Blogging 101 — The Power of Curation

Medium for beginners.

Curation is what you seek on Medium. Curation gives your story legs.

To understand curation, you need to realize that Medium is a publication — write for the Medium, the publication.

Meaning, like a book or a magazine — I like to think, Vogue — Medium is going for a particular look, a certain aesthetic they want their writers to adhere too. They also want to provide quality writing to their readers. They like articles that are clear and structured in a way that results in quality writing.

Keep this in mind when writing, it will help your chances of curation.

If you are new to Medium and you have just a few or no followers, and you’re starting from scratch, your goal is to build a following, and your best bet at building a following is through curation.

What curation means.

Curation simply means that Medium distributes curated stories to its readers.

So, writing in a style that Medium likes will give you the highest chance of curation. This is a good idea if you want Medium to facilitate the distribution of your story so that you can gain readership. Similar to a musician who wants to be signed to a record label, so the power of the label can distribute the musician’s music.

When a post gets curated, it is curated in a specific tag, or multiple tags, and shows up on the pages for that topic or topics in which it was curated. Medium then distributes it to readers who follow that topic.

It isn’t just the quality of your writing that counts towards curation, it is the way in which you format your stories using the Medium editor.

Who are the curators.

The curators are humans who work for Medium. They scour Medium for stories that fit the publication, and those are the articles that get curation.

They are human, so it is highly subjective.

Not all posts are curated. Not all posts are read.

Because of the sheer volume of writers on Medium, some posts are passed on for curation without even being read. Try not to take this personally, it is hard not to, but keep improving your writing through daily writing and reading other writers who speak to you, emulate them.

If your post is not curated, it will still be seen by your followers, especially if you have your own publication, due to the feature within publications called ‘letters.’

The ‘letter’ feature allows you to email a link to your publication’s followers directly.

What will not be curated by Medium.

• Posts about how to post on Medium (like this one)
• Posts with a clickbaity title
• Posts that are heavily pitching something you are selling like a book or a class or a product
• Posts with affiliate links
• Posts in a series (Medium likes standalone posts)
• A story with an image that isn’t properly cited

I always put a simple one-line call to action at the bottom of my posts so people can sign up for my email list. My posts with a simple call to action get curated, but I have heard from other people that some curators will pass on posts with calls to action.

Again, it depends on the human being reading your post.

How to write a post that gets curated.

Write a title that is clear, concise, and tells the reader what your story is about concisely within the title. Your title should describe what your story is about accurately.

You don’t want your title to sound clickbaity, yet it has to grab the reader’s attention.

There is a lot of competition, so it has to be interesting. There is a fine line to walk here. Your title can’t sound like you are trying to trick your reader into clicking, but it also has to grab and entice them to make them want to click.

It has to tell a mini-story that reflects the larger story you are telling in the piece. Coming up with a good title takes practice.

Here are three titles of stories I wrote that were curated.

Properly format the title.

Your title needs to be in title case.

Click here for a website that will give you the title case of your title.

Title case means all the words in the title should be capitalized, except prepositions. You don’t use punctuation when using title case.

Properly format the subtitle.

Your subtitle is important also. Choose a subtitle that explains even further what your post is about.

Here you can be a little more creative.

Once you have your subtitle, you need to format it correctly for Medium by using the format editor.

To do this, highlight the subtitle. When a little box of icons pops up to the upper right of your highlighted text, choose the small ‘T,’ and your subtitle will be formatted appropriately.

How to choose an image that increases your chances of curation.

The image is just a tad less important than your title, but still really crucial.

Websites like Unsplash make it easy to find a stunning image to fit your story. Use it.

The right image is important for curation.

Remember, you are going for an overall look and feel for Medium, the publication. So, stick to their standards.

You must cite the image.

Medium will not curate a story with an image missing proper citation. Even if you’re the photographer, and it is a personal picture, you need to cite it, use “Photo by Author.”

The citation of the photo should go directly below the image. When you click on the image you’ve chosen, a bright green box will appear around the photo, allowing you to add the photographer’s name at the bottom of the image.

Click at the bottom of the image before you paste the citation. Like so,

Add white space between paragraphs.

It is easier to read text that has a lot of white space. You want people to read your story, so make the text easy on their eyes by adding a lot of white space between blocks of texts.

As you add stories to your profile, you will find a way to add white space that makes your stories easier to read. It takes practice to learn how and where to break up a story.

Short paragraphs keep the reader reading.

Use subheads.

Add subheads to break up sections of your posts. This is another way to add white space and a very effective way to organize a post, as I did in this post. Use the same small ‘T’ in the Medium editor format as you use for you subtitle (see above).

Three other ways to up your chances of curation.

Research.

Medium favors stories backed by research. So if you claim data, make sure you link your research to the original source. Backing up with research gives you street cred.

If you have a source verifying your claim, another person is backing you up, hopefully, someone with credentials, making your story more trustworthy to your audience. They come to know you’re doing your research and learn you are a trusted writer.

Backing up your ideas with outside sources makes your story stronger.

Writing that is strong.

Medium likes strong writing — no spelling, no grammar, or glaring mistakes.

Editing is important, not just for grammatical errors but for flow and continuity. A good way to test for flow is to read your story aloud.

Medium likes stories with structure — a beginning, a middle, and an end. Make sure you start strong and end strong with a conclusion summing up what you’ve just said.

Choose the right tags.

Choose tags that reflect your story.

You can choose up to five tags. Pick five. Seriously, do not waste a tag.

Medium curates under tags, so choose popular ones that reflect the ideas in your story.

Happy curation.

Click here to get my 100 Things to Get Started on Medium Now

Jessica is a writer, an online entrepreneur, and a recovering Type A personality. She lives in Los Angeles with her extrovert daughter, two dogs, and two cats.