Earning Income on Medium

Funny Coincidence

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

I recently wrote an article about the opaque nature of earnings here on Medium when I received an interesting email. More on that later. Here is what we do know:

• Earnings depend on reads and views.
• They also increase if a reader clicks on the audio. (I learned that from a comment on that article. I had no idea.)
• If you develop a niche it’s better than trying to write for everybody.
• We earn more if we engage with other readers.
• One writer commented that we get paid for reading other people’s work as well as other people reading our articles. I couldn’t see anything about that when checking the FAQs on medium.

The issue is that we don’t know any specifics. One story has three readers and earns $1.50. Perhaps this was a Friend of Medium?

Then I have a story with 8000 reads that has made me under eight dollars so far. For what I consider one of my best creative efforts, the poem Apocalypse, I earned 57 cents.

I do want to clarify that I was not complaining about my lack of earnings here. Writing for Medium is a hobby for me, something I do because I enjoy writing and always have. I just want to know why I earn what I earn.