No, you don’t have to be a paying Medium member to join the Partner Program and start earning. If you do subscribe to be a member, your monthly membership fees will directly support writers on Medium.

There are two ways to earn money with the Partner Program:

• Partner Program writers are paid monthly based on how much time Medium members spend reading their stories. The longer members read, the more writers earn.
  
• Every time you convert a reader to a paying member you get half of that reader’s membership fee, net of standard payment processor fees, for as long as they are an active member.

Learn more about how Partner Program earnings are calculated here.

Writers can earn money through the Partner Program and include their story in a publication at the same time. It will have no impact on how much they earn.

Yes. You can add to or remove any story even if it’s already published. If you choose to edit a story after publishing, please keep our editorial guidelines in mind.

Yes. Readers who aren’t yet members can access a select number of free stories per month, so your ideas still reach everyone on the internet. For unlimited stories, readers can upgrade to membership for $5/month.
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However, you’ll only earn money based on reading time when a subscribing member reads your story, or when a reader becomes a member within 30 days of reading your story.

Here are some tools and tips to increase referrals:

• Referrals landing page: Every Partner Program writer has a personalized referral landing page where readers can become a paying member for unlimited access to their writing, plus everything else on Medium. Writers can promote their landing page on other platforms to try to drive more Referred Memberships. 
  
• Email subscriptions: When a non-member subscribes to receive your stories via email (see details on email subscriptions here), they'll be asked if they want to become a member. If they convert via that prompt, that membership will count toward your referral earnings. 
• You may promote your referral link in your posts. As a best practice, we recommend that the link is as unobtrusive as possible (stick it at the beginning or bottom of your story) and that you give the reader a sense of why they should support your work and what they can expect. If it’s not already explained in your message, you’ll also need to let your readers know that you’ll receive a portion of their membership fees. Here is a helpful Federal Trade Commission FAQ about affiliate referrals. 

No. Promoting Referred Memberships is optional and in addition to earnings generated based on member read time. Medium writers who prefer to earn solely based on member reading time are more than welcome to do so.