Let’s address the elephant in the room.
You clicked on my articles, hit a paywall.
And also came across this article of mine where I have said that I make
One single penny.
You probably thought it was a typo.
After all, what is the point of having a paywall when I’m making a penny?
I can’t buy a coffee with a penny.
I can’t even buy a piece of bubblegum.
So why do it?
If it’s not to make a profit, why put up a barrier at all?
Let it be free for all.
The answer has nothing to do with economics, and everything to do with psychology, community, and the current state of the internet.
Firstly,
The modern internet is infested with bots, AI scrapers, and automated crawlers.
If you publish something for free, within seconds it is scraped, summarized, and repackaged by algorithms that never actually read your work.
Bots can do a lot of things, but they don’t have credit cards.
A $0.01 paywall acts as an impenetrable digital moat.
It ensures that every single view, every read, and every comment on my article comes from a verified, living, breathing human being.
It keeps the noise out and protects the integrity of the comment section.
Secondly,
Think about the last dozen free articles you opened.
How many did you actually read to the end? You probably skimmed the headings, got distracted by a notification, and closed the tab.
Free content is treated as disposable because we place zero value on things that cost us nothing.
Now, if you have a Medium subscription, because you have invested in this experience.
You crossed a threshold of friction. Because you paid for it, your brain tells you, “This has value. I should pay attention. Even if it is the least”
I don’t want a million passive scrollers. I want readers who are actually engaged.
A one-cent barrier shifts you from a passive consumer to an active participant.
We’ve been conditioned to expect all writing, art, and digital content to be free, subsidized by invasive banner ads and corporate sponsors selling our attention.
The penny is a philosophical statement.
It says: This took time to create. It has value.
It shouldn’t cost you a small fortune to read a good essay, but it also shouldn’t be entirely worthless.
One cent is a handshake.
It is a mutual acknowledgment of effort between the creator and the reader.
Tbh, I do bring a lot of members to Medium and that gets me a coffee :)
I know I’m not getting rich off your pennies either. In fact, I might be going slightly into debt (just kidding)
But what I gain is far more valuable: SEO to my webapp, a clean, bot-free space, a community of intentional readers, and a relationship built on actual engagement.
So, thank you for your penny.
I promise to make it worth your while.
In case we are meeting for the first time, come over here, it’ll be worth the roller coaster of articles that are gonna come up in the next few weeks.
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