Why Aren’t My Earnings Showing?

Stop worrying about your earnings and just write

Every single month, my Medium-related Facebook groups are flooded with the exact same question:

Why aren’t my earnings showing anything?

Here’s the answer: You haven’t earned anything yet.

Your earnings page only shows stories with earnings greater than $0.00 — if no paying members have read your stories, then you won’t earn anything. You could have a million reads, but if none of those reads are by paying members, then you aren’t going to earn a penny. So, when the page says that you don’t have any eligible stories, what it’s really saying is that no paying members have actually read your stories.

This feels like a good time to remind people that if you are part of the Partner Program but aren’t paying for a membership, you’re actually taking money from the rest of us who actually care about supporting other authors on this site.

This is also a good time to remind you to stop writing short snippets of nothingness that are less substantial than cotton candy. If your writing’s relevance has faded by the time you wake up the next morning, then don’t be surprised if your articles don’t get read. Focus on long-tail writing, stories that will retain their relevance and interest over months or even years. My highest earning story last month was published 2.5 years ago…that’s before the pandemic and it still earned me money.

Focus on your research and your writing more than you focus on your earnings — that’s the only way to find success in this business.

On an interesting side note, I’m expecting this to become one of my most popular articles, simply because this same question gets asked every single month!