Above that you suggested “Your boosted stories pay more per read. At least one of your story links should be to a boosted story if you have one.”

For me, a Boosted story is only popular while it is being boosted. Yes, I sometimes get reads on my older boosted stories, but they aren’t what I’d call popular any more. I also get some reads to old posts that made a few hundred dollars in their prime — but again, not currently popular.

Your stories are probably much more evergreen than what I typically write about, so your CTA links probably work well. My stuff stops being evergreen once people stop using whatever it was I wrote about. That might be four or five years sometimes, but usually much less.