The Simple Formula for Making More Money on Medium

Hint: it’s buried in the Medium Partner Program help page

It’s hidden in plain sight on the Medium Partner Program help page. It just takes some digging to figure how to best interpret what Medium is saying because there are a number of different factors that go into it. What are those factors?

It can be boiled down to this simple formula:

RT (read time) + SR (share of reads) + LS (length of story) + NS (network sharing) + TT (topic or tag) = SB (slow burn)

To learn more about the simple formula, let’s dive into Calculating earnings in the Partner Program page.

RT: Read Time

Medium wants to reward you for the amount of time you keep people engaged with your stories. For example, if I “fully” read story (aka read time) that’s 2 minute long and a story that’s nine minutes long, the author of the 8 minute story gets 80% of my revenue. The one-minute author gets 20%.

How long members spend reading your story

As Medium members spend more time reading your story (“member reading time”), you will earn more.

Medium continues…

How do you technically calculate reading time?

We calculate reading time based on the amount of time that a viewer spends actively reading on the page. We consider the viewer’s scrolling and activity, and then determine how long the viewer spent reading the story. We take care to differentiate between gaps in scroll activity versus long periods of time during which the viewer stepped away for a coffee break.

SR: share of the reads

If I only read 5 stories a month, my share of worth for each story is much higher. If I read 30 stories a month, my share is much lower. The money I pay to Medium is split based on how much I read each month. Because we all pay the same $5 to Medium, the amount of money is spread out by how much we read.

How much of their monthly reading time members spend on your story

By calculating a share of member reading time, we support authors who write about unique topics and connect with loyal readers. For example, if last month a member spent 10% of their monthly reading time on your story, you will receive 10% of their share (a portion of their subscription fee).

LS: Length of story

You have a greater chance of securing more “member reading time” when you write a longer story but it all depends on the quality of your story. Member reading time is defined by Medium as “the total amount of time Medium members spent reading your story in the selected time period.”

Does your story resonate with the Medium community? Your 5 minute story can earn as much as your 2 minute story.

How will shorter pieces perform in this new model?

When short pieces are well-written and thought provoking, we’ve found that readers will end up spending more time with the piece. And vice versa: if a long piece is filled with fluff, readers simply won’t reach the end. In a world competing for attention, readers spend their limited time where it counts. Longer stories don’t guarantee more reading time. On average, readers actually spend the most time reading mid-length pieces.

Medium crunches the numbers based on what the reader typically reads.

[H]alf of the earnings model is based on a proportional share. If you write a short piece that is read by people who predominantly read other short pieces (e.g., an audience who reads mostly poetry), then your story will receive a meaningful portion of share earnings. The outcome will be similar to if you’d written a long piece read by people who predominantly read other long pieces.

NS: Network Sharing

It’s important to strengthen and grow the Medium community. They want you to grow the community by sharing your content via your network. If you help Medium gain new subscribers, you’ll eventually get paid for their read time when they join as a paying subscriber. Adding more Medium members will grow the share of the pie.

Why do I sometimes earn more on days when I receive less member reading time or views?

You may earn on days where you don’t receive as much member reading time, because some pieces of your earnings calculation are lagging. For example, if a free user reads your story and then, weeks later, subscribes to Medium membership, you will earn for their reading time long after their read occurred. Earlier reading time will not retroactively appear on your graph, even once they become members, but you will earn from that reading time.

TT: Topic or Tag

It’s important to write excellent stories in your niche. You can write about a lot of different topics or concentrate on a few topics. It’s up to you. A simple way to find out what you write about the most is to “Medium search yourself.” As of October 2020, you can see in the screenshot below that Medium says that Self Improvement, Personal Development, Business, Productivity, Inspiration are some of my top Medium tags.

How much of their monthly reading time members spend on your story

[A]n author who writes about a wide variety of topics might receive smaller shares from a broader audience of readers, who also read a variety of other authors. While the generalist will often earn a lot through the first total reading time part, the fly fisher is well equipped to earn through this share part — even with a smaller audience.

SB: Slow Burn

Older views are worth more than newer ones. You get paid based on read time of Medium members. The more Medium members read your stories, the more money you’ll earn. It seems simple but Medium does a lot of number crunching. Think of it as the slow burn or the process of becoming attracted to your Medium stories over a period of time. Medium is like other social media platforms. It’s a marathon not a sprint. So you need a strategy.

Can I use my daily stats to calculate that I earn $X per minute read or per word?

No, for a few reasons. First, Partner Program payouts are tied to the number of active Medium members, so we will pay more as our member base continues to grow. Second, your earnings are calculated based on a mix of factors, not a straight calculation based on word or time count. Third, your daily views and reading time are not the only input into your daily earnings. Other components of your earnings are lagging, meaning that it may take a while for you to earn for each view — it’s not as straightforward as translating daily reading into earnings.

Medium says they have two sources for tracking your stories so you may see changes in your stats.

We maintain two sources of stats for your stories:

The first is a stable, long-term count of all engagement throughout time. The second is a short-term count that is updated in real-time. This real-time count has not yet been processed through robust deduplication checks and other safeguards.

If you wrote an amazing story and you obsessively check the stats to see if it goes viral, you’ll be disappointed. The key with Medium is the gradual build up of your stats.

“The longer you have to wait for something, the more you will appreciate it when it finally arrives.” — Susan Gale, a Canadian artist

Just because you saw a big spike in your stats when you started doesn’t mean that will occur over the long term. Medium promotes writers who consistently write and consistently write well.

“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.” — Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, an American-Canadian actor and former professional wrestler

Bringing it all together

The Medium Partner Program page has a lot of information to digest. The bottom line is that you need to improve your readability (aka read time). Find the Medium members that don’t read a lot but read your stuff (share of reads). Write stories that fit your story topic (length of story). Share your stories with your network (network sharing) to help grow the Medium community. Write compelling and engaging stories that keep readers in your niche hooked (topic or tag). Wait for it (slow burn).

Here’s the simple formula again:

RT (read time) + SR (share of reads) + LS (length of story) + NS (network sharing) + TT (topic or tag) = SB (slow burn)

In summary, greatness will come to you if you consistently write good stories. If you use the baseball or softball analogy, you don’t have to hit a home run every time you write a Medium story. A lot of singles and doubles add up to runs too.

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