I always wait until the "following day" to begin to understand a new publication (exactly for the reasons others have shared: it's not in real-time).

For a minute, I jumped on the bandwagon and said, "something's not right!" -- But once you give the system a day or a few, the stories seem to produce at a somewhat consistent rate for me.

Here's what I do, and it's a lot more than what others may be willing to but it tells me a lot:

Once you have your first "updated" earnings: write down your reads, avg read time, and earnings...

Later as the views increase - it is mathematically logical that the avg read time drops (the article is being viewed by the folks outside of the "tribe" and aren't as purposeful in their reads so the skims start..however, as the TOTAL read time increases --another stat to look at, the earnings do increase). This is my fourth month, this is the month that I can better watch the trajectory of a decent article, and I'm tabulating what the lifetime earnings of my articles somewhat look like.

So I do believe I see consistency in payment, but nothing is informative in real-time. Take a look, jot down an observation, return no sooner than a day later - and jot again - those give me a much better understanding of what is happening.

For instance - my audience stats - is never the same number as what is on your phone app (followers) -- it's always behind.

At some point, I'll check every few days - but for now, I look in the morning and move on-- it teaches me about my own output and what to expect - so long as you give it time to update.

Happy reading and writing Mitch! Have an awesome day!