Announcing the Towards Data Science Author Payment Program

February 28, 2025

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.

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 5,000 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 work?

We’re working swiftly to roll out an author portal that will streamline article pitches and feedback.

In the meantime, please send your upcoming article directly to our team using this form.

If you’re having an issue with our online form, please let us know via email (publication@towardsdatascience.com) so we can help you complete the process. Please do not email us an article that you have already sent via our form.

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