Money, No Money — Medium is Playing Games

And it's confusing…!

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I felt relaxed and victorious for a fleeting moment yesterday. When after days I saw a small amount on the dashboard of Medium.

There were $22. It was a modest amount that seemed fine for the reads my stories had but didn't earn anything. For a while, I felt that Medium had compensated for whatever went wrong.

But the sweetness was temporary and it turned bitter all too quickly. Today, as I logged in to my account, the $22 vanished—gone, as if they had never been there.

My balance had been reset to its previous amount. The first thing that came to my mind was “Medium is playing games”. It was frustrating for me.

But was it a glitch or a twist in Medium’s earnings system? I haven't seen any explanation.

My last story had 15 reads but it made only $0.01. It's frustrating and confusing at the same time.

Since then I have been wondering to continue writing here or not. I have reads but no earnings for the stories I published this month, January 2025.