At TDS, we see value in every article we publish and recognize that authors share their work with us for a wide range of reasons — some wish to spread their knowledge and help other learners, others aim to grow their public profile and advance in their career, and some look at writing as an additional income stream. In many cases, it’s a combination of all of the above.
Historically, there was no direct monetization involved in contributing to TDS (unless authors chose to join the partner program at our former hosting platform). As we establish TDS as an independent, self-sustaining publication, we’ve decided to change course, as it was important for us to reward the articles that help us reach our business goals in proportion to their impact.
How it works
The TDS Author Payment Program is structured around a 30-day window. Articles are eligible for payment based on the number of readers who engage with them in the first 30 days after publication.
Authors are paid based on three earning tiers:
- 25,000+ Views: The article will earn $0.1 per view within 30 days of publication: a minimum of $2,500, and up to $7,500, which is the cap for earnings per article.
- 10,000-24,999 Views: The article will earn $0.05 per view within 30 days of publication: a minimum of $500, and up to $1,249.
- 5,000-9,999 Views: The article will earn $0.025 per view within 30 days of publication: a minimum of $125, and up to $249.
- 500-4,999 Views: The article will earn $100.
A few important points to keep in mind:
- Views are counted only if a reader stays on the page for at least 30 seconds, ensuring that the payouts reflect real engagement, not clicks.
- Articles with fewer than 500 views in 30 days will not qualify for payment.
- During these 30 days, articles must remain exclusive to Towards Data Science. After that, authors are free to republish or remove their articles.
Who can participate?
This program is available to every current TDS contributor, and to any new author who becomes eligible once an article reaches the first earning tier.
Participation in the program is subject to approval to ensure authentic traffic. We reserve the right to pause or decline participation if we detect unusual spikes or fraudulent activity. Additionally, payments are only available to authors who live in countries supported by Stripe.
Authors can submit up to four articles per month for paid participation.
Why we’re doing this
We built this program to create a transparent and sustainable system that pays contributors for the time and effort required to write great articles that attract a wide audience of data science and machine learning professionals. By tracking genuine engagement, we ensure that the best work gets recognized and rewarded while keeping the system simple and transparent.
We’re excited to offer this opportunity and look forward to supporting our contributors who keep Towards Data Science the leading destination in the data science community.
How to contribute
To become a writer, please have a look at our guidelines. These will help you to prepare your article for publication.
Once ready, please send your article through the Contributor Portal ✨
We aim to respond to authors as quickly as possible and to let them know whether or not we’ve accepted their articles. We look forward to reading your work!
