Haven’t Been Boosted Yet?
I’ve got some just-peachy boost advice (and cringey fruit puns)
Is Robin ‘Twatopotamus’ Wilding about to give boost advice with her grand total of two boosts in the entire year of the boost program? Err…yeah, I am. But I know why I haven’t been boosted more. It could have something to do with popping F-bombs like they’re Pez, or using words like twatopotamus.
If you’re suffering from boost envy, and are wondering why you haven’t been yet, this is for you.
So, it’s been about a year since Medium’s boost program started, and thousands upon thousands of boosts have been bestowed, like a writers’ Fairy Godmother. If you haven’t had one yet (but wouldn’t mind one), let’s figure out why — and let’s change that.
There are three reasons you might not have been boosted:
- A boost nominator or curator hasn’t seen your work.
- One (or more than one) may have seen your work but it didn’t fit what they’re looking for.
- You were cursed by a troll under a bridge.
Ok, so there are only two reasons.
Get Seen by the Boost Team
So, there are publess lone wolf boost nominators (called ‘nommers’ because they’re hungry I guess) out there looking for stories. You can wait for one of them to stumble upon your stories.
Or, if you have a story that you think is supercalifragilisticexpialidociouly sspecial — publish it in one of the pubs with boosting powers. By the way, not every post will be boostworthy. I’m a decent writer but I’d say maybe 1 or 2 in 10 might be close to boostable. Nobody I know gets every post boosted.
But if you have a story that’s the equivalent of a unicorn on a surfboard rescuing orphans — use a boost pub. Here’s a whole buttload of ’em.
Or, submit it to the pub I edit and nominate boost stories for New Writers Welcome. We accept self-development/life lessons, poetry, personal stories, health and fitness, mental health, and writing advice (we accept Medium/meta stories but they won’t get boosted). Plus, I’m whackier than an inflatable tube man — so we can have fun.
I check every post that comes through the pub when nominating for boosts.
And to be frank, we have too many meta stories that aren’t eligible, and other stories that won’t get boosted (like ‘The 7 Health Benefits of Purple Potatoes’). So the odds are in your favor at the moment. But you still need a story that the boost curators are looking for.
Also, I’m focused on boosting newer writers, and previously unboosted. So if you’ve been boosted up the wazoo (congrats!), I’d still love you in NWW, but I won’t nominate you.
*There’s no way (yet) to see who has been boosted, so it’s just my best guess. For example, if you published a post in a boost pub and it got wayyy more engagement than normal, that might have been boosted. I can also ask around, and a couple of other ways. It’s not 100%, but it gives me an idea.
Write Something Boostable
Medium has their official fancy shmancy guidelines, which I still find vague. Now that I’ve been looking through stories to nominate I’ve realized some shiznit…
Originality/Creativity
A story that we’ve read 100 times isn’t going to get boosted. Those of you who have been around the Medium block, you know the ones. ‘How learning to meditate changed my life’, ‘7 productivity hacks to ultra super skyrocket your megatron self’, etc.
Search your article idea on Medium. If a bunch of similar ones come up you may opt not to write it. If you do write it — you have to do it better, with a unique take or perspective on it. Boost or not, this is just good advice. Readers don’t want to read the story multiple times.
They love niche stories. So do I. I don’t want to read how waking up at 5 am boosts productivity (for the 100th time), I want to read about how you macrame jean shorts for rescued pigeons.
Personal
They’re looking for stories only you can write. And in the boost-or-not realm — it’s what readers look for too. If people wanted a Wikipedia article on purple potatoes they’d go to…Wikipedia.
Boosted stories, for the most part (excluding things like fiction, and poetry), are sharing your experiences and the things you’ve learned. Your struggles, your passions, your life-changing lessons.
Emotion
Boosted articles are meant to be memorable, and make you feel good about your Medium membership. A solid way to do this is to evoke emotion. Make them laugh, make them cry, make them mad, or make them think. But elicit an emotion in your reader. Kick ’em right in the feels box.
Hook, Line, and Sinker
Boosted stories should be powerful overall, but especially their headline, hook, and ending. You want a headline that’s intriguing enough to click, but not so clickbaity it makes them bounce.
After your bitchin’ title, you want a powerful hook that grabs their attention by the balls.
At the end, you want to end with oomph. Maybe that’s with a lesson to learn, or just a solid line to finish off on.
Make it Look Good
In high school, I once turned in an essay that got crumpled at the bottom of my backpack and somehow got peanut butter on it. My teacher was…not impressed. Yes, this was back in the days of paper, the 1900s. Your article shouldn’t look like my essay did.
Make it look sexy. I don’t know if this is official or not, but I don’t see many boosted posts looking like a confusing hot mess visually. I haven’t seen many (or, any) boosted stories with massive paragraphs, or written all in single sentences. Or without images (and cite your copyright-free images — this is important!). And most have subheadings and/or some type of formatting.
Personal images are a nice-to-have (but not required).
Rapid Fire
This post is turnin’ into a lengthy sumabitch ain’t it? Ok, time for rapid-fire tips.
- Use supporting research links (when applicable) to back up claims.
- Boosted stories are often between 5–7 minutes. This isn’t a requirement, but it’s common. It’s harder to be memorable in 2 minutes, ask my high school boyfriend ‘What’s his name’.
- And for the love of freakin Jebus — run your posts through Grammarly or Hemingway (I can’t believe some people still don’t do this). Spelling and grammar don’t have to be flawless, but they should be close.
- The story should be stand-alone. It’s hard to boost a story that doesn’t make sense without reading part one first.
- Don’t curse. Technically you’re allowed, it’s not a rule, but I don’t see much cursing in boosted posts. ‘But Robin, you curse like a fucking sailor on shore leave’…yeah, and I don’t get boosted much. But I’m a stubborn be-atch. Keep the cursing to a minimum. Or say fuck it like me (and probably also not get boosted, like me hehe).
Just the Tip
Here’s my final tip for those looking to get boosted who haven’t. Study boosted posts. I put a crapload (that’s a fuckload in metric) together here. Scan the headlines to see how you can improve yours (who amongst us couldn’t use more headline practice!).
Read a few of them. Look at how they intro and end. Look at the crafting of their word choices, and the originality of ideas.
If you’re intimidated by all of this — every boost pub has editors who consistently work with writers (so do non-boost pubs). We’re all here to help.
So do we at New Writer Welcome. And we have googly eyes. So if you haven’t been boosted yet, join us.
If you want to stare at my face for a while, fellow NWW writer Kristina God recently interviewed me on her YouTube channel. We chatted about Medium, meta stories, tags, boosts, and more!
