Hi, my name is Tom Smykowski, I'm a staff full-stack engineer. I build and scale SaaS platforms to millions of users, working end-to-end from system architecture to frontend to mobile. On this blog I write about publishing strategy, AI tooling, and how independent engineers protect the work they ship
Search panels now summarize paywalled writing beside ad slots, sometimes with a polite source link that does not fix the payout. This article is for engineers and founders who treat original research as an asset, not a free training buffet.
You get a concrete publishing funnel: what stays on Medium, what lives in an on-site preview, and what sits behind credits on your own domain. The full post also walks through the unlock license language, why payment matters as friction, and a commercial floor for anyone who wants bulk processing anyway.
What you get in the full article
- A step-by-step content funnel from Medium excerpt to paywalled long form
- The DO and DON'T license block readers accept before credits apply
- Why a 1000x commercial multiplier is part of the story, not a gimmick
- How credits, terms, and technical controls stack together
- A short note on Maberium and creator-owned infrastructure
Questions the deep dive answers
- Why did a Medium paywall stop being enough once AI Overviews spread?
- What is different between "training opt out" settings and third-party search surfaces?
- Which clauses belong on an unlock screen if you fear automated extraction?
- How do you keep discovery pages indexable without giving away the research tables?
Length and time
- Long-form with three section illustrations
- About 10-14 minutes if you read the license block carefully
- Actionable enough to adapt the funnel, not just agree in the abstract