How I Achieved a Stellar 100% Curation Rate

And why it doesn’t matter. Learn about the new curation policies and plan ahead to score big.

100% Curation Rates is Possible

I’ve published 8 pieces in March and each one was curated within an hour of publishing. I’m a part-time writer on the site who spends about 20 hours a month working on my Medium writing and profile. I say this so that writers can see that you don’t have to pour 40+ hours into Medium to be a top, 🤑 high-earning writer.

What I do to achieve my 100% curation rate is:

1. Write my title and subtitle first
2. Write out the article on the fly using the title and subtitle to guide me
3. Leave it for a day or more
4. Return to edit it, including formatting and adding any references or links
5. Edit the SEO settings and create the image in Canva
6. Pick the tags and submit/publish

Focus on writing content that has a takeaway for the reader and do so with a publication in mind. Even my poetry is written with the intent that the reader walks away with specific thoughts, feelings, and a new way to think about the world around them. Writing your title and subtitle first helps with that.

Your title and subtitle are also a big part of what gets your stories curated. It also keeps you focused on what the intent behind your piece is.

Curation Doesn’t Actually Matter

Though I have a high curation rate and am in the top 5% of writers making almost a thousand on this platform, my curation rate has nothing to do with it. In fact, a lot of my high earners weren’t curated pieces. Same with the other top-earning writers. Don’t fall for the trap of thinking that curation is the only way to make a sustainable living on the platform.

In fact, stop worrying about your stats and start worrying about the new, new Medium. By that, I mean focus on the future of Medium, on the fact that Medium purchased a publishing company last year. Focus on this, an email from Medium:

Medium wants you to get more views and reads. We are working on more “relational” products to build your direct relationship with your audience. To that end, we’ve made sections of the homepage and feed more directly impacted by the people you follow. You can see this on the homepage and in the app.

We’ve also launched “publish to email,” where your followers can subscribe to get your posts by email:

https://blog.medium.com/level-up-your-following-b944be6b3cbe

Regarding distribution and topics, distribution is not just topics. When you are chosen for increased distribution, it can manifest itself in more ways than just the topic pages. You can read more here:

https://help.medium.com/.../360018677974-About-Medium-s...

The data on the post page for topics does not accurately reflect any curation decisions, so it should not be treated as such. We are working to clean that data up so it doesn’t cause confusion.

[shared in Women & Enbys of Medium]

When I first joined the platform, a writer who makes over $10,000 a month reached out to me and told me that curation was the key. They pissed on the idea that anything outside of curation led to success on the platform. I brought up the new trend toward relational and the change in curation, but he swore up and down that curation was the golden ticket.

As I wrote more on the site, I saw that other writers thought this, too. But they weren’t high earners. They were struggling writers wondering why their curations weren’t garnering more views. So, I’ve stopped focusing on it.

And you should, too.

Think about it. Why would you focus on something that Medium itself has said is faulty?

The data on the post page for topics does not accurately reflect any curation decisions, so it should not be treated as such. We are working to clean that data up so it doesn’t cause confusion.

Yes, you should still write personal, researched, and value-driven stories. Just don’t do it with the aim to get curated. Because curation doesn’t matter anymore. Curation is old news. It’s the way of the slow writer. The writer who is resistant to change. The writer who will be left behind as Medium and the rest of us move into the future.

How to Write Now for Future Success

With Medium’s curation issues and them moving toward a new relational model, it’s time that writers start thinking about this platform and their writing differently.

We are working on more “relational” products to build your direct relationship with your audience.

So, we’ve all heard about the relational switch, but the part that gets me about this new switch is the word products. That coupled with Medium’s acquisition of a publishing company and their old series feature leads me to believe that writing content more related to niches and breaking it up into sectional ways is the ticket.

For example, I write articles related to writing whether that be upping your craft or earnings. They could all be put into a book or series or collection and be read as a whole. This creates a relational reading experience for the reader so that they can move seamlessly between my stories. Another part of the relational puzzle piece is actually relating and building a relationship with your reader.

I stick to similar topics so that when my readers are reading my poems, they aren’t being suggested another piece that has nothing to do with why they were interested in the original piece. I also comment or clap back. Frequently opening up a dialogue with my followers in the way Medium wants us to. This leads to whale readers who don’t just stop at one story of mine but read 5–7 of my stories after clicking on one.

Coach Tony of the Better publications also believes this is a key to success on the site.

The idea of a book as an organizing force is that you write a table of contents and then you write articles for each chapter or section in your table of contents.

In other words, your articles hang together. They combine into something greater, longer lasting, higher quality.

Also, thinking this way begs you to question whether what your writing is good enough. You’ll push through and do more research, more editing, more revisions.
-Coach Tony

Right now, if you’re not pivoting to write more connected content and building a dedicated fanbase, it won’t matter if you have a 100% curation rate. It won’t matter if you publish 100 articles a month or publish every day. To be a sustainable and continued success on this platform, you need to focus on:

• Your followers/audience
• Your brand
• Your relational content
• Your niches
• Writing personal, researched, and value-driven stories

“There’s more to life than being a content mill.”—Coach Tony

Takeaways That Won’t Lead You Astray

I’ll split this list up for the people who want to simply focus on curation:

• Write your title and subtitle first
• Write out the article on the fly using the title and subtitle to guide you
• Leave it for a day or more
• Return to edit it, including formatting and adding any references or links
• Edit the SEO settings and create or pick the cover image
• Pick appropriate tags that will get you read and submit/publish

And the people who want to plan for the future to ensure success:

• Engage with your followers and build an audience
• Create and stick to your brand to become recognizable
• Write content that is relational by connecting with your readers and writing related content through niches
• Write personal, researched, and value-driven stories
• Write your title and subtitle first
• Write out the article on the fly using the title and subtitle to guide you
• Leave it for a day or more
• Return to edit it, including formatting and adding any references or links
• Edit the SEO settings and create or pick the cover image
• Pick appropriate tags that will get you read and submit/publish

Further Reading

Aigner Loren Wilson is a queer Black SFWA, HWA, and Codex writer. Her work has appeared in Tordotcom, Better Humans, The Writing Cooperative, and more. She strives to help writers reach their publishing goals and attain their dreams. Subscribe for access to masterclass courses in writing, editing, and making a living as a writer.