Effective: September 6, 2017
Medium is an open platform for authentic voices to share their thoughts and experiences, and through conversation move us towards greater understanding.
We believe in the power of words to create, build up, inform, nourish, and repair. Toward that ideal, our Medium Partner Program seeks to foster original writing that entertains, informs and educates, expresses truths boldly, and seeks ways forward thoughtfully and inclusively.
To be eligible for inclusion and potential monetization from member-only content, user posts must meet Medium’s Rules as well as the following guidelines and content requirements. We’ve set these additional guidelines for member-only stories to create a fair environment for writers in our Partner Program and a richer reading experience for members.
Here are some best practices we suggest to help you have the greatest success with your member-only stories:
All types of thinkers, writers, and storytellers find their home on Medium, with stories covering every topic under the sun. So if you have an idea to share respectfully, it’s welcome to be published to the member community.
Topics you care deeply about make the best posts, and we encourage you to highlight your own perspective — whether that comes from real-world experience, original research, or reporting in the field.
Let readers know who you are and what you write about by completely filling out the user profile bio and avatar that shows up at the top of every post.
You can tag your stories with up to five tags to help readers find your work. Accurately and carefully tagging your post will increase its potential distribution and exposure to the right audience.
Use an appropriate title and subtitle to best reflect your idea and to help promote it in post listings on and off the platform. We strongly recommend scanning for typos before publishing and sharing.
Medium posts with one or more quality images relevant to the content perform better both on Medium and when shared on other networks.
Double-check to make sure you’re not violating copyright or licensing with your images. Free resources like Pexels, Pixabay, and Unsplash are great for sourcing Creative Commons-licensed images.
If you receive responses to your post, engage with your readers by responding to them and applauding for their responses, where appropriate. (You can also hide or report responses you feel are inappropriate or violate our rules.)
All member-only stories you publish must adhere to our existing Medium Rules, as well as these additional content requirements:
For the content you lock for members, including all writing and images, you must either own the copyright, have explicit permission to use it, or have a good faith belief that you are using it lawfully. Stories where the content is clipped with the sole purpose of linking to the rest of the article on a different website are not permitted.
Cross-posting content you have published elsewhere is allowed provided it follows the aforementioned copyright guidelines.
Only a single version of a story may be locked for members at a given time. Please do not duplicate posts.
Medium Membership is intended as a premium experience for our subscribers, and should not be used for primarily marketing yourself or other products.
We’ve promised Medium members an ad-free environment tailored for readers, not advertisers. You may not sell advertising in or on your member-only content.
Member stories should not exist with the predominant purpose of driving traffic to an external website, business, or product. All included content must be relevant, substantial and informative. If you have received compensation or free goods/services in connection with the topic of a post, you must make this clear.
Do not ask for claps or include other calls to action, including gifs of clapping, requests for donations, email list sign-ups, or other links or embeds for the purpose of capturing user information or soliciting money.
Responses are not eligible for inclusion as Member content.
We understand that all Medium readers and writers have one common element: Medium. However, the intended purpose of the Partner Program is to encourage and reward the best writing on the internet on the widest variety of topics.
Therefore, posts that are primarily about Medium and its features are not eligible for monetization. You can still freely write about these topics as unlocked posts.
Posts and accounts that attempt to game our system with inflated claps or any other disingenuous interactions will be removed from the Medium Partner Program, and, depending on severity, may be subject to suspension from the platform.
The following are not eligible for inclusion as member-only content — posts or accounts that:
- Advocate or promote intolerance or prejudice against individuals or groups, including the use of scientific or pseudo-scientific claims to pathologize, dehumanize, or disempower others
- Gratuitously use profanity or excessively graphic language and images for the purposes of shock or incitement
- Glorify, celebrate, downplay, or trivialize violence, suffering, abuse, or deaths
- Exist mainly to target, shame, intimidate or harass identified, identifiable or anonymous people
- Dox someone, including by exposing personal information or aggregating of public information
- Review businesses or products in an inflammatory or abusive manner
- Consist of unsubstantiated, unverified, or misleading claims and reporting
Medium reserves the right to review posts or accounts at any time and stop payment for any post or to any account, and/or remove from the Member section content that violates these Member Content Guidelines, or Medium’s general rules. In deciding whether something has violated the Rules and Guidelines, we will take into account things like the context, newsworthiness, and nature of the posted information and applicable privacy laws. Repeated violations of the Rules and Requirements will result in permanent ineligibility to participate in the program.
If you see member-only content that you believe violates these rules and guidelines, please flag the post in the product or send them to yourfriends@medium.com for review.