HOW I DID IT

How I Achieved a 90% Curation Rate on Medium

The strategies that worked for me and how you can use them too

You can feel it.

You know this post is going to be good. It’s going to generate attention and resonate with thousands of readers.

You pour your heart and soul into your work, and then it doesn’t even get curated.

You keep writing. You won’t give up, but still, none of your posts are getting distributed.

You get frustrated, and you burn out. You lose momentum and decide to stop writing. What’s the point of it?

When you publish a post on Medium, it gets reviewed for curation. If your story is curated, it will be distributed in emails and appear on the front page.

In simple terms: Curation = more eyeballs on your writing.

This past month I maintained a 90% curation rate, and now I want to share the shifts I made that allowed me to achieve this.

Following these steps, you can get the majority of your pieces curated too.

The Best Investment You Can Make in Your Writing

Prior to December, I relied on reading my work aloud and the free version of Grammarly before I published my stories.

At the beginning of last month, I bit the bullet and paid for Grammarly premium. From then on, almost every story I got published got curated.

Grammarly is worth the investment, especially if you aren’t a native English speaker. It’s like having another pair of human eyes to help you before you hit publish.

It picks up where I should correctly put commas, where I should rewrite my wordy ramblings, and how I should change my sentence structure to make more of an impact.

It also taught me to be more ruthless when editing.

Good writing is clear and to the point. This month I was able to reread my first drafts more critically. I cut out the fluff and long paragraphs with too many words.

“Let the reader find that he cannot afford to omit any line of your writing because you have omitted every word that he can spare.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

The bottom line:

Invest in a premium editor software, and be merciless with your first drafts.

The Most Important Thing Your Writing Has To Do

Good writing online has to add value to the reader. It also has to be clear and appealing to read.

This month I focused on my formatting and adding value unlike ever before, which I believed was a big factor in achieving a high curation rate.

With formatting, I wanted my stories to be divided into clear sections, making clear points. I also wanted each of those points to add value in the form of actionable advice.

Anything self-indulgent or driven by my ego had to go.

It’s okay to write about personal experiences but to be consistently curated on Medium, think about what readers can get out of your posts.

What did you learn from an experience? Now tell it in a way that interests readers and inspires them with actionable advice to apply to their own lives.

The bottom line:

Format your stories clearly and logically. Write something with actionable takeaways for your readers.

The Best Way to Get Into Publications

If you want a better chance of your writing getting distributed, you have to get into publications relevant to your stories.

Some publications will instantly distribute your story, which is ideally what you want to achieve.

If you follow my advice above about editing ruthlessly, adding value, and formatting clearly, you stand a good chance of getting into the publication of your choice.

Last month I also started leaving a note to editors of publications to thank them for reading my work.

Most editors don’t get paid for their work on publications, and many of them have full-time jobs alongside their work on Medium. Leaving a note to say thank you to an editor for reading your work takes less than thirty seconds, and honestly, it’s just a nice thing to do.

Editors aren’t there to help you. They’re doing you a favor by reading your work.

The least you can do is say thank-you.

The bottom line:

Thank your editors by leaving a private note. Getting into publications consistently will give you a much better chance of being curated.

The Formula That Worked for This To Happen

Putting all these things together helped me get 90% of my writing chosen for further distribution in December 2020. You can apply these tips for the same result this month.

Invest in a paid editing program like Grammarly, and ruthlessly cut useless content from your work.

Focus on clear formatting and provide actionable advice for your readers.

Get into prominent publications by building relationships and expressing gratitude towards editors that take the time to read your work.

The final element to this formula is consistency. I’d already been writing a few months, and I kept going to build momentum.

“Part of courage is simple consistency.”

-Peggy Noonan

The bottom line:

If you aren’t getting curated right now, don’t give up. Sometimes all that needs to happen is consistently working on your writing over a longer time period.

What Doesn’t Work for Curation

Things that don’t work for curation are:

• clickbait
• not publishing with a publication
• writing about Medium

Clickbait covers headlines designed to get a reader to click without delivering on what they promise. Think over-exaggerated claims of instant results that prey on a reader’s worries and insecurities.

Not publishing with a publication doesn’t mean you won’t be curated, but you have a much better chance if you do. I self-published one story this month and wasn’t surprised when it wasn’t chosen for further distribution.

Finally, Medium will not curate your story if you write about the platform in your articles.

This article isn’t eligible for curation. The thing is, that I don’t care about that here because I’m trying to help people reach their goals in the new year and add value to my readers.

Final Thoughts

So how much does curation really matter?

With the shift to a more relational Medium, it’s still unclear. Curation definitely gets more eyeballs on your stories, which is excellent for increasing your read time, followers, and earnings.

The best way to get curated is to invest in editing software, cut from your first drafts mercilessly, and provide value to your readers through clear formatting and actionable takeaways.

Getting into relevant publications with plenty of followers by building relationships with the editors will also give you a better chance of getting curated.

However, curation doesn’t guarantee virality or thousands of views. None of my pieces did that this month. The only thing that does guarantee success with online writing is showing up consistently and doing the work.

Keep writing, keep honing your craft, and know that your time is coming.