Long ago I recognized the hook social media dearly wanted to get into folks. The hook? Come and play. Make my site really popular. Fill all my empty shelves with something for others to look at. Of course it's free! Really! Totally free. Free forever! (Well. maybe NOT forever!)

Who owns what you post (like even this comment)? According to Medium's TOS:

Rights and Ownership

You retain your rights to any content you submit, post or display on or through the Services.

Unless otherwise agreed in writing, by submitting, posting, or displaying content on or through the Services, you grant Medium a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully paid, and sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, publicly perform and display your content and any name, username or likeness provided in connection with your content in all media formats and distribution methods now known or later developed on the Services.

Medium needs this license because you own your content and Medium therefore can’t display it across its various surfaces (i.e., mobile, web) without your permission.

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So — there we have it.

When you feed Medium.Com content — you feed them more than just your posts. You increase traffic scores. Increase traffic scores = higher monetization rates.