How Much Can You Expect to Make From 100,000 Views on Medium?

The answer, as always, is “it depends”

I’ve been writing on Medium for a little over a year, and I had no prior experience when it came to writing. Since I’m a software developer, 99% of my articles are related to programming and software development.

On Medium, member engagement is what counts. The more time people spend reading your articles, the more of their $5/month membership you’ll earn. So how much can you make from an article with 100,000 views?

First Example: Ineffective Programming Habits Article

The first example is an article called “6 Programming Habits That Make You an Ineffective Programmer.” As the title of this article implies, it’s about habits a lot of programmers have that make them ineffective and how they can change themselves for the better.

Let’s take a look at the statistics for this article.

I earned $398 for 113,000 views, which comes down to roughly $350 per 100,000 views.

Not that much, right?

It’s probably not as much as you thought it’d be, and I have to say that it’s quite low — although it’s still decent money. (Quick spoiler: This is the least I’ve earned for 100,000 views on this list.)

The reason the earnings for this article are pretty low can be fairly easily explained when we take a look at the following statistic.

As you can see, the member reading time on this piece is only 130 hours, which is not that much. This is in line with the average reading time, which is 21 seconds, which isn’t that much for a piece Medium considers to be a five-minute read.

In total, this article received 2,300 claps given by 615 different people. There’s no easy way to tell how many of these claps were given by premium members.

Second Example: Habits You Should Adopt Article

The second article is an article that didn’t reach 100,000 views yet, although it comes pretty close with its 93,000 views. The article is called “Programming Habits You Should Adopt” and shows you how you can improve yourself as a programmer.

I earned $1,080 for 93,000 views with this article, which comes down to roughly $1,160 per 100,000 views.

That’s quite a big difference compared to the first example — this piece earned me almost 3x for the same number of views. The same can be said about the member reading time — roughly 3x compared to the first example. The average member reading time is more than double compared to the first.

The number of claps that were given for this article was significantly higher. In total, this article received over 6,000 claps given by 1,400 different people.

Last Example: Fun Things You Can Build Article

Last, but definitely not least, is an article I wrote for those who didn’t have a fun side project to work on. The article, called “A List of Fun Things You Can Build as a Developer,” is a four-minute read that contains a list of fun projects you could work on, varying from building Pac-Man to trying your hand at a weather app.

This is the article that earned the most from all three examples. I earned $2,343 for 134,000 views with this article, which comes down to roughly $1,750 per 100,000 views.

This is a lot. What stunned me when I was looking at the statistics was the member reading time.

The member reading time for this piece is 310 hours, which is less than the second example. It’s safe to say earning more isn’t just about getting more member reading time.

So if the difference isn’t in the member reading time, what factor causes the high earning on this article?

The difference is in the number of claps. This article has well over 8,500 claps given by 2,400 people. That’s 1,000 different people clapping for this article.

Conclusion

How much you can earn from 100,000 views on Medium depends heavily on member engagement. The earnings for the examples we’ve gone over vary from $350 to $1,750 per 100,000 views.

The factors that determine how much you can make from these views are member reading time and the number of claps. The more engagement, the higher the earning.

What do you think about this? Do these numbers surprise you? I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for reading!