avatarJohn D. Leavy

Summarize

The Medium Quick Reference Guide®

Chapter 5: Searching for Stories from Your Homepage

Reading other authors’ stories helps to hone your writing craft.

Image courtesy of the author.

We’ve discussed several of these features in Chapter 2: Navigating Your Homepage, but we’ll also mention them here.

Searching Medium for Stories

Navigation:

From any page -> Search Medium

You can enter a story, author, Publication, story keyword, or topic. Here are a few examples:

Search Medium — John D. Leavy (author)

Search Medium — ILLUMINATION

Search Medium — comedy (story keyword)

Search Medium — freelancers (topic)

The stories related to your query are displayed in your story feed on your homepage. The stories popularly are determined by Medium, and they may not be the most current posts. Choose a topic keyword in the right sidebar to see the latest stories.

Medium screen capture by author.

Learning the Main Menu

Navigation:

Your Homepage -> Click +

The Main Menu comprises four sections the + sign, For you, Following, and Topics. Let’s break down what we get with each selection.

Clicking on the + sign displays topics to follow at the bottom of the Refine recommendations page.

These are topics you have either shown interest in, read, or written about or one’s Medium believes are of value to you.

Navigation:

Your Homepage -> Click For you

Clicking on For you displays Medium’s personalized feed of recommended articles and stories based on one’s reading history, interests, and the popularity of the content. It helps users discover new and exciting content they may be interested in reading.

Navigation:

Your Homepage -> Click Following

Clicking on Following displays stories from the writers you are currently following.

Navigation:

Your Homepage -> Click Any Topic

Clicking on one of the topics displays stories based on the topics that interest you.

What’s in Your Story Feed

Your reading history determines the types of articles in your story feed, topics you follow, and topics that interest you.

Medium’s algorithm also considers the popularity of stories and readers’ engagement. You may see more trending or popular stories featured in your feed.

Medium’s Staff Picks

We discussed the Staff Picks in the right sidebar in Chapter 4: Exploring the Profile Picture Drop-down.

Recommended Topics

We discussed recommended topics in the right sidebar in Chapter 3: Getting to Know Your Homepage Commands.

Managing Your Favorite Stories

Navigation:

Your Homepage -> Profile Picture -> Lists -> Click …

From here, you can Edit list info, Remove items, Make the list public, Reorder items, or Hide responses to the stories.

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.

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