Why Some Boosted Stories Get 10X More Views

Have you wondered why some boosts are boostier?

As a Canadian, I have a ton of hoodies (sweatshirts with hoods). But, I play favorites.

Some hoodies just don’t hoodie the way other hoodie’s hoodie.

And that’s how I look at boost results. Some boosts just don’t boost the way other boosts boost. Some boosts are ‘boostier’ than others. But...why?

I’ve been stalking the boost program like a jealous ex, because — well, I’m nuttier than a squirrel turd. I don’t even care about getting the boost — as I wrote previously, I Boosted Myself, and I’m still doing that. And I’ll never get boosted writing phrases like ‘asshat’ and ‘douche canoe’.

But, I like to figure things out so I’ve been keeping my ear to the digital ground. And I found interviews with three different top Medium peeps, explaining the boostiness of their new boost baby.

One interview was with Zulie Rane, the other was with Kristina God.

The Delta of Boost Views

In both Kristina and Zulie’s videos, they noted that some people were disappointed with their boost results. I suppose there is ‘size envy’ with boosts too.

Many of my friends have been boosted, and most of their stories seem to get 500 to 1,000 views, earning between $10-$50.

But there is a massive delta.

Here are a few examples:

• Ben Ulansey received the biggest boost I’ve heard of to date, topping out around 100K views — earning $2,387.
• Zulie Rane’s boosted story got 32K views, earning $969.
• Sally Prag had one story that got 5.6K views earning $459, then another for 898 views and $32.
• Carlyn Beccia’s story got 2.6K views and $226.
• My friend Jason Provencio’s boosted article received 850 views and $35.
• Jason’s wife Mai Provencio’s boosted article made $75.
• My friend Bruce Coulter made about $10 on his boost (he got his boost in its infancy).

So — why is the delta between $10 to $2,400? Well, it turns out it’s the algorithm. I can hear your eyes rolling at ‘algorithm’, which is a mythical creatures. It’s Medium’s Sasquatch, or Nessie.

Don’t worry though, I’ve figured out how the algorithm works.

It uses the square root of what women want, divides that by pie, randomly generates tags and words, spins it like Wheel Of Fortune — and boom, spits out articles into display results. But let’s get back to the boost and algorithm’s relationship (status: ‘it’s complicated’).

Why Some Boosts Are ‘Boostier’ Than Others

Well, it looks like the boost mainly gives a small boost, of 500–1,000 views. From there it relies on the existing algorithm to determine if the article will go viral. And the virality of it is measured based on engagement.

The longer people stay on your article and the more they engage with it, the more views you’ll get.

Here’s how Breana Jones, Medium’s Director of Product (a position focusing on content distribution) describes it in her interview with Zulie:

“[For example] Let’s say that Zulie’s story is getting views from her network and views from the internal systems, and gave a little bit of signal…we want to put it in front of even more people…Let’s say we get it in front of 2K people — it gives the algorithm enough signal to double back on itself.”

So a boost brings enough eyeballs to the article that the algorithm can begin to measure if it is popular with readers. If readers are approving of it, then the algorithm kicks in stronger and shows it to more people.

“The boost happens in the beginning of the story after it's curated, but it gets to continue because it's even more signal the algorithm gets to pick up on. That's the beautiful part of it, human curation with machine learning,” says Breana.

So the algorithm, which could in theory make any post go viral, gets enough data from the boost (which is human-curated) to decide whether to push the story to more readers. It can even appear in more places than just the standard feed, like the “Recommended from Medium” section.

“We found, interestingly enough, when we put these [boosted] stories in front of people they were engaged with so highly that naturally they started to show up on other places on the site,” she says. “The system learns that those are the type of things that people like to engage with, so it ends up showing up in all of these other places that we didn’t even explicitly set or demand.”

Stories are initially endorsed by beta boost cheerleaders…errr…I mean curators (who are editors on Medium) —and then sent to human curators working for Medium. If Medium approves then the story gets boosted. That’s the human part. The algorithm then tracks the story, watching for reader engagement — and when it sees it, it sprinkles some meth on it and kicks the views into overdrive.

VP of Content, Scott Lamb, described it similarly when he said, “When a story has been identified for boost…we can immediately see do readers actually agree? We’re going to give it this boost, and then there’s a built-in feedback loop of is that boost building on itself in a natural way, or is just a story is getting boosted and then flattening out to where it would have been previously”.

So essentially — the boost gives your story a good chance at going viral. But, at the end of the day it is up to the readers. If they don’t like your story, then the boost runs out and the algorithm drops the story like a cold potato.

Ariel Meadow Stallings, Medium’s new(ish) Director of Publication Relations said it best I think:

“Sometimes there are posts that a boost beta curator will nominate, and think this meets our distribution standards and it doesn’t land with readers…there’s maybe 500 views and then it quietly goes its way into the ether, as content does.

As someone who has been producing content online for 22 years there’s always a bit of mystery in terms of why certain pieces of content super land.”

Some boosted stories simply fade away quicker than purple hair dye.

You Get 500–1K Views — That’s It

The boost gives you 500–1K views. It is a little infusion of views that is enough to trip algorithmic virality…if your post is well-read and engaged with. Without that engagement, your article performs exactly how it would without the boost.

The boost is an algorithmic audition.

Whether your article lands the part of ‘viral article’ or not is up to the readers…as it should be. And they’re a fickle bunch — it’s probably easier to wrestle a lubed-up gator than to accurately pick what readers love the most.

The boost team seems to be doing well with their choices, but an article’s success is still just educated guesswork. But being nominated for a boost is still awesome either way.

~Robin Wilding, reporting from…a kiddy pool full of Jello.