My Article On Medium Had 3000 Views In Under A Week: How Much Did I Earn?

I’ve been writing on Medium for around 7 months now and I’ve never had this many views on a single article.

To me, it was an achievement. 3000 views in under a week with the first 700 or so coming within the first 24 hours, I’d almost consider my story viral.

Of course upon seeing such high views in such a short time, I waited excitedly to see my earnings. How much did I make? To date, my highest viewed somewhat viral article has netted me a whopping $0.67.

I was flabbergasted.

The article I published was titled, Predicting The Next Inductees Into The 2022 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. I upload music related listicles like this quite regularly and I knew they attracted a decent following and engagement.

On the first day, with 700 views and around 300 or so reads, I only made $0.15. Confused, I took a closer look at the stats for that article. That’s where I discovered the problem.

While it was true that my article was getting a lot of attention, it was mainly coming from people outside of Medium. These views are known as External Views. Medium, however, only pays writers based on Internal Views and the time spent only by other Medium members on your article.

Let’s compare it with another article that was published around three weeks before the one in question. With only half the views, it has made significantly more money. The reason is that most of its readers are Medium members as well.

Are External Views Bad And Can They Be Controlled?

If you’re a new writer on Medium and want to build a following, you wouldn’t gain much from the views of someone who doesn’t have an account for you to engage with. The same goes for people whose sole aim it is to make money on this site.

However, for those of you who write out of the enjoyment of just sharing your work, External Views aren’t so bad. In fact, it means that your article was popular enough to even reach people from outside the confines of the site. To me personally, I was quite proud it got that far and even though it made me barely anything, it at least taught me a lesson that I could help pass on.

When you upload something on Medium, you have no way of controlling who sees your work at what time and for how long. However, based on my own experience, it is still easier to get Internal Views than External Views. In my 7 months on the site, this was the first time such a thing happened to me. So for those of you who worry about not earning from your views, I hope this reassures you too!

Conclusion

To be honest, I’m a bit embarrassed that it took me 7 months to figure out the fact that views from members and non-members could affect my article’s earnings so dramatically. Although I write here mainly to pass the time and to hone my own skills, I do take pride in my stories’ ability to make money.

That being said, things like this can’t be controlled. If you’re a new writer, this is bound to happen at some point and please do not be discouraged. If anything, be proud that people from outside are enjoying your content. It’s certainly better than having it not read at all. Besides, if you work on your following, even your older articles may take off somewhere down the line.

So, I hope this little piece can help at least one aspiring Medium writer on their journey and ensure that they were not as caught off-guard as me. If you see your article being overrun by outside views, just keep on writing, engaging and work to build your following. I guarantee that with a bit of work, you can publish and earn consistently while learning to be a better writer.