Medium now lets anyone put their blogs behind its $5 paywall

Medium believes the bloggers on its platform are ready to start bringing in the big bucks, so it’s now extended its partner program to let any user put their posts behind the company’s paywall.

That means that readers will have to sign up for Medium’s $5-a-month all-you-can-eat plan to read these bloggers’ articles. The subscription also includes access to new features and audio versions of popular stories.

It’s an interesting move towards helping writers get paid on the platform, and it follows the introduction of Medium’s Claps feature that lets you indicate how you want your subscription fee divided up between the authors you read.

So, what kind of income can you expect to earn through Medium? TechCrunch noted that in the month of September, the largest payment for a single author was $2,279.12, and the average payment was $93.65.

That doesn’t seem like much, but it’s early days yet for the company’s monetization strategies. Plus, it’s commendable that Medium isn’t exploring easier and more common options like including advertising or sponsored content to rake in more cash.

It’ll be interesting to see if Medium’s bet pays off over time. In charging for independently produced written content, it’s treading uncharted waters; one of the only other organizations to do so right now is Wikitribune, an upcoming news outlet that’s funded entirely by individual supporters and dreamed up by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales. Only time will tell if we’re actually willing to pony up to read on the regular.