Medium Earnings Confusion? I Made $6 for 16,000 Views
An introspective journey into my personal Medium monetization maze, where high view counts don’t always mean high paydays – and where I may be going wrong.
It’s the age-old conundrum of the digital age. You put your heart and soul into creating a masterpiece, your insightful thoughts poured out onto the page in a brilliant display of creativity and intellect. And then, you sit back, post your work on Medium, and wait for the dollar bills to start rolling in. Only they don’t. Instead, you’re left scratching your head, trying to figure out how a piece with 16,000 views could possibly earn you a meager $6.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to sound ungrateful or entitled. Six dollars is six dollars. It’s a fancy cup of coffee. It’s a bus ride and a half. But when you break it down, it’s 0.000375 dollars per view. It’s almost like being paid in compliments or Facebook likes. You can’t take those to the bank, can you?
This perplexing phenomenon has become a common theme in my Medium journey. Once, one of my articles scored 15,800 views. That’s roughly the population of a small town if you think about it. How much did I make? Drum roll, please – $6.60.
Now, this got me thinking that I must be doing something terribly wrong. My internal critic has been working overtime, trying to unravel this mystery. After all, there are writers out there who make hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars from the Medium Partner Program. So why am I barely scraping by with my page views?
To understand this conundrum, it’s crucial to grasp how Medium’s payment system works – or, more precisely, how I understand it works.
You see, I understand that Medium uses a model that pays writers based on the reads their articles receive from members, not just the number of views and not external views. This means that if someone lands on my page from Google or social media, it’s not going to count for much. On the other hand, if a Medium member views the article and spends time digesting my content, clapping for it, and leaving responses, Medium takes this as a sign that my content is engaging and valuable. Am I right?
In short, I understand that it’s not just about eyeballs on my page; it’s about hearts and minds being moved by my content and provided it’s from Medium members. Which, honestly, is kind of poetic when you think about it.
Now, here’s where things get a little murky for me. I can see the logic in this system. It’s fair, democratic even. But for someone like me, who gets a lot more views from external sources (thanks, Google and Facebook) than from internal Medium users, it might not work out as lucratively.
Consider this – I have a Medium article with 5,500 views, to which I thought, “Wow, I’m popular.” But the majority of those views are external, and those readers aren’t interacting much with my piece (no clapping, no highlighting, no leaving of thoughtful responses), so now my earnings reflect something like this below:
So, what’s a writer to do in this scenario? Should I stop writing? Perhaps shift my focus towards writing cat memes instead of insightful articles? Well, no. For one, my cat is decidedly un-meme-worthy.
Instead, I believe the answer lies in understanding and working within Medium’s system.
Perhaps, rather than focusing on sheer view count, I need to pay more attention to creating content that genuinely resonates with Medium’s user base. Maybe I need to engage more with the Medium community, respond to comments, and actively promote discussions around my articles.
Secondly, I might also need to diversify my traffic sources. While external traffic can boost view count, it might not always result in high engagement. Thus, driving more traffic from within Medium’s platform might be a better strategy for improving earnings.
But I always remind myself that making money is a great motivator, but it isn’t everything. Writing, at its core, is a labor of love. It should be about sharing thoughts, sparking discussions, and perhaps, in some small way, making the world a bit more thoughtful.
However, I’m still a little confused. As much as I have tried to learn about Medium, reading content about writer’s experience in Medium, I have heard whispers about people making money out of external views which I assume I am not eligible for?
Well, to say the least, the Medium payment model is a bit of a labyrinth. It’s a blend of views, claps, reader engagement, and various other factors. As I venture deeper into it, I can only hope to learn more, adapt better, and hopefully, end up earning more than just enough for a cup of joe.
So this is my Medium earnings mystery – unsolved but not unlearned from. I hope my journey can serve as a stepping stone for those who might be grappling with the same puzzling scenario. But also I ask my fellow writers from the community, am I missing something?
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to write my next article. Who knows? This one might just earn me a latte.