No Views, No Read Time, $1.65 in Earnings
Delayed gratification is a wonderful thing
The mystery of Medium’s algorithms is a great thing to contemplate late at night.
Why did that happen?
If it’s good, how can I make it happen again?
If it’s bad, how can I prevent it from happening again?
I’m not yet at the point of lighting incense and throwing chicken bones for guidance. But sometimes it seems like that day is not far off.
What is that algorithm doing?
This month, I was watching my stats, as I often do. My Energizer Bunny of a story continued to pick up views and read time two months after it was published.
My curated story that was featured on the front page of The Startup attracted lots of views and read time. It was a solid how-to piece, and people clearly were following along with the directions. (Note to self: write more articles like that one.)
And then… there was something that made no sense.
A small article I wrote last month suddenly shot to third place.
In first place: an article with over 200 views.
In second place: an article with just under 200 views.
In third place: an article with 12 lifetime views.
Wait, what?!?
That was strange, but the article in 4th place had only 20 views this month, so maybe it wasn’t…
WTF?!?!
As I mentioned, I was doing this late at night. Very late at night. So late, that while I was looking at it, the page refreshed with the next day’s payment info.
The 4th place article suddenly shot up to first place! Still with only 20 views for the month!
I had to see what was going on.
This looks crazy, right?
Here’s the stats for the article with 12 lifetime views:
In May, it had: ▪️ 0 views ▪️ 0 minutes of read time ▪️ $1.65 of earnings
And here’s the stats for the article with 20 views this month:
At least some people read it. In May, it had: ▪️ 20 views ▪️ 45 minutes of read time ▪️ $1.05 of earnings from those reads ▪️ $1.43 of earnings when no one was viewing or reading it
Suddenly, I realized what was happening. (It was late at night. I was sleepy and slow on the uptake.)
Non-Medium readers were converting into paid subscribers. I was getting a retroactive payment.
How many readers did it take?
Here’s the great news. There were not a lot of non-Medium readers for either of those stories.
The one that actually had readers in May had a total of 7 non-Medium members view it. Seven! Over its lifetime. And yet, that produced an extra $1.43 in earnings.
The one with no viewers in May had even fewer non-Medium members view it. Only 4! That one produced a whopping $1.65 in earnings from one or more of those viewers becoming members.
Why is this great news? Because that article with just under 200 views had 41 views from non-Medium members. What if it manages to lure a similar percentage of people into becoming Medium members? That would easily make it my highest grossing story.
I’m only in my third month of writing for Medium. That extra cash would be 50% of what I earned on stories last month. It would be well above the original earnings of the stories.
I know better than to expect that I will get that extra earnings. If it’s one thing I’ve learned so far, it’s that no one can predict the results of the Medium algorithms.
Still, the best way to take advantage of these earning bonuses seems to be by writing stories at the end of the month. That way, my one story accounts for a high percentage of the total that person read in the month.
Now, all I have to do is come up with articles that rank high on Google. And publish a bunch of them in the next week. That shouldn’t be difficult, right?
Maybe I’ll light that incense after all. Just in case.
Conclusion
Looking at your statistics every day can cause a range of emotions. Elation! Depression. And confusion.
One anomalous result is cause for confusion. Two anomalous results are a trend, and I’d better get to the bottom of it!
How can a story with no views and no read time earn $1.65 in one day?
At least one of the non-Medium members who read it last month became a paid subscriber this month. Medium gives a retroactive payment for their reading.
Never mind cracking the Medium algorithm. I need to crack the Google algorithm.
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