Medium Earnings
How Do Claps Work on Medium?
A look at the (limited) published info by Medium on applause and how they impact earnings
One of the most confusing aspects of the Medium Partner Program is the role of applause and how exactly each clap affects a writer’s earnings. At times, the clapping system can feel like a black box. This is largely because earnings from the Medium Partner Program are a black box — a device, system or object which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs, without any knowledge of its internal workings.
Regardless, like any algorithm, it is hard not to try to reverse engineer it. Some of the most common questions I receive from people considering publishing on Medium are:
“How much money will I earn writing articles on Medium” and “How much is each clap worth?”
I’ve addressed the first question in a previous article, and will attempt to address the second in this one.
What is Clapping?
Clapping is a way readers can show appreciation for a Medium story and recommend it to their followers. The more you like something, the more you can clap. You can clap up to 50 times per post, and you can clap for as many posts as you want. Clapping plays a role in determining how much you can earn per story.
Medium’s FAQ section states that:
“Currently, Partner Program writers are paid every month based on how members engage with stories. Some factors include reading time (how long members spend reading a story) and applause (how much members clap). Each member’s $5/month subscription is distributed proportionally to the stories that the individual member engaged with that month. So if someone engaged with 10 stories in a given month, their monthly subscription would be distributed to those authors only.”
This text previously read:
Partner Program writers are paid every month based on how members engage with stories. Some factors include reading time (how long members spend reading a story) and applause (how much members clap). Each member’s $5 per month subscription is distributed proportionally to the stories that the individual member engaged with that month.
I typically defer to the second explanation as it is the easiest to explain to other people.
Here is a response posted by Medium Founder, Ev Williams:
Essentially, you are paid per clap on Medium. Generally speaking, the more claps you receive, the more money you will typically make.
The confusing part of this payment system is that your payment per clap varies as it is weighted (distributed proportionally). Since clap payments are a fraction of a user’s $5 per month subscription fee, users who clap very frequently have lower paying claps than users who only clap a few times per month.
This means that theoretically, a single clap ranges from $0.01 to $5 depending on which reader is clapping for your article. This assumes the person clapping is a paying member (non paying readers may create a free account and clap however these claps do not factor into your earnings).
However, this assumes Medium does not take a cut of the user’s $5 per month subscription fee. I have scoured the Medium data that I have collected and looked at all existing articles analyzing earnings-per-clap.
Based on my own earnings, the earnings per clap on my Medium stories ranges from $0.01–$3.83. The highest value clap I found posted by another writer on a different website was $4.20 but this was mentioned in passing, and without a screenshot it’s hard to verify.
However, even this is incomplete if Medium's payment algorithm truly takes reading time (how long members spend reading a story) and reader engagement into account.
What Are Some Common Misconceptions About Claps?
- Views are a good indicator of claps or earnings. As many Medium writers can attest, views do not usually correlate with total claps, unique fans, or earnings. Below are just a few screenshots illustrating the often lopsided results:
2. Claps are the only metric that affects earnings. This may end up being more or less true due to the weighted nature of claps, but this quote from Medium suggests read time or reader engagement factor into earnings as well:
Currently, Partner Program writers are paid every month based on how members engage with stories. Some factors include reading time (how long members spend reading a story) and applause (how much members clap).
3. All claps directly increase Medium earnings. If claps originate from a non-paying member, the author of the post will not be directly compensated (the non-paying member is not contributing any money to be distributed). That is not to say that non-paying claps are worthless. I’ve had stories that only receive claps from non-paying readers, which subsequently gained traction in Medium's distribution algorithm, causing paying members to clap for the same article, weeks or months later.
Thanks for reading this article! Leave a comment below if you have any questions. Be sure to sign up for the Blogging Guide newsletter, to get the latest tips, tricks, and news about writing on Medium and to join our Facebook group, Medium Writing, to share your latest Medium posts and connect with other writers.
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Casey Botticello is a partner at Black Edge Consulting. Black Edge Consulting is a strategic communications firm, specializing in online reputation management, digital marketing, and crisis management. Prior to founding Black Edge Consulting, he worked for BGR Group, a bipartisan lobbying and strategic communications firm.
Casey is the founder of the Cryptocurrency Alliance, a Super PAC dedicated to cryptocurrency and blockchain advocacy. He is a graduate of The University of Pennsylvania, where he received his B.A. in Urban Studies.
You can connect with him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or by following his Medium publication, Blogging Guide.
