Checking on Your Medium Earnings Can Be Entertaining

If you have time to look

If you are writing on Medium, you probably do not have time to check on your stats except to see what they are generally without looking at the details. Most likely, you are busy writing or reading. If you do have time to look into the details of your various stories, it can be quite entertaining.

People are not writing on Medium with the expectation to immediately start earning a lot of money. That is totally unrealistic although it might be a possibility down the road. Some people are earning substantial money by writing for Medium.

Since I only heard about and signed up with Medium about two months ago, my numbers may not be representative of most writers on Medium. Some few of my stories have been curated, but I can’t really see that it has made a lot of difference on views. I have not used social media to share the stories.

Your stats on views could be interesting as well. You could have 500, 800, or over 1,000 views per day or you could have less than 100. My highest daily view count was 800. I wish I could do that or more everyday. Most days it is nowhere near that amount and actually quite low. We can just hope for some viral stories to come with many views.

We don’t know how Medium exactly determines views and reading time. We do know that you are paid for time that Medium’s paid members spend reading your stories.

Here is a small sample of earnings for various stories. The first number is the views with the second number being reads. The percentage is the read ratio. Then the earnings per story are listed. The average reading time and the number of fans are not recorded here.

5 / 1 / 20% / .03

5 / 3 / 60% / .05

8 / 7 / 88% / .15

10 / 6 / 60% / .13

38 / 26 / 68% / .47

47 / 25 / 53% / -0-

69 / 46 / 67% / .39

70 / 49 / 56% / .39

73 / 45 / 62% / .14

91 / 87 / 96% / .04

112 / 103 / 92% / -0-

114 / 108 / 95% / .18

172 / 144 / 84% / .77

266 / 132 / 50% / .95

336 / 219 / 64% / .13

There seems to be quite a discrepancy with the earnings for various stories. A story with 5 views and 3 reads has earned 5 cents whereas a story with 112 views and 103 reads has earned zero. A story with 69 views and 46 reads earned 39 cents where a story with 336 views and 219 reads earned 13 cents. Go figure.

We would do well to just not worry about the stats and be happy to let Medium figure it out.

You can count on most stories earning a few pennies, but that might not always be the case. Some will earn more, and some may earn nothing. There are a lot of people writing on Medium so there is lots of competition. It’s hard for all those people writing to have enough time to read stories. Since over 90% of Medium writers make less than $100 a month, it is not the most lucrative platform. However, there is a good possibility that YOU might be the one who makes it big.

Keep writing and sharing your ideas. Maybe someday the stats will be great and really entertaining. Some substantial money may be earned. Good luck!