Medium Study

Your Time and Reads Matter — Let’s Return to the Joy and Fun of Medium

You can’t always dispel a rumor — but here’s the way I used numbers to tell the true story behind my reads

New day — new month!

I scanned through the titles of the articles in my emails this morning — and they appeared again. The topic(s) I had been clicking on for the past two months — you know the ones — the doom and gloom of the sinking ship of Medium!

Medium’s ship is sinking fast! People are leaving! Our stories are not being distributed! Views are up but earnings are down!

“If you read a lot, your $5 subscription fee is spread so thin — your reads don’t pay the writers much!”

This is hearsay. The more I kept reading it — the more it bugged me.

My natural response to these kinds of rumors is to question, “What are the numbers? — Show me the numbers!” I thought of a way to disprove this. I was excited at first and reached out to two friends who immediately offered support and assistance.

Then I thought of the ramifications, “What if this hearsay was true? What if my reads don’t matter?!” I panicked and wrote an article saying, “I didn’t want to see these preliminary results.” I hit publish.

Then — I checked my emails.

What do you know? My friends emailed me at 4 am. The results were phenomenal! It was as I had anticipated — but I let fear get the better part of me.

Lesson 1. Allow the facts to shed light and help edify behavior and ideas

I deleted my published article — and continued with my study. I want to give special thanks to Ellen Eastwood and Leonard Tillerman, for their initial enthusiasm and prompt response that propelled me to further action.

Lesson 2. There is indescribable power in community and numbers

I reached out to a few more writers in my tribe — and we went to work. Thank you, Autistic Widower ("AJ"), Michele Maize, Benighted, Logan Silkwood, Jennifer Barrios Tettay, and Toni Greathouse for your invaluable help and kind eagerness to share your articles and stats with me. I cannot thank you enough.

My Study

Hypothesis: As a voracious reader on Medium, I contribute to writers’ earnings just as any other. The difference in the rate of contribution between all of us is negligible.

Experiment: Natalie will read at least 10 old and unpopular articles by fellow writers. The writer is to screenshot or note their total number of reads, lifetime earnings, and the total member reading time for the article prior to my reading. Once I’ve read it, I send a confirmation to the writer. After a lapse of 12–24 hours, the author sends me the updated story’s stats.

Terminology. Rate: total dollars earned divided by total minutes read — for each article calculated after ONE read (seconds not used).

Each writer sent me the following statistics prior to and after my read:

1. Total number of reads
2. Lifetime member reading
3. Lifetime article earnings

Objective: What is the rate at which I am contributing to fellow writers? Would the rate change with a change in an author?

Special note: Two writers kindly volunteered to read 2 of my old articles. Would their rate differ greatly from mine?

Here are the results! Let’s jump in and have fun!

My conclusion

1. I read these articles in the last week of October, after reading an average of 15–20 articles a day for the month. I do not see how my reading rate contribution to writers has “dwindled” (since the argument was my $5 subscription fee “thins” out as you read more)
2. If the average payment for each article was $0.20, then it follows $0.20 times 15 articles a day = $3.00 x 30 days > $5 dollars. Rumor dispelled in my book.
3. This rate is significantly close to the rate of 50+ readers who read my articles over the past 4 months. The average pay rate for 46 of my articles is $0.03/minute (rounded to the nearest hundredth).
4. If changes have been “wreaking havoc” in the last 5 months, why do I not see any changes in the rate? (It has been relatively consistent)

Special observations

I not only read all of the articles above to myself but clicked on “audio” to make sure it would count as a read (muted in the background), as it does disturb me. I was surprised (Greathouse)17 min article only gave me 6 min. I was especially mindful to read as close to my normal pace, however, both Eastwood and I were surprised how her 6-minute article registered as a 12-minute read (I don’t believe I took any longer than 9).

One writer volunteered to share that one of their articles recently gained a lot of traction; the earning rate of that article calculates at $0.07 per minute.

I want to emphasize at this point, rates are anecdotal.

Perhaps my small study provides a “basement rate” — and it could be higher than this for any number of reasons. I do not know. I have two articles whose rates are $0.05 per minute, and there is no clear reason why that is the case.

Views/Reads

An increase in views does not translate to an increase in earnings. But an increase in reads will. The natural question should be if your views rise are your reads increasing as well? If not, why not?

I have a question for each of you to analyze and answer for yourself:

When your article is viewed, who has the greatest impact on converting a view to a read — Medium or you, the writer? How so?

Let’s have fun!

I was thrilled to find out my read counts! I don’t know about you, but I enjoy knowing I am helping fellow writers. Telling me today’s Medium atmosphere is worse or better compared to a year or 5 years ago—doesn’t help me. Showing me factual information about why it is — informs me.

When rumors continue to spread, ask yourself — what are the numbers that confirm or not such rumors?

Spread information that allows the reader to make an informed decision.

The article that appeared in my email this morning made me do two things: I deleted the email and unsubscribed from the writer. I didn’t unfollow the writer — but I will no longer read the doom and gloom of Medium.

I had so much fun writing this article which brings me to my final lesson. Toni Greathouse found my study interesting enough to be considered a “fun” read for this publication — and her enthusiasm gave me permission to have fun with my study and writing!

Lesson 3. Inject enthusiasm and fun into your articles — even if you have to communicate a difficult lesson

Find the silver lining!

Let’s spread verifiable ideas. When it’s possible to find the true story behind the numbers, take the time to study them properly.

Numbers can be fun, too!

Any fact is better established by two or three good testimonies than by a thousand arguments. Nathaniel Emmons

📚Thank you for reading — and once again — help me spread the love over to Leonard Tillerman, Ellen Eastwood, Logan Silkwood, Autistic Widower ("AJ"), Benighted, Jennifer Barrios Tettay, Michele Maize, and Toni Greathouse’s corners! This article would not have been possible without their invaluable support. 💞💞💞

I will post a follow-up to these rates as I continue to gather more data — follow “Everything Fun” to get the next update in months to come!