A new, more inclusive earnings tier When we launched the TDS Author Payment Program back in February, our goal was clear: it was important for us “to reward the articles that help us reach our business goals in proportion to their impact.” Since the program’s launch, however, we realized that the number of articles that crossed the initial earnings threshold (5,000 engaged views) was smaller than we’d hoped for. That wasn’t ideal. One of the main advantages of being an independent publication—and a data-focused one, at that—is that we are nimble enough to course-correct when we need to, and can make changes quickly to the benefit of our contributors. We’re thrilled to share that we’ve recently introduced a new earnings tier: articles that gain 500 engaged views can now earn a minimum payout of $100. The immediate result, and the one we care about the most, is that the number of eligible articles will increase—drastically. A lower threshold will also lead, in many cases, to a much shorter wait before authors know whether an article will earn, providing an incentive for more frequent contributions. We didn’t want to penalize those authors who took a chance on us during the program’s early days, so we’re applying this inclusive earnings tier retroactively, to all eligible articles published since the program launched on February 19. (We’ve already contacted all authors who published on TDS in February and whose articles have crossed the 500 engaged-view threshold.) All other details concerning the Author Payment Program remain the same, so if you’ve already reviewed and accepted its terms and conditions, there’s no further action you need to take. Stats are live! Earnings are just one measure of an article’s reach and impact. Since launching the new TDS site, our authors’ most-requested feature—by a wide margin!—has been access to their articles’ stats. This was always on our roadmap (as we mentioned earlier, we are a data-focused publication, after all), but the consistent feedback we’ve received from our community made it clear that we needed to prioritize it, so we did. Good news: as of today, all published authors can track their articles’ performance directly from their dashboard on the TDS Contributor Portal — just look for the Analytics tab on the left side of your screen. You’ll be able to see your total views and engaged views (reminder: the latter are views by readers who spend at least 30 seconds on an individual article), as well as the number of total and engaged views during the 30-day earning period following publication. Also visible is the estimated payout for each article given the most current engaged-view count. These stats will give you a solid snapshot of your work’s reach over time, as well as a clear idea of how close you are to crossing each earning tier. Please keep in mind that stats update once a day, so while we understand the impulse to hit the Refresh button every 3 minutes (or seconds…), you can probably find a better use of your time—like brainstorming for your next article! As our publication continues to evolve, our team is hard at work on the next set of features that will improve TDS for readers and authors alike. Stay tuned—and feel free to reach out (at publication@towardsdatascience.com) with any questions, requests, or feedback you’d like to share. The post (Many) More TDS Contributors Are Now Eligible for Earning Through the Author Payment Program appeared first on Towards Data Science.