Summary

The article provides strategies for maximizing success on Medium by adhering to platform rules, optimizing for curation, engaging with the community, maintaining writing momentum, and focusing on a specific niche.

Abstract

The article titled "Here's How To Get Rewarded by the Medium Algorithm" outlines several key tactics for writers to enhance their visibility and success on the Medium platform. It emphasizes the importance of following Medium's guidelines to avoid penalties that could affect story promotion and SEO. The author advises writers to aim for curation by meeting specific standards, such as proper image sourcing and title formatting, which increase the likelihood of stories being featured. Engagement is highlighted as crucial for virality, with high levels of interaction, such as claps and comments, boosting a story's recommendation rate. Consistent writing is recommended to build momentum, as Medium favors active contributors, leading to a snowball effect in readership and income. Lastly, the article suggests that writers should find and dominate a niche to establish expertise and attract a dedicated audience, drawing a parallel to SEO strategies for businesses.

Opinions

The Medium algorithm's exact workings are intentionally kept secret to prevent exploitation, but certain strategies can improve a writer's performance.
Adhering to Medium's rules is non-negotiable for consistent success, as violations can lead to reduced visibility and curation.
Curation on Medium is important for internal visibility, though it does not guarantee virality on its own.
High engagement, including claps and comments, is a significant factor in increasing the chances of a story going viral on Medium.
Writing every day and maintaining momentum is key to success on Medium, as it increases the opportunities for stories to gain traction.
Specializing in a niche topic can help writers stand out and build a loyal audience, similar to targeting less competitive keywords in SEO.

Here's How To Get Rewarded by the Medium Algorithm

A few ways to make the most out of your writing experience

The Medium algorithm is a generally elusive thing for obvious reasons. If everyone knew exactly how it works, it would stop working because people would abuse the system until it was forced to change. While there is no magical way to make every story go viral, there are plenty of ways to consistently increase your reads, increase the odds of going viral, and speed up your success on the platform.

Follow the Rules

This is definitely the easiest and most basic one of all. You should know exactly what is and is not allowed on Medium because if you are consistently breaking the rules, they won't promote your stories, and it will put you lower on search engine results and optimization (SEO). The rules are pretty loosely enforced on Medium, but there have been several people, even large writers, who will do lots of affiliate marketing, for example, and end up getting 'shadow banned' from curation and SEO.

While there isn't anything official from this, people describe it as months without getting curated, and every story starts to bomb consistently because of this. 1 or 2 stories might not put you in the dog house, but your going to have a 'ruff' time if you don't follow the rules.

Curation Requirements

Similarly, make sure always to write to get curated. Medium will automatically flag and review stories for curation, but those that don't submit stories under the standards for curation are only hurting themselves. This includes making sure your photo is sourced, and your title is in title case.

Many new writers don't know what curation means or does, but it is actually pretty important. Its also important to consistently write within the curation parameters because eventually Medium will know that you are writing within curation guidelines, and you will get curated +90% of the time.

Lastly, getting curated DOES NOT mean your story will go viral. However, your story is unlikely to go viral internally if it isn't curated. Understand that concept carefully because I have dozens of stories that flopped despite being curated, but all of my stories that have gone viral are curated.

Engagement

If there was one way to make sure your stories consistently go viral, it's getting high engagement. Medium wants people to spend time on Medium, so if your stories are pulling in thousands of claps and dozens of comments, they are going to get recommended more, it's that simple.

Medium is weird because the majority of people who pay for Medium are writers. So, getting writers to take time away from writing and support others tends to be hard. Even Tim Denning only gets a few comments on his articles despite being the largest writer on this platform.

This also goes the other way, which is why I HEAVILY encourage people to take time and engage with others. If you are a net positive on the platform and engaging on the platform, that will also help you because comments are like mini-stories. Claps get your comment recommended, and if the story you commented on goes viral, you will get tons of residual followers, claps, and it will help you with this next point:

Momentum

The quintessential medium advice: Write. Every. Day. Why do people say that?

BECAUSE MEDIUM REWARDS MOMENTUM

Medium, for the most part, is a numbers game. Even if you write the perfect story, it's not guaranteed to go viral. Since internal views are mostly what matters for getting paid

In fact, most of the stories of mine that go viral are not the ones I expect. It's about consistently writing quality stories, and as you get that small handful of viral stories, each subsequent story will start to do consistently better.

Your next viral story will be bigger than the previous one, and eventually, you will have several stories that are all performing extremely well, and the momentum will continue to stack. It makes sense, though, if you have 1 vs. 100 stories, that's 99 more chances for people to find your writings. That's 99 more stories bringing in income and followers and having the potential to go viral.

Niche Down

Think about Medium like you think about SEO on Google. There are thousands of people writing about self-help and their lives, but only the top 1% or so will actually make any money. That's because they own all of the search results and already have huge followings in that area. Similarly, if you wanted to start up a company where you sold blue jeans, you're unlikely to break into the market because people already own it.

On the flip side, if there are only a few people to break into a smaller, niche part of the internet, then it's much easier to build a following around that. There are plenty of Niches that people don't write about at all. Find something you're passionate about, and if there isn't an audience, build one. I've seen a guy on here that writes about nothing but iPhones and has exploded.

Personally, I mainly write about Equity Crowdfunding. Don't know what that is? Follow me and find out! Make people interested in what you have to say, and just write about what you like. As you start owning that niche, new people that come into the niche will follow, and anytime someone looks for it, your name will pop up.

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