I Think Medium Has One Philanthropist Algorithm Inside It.
And I just want to thank him.
I’m writing this article to appreciate that one Medium algorithm who keeps blessing me with a few cents occasionally.
As a new writer, any small progress in my stats makes me excited for my writing journey on this platform. Even a single cent earned in a day keeps me going ahead.
On the other hand, when I see none of my stories are making anything any longer, I suddenly find myself standing in the desert of hopelessness.
I just can’t understand should I go ahead or not? Should I continue on this way or change my direction? Am I ever going to get to the water or not?
But when I saw while the other two graphs have fallen asleep, there was a little spike of hope in the earning graph. And it instantly sparked the excitement in my brain and filled my entire body with joy.
I saw, despite having 0 views, 0 reads, and 0 seconds of member reading time, I still have made some money. It instantly helped me regain all the lost hope from the platform, and I suddenly felt charged up with an extreme amount of energy that can help me walk ahead.
I know, there isn’t any secret reason behind these earnings. But when you see these types of unexpected and surprising things, your brain starts looking for some mysterious reasons working behind it, out of joy.
Okay, for all of these I might be sounding like a money driver writer here. But hey, even you know that my internet provider won’t understand my passion for writing and forgive my bills. Right?
Hence, unwillingly but I’ve to think about the money. Lol.
I know, we definitely should not be writing just for the money. But, money is definitely one of the major reasons why most of us are writing here. After all, we all have different desires and dreams to fulfill. If not that, then we at least need it to satisfy our daily needs.
Now the question that still remains is — from where are these small drops of money falling on me.
To know that I did a little bit of research about it and I then landed on this official explanation from Medium.
And now, I’ve got three guesses for it.
Most likely
Medium keeps distributing $5 (after deducting its own part and tax money) between writers on the basis of the total number of articles a paying member has read during his/her entire membership month.
First, when any paying member reads your article Medium gives you 2–6 cents per minute. However, this isn’t mentioned anywhere officially by Medium. I’m telling this completely from my own experience on this platform till the date.
After that, throughout the month, or at the end of a particular member’s membership month, Medium distributes all the remaining subscription money between all the stories that the member has read during his/her membership month considering the time spent on each article.
Less likely
Maybe some non-paying readers have joined Medium membership after a few days of reading any of my articles. And now, I’m getting paid for it.
Very unlikely
This one is pure speculation developed by me.
Medium literally, intentionally, and manually donates these small random amounts to writers to encourage them, inspire them, and keep them writing on the platform.
Most writers lose their hope and give up on the platforms within a few months of their writing journey when they don’t see any significant results in their earnings. And this exact reason pushes them into the list of failed writers.
To counter this problem Medium has developed this philanthropic scheme. Under this scheme Medium occasionally donates some money between writers.
These small donations give writers hope that there is money on this platform if their writing has potential and if they can work consistently.
Even who knows if my speculation is not just a speculation but a true story. Well, maybe not this way but in some different way Medium might really want to support their writers.
Because it seems like that the Medium team has a lot of manual control over their platform, unlike other completely autonomous platforms where the content gets recommended and distributed by the programs written by programmers and users’ engagements.
While Medium blesses me only with a few cents, you can bless me with more by joining Medium membership using my referral link if you haven’t already.
Membership gives you access to every single article available on Medium. And it also supports writers putting their time into creating awesome stories.