What are pageviews?

Pageviews are recorded when a user opens a web page. Seeking Alpha counts unique pageviews, which means we count one pageview, per page, per user. If a user accesses a page multiple times, we will only count that as one pageview.

What are subscriber pageviews?

Articles on Seeking Alpha can be accessed from many different sources, including social media. There are two categories of pageviews: Subscriber page views and everyone else. Subscriber pageviews are just that – views from subscribers – and this plays a key part in analyst compensation. 

For the most part, subscriber pageviews will be a subset of total pageviews. However, as the article ages, it’s possible that in a given month that subscriber pageviews could be a larger number. Though, keep in mind that as the article ages the page views in general will quickly trail off.

How do I see my articles’ pageviews?

There are several ways to see how many pageviews your article has received. The first way is clicking on "Contributor Center" which shows total page views based on today, the last 30 days, and the last 12 months. 

The second option is selecting "pageviews" under the "stats" tab. Here you can sort pageviews by today, yesterday, this month, last 30 days, last 90 days and the last 12 months. This section is the only place where you can see the breakdown between “All” and “Subscriber” pageviews. The third option is going to the “Manage Articles” tab and selecting "published" which will bring up total pageviews.

What are “real-time alerts” and how do they affect my pageviews?

Every time you publish an article we send out “real time alerts” or RTAs for that article. RTAs go out as emails to your followers and those subscribers who follow the ticker you are writing about. Keep in mind that followers of both analysts and tickers have the option to opt out of receiving alerts, and many do. 

RTAs have an important impact on the number of people who open articles and thus the number of page views an article receives.

Why is there such a variance between pageviews on different articles I write?

There are many factors that affect the number of pageviews an article receives. The biggest reasons include:

• Time of day 

• Day of the week

• Time of the year (Seasonality)

• Market holidays

Beyond those factors an article’s pageviews can vary greatly based on the number of RTAs that are sent out. For example, an analyst with 50,000 followers who publishes an article comparing two very popular stocks could have RTAs sent to 200,000 subscribers. Whereas an analyst with 1000 followers writing about an undercovered stock could have RTAs sent to 1500 subscribers. (That’s one of the reasons we compensate analysts extra for writing about undercovered stocks.)

Sometimes the stock/ETF that you are writing about resonates more deeply with readers, which can cause the article to go viral. If you have a concern that you’re seeing fewer pageviews on an article, please keep all these factors in mind. Also, make sure to “zoom out” and look at your pageviews over time. If you generally get 4,000-5,000 pageviews per article, and then an article or two ends up getting 20,000 pageviews, that doesn’t mean that 20,000 is your new norm. 

It’s rare, but sometimes a glitch can cause the RTAs not to be sent. If you suspect that’s the case, feel free to contact the Contributor Success team at contributors@seekingalpha.com and we’ll be happy to look into it.

Why does the payment continually adjust throughout the month?

We set an overall budget each month and divide it into an allocated budget to pay analysts based on how many of their articles are read by paying subscribers. The budget is divided equally among paying subscribers, and that “per subscriber” budget is then allocated to contributors based on what the subscriber read. Since the final calculation happens at the end of the month, we provide an estimate leading up to that. This is why variable earnings continually adjust throughout the month. 

For example, let’s assume the individual pot for each subscriber is $10. If that subscriber only reads two articles in a month, then $5 would be given to the authors of those two articles. However, if another individual were to read 10 articles in that same month, their share would be worth $1. 

Using this same example ($10 pot per subscriber each month), if a subscriber tends to read one article a day, our system would expect that their share would be worth $0.33 per article by the end of the month. However, if for some reason that subscriber stops reading articles or adjusts how often they read, that would impact the estimate. This is why the estimate shown in the contributor dashboard is always adjusting throughout the month.

How come an article with more pageviews earns less in variable pay than articles with less pageviews?

Earnings are based on fixed payments and variable payments. Undercovered tickers – those with less than two articles in the past 30 days – come with fixed payments, while popular tickers that are heavily covered do not. However, both earn variable pay which is based on how many Premium and PRO subscribers read your article. 

The current paywall allows users to read two free articles per month. After they’ve hit their limit, free users will need to sign up for SA premium to read more, or wait until the following month when everything resets again. Because non-paying users can read some articles (in addition to the new gifting feature that we just launched), this can increase your views on articles. This is why more pageviews does not always equal higher earnings as variable pay is based on the number of Premium and PRO subscribers that read your article. 

For more information about article earnings, see here and here.

If there’s ever a problem with Seeking Alpha’s systems, will I lose my pageviews or earnings?

Rest assured that pageview data is always backed up and accounted for. Even if something were to happen and the pageview counter was down, we will back-fill all pageviews and earnings so that you are properly compensated for your articles.

Are pageviews on mobile apps counted?

Yes