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Boosted!

Yes! I was Boosted! Here’s what it was like!!

Yesterday, Medium emailed to let me know that this story had been boosted:

Which means? It’s time to write the obligatory “I’ve been boosted” Medium post.

So here we go!

From Curated to Distributed to Boosted

I’ve been on Medium since February 2019, which means that I’ve been here long enough to have been curated (many times) and then to have been distributed (many times). Curated and distributed are what they used to call being boosted.

God knows what they’ll call the next version.

Being goosed? Being enhanced? Being algorithmically augmented?

I sometimes wonder why they don’t just call it what it is — being promoted.

How Did it Happen?

So how did this particular story get boosted? The email from Medium didn’t spell that out, but the story had been published in Crows Feet, so I reached out to the editor, Nancy Peckenham and asked, “Did you just boost me?”

“Yes I did,” she replied. “Great story!’

My understanding is that the editors of certain Medium Pubs can nominate your story for a boost. If Medium agrees that your work is boost-worthy? You get boosted.

If not? You get bubkes.

What Getting Boosted Actually Means

Does getting Boosted mean that the Medium Money Truck is about to pull up to my house and dump a crapload of currency on my lawn?

Nope.

I won’t make a fortune from this post. We Medium writers are paid on the basis of how long it takes Paying Medium Members to read our work, and this is just a two-minute read.

It’s only earned $13.73 so far. If I’m very lucky, it’ll end up making me $20. (Update: When I wrote this I really underestimated the value of being boosted. As of 8/823, this boosted post has earned $162.79!)(Thanks, Tony Stubblebine!)

But did getting boosted make a difference when it comes to bringing more readers to my work? Absolutely. See for yourself:

After being boosted, my views went up. That’s good. And this is just my first day post-boost. I look forward to seeing how long the boost lasts.

The Takeaway. (This is a Medium Post. There has to be a takeaway.)

So what is it like to be boosted? It’s exactly like being curated and being distributed used to be. It’s an ego boost. It’s fun. It’ll bring you more readers. It will make a difference to your pocketbook, although — unless it happens a lot — it probably won’t make a difference to your tax bracket.)

And it will give you something to write about.

Writing Coach and editor-for-hire Roz Warren, who writes for everyone from the Funny Times to the New York Times, can help you improve and publish your work. Drop her a line at [email protected]. (That’s Ros with an “s,” not a “z.”)