Medium Partner Program is Finally Open to Writers Worldwide (Including Taiwan)!
Anyone can join the Medium Partner Program to write articles and earn revenue.
Photo by Steve Johnson
2026–06–06 Update: Stripe Withdrawal Not Supported in Taiwan
Tested withdrawing over NT$700 from Buymeacoffee, but it got stuck after transferring from Buymeacoffee to Stripe:
I have filled in the bank details but the transfer hasn’t gone through for a long time and online sources say Stripe requires a US bank account to use… Too much hassle, so this money will just stay here.
Medium Partner Program can only withdraw funds through Stripe. Use it only if you have withdrawal options available!
Murmur
The original intention of running Medium was not to make money, but to enjoy sharing with everyone—sharing technical challenges I encountered, hoping to help developers with similar issues avoid detours, or diving deeper based on my research so I can also learn new knowledge; plus, there are very few Traditional Chinese writers, so I hope to inspire others and create a cycle of mutual learning.
So I have never been too concerned about whether articles can generate income or not. If they do, great; if not, that’s fine too. If there is income, I can use it to experiment, buy more services or experiences, and then write articles to share with everyone, creating a continuous cycle.
Since I started writing on Medium in 2018, I have known about the Medium Partner Program. However, from 2018, 2019, 2020… year after year, the Medium Partner Program policy remained unchanged, limiting eligible writers to only a few regions (I remember only Singapore and Japan in Asia). Writers outside these regions had a very complicated process to earn money, requiring VPN access to allowed regions plus accounts or phones from those regions. I previously looked into it but found it too troublesome and unsafe.
Many creators have switched to other platforms like Matters, Fanggezi, or set up their own sites with ads to earn revenue. In recent years, Medium has indeed lost many Chinese-speaking creators.
Medium Partner Program
Until recently, in August 2024, I accidentally saw an invitation banner in the Medium backend to join the Partner Program (I thought, What? Taiwan is still not open for this). After clicking in, I was surprised to find that it is now fully open, and creators from almost all regions can join the Partner Program and earn revenue from every word of their articles.
But it’s a bit funny that before you can join the Medium Partner Program to earn money, you first need to pay to become a Medium Member (at least $4 per month).
2024–08–07 Official Medium Blog Announcement
Added countries list:
Albania, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Guatemala, Guyana, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Laos, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Madagascar, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam
Medium Custom Domain Feature
Recently, Medium has been adding more features, and another feature that was once available but then closed—custom domains—has now reopened.
Medium Custom Domain Feature Returns
You can refer to my previous article “Medium Custom Domain Feature Returns” for registering your own domain and linking it to Medium.
- Effect: https://blog.zhgchg.li
The custom domain feature also requires you to be a Medium Member with a paid subscription to use.
Payment Method & Tax Issues
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Payment method: Direct payout via Stripe, which is similar to Paypal but with lower fees and more focused on payment processing.
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Tax Issues: Non-US citizens only need to fill out a declaration form.
Some Thoughts on Paywall Paid Articles
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Once an article is placed behind the Paywall and becomes a paid article, users must log in and become Medium Members to read the full content. The previously circulating unlimited reading hacks are no longer effective.
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My high-traffic, SEO-friendly articles are mostly unboxings and travelogues; however, the audience is mostly casual visitors who are neither Medium Members nor regular members. They just browse and leave, so these types of articles are not suitable for the Paywall.
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Technical articles are often intended to share information freely and openly, and authors may not consider their content valuable. Additionally, since the audience is mostly industry insiders with low traffic, there is little motivation to add a paywall.
Or provide free links simultaneously so non-Medium Members can also read. -
Traffic and earnings can be referenced from senior creator Tenz Shih (施典志)’s early shared data.
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I have selected a few technical articles with good traffic and content to add to the Paywall for testing (including a free link in the first paragraph, so anyone can read without an account or payment). I will update the results later for your reference.
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I had previously migrated to self-hosted + Google Adsense using a tool I developed for conversion, “Seamless Migration from Medium to Self-Hosted Site,” but I didn’t consider paid articles back then, so I need to adjust the script again QQ.
Detailed tutorial begins.
Medium Partner Program Joining Process
1. Complete Stripe Account Registration (Open Account)
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I registered a long time ago, so I’ll skip the registration process below.
2. Make sure you are a Medium Member paying subscriber
First, make sure you have a Medium Member or Medium Friend membership.
- If you don’t have one, you need to subscribe by paying first.
3. Go to the Medium Partner Program page to apply for membership
- Country Selection
Choose your country. Currently, almost all countries are supported.
It is assumed that all countries supported by Stripe for payments are available.
- Make sure all three conditions are met:
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Already a Medium Member ✅
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Published at least one article in the past six months ✅
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Region on the allowed list Taiwan ✅
- Click:
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Confirm you are at least 18 years old
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Confirm agreement to the terms of use
Click “Enroll now” to proceed to the next step.
4. Complete Medium x Stripe Binding
- Enter your email address
- Enter your phone number
- Business type: I chose “Individual or Sole Proprietorship”
- Verify Your Personal Details: Enter your personal information. I was able to pass this step by entering it in Chinese.
Add withdrawal account:
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Account holder name: Enter the English name of the bank account you want to receive payments to
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SWIFT / BIC Code: Enter the SWIFT code of the bank where you want to receive payments. You can check here
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Account: Enter the bank account number where you want to receive payments
Here, I used a Cathay foreign currency account, directly checked the foreign currency account info in the app, and filled it in. (You can change it later in settings; it seems the verification happens only when the payout is made.)
- Review and Submit: After confirming the information is correct, click “Agree and Submit”
After successful submission, you will be redirected back to Medium to continue setting up your tax information.
5. Complete Tax Filing
The following example is based on an individual account without U.S. residency.
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Enter your personal information (in full English)
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Address: Can be translated using Chunghwa Post Translation
- Select Tax Form: For non-US citizens without any US status, choose the first option “W-8BEN — for non-US individuals”
- Continue filling in the relevant personal information (in English)
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Identification of Beneficial Owner (Continued)
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In this step, directly check “I can’t claim treaty benefits, so I’m not required to provide a Tax ID Number” and click “Continue”.
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Claim of Treaty Benefits (Part II)
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At this step, simply click “Continue” to proceed.
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Click “Confirm” to proceed
- After reviewing and confirming the information is correct, click “Continue” to proceed to the next step.
Certification (Part III):
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Check all boxes, select “I am signing for myself.”, enter your English name, the current date, and your contact email.
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Finally, click “Submit Form” to submit the entire form.
Done!
After submission, you will be redirected to the Payout settings page. If everything shows a ✅, it means you have successfully joined!
Put Articles Behind Paywall to Start Earning Revenue
Note that joining the Medium Partner Program alone does not generate earnings; your articles must be placed behind the Paywall to receive revenue shares.
- Article Editing -> “Manage paywall setting”
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Check “Paywall your story” -> “Save”
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Articles participating in the revenue share will have a ⭐️.
This way, the article will generate revenue sharing.
Free Viewing Link
- If you want to let a friend read the full article for free, you can choose “Copy Friend Link” from Share. This link allows free full access but does not generate any earnings.
Check Performance Report
https://medium.com/me/partner/dashboard
Medium Partner Dashboard or Story Stats will show your Earnings amount.
The detailed article report will also show how many paying members have read it.
Results of This Article
This article was behind the Paywall from the moment it was published (now removed). Here is a summary of the results after one month.
$0.90
Earnings
201
Views
82
Reads
41%
Read ratio
I noticed that only the number of Reads (paid users staying to read for more than 30 seconds) generates revenue. The payout is not fixed and seems to be distributed based on views, claps, shares, and other factors. My numbers are low, so each Read earns about $0.01 to $0.07.
The above data is provided for your reference.
Medium Custom Domain Promotion
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You can follow the steps in the above article to register your own domain and link it to Medium. Result: from https://medium.com/@zhgchgli -> https://blog.zhgchg.li
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