The Medium Quick Reference Guide®
Chapter 4: Exploring the Profile Picture Drop-down
This chapter is stuffed with features and settings

When positioned on Your Homepage, the Profile Picture drop-down contains ten commands.
We’ll explain some of these selections here, and others will need more discussion; we handle those in chapters where it makes sense.
Creating Your Profile
Navigation:
Your Homepage -> Profile Picture -> Click Profile
Clicking on Profile displays your homepage. This page includes a story feed of your recently published posts. In the right sidebar is your profile. It contains a photo or image, your name (50-character limit,) the number of Followers, and a short bio (160-character limit.)
When choosing Profile, a form displays the Profile settings.
You can update or remove the current Profile photo from this form and change the name on your profile page, your byline, and your responses.
You can also display a link to your Twitter profile.

Once you make any changes, click Save.
Seeing Your Story Lists
Suppose you read some stories you find interesting, informative, or inspiring. Use Medium’s List feature to archive those stories for later reference. Once you click Lists, you can choose to read a story from a previous list you created, or you create a new list and save those stories. The story list name can only be 60 characters.
Organize stories by topic, theme, author, or whatever you choose.
Let’s choose Lists to see a sample collection.

There are currently two lists, a Reading list and a list titled ChatGPT. Clicking on the bookmark button displays the entire reading list of saved stories.
Add stories to a list by clicking on the Bookmark button found on each story.

Once you choose the Bookmark button, you can select which list to add to the story.

You can choose an existing list or create a new one by clicking on Create a new list. Lists can be public or private.

Seeing Your Stories
Navigation:
Your Homepage -> Profile Picture -> Click Stories
Choosing Stories takes you to the Your Story page. From here, you can create a story and publish it or save it as a draft and publish it later. You can also import a story by clicking the Import a Story button.
We cover writing a story in Chapter 7: Writing/Editing Great Stories, and we’ll discuss publishing your story in Chapter 8: Jazzing Your Stories with Images & Embeds.
For now, just become familiar with the Story page layout.
Reading Your Story Stats
Navigation:
Your Homepage -> Profile Picture -> Click Stats
Your stats page displays a bar chart to tell you how well your stories have performed over the past 30 days. It analyzes each story individually to suggest what topics catch your audience’s attention. You can also see Audience stats by clicking on that button.
We’ll take a more comprehensive look at story stats later in Chapter 10: Managing Your Stories.
Applying to the Partner Program
Navigation:
Your Homepage -> Profile Picture -> Click Partner Program
Medium’s Partner Program allows writers to earn money from the stories they publish. The program allows writers to earn some of the revenue generated by member subscriptions and other sources.
Once a writer has published at least one story and has gained 100 followers, they may apply for membership into the Partner Program. During the submission process, the writer completes the application, which asks for personal and financial information and a W-9 for tax purposes.
A variety of factors, such as the amount of engagement and the number of people who view and read the stories, determines the amount of money a writer earns.
We discuss the Partner Program in more detail in Chapter 16: Earning Money at Medium.
Accounts, Publishing, & Email Settings
Navigation:
Your Homepage -> Profile Picture -> Click Settings
The Settings page includes Account settings for email, Username, and Profile information. There are Publishing settings to manage publications and email subscriptions. This page also has Notifications, Membership and payment, and Security and app settings.
Chapter 11: Tuning Your Account Settings & Preferences discusses Settings in more detail.
Refining Recommendations
Navigation:
Your Homepage -> Profile Picture -> Click Refine
Recommendations
Refine recommendations comprise four sections Following, Reading history, Muted, and Suggestions.
You can also reach Refine recommendations by clicking the + tab on the main menu on the homepage.
There are snapshots of the four pages next:
Navigation:
Your Homepage -> Profile Picture -> Refine Recommendations -> Click Following
To see a list of the Medium users you’re following, click the Following button to unfollow the person.

Navigation:
Your Homepage -> Profile Picture -> Refine Recommendations -> Click Reading History
A list of your reading history.

Medium screen capture by author.
Navigation:
Your Homepage -> Profile Picture -> Refine Recommendations -> Click Muted
Muted authors who have misbehaved.

Navigation:
Your Homepage -> Profile Picture -> Refine Recommendations -> Click Suggestions
Suggestions on who you might consider following.

Managing Publications
Navigation:
Your Homepage -> Profile Picture -> Click Manage Publications

Manage publications displays publications where you’re a staff writer and suggests other publications you may want to consider approaching to see if they need writers.
You’ll also see a New Publication button to create your Publication. We talk more about Publications in Chapter 15: Building a Following with Publications.
Gifting a Membership
Navigation:
Your Homepage -> Profile Picture -> Click Gift a membership
Gift a one-year subscription to Medium ($50) for a friend. The recipient receives an email with a coupon code to redeem their free membership.
What better gift for a friend who doesn’t have everything?
Signing Out of Medium
Navigation:
Your Homepage -> Profile Picture -> Click Sign out
Clicking on “Sign out” ends your Medium session.
The book chapters are hyperlinked for easy access. Click on the title that interests you most.
Table of Contents, Foreword, Introduction, 1: What is Medium, 2: Navigating Your Homepage, 3: Getting to Know Your Homepage, 4: Exploring the Profile Picture Drop-down, 5: Searching for Stories from Your Homepage, 6: Navigating Your Story Homepage, 7: Writing/Editing Great Stories, 8: Jazzing Your Stories with Images & Embeds (Sf), 9: Publishing Great Stories (Sf), 10: Managing Your Stories (Sf), 11: Tunning Your Account Settings & Preferences (Sf), 12: Getting More Email Subscribers (Sf), 13: Using the Help Center to Get Answers (Sf), 14: Gaining Your First 100 Followers (Sf), 15: Building a Following with Publications (Sf), 16: Earning Money at Medium (Sf), 17: Continuing to Gain Followers (Sf), 18: Boosting Your Brand with a Newsletter (Sf), Appendix A: Locate Commands Fast, Appendix B: Top70 Most Popular Topics, Appendix C: Top 50 Medium Publications, Appendix D: Keyboard Shortcuts, Glossary.
You might check my recent interview conducted by Dr Mehmet Yildiz, chief editor of Illumination Integrated Publications, on Medium, introducing me and my book to the writing and reading community.