7 Types of Articles and Publications That Receive Curations, in My Experience

I’ve been writing on Medium for only about a month and a half, but I’ve already learned so much after trial and error.

While my curation rate isn’t the highest — around 29 percent, with some articles getting curated in more than one topic on top of that — and while I’m not one of those writers who made hundreds or thousands her first month, I have seen patterns of types of articles and publications that can be successful.

I want to be clear that not all articles similar to these will be successful, nor will curation guarantee you success.

However, I want to share the main seven types of articles and publications I’ve noticed with you in hopes you find success with them.

Personal Experiences with and Research on Relationships

I’ve written a few articles about relationships, focusing on attachment style, love languages and floodlighting, and all have been curated. These pieces contained both a personal narrative and research, and all were around five-minute reads. The attachment style piece was one of my top two as far as high amounts of views, reads and fans. The other top piece was also on relationships, but wasn’t curated; it was about breadcrumbing.

Personal Experiences or Quotes Surrounding Mental Health

I write a good bit of my articles on mental health, and the ones that receive curations are usually those that entail personal stories or helpful quotes. Some of the personal stories are about why I go to therapy for my future kids, how giving up the scale has made me happier, how I’m a socially anxious extrovert and more. I also want to note that these were all published in Invisible Illness, a publication mentioned below.

How You Overcame Something or How Others Can Overcome Something

A couple of my curated articles had titles similar to “How I’m Learning to X, and How You Can Too” or simply ones that started with the word “How.” Some examples include how I’m not letting my attachment style get in the way of my relationships, and how I’m learning to stop floodlighting in my relationships.

Not Medium Articles

You may have heard this before, but articles about Medium will not be curated. However, while some of these articles can be cliché, they can also do well as far as views, reads and fans. Here’s mine on what I wish I fully understood before starting Medium.

Unexpected or Unique Viewpoints

A few of my articles were about viewpoints that at least I have never read about before and that seemed to differ from previous articles on the topic. For example, I wrote about being a socially anxious extrovert, how love languages can hurt relationships and how goal-setting can actually be harmful to someone’s well-being.

Invisible Illness

I’ve published several articles with this publication, and not one hasn’t been curated, and fast — even those that I didn’t believe were very intellectual, researched or time-consuming to write. Invisible Illness also tends to publish within a few days or so, quicker than several other publications.

Age of Awareness

I’ve only written two articles for this publication so far, but both have gotten curated. One was about the lack of mental health education in schools, and the other was about how goal-setting can be harmful if it’s not done correctly.

What kinds of publications and articles have given you the most success, with or without curation? Let us know in the comments! I’m all about the Medium community and us helping each other out.