reaches a hegemony of writing (Currently everyone seems to be writing about writing for money) It pivots in a new direction. Ko-Fi is a tip jar it took me 4 years to add to my platform. I have zero regrets.

You may feel the differently if the algorithm pivots away from you. My earnings are 20% what they were last year. I’m still writing tho. A few high earners flounced off the platform in disgust at their income being cut. The changes will happen eventually, medium can’t keep putting out articles about writing on Medium.