Medium CEO explains how earnings are calculated 🤔

Hi there,

This month, I published several stories on Medium, each generating a few thousand views.

However, I’ve got particularly interested in the following two stories:

This story was published in Start it up.

This story was published in Better Marketing and was boosted.

I noticed that these articles have very similar views and reads (internal reads). However, the earnings are very different!

Start it up is the biggest publication on Medium, where I published multiple stories. For the same amount of views, I used to make a couple of hundred dollars from one article.

Today, only boosted stories make me a decent income.

I was wondering what might have happened to the Medium algorithm.

You might know that Medium uses this formula to calculate earnings:

However, if engagement and reading time (people who read your story for 30 seconds or more) matter, why do most writers make less? 🤔 

I’ve stumbled upon the following explanation by the CEO of Medium in one of the Medium groups on Facebook.

It sheds light on how the Medium algorithm works:

So, Medium doesn’t only take engagement into account when calculating your earnings, it also considers the quality of engagement.

This way, they try to eliminate fake engagement.

I personally believe it’s hard to distinguish between real and fake engagement.

I often get tons of comments from the same readers on different stories. I diligently read and reply to almost every comment. Does it mean it’s a fake engagement simply because people post many comments and clap many stories?

I don’t think so!

As a Medium writer, you should be aware of these peculiarities to know how Medium earnings are calculated.

I guess it’s temporary since Medium occasionally makes changes to its algorithms.

We’ll see what they come up with the next time.

I’ll keep you updated.

If you missed my previous newsletters, check them out here

My goal is to publish less but gain more output from my Medium content. Therefore, I experiment with the format, writing style, headlines, and publications to reach a wider audience.

You can learn more about my Medium writing experience here. 👇

If you wanted to learn anything about writing on Medium, what would it be? 🤔

I launched this newsletter to share my honest journey on Medium and help YOU leverage the platform’s potential.

If you want me to answer your questions, hit “reply” and share what’s on your mind.

I’ll collect your responses and try to answer your Medium questions in my upcoming newsletters.

That’s it for today!

Have a great weekend. 😎

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