Demystifying Medium’s Earnings: When Fewer Reads Earn More

Have you ever been baffled by the earnings you receive on Medium? I certainly have. Let me illustrate with a perplexing example from my own experience.

Photo by 𝓴𝓘𝓡𝓚 𝕝𝔸𝕀 on Unsplash

My story “5 Life-Changing Lessons: Escaping the Rat Race and Living on Your Own Terms” garnered a mere 13 views and just 5 completed reads. A modest performance by any measure. Yet somehow, this underdog of a story managed to earn me a respectable $1.52.

On the other hand, my piece “Why Rust is the Future of Programming” seemed to resonate much more strongly with a wider audience. It racked up an impressive 182 views and a stellar 81 completed reads from engaged programmers. Surely the earnings would dwarf that of my niche personal finance article, right? Wrong. This tech-focused story only earned $1.23 despite its significantly higher readership.

Both stories were published on the same day (January 18, 2024)

How is it possible that the story with far fewer eyeballs generated higher earnings than the one that was much more widely consumed? This…